StrayLight Corp. has installed a 48 seat Virtual Reality Theater inside Portugal Telecom’s Virtual Reality Pavilion at World’s Fair in Lisbon, Portugal, With a new custom-designed VR display technology called Magna-Scope, StrayLight’s theater installation provides guests with a highly realistic underwater adventure. As an unencumbered viewing system with advanced optics, the Magna-Scope offers a revolutionary break-through technology for Virtual Reality visualization. Stereoscopic visuals are projected inside the Magna-Scope units with twenty times the resolution and four times the field-of-view compared to other Virtual Reality helmet-based themed attractions, demonstrating StrayLight’s leadership in custom designed Virtual Reality systems for entertainment, promotions and special events.
The positive reviews from Expo are rolling in and Expo Site Managers are reporting 4 hour queues for the Pavilion of Virtual Reality, the only Pavilion operating with extended hours (and requiring an extra ticket), to help manage the enormous crowds. The Virtual Reality Pavilion is one of the chosen venues to remain open even after the fair closes in September, as a key attraction to tourists and business people expected to visit this revitalized area of Lisbon, Portugal.
Upon entering the Virtual Reality Pavilion, each guest leaves reality behind - everything they now see, hear, and touch belongs to the lost world of Oceania. Guests are shuttled deep into the depths of the ocean, where inside StrayLight’s Magna-Scope installation they experience beautiful theatrical-like explorations of the lost underwater civilization. Each Magna-Scope is themed as a personal submarine, where seated guests simply peer inside the Magna-Scope’s face-plate, to become part of the highly realistic stereoscopic animation. Once the adventure begins, guests can physically feel the pulsating vibrations of underwater travel, with special seats that pump tremors up the guests’ spines. The music, heard through individual speakers on each side the Magna-Scopes’ face-plate, sets the mood of the journey, as it progresses from a fun-oriented adventure, to a heart-pumping survival mission after an accident occurs underwater. Don’t worry, the guests are safely returned, but because of the Magna-Scopes’ high degree of realism, the guests may never think of water-sports in the same way again.
Full immersion is extremely important in the creation of a themed entertainment experience. Before the release of the Magna-Scope technology, the only way to achieve this realism was through Virtual Reality helmets. The Magna-Scope is a next generation viewing system, eliminating the need for cumbersome helmets and one-on-one hosting. StrayLight’s Theaters, with Magna-Scope technology, offer venue operators easy equipment accessibility, high reliability, durability, and easy operation and hosting.
StrayLight Corp. developed the first-ever immersive-based group VR platform, with the creation of their Virtual Theater system. StrayLight’s VR systems have been installed world-wide for various Virtual Reality tours and special events, and have a proven track record of efficiency and reliability. StrayLight has developed over 25 custom VR productions, and specializes in creating stereoscopic custom content, working in both stereoscopic animation and stereoscopic live-action mediums.
Stereoscopic experiences seem so realistic because the images literally "jump" off of the screen and give guests "in-your-face" special effects. Creating stereoscopic content is a complicated process where StrayLight generates a separate image for each eye (right and left) and then combines the two images together for viewing on proprietary hardware platforms. The optics inside the Magna-Scope technology are a technological break-through allowing StrayLight to offer a higher degree of realism in their custom attractions for themed entertainment centers.
StrayLight’s Virtual Theater systems are modular systems and can be configured from a small one or two seat theater, to a theater with hundreds of participants. StrayLight works closely with client-selected designers to theme their Virtual Theaters; installations have ranged from typical movie-house style seating in rows, to very elaborate configurations inside double-decker buses and tractor-trailers.
At Expo, StrayLight’s 48 Magna-Scopes were installed inside three semi-circular rooms, each themed as the interior of an ancient pyramid, complete with aging hieroglyphics. Guests are ushered into each room in groups of 16, with 2 handicap access chairs per room. The front piece of each Magna-Scope protrudes from the wall, encircled by a metal frame with pull-down handles, depicting a personal submarine lookout. The shaker-chairs are designed to echo the murals of the ancient sea-serpents, complete with an illuminated curved dragon-like spine. |
