Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) – operator of Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR Airport) – has unveiled the first phase of its ‘BLR Metaport’.
With this launch, BLR Airport’s T2 becomes one of the first terminals in the world that can be experienced on the metaverse, the operator said.
Built in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Polygon, the BLR Metaport offers an immersive, 3D virtual experience of the newly launched Terminal 2 at BLR Airport. Interested travellers and the public can log onto the BLR Metaport website to virtually tour and navigate the new state-of-the-art terminal using their smart devices.
The BLR Metaport is an outcome of the Joint Innovation Centre (JIC), announced in April 2022 by BIAL, AWS, and Intel. The JIC focuses on driving the development and adoption of digital solutions in aviation. For BIAL, the mission of the JIC is to leverage emerging technologies to build new business models and passenger experiences and be at the forefront of technology innovation in India’s commercial aviation sector.
Developed in line with this mission, the BLR Metaport is one of the first airport metaverse experiences, designed to deliver an enhanced digital experience for travellers. A 3D interface will offer customers new ways to interact with the airport, such as checking in, navigating terminals, shopping, and social aspects such as connecting with other travellers.
BIAL’s chief strategy and development officer Satyaki Raghunath said, “This is our first foray into the world of Web3 and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and we aim to delight travellers with a unique, immersive, and virtual experience. We believe that it is important to connect with a new generation of our global audience through the metaverse. We also have several initiatives planned around the BLR Metaport, which promise to increase ways in which we can engage with our global audience and enhance business impact over the next few years.”
Decentralisation
BLR Metaport is built on the fundamentals of decentralisation, where control and decision-making are transferred from a centralised entity to a distributed network. It uses the Polygon Blockchain, which will act as a medium of digital economy in the future for users to trade digital assets seamlessly and securely. These digital assets could be digital artwork at the BLR Metaport, certificates that are given for completing various industry-related training courses, collectibles, utility and commemorative NFTs.
The BLR Metaport platform is built on AWS, leveraging its compute, storage, databases, and data visualisation services to achieve high performance and scalability. It is optimised for Unreal Engine 5, a real-time 3D creation tool for photo-realistic visuals and immersive experiences and leverages the full extent of the engine’s multiplayer collaboration toolset. Pixel Streaming enables users to take advantage of the graphics processing unit (GPU) on AWS through their desktop or mobile web browser, without the need to have special GPU hardware themselves. To provide an immersive metaverse experience, BLR Metaport leverages Amazon EC2 G4 instances, the industry’s most cost-effective and versatile GPU instances offering high performance to graphics-intensive applications including remote workstations, game streaming, and graphics rendering. As a result, BLR Metaport can offer a fully immersive and photo-realistic experience to its users. Additional features include video conferencing, messaging and spatial audio, and avatar creation.
Image: BIAL
