26 Mar 2026
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Mike Boland
AWE Talks: Leveling-Up LBE to City-Scale Proportions
Welcome back to AWE Talks, our series that revisits the best AWE conference sessions.
We continue our March LBE theme this week with a variation on the topic: City-scale gaming. What are best practices and key considerations when designing LBE that's set in big public spaces? A heavy-hitter panel weighs in.
See the summarized takeaways below, along with the full session video. Stay tuned for more video highlights each week and check out the full library of conference sessions on AWE’s YouTube Channel.
Speakers
Joe Gabriel, Niantic Spatial
Will Humphrey, Sugar Creative
Luis Oscar Ramirez, Mawari
Louisa Spring, T-Mobile
Key Takeaways & Analysis
– There's a branch of the LBE sector that focuses on city-scale experiences.
– These inherit many of the benefits of venue-based LBE and scale them up in size.
– Generally in outdoor public spaces, there are also unique benefits to this approach.
– For example, city-scale LBE can tap into history and lore that's endemic to a place.
– This can't be done as easily in "blank canvas" LBE facilities that must invent new lore.
– The embedded/endemic lore we're talking about includes things like history.
– For example, a recent AR experience was themed around Boston's rich history.
– Users could activate AR animations that re-enact Revolutionary War battles.
– This experience also demonstrates the collaboration needed to pull off city-scale LBE.
– Besides cooperation and support from municipal entities, it often requires a value chain.
– In this case, a creative agency – Sugar Creative – conceptualized the experience.
– It also required spatial software capabilities that were provided by Niantic Spatial.
– High-speed connectivity from T-Mobile enabled the content to be streamed to devices.
– Mawari's rendering pipeline meanwhile made T-Mobile's delivery efficient and reliable.
– That last part is the unsung hero, in the background, ensuring a seamless user experience.
– This will be increasingly important as XR experiences are streamed to devices.
– Efficient delivery and rendering of processing-intensive content requires this optimization.
– These factors are also needed as a safety net, given that network stability can vary.
– But regardless of which piece of the value chain is doing the heavy lifting, they're all critical.
– The ecosystem of supporting parts for city-scale LBE will develop, as it's still early innings.
For more color and depth, see the full session below...
Want more XR insights and multimedia? ARtillery Intelligence offers an indexed and searchable library of XR intelligence known as ARtillery Pro. See more here.
– There's a branch of the LBE sector that focuses on city-scale experiences.
– These inherit many of the benefits of venue-based LBE and scale them up in size.
– Generally in outdoor public spaces, there are also unique benefits to this approach.
– For example, city-scale LBE can tap into history and lore that's endemic to a place.
– This can't be done as easily in "blank canvas" LBE facilities that must invent new lore.
– The embedded/endemic lore we're talking about includes things like history.
– For example, a recent AR experience was themed around Boston's rich history.
– Users could activate AR animations that re-enact Revolutionary War battles.
– This experience also demonstrates the collaboration needed to pull off city-scale LBE.
– Besides cooperation and support from municipal entities, it often requires a value chain.
– In this case, a creative agency – Sugar Creative – conceptualized the experience.
– It also required spatial software capabilities that were provided by Niantic Spatial.
– High-speed connectivity from T-Mobile enabled the content to be streamed to devices.
– Mawari's rendering pipeline meanwhile made T-Mobile's delivery efficient and reliable.
– That last part is the unsung hero, in the background, ensuring a seamless user experience.
– This will be increasingly important as XR experiences are streamed to devices.
– Efficient delivery and rendering of processing-intensive content requires this optimization.
– These factors are also needed as a safety net, given that network stability can vary.
– But regardless of which piece of the value chain is doing the heavy lifting, they're all critical.
– The ecosystem of supporting parts for city-scale LBE will develop, as it's still early innings.
For more color and depth, see the full session below...
Want more XR insights and multimedia? ARtillery Intelligence offers an indexed and searchable library of XR intelligence known as ARtillery Pro. See more here.
