After creating the first Augmented Reality company in Canada (which later started developing VR) we were asked, “what’s next for us”after exiting our former organization.

The question for us was simple:
  1. How do we reach a larger audience when the number of VR devices haven’t hit a sufficient critical mass to justify the high production cost of at home content?
  2. More important, if the at home market is not big enough yet, what experiences can we build that are 10 times better than what you can get at home that would make you want to try a VR experience.

The answer for us was; immersive experiences for the location based entertainment (LBE) market.

Why?

Because people want to taste before they buy. That’s why Radio, TV and then video games all went through a democratic phase first to gain widespread adoption. Bars for Radio/TV and arcades for video games.

It took 10 years in arcades before the at home video game market really took off. Things take time.

With that in mind, we needed to create something that can’t be reproduced at home and has way more production value than what you can get on Netflix. Netflix is amazing. I f*cking love it and so do you. For a small price you get so much value. But on the weekends we all want to do something different, especially if we have a significant other or a family. This is where we see immersive experiences as the perfect medium before it will one day take off in the at-home market. We have been testing it out with our new product Enter the Duat. Up to now it has been a smash hit amongst families scoring 4.82 out of 5 from hundreds of people. We are very proud of that 🙂

The Phenomena was created to produce location-based entertainment experiences that we’ve called Immersive Spectacles. These spectacles integrate different cultural, artistic and technological elements in order to create multi-sensory immersion through carefully considered narrative and interactive experiences. i.e something 10x better than what you can get at your home.

Why is it important?

In a disconnected world, experiences that foster connection are more important than ever.

We want to go beyond simply “amusing” audience members.

Instead, our experiences evoke a sense of presence for each visitor-participant enabling them to embody the narrative, play active roles in their experience, and deeply connect with a distinct culture other than their own. Entertainment companies are increasingly looking to leverage new technologies such as mixed reality, 3D projection mapping etc in order to interact with and create new digital worlds. New developments in these technologies are taking place daily, and fast!

You can expect a lot of new forms of immersive shows to be developed from amazing content and technology companies globally. We have entered into a new era of creativity.

Here at Phenomena we are excited, and you should be too!
The Phenomena will be releasing two more immersive spectacles in 2019 named DNA Dance and Haptic Field.