The Experience Never Stops
To reimagine the AO experience virtually meant going where few tournaments have before: to the truly phygital future of sports and entertainment.
They say that if there's one Open that's meant to be experienced, not seen, it's the Happy Slam. For two weeks in the summer down under, Melbourne Park transforms into a hub of urban culture. The sights and sounds of the Australian Open, from the court spaces to concert stages to culinary experiences, are unlike any other in the world of sport. For Infosys and Tennis Australia, ensuring the experience never stops meant building a first-of-its-kind AO Virtual Hub.
The Next Way to Fly There is to Fly Through
This year, Melbourne Park won't be accessible to international guests. That's where the 3D AO Virtual Hub bridges the gap by overcoming physical restrictions for partners and sponsors, who are integral to the AO business model. The Hub engages AO partners and their guests in premium digital hospitality across the vast expanse of Melbourne Park.
When you can't go to the Open, how can the Open come to you? In all its visual glory? The AO Virtual Hub recreates the Australian Open court by court and experience by experience for a truly phygital tournament.
Bringing the Hub to life in a few months wasn't going to be easy. In addition to a resilient mindset and remote collaboration, building the Hub would require the scale of a cloud-powered platform: Infosys Meridian. By leveraging Meridian's polycloud, the teams shaped the core of taking virtual broadcasting and conferencing to 12,000 concurrent attendees. And then built on it with interactive spaces, content management and event analytics to deliver a seamlessly integrated experience.
The Next Way to Be Social is Virtual
The blue court and the many-coloured Melbourne sky: that's the heart of the Australian Open experience. Guests in the Hub can feel this come to life in a 3D recreation of the space, one that's as real as it gets. Once the flyby loads up on the screen, visitors have a serving of exciting content, live and archived. There's 360° match highlights to see the action from newer perspectives that are wider than having only one seat in the stadium. Beyond the match, visitors can view historic moments from AO past and explore the tech behind tennis.
Getting Courtside
The blue court and the many-coloured Melbourne sky: that's the heart of the Australian Open experience. Guests in the Hub can feel this come to life in a 3D recreation of the space, one that's as real as it gets. Once the flyby loads up on the screen, visitors have a serving of exciting content, live and archived. There's 360° match highlights to see the action from newer perspectives that are wider than having only one seat in the stadium. Beyond the match, visitors can view historic moments from AO past and explore the tech behind tennis.
Behind the Scenes
Seeing how the tournament works is one of the more rewarding experiences at AO. From the player pod to the control centre, each zone has a story to tell. These stories are made richer with Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley, offering tours and tales of what it takes to put on an event with scale, style and substance. A click or two later, visitors are in the press room, watching not just player interviews, but interviews with tennis legends. If this all-access of the inner sanctum wasn't enough, there's the Walk of Champions to be seen virtually. That's game, set, experience.
AO Live Stage
The Australian Open doesn't just have rockstars on court, there are literal rockstars too. Going to the court at AO also means attending a concert or two. Virtual concerts don't quite seem as fun, but the story changes when the on-screen environment makes visitors feel like they're there. What's better than being at the stage, is going backstage digitally, and uncovering the art of the artist. This is an event pass not to be missed with daily front rows on any screen, from the roar of the guitar to the roar of the digital crowd.
Grand Slam Oval
At Australian Open, the attractions around the precinct are as much a part of the cultural fabric as the match action. Each experience is carefully curated, which is why the virtual mirroring had to do more than preserve its essence, it had to amplify the offering. So the AO Shop comes with a virtual fashion show, AO Dining has culinary classes with renowned masterchefs, the Atrium comes alive with digital avatars and social networking, and sponsor suites have intimate conversational spaces. All this and more, a browser away.
#NextNeverStops with Infosys and the Australian Open
It's been a tough year for tennis, and AO 21 marks a new beginning. In some ways, it's the return to tennis as we know it, but also a new kind of tennis. It's made of moments and experiences beyond game, set and match.
These moments, these experiences, represent our desire to keep going even when times are tough. When the old ways don't work, we find new ways. New normals that become mainstays with the next way to play, watch and engage. From immersion to passion, from experience to brilliance, #NextNeverStops.
