Immersive tech is driving the industry toward new frontiers at warp speed. With AI, mixed reality, sensory tech, and high-impact visuals, the boundaries of what’s possible are rolling back. Savvy businesses have turned pandemic disruption into an opportunity to revitalise their attractions, opening just in time to catch the pent-up demand for immersive experiences. Others are now racing to catch up.
Immersive entertainment has witnessed incredible exponential growth, with the market projected to reach a value of $45.6 billion by 2027. While the United States leads, the Asia-Pacific region has emerged as the fastest-growing market.
In light of this trend, we ask Chad Kunimoto, global business development manager for immersive entertainment at Panasonic Connect, about the significance of immersive tech and its benefits for guests and operators. She also explains what technologies are poised to realise what some predict will be the entertainment industry’s golden age.
Q: Why are immersive experiences so popular?
Immersion creates a profound connection between the guest and the content. It leaves a lasting emotional impact. For many young people, experiences hold more value than possessions. So, this kind of entertainment satisfies an urge for adventure and self-discovery. Immersive technology allows for personalized and interactive encounters, empowering guests to shape their own narratives.
The best experiences leave you feeling like you’ve just finished a life-changing book or film. You just don’t want it to end.
Q: What is the benefit for business operators?
One reason to go immersive is differentiation. Stand out, attract customers, increase dwell times, and encourage repeat visits. Immersive experiences foster advocacy, amplify word-of-mouth, and help to sustain success.
With competing demands on people’s attention, it’s easy to underestimate the power of word-of-mouth in influencing where they choose to visit. Attractions need an easy-to-grasp hook to bring people in. Immersing guests beyond expectations is a great way to sustain the buzz on social media. Media-based attractions are also repeatable, sustainable, cost-efficient, easy to personalise, and easy to refresh with new content.
Q: What trends are your clients pursuing?
Our clients want to get the fundamentals right in the media attraction space and then add layers to the storytelling, gameplay, or live performance to deepen engagement. Nothing can rescue a bad idea or story, so the IP and concept itself are kings. Sensory technologies like scent, mist, and spatial audio work harmoniously with visual elements to enhance the core idea. This creates a multi-dimensional experience.
Clients are eager to find ways of bridging the gap between audience and content to increase guest participation and engagement. Looking at trends in this area and the unique shape of their space, GasOmeter Copenhagen in Denmark recently combined theatre with 360° projection mapping to put a completely new spin on a traditional art form. The remarkable transformative effect proves how traditional experiences can become authentically immersive even in smaller spaces like museums, exhibitions, visitor centres, or FECs.
Q: What emerging immersive tech is exciting your clients?
Real-time is a hot topic. When it comes to interactivity, any lag is disastrous, especially when playing a game or watching a stage performance. So, our ET-SWR10 real-time motion-tracking projection-mapping system is well-positioned to answer this need for lag-and blur-free interactivity. By enabling interaction between projected content and moving objects, guests can participate in a uniquely immersive XR experience. One that’s both repeatable and sharable.
Interest also continues to grow in Augmented Reality (AR). Guests are already carrying powerful devices in their pockets. And many designers are still figuring out the best way to harness the smartphone’s capabilities in a hybrid environment. The future of smartphone gaming is AR, and that could well be true for LBE.
As a technology partner, we focus on group participation and shareability. Laser projection has an unrivalled ability to transform empty spaces into living worlds. That is something museums are really embracing in their quest to fully immersive their guests. The art event Bylo Neblyo, Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir in the Czech Republic showed what’s possible by transforming familiar into fantastic.
Our team is excited by the RQ25K projector’s exciting potential in this area, not only for the contrast improvements but also for how it can bring these kinds of experiences to smaller spaces. It’s only slightly larger than our 1DLP products, making it easy to install. Yet it boasts 3DLP colour, immersive contrast, Intel SDM-ready connectivity, and close to full brightness from a regular 100 V power outlet. We think it’s a game-changer.
Q: Are immersive experiences limited to a particular context?
The key to what makes “immersive” is not any one element but how elements are combined. If you look at outdoor projection mapping, designers don’t treat the building façade as just a giant screen but consider the environment, content, and ambience holistically. They spend thousands of hours creating visuals specifically to bring out the unique characteristics of the building. Then comes sound, lighting, and so on.
The Casa Batlló project by Refik Anadol drew attention. But a similar approach at the Roche Tower in Basel, Switzerland also proves how “immersive” can be achieved outdoors.
Q: Any tech tips for those interested in going immersive?
Productions are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and the manufacturer’s expertise is now needed on the ground to ensure all the pieces of the attraction fit together. So, I think the best advice is to secure the right talent. Panasonic Connect evolved from an equipment supplier to a technology partner, contributing to the co-creative process with hard-won experience and a one-stop shop of various products and services.
If immersion is achieved through the seamless combination of different elements, the most memorable attractions are born from combining the right talent. The future promises a world where boundaries blur, and immersion reigns supreme, but it can only be realised if we meet it together.
If you’d like to discuss how to apply the ideas highlighted in this article to your museum, location-based attraction, concert, immersive attraction, artainment show, sporting event, exhibition, trade show, or anything in between, please click here or contact Chad Kunimoto by email.
