Fans at last year’s Super Bowl 50 in the Levi’s Stadium in San Francisco were able to enjoy a unique interactive entertainment experience in the stadium foyers thanks to a new invention from Irish company vStream. The vStream Cube is a series of transparent LED screens in a futuristic brushed steel cubic structure which are capable of showing video, text, online games and other information in ultra-high definition.
Such is the clarity of the display that action replays are so realistic viewers feel they are witnessing live action. The cube can also be used as a powerful advertising communications tool with physical objects such as cars, clothing and other merchandise displayed within it and messages and images overlaid on them. It is interactive and stadium visitors can play games and use it to make purchases and avail of offers in a variety of ways including touch, gesture, and smartphone communication using a dedicated app.
vStream co-founder Andrew Jenkinson says the Cube was developed in response to a particular need in the sponsorship marketplace. "vStream is an experiential technology company and we came up with a creative experiential tool for brands engaged in sports sponsorship in areas like Formula 1, English Premier League, the NFL in America and so on," he explains.
“Brands have traditionally gone to great expense to build delivery platforms from scratch for each campaign. Even though these are usually very big budget campaigns, having to build the platform from scratch means a much smaller proportion of the budget is available for the creative content. We came up with a common platform that experiential content can be loaded on to.”
The Cube addresses the needs of all of the stakeholders in the sports event, according to co-founder Niall O’Driscoll. “Sponsors need more creative ways to reach fans and teams, and stadiums want more assets to sell to sponsors,” he says. “The Cube provides a platform for stadium owners to attract fans to come to events earlier and purchase more merchandise while teams can reach out to fans as well.”
The interactive entertainment capabilities of the Cube will help attract fans not just to arrive earlier for events but to remain in the stadium afterwards using facilities such as bars, restaurants and shops while there.
The opportunity for teams to market merchandise is clear. “You can put a football shirt into the Cube, or into one of its pillar-shaped variants”, says O’Driscoll. “Stadium visitors can use the Cube to personalise shirt and then pay for it using the e-commerce capabilities on the phone app. They can go to the shop after the match has finished where the shirt will be awaiting collection.”
Anyone who has had the less than enjoyable experience of queuing in an official club shop in a busy stadium to buy merchandise will appreciate just how useful this facility is.
Sponsors can load interactive games and other engaging content onto the Cube. “People can play games against each other on the Cube”, says Jenkinson. “They can play quiz games based on questions which appear in the Cube, they can play sports games controlling them with touch or gestures, and four groups can play against each other simultaneously while seeing each other through the Cube. It really is a whole new departure.”
He believes the best analogy for the invention is the iPhone. “When the iPhone was launched it wasn’t just as a communications device, it was launched as a platform and others were allowed to develop applications for it. A whole app economy developed out of that. That’s what we have created with a cube. It’s a platform for a huge variety of applications.”
They have 35 people working in their offices in Dublin, London and New York. “We have increased our turnover and headcount by double digits over the past few years and we are significant exporters,” says Jenkinson.
And growth is set to accelerate with the Cube. “We are now ramping up production and the sales pipeline for the Cube,” he adds. “We are talking to a number of major international household names in sport at the moment.”
BARRY McCALL
