Set up five years ago by school pals Niall O’Driscoll and Andrew Jenkinson, Dublin-based vStream’s internal philosophy has been to create world firsts which marry audio visual media and technology.
One of these world firsts “The Aviva Stadium 3D Experience” led to it winning business in the UK with Europe’s largest shopping centre, Westfield.
“Aviva Ireland had just taken over sponsorship of Lansdowne Road in 2009 and wanted to create something to give attendees an innovative experience to piggy back on the sponsorship,” O’Driscoll explains.
“We devised an experiential platform involving a five-minute stereoscopic 3D experience, which tells the story of an academy player picked for the Irish international team. That player is you.”
Staff take the person’s name and photograph and they go inside to the unit which appears like a home team dressing room. They wear headphones and 3D glasses and are subsequently referred to by name during the experience.
“It is an immersive and engaging piece and has been a huge success, now installed as a permanent part of the Aviva Stadium tour, taken by a thousand people a week,” says Jenkinson.
It has also been housed in a 40 ft converted truck which has travelled to the Electric Picnic festival and the Ploughing Championships.
Thanks to the Aviva Stadium 3D Experience, vStream was the only Irish company to in 2011 be shortlisted in the digital category in the Blade awards in the UK, which caught the attention of Westfield’s marketing team.
The international shopping chain, which has 150 centres worldwide, commissioned vStream to come up with a personalised free experience for Christmas for its centres in Stratford and London.
The result was “Elbow Saves Christmas”, which O’Driscoll explains is a 5D experience, telling the story of a good elf turned bad (which he wrote).
On top of being stereoscopic, it is personalised and also incorporates the physical elements of feeling wind and seeing elf dust, which makes it 5D.
“A 20pc increase in footfall was recorded in Westfield London, year on year, and we got to share their public relations and advertising around it. This is now an ongoing relationship, which will run again this year and be expanded to other Westfield centres,”says O’Driscoll.
Jenkinson notes that the personalisation aspect of “Elbow Saves Christmas” was remarkable.
“Our brief was to deliver content for up to 50 children at any one time for a 30 minute session. So while the Aviva experience was singular, this one involved creating a story that works with technology for an audience of children.
“During the film each child sees their face on the side of a present as well as hearing their name. All 50 children see themselves in the film, which creates an emotional tie. This is the world’s first personalised 5D experience and we now have a patent pending in the US for the technology.”
Nominated for Entrepreneur of the Year in the European Business Awards this year, vStream opened an office in London’s Canary Wharf three months ago.
Having started out in the Digital Hub in Dublin, it moved to its own premises in Leeson Close two years ago which has a green screen studio and 3D cinema and employs 20 people.
Jenkinson’s background is in technology while O’Driscoll was involved in start-ups and freelance work in film, TV and theatre. The pair met when they were eight years old on the steps of Belvedere College in Dublin.