Exclusivity and VIP-only areas and events have been a staple of society for centuries, making certain occasions and experiences even more desirable. Even some of the biggest more public-facing events become inherently exclusive to the many due to ticket prices or the sheer popularity of them eating up availability at breakneck speeds.
Once-Exclusive Worlds Embracing Modern Technology to Let Everyone in
Over the last few years, however, luxury brands and event holders have suddenly become incredibly accessible thanks to their embrace of new online tech.
At the core of this is live streaming, which is being preferred by users with 82 percent of viewers preferring a live stream to a social media post, and 80 percent preferring the live videos to blog reading. Another is the increasingly accessible, futuristic tech of virtual reality.
Building further on augmented reality, virtual reality fully immerses the user in its setting, allowing for interactions and hands-on experiences. Using these and some other key technologies, here’s how the less accessible experiences and venues are now opening up to the world.
Experiencing the world’s finest art wherever you are
The headline act of the huge digital revolution in this regard has been the world’s museums. National museums, be they art or history, are essential venues that showcase cultural items that the country owns and keeps. As such, they’re inherently exclusive to residents and tourists.
As detailed by the Time Out spread on virtual museum tours, so many of the most world-renowned museums have established a way to experience them online.
These include the British Museum, Rijksmuseum, Musée d’Orsay, MASP, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Benaki Museum. As reported in 2020, the turn to going virtual could usher in a new era of culture, making these incredibly important venues more accessible than ever before.
Virtual reality tours have taken virtual and digital viewings to another level. Those with VR gear or accessories that can transform a smartphone into a VR headset can experience some of the finest art in the world in the most immersive way possible through tech.
The prime example of this is with Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, London, for which you can book tickets online at VanGoghExpo to enjoy 360o projections, 15,000 ft2 screens, and all through virtual reality. Google has also been sure to offer these enriching cultural experiences online, toting their Google Cardboard virtual reality viewer as the gateway to the Google Arts & Culture app on iOS and Android.
Nothing beats it being live and in real-time
What makes the most exclusive and less accessible events so craved is the fact that something is going to happen right there, live, and nowhere else.
While you’ll likely need to optimize your wireless connection to make the most of the new offerings, several of the most prestigious forms of entertainment have embraced live streaming to deliver once location-locked entertainment to the online community.
The most notable of famously lavish productions turning to this tech is the National Theatre, which launched the dedicated service that streamed NT Live shows and hosts several previous showings from the stage.
Through the streaming, you can still marvel at the work put in by the actors and production team, sinking you into the story and performances because it’s live.
Enjoying something in real-time enhances the experience a great deal, with other notoriously high-class and exclusive forms of entertainment noticing this as well. Now, the live casino games available at Betway are the platform’s most popular table games.
Players are live-streamed to a human croupier in a lavish casino setting, with the two-way nature of the stream allowing them to place bets and see the round results in real-time. A similar phenomenon can be seen with the luxury fashion industry taking to live showings of their runway events.
Once secluded to major brands and celebrities, brands like Dior and Burberry are taking to streaming platforms like Twitch despite previously being somewhat elitist in the past.
Sometimes, it’s not about enjoying a form of entertainment or being immersed in cultural points of interest; sometimes, the draw of some of the biggest but less accessible events in the world is joining the community.
Right now, one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world is gaming, with the tech getting so powerful that you can even play PS4 games on your mobile phone these days. If was once a trade show for those who work in the industry, but is now a huge event for customers, E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) is nearly on the same level as Comic-Con.
Gamers who can get tickets swarm on the event to see new releases and announcements live while meeting fellow community members. Now, E3 will be an entirely digital event for 2021, with the 12 to 15 June all-virtual event also being free to the public.
These less-accessible, prestigious, and exclusive venues and entertainment mediums are embracing the digital revolution of their industries, giving everyone the chance to experience them.