At the tail end of April 2019 I met with Luke Richie of Nexus Studios, and he laid out a vision for a world connected with Augmented Reality. These connections would occur in public spaces where people engage with stories that evolve around them through phones, glasses, projections and more. This endeavor led to their GILDA initiative, a platform for hyper-accurate, persistent digital realities.

The Samsung 5G Fan Experience campaign won the AICP Awards 2020 NEXT category for Extended Reality.

Hype-Up Chants

Before a game even begins, fans crowd the plaza outside the gates, eager to see their heroes in action.

They wouldn’t have to wait long— Samsung devices were available for folks to see their favorite players larger-than-life cheering them on. As fans looked through devices towards the stadium, their position immediately localized, allowing for highly-accurate AR placement: Zeke Elliot climbing from a jumbotron or Dak Prescott landing on a pillar to name a few.

Volumetric captures natively this large haven’t been done before, so we needed the highest quality textures and polygons 5G streaming could allow us. Working with Metastage in Los Angeles provided us brilliant captures suitable for the task. We had to maneuver camera positioning to value the underside of the players, accommodating for the fans’ perspectives.

The captures were also combined with Nexus’ real-time animation prowess, crossing another milestone in volumetric playback.

When the doors opened, fans were given the opportunity to engage their idols one-on-one in the Hall of Heroes.

Set in a designated area with provided Samsung devices, fans could stream high-quality captures of players of their choosing to take a photo and video. The best part: they could take a photo with them to keep!

These players were captured in both Metastage in Los Angeles, and the Samsung Capture Stages in Dallas, TX. It was an honor to work with the players, and they performed wonderfully.

Time Tackle AR Game

Before kickoff and during half time, fans were encouraged to visit Samsung areas to try 5G devices pointed at the field. They were met with a Quick Time Event tapping game where a 4-story-tall Cowboy dodges four waves of oncoming defensive Bots.

Players earned points based on the timing of all their interactions, and this added up to a total overall score to post on the stadium’s leaderboard.

It’s a fun game in its own right, but what made it special was the ability to play it anywhere around the field, and that different timed player taps led to different combinations of dodges, stiff arms, or even front flips over bots. The permutations alone lead to fun action videos fans could email themselves!

During the game itself, fans could use Samsung 5G devices to follow along with every play: enormous live statistics for the Cowboys could appear over the field from any seat, with a visual representation of the team and players’ progress throughout the season.

Data for each play ran real-time from the SportRadar API direct to the app, which played animations for play type, player number/capture, and relevant yardage, including the current down and direction of play.

Unlike other AR systems that rely on information floating around the user, this one takes place right above the action itself. I’m looking forward to AR’s future where we wouldn’t be looking through phone screens so we don’t miss any nail-biting moments!