Thirty-six BrightSign HD224 players and 30 HD1024 players supplied by Midwich Australia are running screens and interfacing with remote controls at a new sports attraction in New Zealand.
BrightSign solutions have been deployed at New Zealand’s latest immersive sporting experience, providing an insight into the life of a New Zealand rugby player.
Screens for the All Black Experience were provided by Midwich Australia, with much of the experience, which immerses visitors in the history, culture and the people who have made the All Blacks, curated during lockdown. Implemented by the Wellington-based AV, lighting and technology consultancy, Toulouse, the experience takes place across ten locations or ‘zones’.
Visitors get the opportunity to test out their rugby abilities with the chance to match their kicking, catching, line out and accuracy skills against New Zealand’s best players in a “hands on” interactive zone. Through the use of innovation and technology, they receive insights and direction from coaches and players of the All Blacks, Black Ferns and Maori All Blacks to understand what it’s like to perform under pressure in a high-performance team. Finally, they are offered the chance to be a part of the iconic haka on a four-metre high screen experience.
The experience uses 36 BrightSign HD224 players and 30 HD1024 players, which run screens varying in size from 32” Signage Screens to a 13m wide edge blended, curved, 3x projector screen. Doors and lighting throughout the Experience are controlled by guides using handheld remotes interfaced to the BrightSign players.
The players co-ordinate the tours, forming the front end of a sequential queuing system warning guides if they are in danger of catching up with or conflicting with the experience of another tour. They also collect data from the RFID scanners that visitors use to swipe into games. The BrightSign players transmit data from the visitor’s wristband to the ticketing server that stores the details and return a personalided greeting or other appropriate message to the screen.
Marc Simpson, managing director of Toulouse, said: “We find these players extremely user-friendly to install and program. They integrated with the client-provided media seamlessly. In addition to the delivery of content to the screens, they can perform many of the functions of a control system, eliminating the need for a separate set of hardware and reducing complexity.”
“Even though we opened during a global pandemic, the reaction we saw from visitors was everything we hoped for and more,” said Phil McGowan, general manager of the All Blacks Experience.
“Rugby fans emerge very emotional. The All Blacks Experience has performed flawlessly since opening. Blank screens or screens displaying incomplete content would destroy the magic and the atmosphere we have worked so hard to create. The technical installation conceived and executed by the Toulouse team based on BrightSign players has delivered fully.”
Reference: Avinteractive
