Smyle pioneers use of gaming platform to showcase Samsung innovation for the first time

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Benjamin Braun introducing the Life Unstoppable virtual experience.

Creative agency Smyle is pushing the boundaries of virtual events – together with long-term partner Samsung – with the first ever use of gaming platform Unreal to host a fully immersive, live digital media experience. Representing a paradigm shift for product launch events, Smyle has not only created a carefully constructed 3D virtual world for Samsung Life Unstoppable, but has applied the very latest gaming techniques to deliver powerful emotional resonance never before seen in a virtual event.

Combining experiential thinking with a human-centric design philosophy, Smyle has rewritten the rules of how brands engage virtually with its creation and delivery of interactive digital hub, Samsung House, a hyper-realistic 3D virtual world in which the latest advancements in mobile, wearable, TV, audio and home appliances were unveiled this week as part of Samsung Life Unstoppable. It also marks the first time the Unreal platform, known for hosting multiplayer video games Fortnite and Final Fantasy, has been used to broadcast to the largest number of concurrent users. 

The incredibly detailed virtual dressing room in Samsung House

As part of the event, attendees moved from a modern kitchen all the way through to an outdoor terrace to get up close to a connected ecosystem of smart products. During different points of the tour, real-life presenters appeared on a variety of TVs, tablets and phones to demonstrate innovation behind individual items. True to the event’s gaming ethos, whenever guests wanted to find out more, they could explore on their own, interacting with specific products to create a more personalised experience. As an added bonus, collectible ‘Easter eggs’ had been hidden among household items for guests to find – gamifying the entire experience.

Every detail, from the artwork on the walls to the fabric on the furniture, was carefully selected following meticulous research into the type of guests that would be visiting Samsung House, resulting in a truly immersive home environment.

Visitors could choose to deep dive into Samsung products whenever they like – interacting directly with products such as the new Samsung ear buds

To deliver the look, feel and emotional resonance required for this virtual experience, which included multi device experiences with users able to access additional content on other devices, several exciting new technologies were put into play:

  • Ray tracing, a new rendering technique only ever used in the world of gaming, created incredibly realistic light gradients and shadows on all the virtual objects within the home.
  • Immersive 8D audio transported guests into another realm by using 360-degree surround sound to foster an intimate one-to-one connection between speakers and guests.
  • Pixel streaming delivered the best possible gaming experience for users by distributing high-quality real-time content no matter what device they were viewing it from.
  • Augmented reality was used throughout the virtual event to bring interactive elements to life and create as realistic an experience as possible.

Smyle also worked with poet and spoken word influencer Max Wallis to deliver a specially curated piece on how future technologies are enabling a new era of connected experiences, as demonstrated within Samsung Life Unstoppable.

The Odyssey G9

“No other virtual event has used this level of interactivity before – it paves the way for virtual experiences for the future,” says Matt Margetson, Innovation Director at Smyle. “Using the world’s most advanced real-time 3D creation platform in this way, and employing gaming techniques never before seen in this setting, we are bringing guests closer to the action than ever before. We’re proud to be partnering with Samsung to elevate the world standard for product launches. This immersive virtual world is the perfect complement to the global brand’s human-centred innovations.”

“Samsung is driven by innovation, not just in our products but in everything we do” says Benjamin Braun, Chief Marketing Officer, Samsung Europe “This bold, new virtual experience allows people to see and interact with our products in the most immersive way without having to physically touch them. We think this opens up future opportunities to bring our products to more people.”

Adam Parry
Author: Adam Parry

Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.