"Interactive Ice-Hockey Entertainment" was a finalist for the state award for multimedia and e-business. At the Gala on March 5th 2015, we were awarded the category prize in the sector "Entertainment and Gaming".
The Federal Ministry for Science, Research and Business presented the 16th state award for Multimedia and e-businessm the highest award for outstanding projects in the multimedia and e-business sector in Austria, on the 5th March 2015.
Sports competitions are increasingly becoming entertainment events. Event quality has been an audience winner in ice hockey for a long time. The beginning of an event has always been strongly supported by lighting, sound and video. Until now however, the breaks between game periods have not been in the centre of attention. These are 15 difficult minutes in which nothing is actually happening, and for at least half of this time, the ice machine is renewing the ice layer. Interactive Ice-Hockey Entertainment by zactrack targets precisely these 15 minutes between the playing periods. Using large area projection and live tracking, the previously boring breaks become an interactive multimedia event with a lot of space for advertising by sponsors. Since February 2013, the Salzburg Ice Hockey Stadium has been showcasing a full-area video projection system. 10 HD projectors, floating above the ice, turn the playing area into a huge cinema screen. The area covers a size of 60 x 30 m. The movements of the ice machine are tracks and they interactively change the computer animation on the ice. This turns the previously boring rounds into amusing animation with constantly new effects.
The computer games that have been developed specifically for the short break time are controlled by peoples' movements on the ice. Volunteers from the audience are invited and given transmitters. The games are transmitted from a UNITY Game Engine to the 10 projectors in real time and projected on the ice surface. The game and the effects in the first season in 2013 were so successful that Red Bull has now commissioned development of 2 additional break time games for the audience and various interactive animations for the ice machine. Simultaneously, the ice stadium in Munich was also equipped with one of the systems. The systems are in constant use and deployed for every league game. They can be experienced live. There are now numerous international requests from ice hockey clubs and stadiums. Interactive games of this type in ice hockey are unique the world over! The whole zactrack team would like to thank Red Bull for the fantastic cooperation and is looking forward to the new game for the ice hockey season 2015/16 with great anticipation.