TORONTO — Digital signage and smartphones are being combined to facilitate the first real-time giant video game application on Toronto's Eaton Centre Media Tower at Yonge-Dundas Square.
Using Rogers Wireless BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphones, the public can communicate with the Outdoor Broadcast Network's massive video board located in the square. OBN secured the exclusive rights to "Dial to Play" software distributed by iGotcha Media and took the idea to Rogers Wireless through its agencies, MediaCom and Publicis. The software has been integrated into the operating system of the 40-inch x 30-inch digital display on the tower, enabling smartphone users to interact with it.
Rogers will station event teams at the square until the end of the year, inviting up to 10 people at a time to try out one of the new BlackBerry Flip smartphones, which use voice recognition to play the game in real time. Each player controls an avatar by shouting "Flip" into a mobile phone to make the character's hand reach up to a Christmas stocking and grab phones that appear to tumble from the sky. OBN has incorporated the game into the regular programming run of advertising on the digital display.
