During last month’s WTA-sanctioned Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open, the official shopping mall sponsor of the tournament hosted its own tennis extravaganza complete with a virtual reality game of rooftop tennis.
AIR Concepts Limited created VR 360 Tennis in the Air, which enabled players wearing VR headsets and holding controllers to play each other on a virtual court on top of Lee Gardens that provided aerial day or night views of Victoria Harbour’s famous skyline. Using profile photos taken before playing the game, users could see their opponent’s face superimposed on a virtual body.
The game could be experienced at Lee Gardens mall, with players being able to gain access to it by first redeeming prize tickets from playing the Air Tennis Mobile Game on their phones that enabled them to hit prize targets with serves. The other way to gain admission into the VR game was to spend HK$100 — about $13 — at Lee Gardens.
“The idea as well as the challenge behind this concept is to tie Lee Gardens’ healthy, work-life balance image with tennis,” AIR Concepts Limited co-founder and creative director Ken Hui told Marketing-Interactive.com. “To whet the appetite of Hong Kong people who’re accustomed to the latest tech and trendy devices, we’ve brought them a unique and brand-new experience – the World’s first (and probably the coolest) one–on-one tennis game ‘in the air’ to be played over the splendid Victoria Harbour scenery using VR technology, and printing your favourite photo on tennis ball with a special tennis ball printer.”
About that tennis ball printer…
AIR Concepts Limited also contributed to the tennis experience at Lee Gardens by creating Bounce for Tennis, which creates personalized tennis balls after a profile photo is uploaded on an app. The research and development team worked on finding the right kind of pen to print on the round surface of a fuzzy ball.
The personalized balls cost HK$50, with proceeds going to the Hong Kong Tennis Association’s free tennis training for special needs children.