With the launch of its new offer OZ Experience, BackLight wants to enhance its own in- house licenses and its positioning on the market of Location Based Entertainment Virtual Reality (LBE VR).
For the first time, BackLight creates a separated brand named “OZ EXPERIENCE” to bundle its whole catalog of VR experiences. The studio, specialized in the creation of premium immersion, used to show its work for brands (its historical activity) and entertainment together. Now, OZ EXPERIENCE focuses on entertainment licenses and the promotion of a know-how of Hyper Reality.
We’ve been in the VR game since 2014 (and AR since 2010), we produced more than 70 XR projects over the past 6 years. We know the subject well now, and we know how to make a good immersive experience. The kind of experience that makes viewers say “Ahhh ok, so this is VR”. It is this benefit that we want to bring to VR entertainment in general.
Frederic Lecompte, co-founder of BackLight
Hyper Reality & LBE: where the virtual becomes real, for real.
Hyper Reality linked with high-end production are the key to all the experiences integrated in OZ Experience. It consists into adding Environment Effects (EFX) to Virtual Reality to blur the frontier between real and virtual. Vibrating floors, wind generators, sensations of hot or cold, odors and every type of sensory feedbacks that could strengthen the immersion.
“Forget everything you know about Virtual Reality” – OZ EXPERIENCE breaks with others VR experiences dedicated to LBE by proposing an ambitious vision of VR: High quality content, untethered, collaborative, highly immersive, full-body avatars content, suitable for all audiences. The opposite of common low- quality, low-immersion or zombies shooting games people can experience in VR Arcades.
A location-based entertainment particularly affected by the COVID crisis but LBE VR needs a model
The sanitary crisis hit very hard the indoor entertainment market, closing the entertainment centers’ doors. But BackLight kept on investing and held on mainly thanks to AR brand content and some other VR projects not cancelled during the lockdown. In the meantime, new markets arose during COVID like Virtual Production and gave BackLight the opportunity to diversify. Meanwhile, BackLight kept on developing its vision of LBE VR.
The VR installations that dominate the entertainment market today, the most successful ones, are simple, wired, multiplayer or single player installations. It makes sense because the bulk of the entertainment market are FECs, bowling alleys or trampoline parks and they look for solutions that are simple and do not require staff to operate. In my opinion, these two requirements are sadly at odds with what today’s tech allows and demands to provide a good VR experience. Let’s face it, a good VR entertainment experience is complex. It goes hand in hand. And complex means a dedicated staff. This is a model that does not match the expectations of the traditional entertainment market.
Frederic Lecompte
Opening horizons of VR entertainment
VR entertainment, as it did in the early 90s could be perceived to be doomed to disappear because of a lack of successful models, from IMAX to more recently The Void.
Yet, Frederic Lecompte thinks the model of “pure player” VR entertainment venues is to be found and definitely wants to pave the way and set the stage for LBE VR. OZ EXPERIENCE is presented as the reflect of BackLight’s vision for immersive entertainment and Virtual Reality in Location Based Entertainment.
We are one of these protagonists, along with our partners like Illucity or Koezio, and even choreographer Blanca Li with whom we are launching an ambitious live performance art VR experience called “Le Bal de Paris de Blanca Li, who acts for LBVR to find its way. We work hard developing never seen before and engaging experiences while designing new business models and future standards.
Frederic Lecompte
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