Pedestrians walk down the Fremont Street Experience in front of the D Hotel & Casino, downtown, Friday, Jan. 3, 2020.
Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Since unveiling a $32 million upgrade to Fremont Street's Viva Vision video canopy on New Year's Eve, the Fremont Street Experience has other new features in store for 2020.
Interactive components of the Viva Vision Canopy over Fremont Street are still in the works and are expected to roll out at some point this year, said the CEO Patrick Hughes of Fremont Street Experience during Wednesday’s Las Vegas City Council meeting. Plans to create an interactive canopy experience for visitors were announced last year, but the cooperatively owned venture put the idea on hold to prioritize the canopy upgrade.
“We have a tight crew at the (Fremont Street Experience), and when it came to focusing on New Year’s Eve and all the content, we decided, 'Let’s put the brakes on the interactive component for a second,'" Hughes said.
The venture is now ready to continue developing that interactive experience that will allow visitors to connect with the canopy via a smartphone app. The hope is to partner with a local sports franchise in rolling out a special app, Hughes explained.
One idea would be to work with the NFL in unveiling the interactive app to coincide with the three-day NFL Draft in April. Visitors could “throw” a football through the phone app, aiming for a goal post on the overhead canopy’s 1,500-foot LED screen.
“It’d be an ideal kickoff,” Hughes said, noting the pun.
Similar interactive games or activities could support other major sporting events, depending on which franchises are interested in participating.
“If it’s not the NFL for the draft, it could well be Raiders for the first season, for example. Or certainly the Knights, or certainly the Lights. But sports is certainly the first and easiest (idea),” Hughes said.
The biggest challenge for creating these components is the sheer size of the canopy, which is the largest single video screen in the world. It’s impossible to see both ends of the screen perfectly, Hughes said.
“The question is, do we divide (these components) into sections? Possibly. But that takes away from the majestic nature of the canopy itself,” he said.
Another interactive idea is to allow visitors to pick the next song to play under the canopy via a smartphone app — “jukebox voting,” as Hughes calls it. Whatever the interactive component, the Fremont Street Experience hopes to iron out the details soon, he said.
“The expectation of our consumers is that they’re part of the experience. That’s where interactivity is going to be a major game-changer,” he said.
