On the heels of a wildly successful premiere at SXSW 2021, HBO Max is once again teaming up with experience design firm HUSH and AT&T to scale up its digital / physical experience, The Orbit, in several nationwide AT&T retail flagship stores and available virtually. “The Orbit” allows users to explore HBO Max’s entire content library in real-time using pose detection, voice and facial recognition. Emphasizing its library of near-infinite amounts of your favorite entertainment properties, clips from a participant’s favorite shows magically appear to match their body movement, facial expressions or their favorite spoken phrases.
The effort comes as COVID has forced brands from all sectors to reimagine experiential design and marketing and to create a new vision for destination-worthy retail experiences. HUSH was able to take an overwhelming amount of information and data — in this case, HBO Max’s massive content library — and make it simple and beautiful to discover. Through the design, this vast content library becomes a fantastic, playful experience of discovery and surprise.
The Orbit technology — conceptualized and developed by HUSH in partnership with HBO Max and the AT&T teams — leverages a touchless, intuitive interface of gesture, voice and facial tracking to match a guest’s actions with content, creating memorable moments for consumers as well as keeping them safe. Components of the program include:
Skeletal Tracking: The HBO Max content mirrors a guest’s poses in real-time, allowing them to explore the Max library using nothing but their bodies
Facial Tracking: The HBO Max content mirrors a guest’s head position in real-time, allowing them to explore the Max library using nothing but their facial positions
Voice Recognition: Guests can speak their favorite lines and are matched with the same lines from HBO Max’s content library in real-time
HUSH’s bespoke content ingestion pipeline uses machine learning to process terabytes of content to power the user experience, which includes over 150,000 clips from HBO Max’s library.
The Orbit is a prime example of how HUSH is pioneering the post-COVID return to brand experience by setting new bars for quality and uniqueness, while also ensuring physical safety using appropriate technological interfaces. And with the evermore important move for brands to develop destination-worthy retail experiences to navigate the new normal, projects like HBO Max’s Orbit are defining the future of real world interactions.
“As the world starts to venture out again to safely and responsibly seek interaction with peers, compelling ideas and new information, we hope The Orbit satisfies their appetite. While much has been virtualized in the last year, we firmly believe that creating refined, inspiring experiences that engage the five senses will be the great differentiator for how modern explorers will choose to rediscover the world around them,” said HUSH Founding Partner David Schwarz.
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About HUSH:
HUSH is an experience design firm.
Our mission is to design experiences for the most dynamic organizations in the world.
We leverage creative technology to help our clients communicate their mission, stories, products and services. What we design is both beautiful and functional, and has an impact on the spaces people work, invest, explore and learn.