The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium is the nonprofit organization born to inspire people to learn about Earth’s diverse ecosystems, providing learning opportunities for all levels, interests, and ages. Since opening its new facility in Draper in March 2014, the Aquarium has welcomed over six million visitors and provided more than 650,000 educational experiences to students.
The Rio Tinto Kennecott Plaza, a nine-acre expansion south of the Aquarium, features the 173-foot tall EECO structure, peaceful gardens, artistic sculptures, and unique event space.
It once was the stage for U2’s 360° Tour, one of the largest traveling stages in rock history, and it’s now living its second life as the majestic symbol of the Aquarium’s dedication to educating people about how we are all interconnected as one global ecosystem, the Living Planet.
The client’s request was to create the custom CGI content for the experience they were imagining for the newest section of the Aquarium: the VR cinema inside the majestic EECO structure, a spaceship-like permanent installation that is there to amaze the Aquarium’s guests.
Specifically, what they needed was a pre-show and 2 custom VR movies that could teach the Aquarium’s guests about our Living Planet while entertaining them in the amazing context of the venue.
According to the words of Brent Andersen, Founder and CEO of the Aquarium, this project was born as “an exciting way to teach people about our planet and how everything is interconnected.”
To produce the attraction’s content, we worked hand-in-hand with Loveland: Mr. Brent Andersen provided the vision and inspiration for the project, and then Loveland formed a core team for creative, construction, and operational direction, whereas Red Raion had the main responsibility to develop the attraction concept and digital content, including supervision, management, expertise, scheduling, labor, materials and tools for the development of the 2 VR movies and the pre-show content for the attraction.
Each and every member of the team gave their input, and we discussed every aspect of the entire experience together, in a high-quality and very fruitful collaborative process.
In early 2022, Loveland tested the preliminary films with the Aquarium’s target audience, and they received very positive feedback: the aquarium’s guests were absolutely hooked by the attraction, also thanks to the mesmerizing soundtrack by Douglas Morton, a talented composer specializing in aquariums, whose sonic designs have also been accompanying hundreds of feature films, network television, and games such as The Patriot, The Sheltering Sky, and The X-Files for over 30 years.
We are all satisfied with the result of this collaboration. Thanks to the extensive amount of technical research that we all put into it, the incredible location, the award-winning patented technology by MediaMation, the beautiful music, and the deeply immersive and innovative digital content, EECO Voyager will really make a difference in the field of educational entertainment.
With the content we produced for EECO Voyager, we won our first Brass Ring Award for Best New Product in the Virtual and Augmented Reality category.
“The quality of Red Raion's work, their standardized production process, their flexibility in accommodating our vision and feedback, and their experience were key factors in producing a product that has captured the imagination of our guests, whose feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Red Raion's ability to adhere to milestones and deliver on their promises was crucial for us to ensure a successful launch.”
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