Sabre Corporation Using AR Portals to Demonstrate Commercial and Operations Platforms at Travel Related Industry Events
Sabre Corporation is the largest global distribution systems provider for air bookings in North America for the travel industry. They partnered with Groove Jones to create a series of “AR Portals” to help demonstrate their Commercial and Operations technology API platforms to customers.
What is an AR Portal? AR Portals offer users a mixed reality experience by transporting them into another dimension while still tied to the real world. By using their phone, a user can step through an Augmented Reality doorway and walk into a fully immersive 360º space. The portals act as a VR experience since they transport you into a virtual world, but without a headset or pair of goggles.
Sabre wanted to create these interactive product demonstrations so their customers could interact with them on their mobile phones. The portals would then showcase Sabre’s Airline Solutions platforms about the traveler’s journey in a unique new way to stimulate conversations with their customers at B2B events.
Step Into the Product Demonstration
Customers can step into the product demonstration. Both experiences have their own color-coded doorway. Below are renderings of the two different portal entrances. Once inside the portal, the customer viewed the interactive presentation.
The Commercial Portal allowed the customer to step into a digital airport terminal, surrounded by three-dimensional items you would find at an airport. In the distance, they would see flight activity taking part out on the tarmac.
The Operations Portal demonstrated the power of Sabre’s Operations Platform that shows how your aircraft is confirmed and the crew is assigned, down to getting a flight plan confirmed. The environment resembles what you might see in a control center, with simulated dashboards and controls.
The Commercial AR Portal allowed the customer to step into a digital airport terminal, surrounded by three-dimensional items you would find at an airport. In the distance, they would see flight activity taking part out on the tarmac.
Debuted at the 2019 Sabre STX Event
The AR Portals were launched at the company’s annual STX conference held in Las Vegas. Link to the event site – https://www.sabre.com/events/stx/. The STX event had over 1,600 customers attend from across the business of travel, bringing together the broadest group of airline, hotelier, travel distribution and management professionals.
These digital archways were inspired by the physical archways installed at the STX event.
Since the experience was created using Facebooks Spark AR platform, users could easily record and share what they saw.
