Room Escape Artist

Orlando… for most folks, the mention of this Floridian city invokes images of Mickey Mouse, thrill rides, and perhaps some whimsical memories of family vacations long since passed. Few are aware though that the city’s creative and innovative culture extends beyond the confines of its beloved theme parks and is part of the city’s core identity. 

MetaCenter Global Week (MCGW), a 3-day professional event, is seeking to share this unintended secret with the world. This past October was its inaugural running and I was fortunate enough to experience it first hand. Further below, I’ll share some insight as to how this event came to be and where Orlando sees its own future heading. 

But first, I want to highlight one of the most compelling conversation topics at MCGW, extended reality and how it’s used in immersive experiences.

XR & Immersive Experiences at Scale

If you’re not familiar, “extended reality” (XR) is an umbrella term encompassing the technology and practices of “virtual reality” (VR), “augmented reality” (AR), and “mixed reality” (MR). XR is a relatively recent term, but it’s quickly becoming the de facto phrase when referencing any combination of the three. This has helped reduce the confusion between the fields and reflects the growing realization that each of them become more powerful when used together. 

MCGW was filled with examples of ways XR could be applied in today’s world, ranging from healthcare, business training, entertainment, and more. For me, a panel entitled Pushing Boundaries: XR for Performances and Entertainment Unveiled by Industry Titans stood above the others. It was facilitated by Hassan Seguias of Xureal, and included Edward Hodge from BRC Imagination Arts and Jason Ambler from Falcon’s Beyond, 3 companies that specialize in building large scale physical and immersive XR environments. They spoke at length explaining what they feel XR is/ isn’t and missteps they’ve seen. They shared some of the interesting challenges they’ve overcome with their larger projects. Here are my biggest takeaways. 

1. XR is not inherently about wearables

When speaking about XR technology, our minds gravitate towards wearables. It’s natural given the rise in mass market availability of VR/AR headsets at price points that are accessible to consumers. But at the professional level you need to remember experiences can be extended in other ways like through 3D projection or spatial sound environments – no wearables needed. 

2. XR does NOT equal the metaverse

Hype cycles and pop culture over the past few years may have elevated the commercial concept of “the metaverse” to mainstream consciousness, but the branches of technology that make up XR have existed for much longer. Places like Disney have been augmenting attendee’s perception of reality for years in ways completely unrelated to the metaverse. The metaverse is just one place where XR experiences can take place, which is how they intersect, but they are not the same thing. 

3. Building at scale today requires working with curated technology

The types of experiences Jason and Edward usually create can’t rely on technology that’s readily available off the shelf. The consumer level hardware available today lacks the durability, rigor, and longevity to withstand the hundreds or thousands of guests expected to interact with it during its lifespan. Meanwhile, it’s rare to find commercial quality versions that match their design needs. 

This point resonated particularly well with me when thinking about escape room builds. We’ve all played rooms where linchpin moments were marred by buttons, lights, or switches that simply didn’t fit the space, or worse yet, they were outright faulty because they were manufactured for home use. 

This leads Edward and Jason to use what they refer to as “curated technologies,” where they fabricate custom hardware and software to fit a single specific use case. This comes with benefits like driving innovation, generating narrative-driven and deeply meaningful interactions with objects, and creating experiences that can remain magical for a decade plus. I imagine there are risks involved here as well, including limited support and documentation, but they didn’t go into it. 

4. Tips and challenges for experience creators

• Don’t do the same trick for too long or repeat it the same way. Our brains figure out augmented tricks like holograms after just a few minutes and the trick loses its magic. If you find a way to create the same effect through a different technique, it becomes more perplexing and amazing. Magicians use this tactic all the time.

• Adoption rates are low because we’re putting too much responsibility on our audience. We expect them to work a lot to use a new technology. Audio is a great option because everyone has headphones. 

• Building with full accessibility in mind continues to be a huge challenge for experiences of any size. Even with large scale budgets, they fall short despite best efforts. (For more on this, listen to recent the REPOD interview with Sina Bahram.)

• Building a collective experience with meaningful moments is the goal. Don’t get distracted by novelty effects if it doesn’t help meet this goal.

5. A look to the future

In a somewhat telling way, when asked about what they see as being the most interesting and promising technology coming over the next few years, there was no mention of wearables or headsets. Instead, they spoke about these:

• Beamforming audio – where speakers and sounds are directed towards a singular individual or location within an open space. Think of this like you’re standing next to a person in a room and one of you is able to clearly hear audio in Spanish and the other in English without the assistance of a headset. One place you can see this tech in action today is The Sphere in Las Vegas. 

• Parallel reality displays – where the image visible on a screen is completely different depending one what angle you’re viewing it from. This technology is being demonstrated at the Detroit airport by Delta where they simultaneously show several travelers’ personalized information about their flight on one screen.

Why Orlando

Prior to attending MCGW, I found myself wondering why it was happening in Orlando to begin with. Hosting events there like IAAPA, the major amusement park and attractions expo, makes obvious sense. But what other innovation does the city have to showcase?

Well, a lot, as it turns out. It’s home to a sizable number of businesses and education programs that are pushing the boundaries of technology, immersion, and simulation. The city has one of the highest concentrations of Unity licenses in the country. It’s not all tech driven either. Even the local bar scene pushes creativity with elaborate themes nearing escape room levels of immersion. I discovered these thanks to an scavenger hunt put on by MCGW, which I talk more about in a future article.

Notably, none of this evolved by coincidence or accident. As told by Mayor Dyer, Orlando sees itself as ground zero for the next generation of digital experiences. Orlando’s investment in its Creative Village, MCGW, and other major initiatives proves it’s committed to attracting the best immersive technology talent and businesses to reside there. 

Final Thoughts

As a first year event, MetaCenter Global Week definitely had some opportunities to improve. Many of the presentations felt unpolished and lacked a through line that connected with the audience. Granted, this is likely due to the event being pulled together in a very limited timeframe, but it was a notable distraction from the overall quality of the event. I have no doubt an effective programming team could easily correct this in the future.

Based on my interactions, most attendees seemed to value the networking opportunities of the event more than anything else. Many were as pleasantly surprised as I was to discover the abundance of local talent already established in the city. It feels like it was the primary goal of the event team, and I definitely think they achieved it.

I’m hopeful that this event evolves beyond focusing so heavily on hardware and software specs. I would like to see it directly facilitate conversations about how this technology can be leveraged and applied for narrative-driven experiences and entertainment. Until then, it’ll continue to feel too much like solutions in search of problems and lacking real world uses. It wouldn’t take much; these narrative conversations were happening already. However, they were too far on the outskirts of the event to be considered a feature. If MCGW does this, the city will be well on its way towards its self proclaimed destiny of being the metacenter of digital experience.