AV Concepts, a holographic and immersive technology provider, partnered with others to unveil The Jordan Flight Lab in New Orleans from Feb. 14-16.
The company partnered with Magnetic Collaborative, Hologramica, Jordan Brand, a division of NIKE, Inc. and 2K Sports to create the first-of-its-kind training and simulation experience.
Jordan Flight Lab allowed fans to interact and train with life-size holographic projections of professional basketball players Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Carmelo Anthony, taking audience engagement and experiential technological innovation to the next level.
AV Concepts designed the holographic content in collaboration with Magnetic Creative, and executed the technological design, specified and overseen by Hologramica.
“This has been such an incredible opportunity to take an iconic experience like playing professional basketball to demonstrate performance-enhancing shoes, and converge it with the virtual world to give fans the opportunity to feel like they’re playing with the pros,” said Nick Smith, president, AV Concepts. “The Jordan Flight Lab marks a new way for brands to use emerging technologies to bring fan engagement and product interaction to the next level, and we’re incredibly grateful for all the creative and technical talent that came together to make this experience possible.”
The Jordan Flight Lab offered fans the opportunity to participate in training sessions with holographic basketball stars to learn a signature move, while trying out a pair of Jordan Brand sneakers, or view the interactive training model from a general access viewing point. Once participants completed the training, they were then made into a live holographic illusion on-stage and alongside the basketball players, and received an instantly printed photo via Instagram by tagging photos #TakeFlightNOLA.
To begin creating the holographic player content, AV Concepts teamed up with 2K Sports, utilizing their 2K14 in-game capture tool to “live direct” in-game action and athletes, which provided a full range of camera angles, player animations, slow motion captures and blue screen compositions. AV Concepts then isolated the players from their backgrounds, designed and animated the Jordan Flight Lab visuals and backgrounds, and programmed the entire interactive experience to be run via the company’s proprietary Liquid Scenicsm media server. The server played-back uncompressed image sequences through multiple streams of high definition video projection to create life-like performances.
“Creating an immersive, interactive holographic experience is unlike any other form of design, and the end result had to be convincing and fun,” said Liz Berry, director, Hologramica. We developed a completely unique construction to enable aspects like lowering the normal stage height, so participants would feel comfortable showing off their basketball skills while being wowed by the technology.”
AV Concepts is well-known for its groundbreaking execution of Tupac Shakur as a holographic illusion at Coachella 2012. This is the company’s second holographic collaboration with Hologramica after teaming up for Rock the Bells in 2013.
For more information about AV Concepts, visit www.avconcepts.com.
