If you ever wanted to play a game with random strangers while standing in the middle of Times Square, your prayers were answered briefly on September 8th and 9th.

Using the Mega Screen billboards located at 1500 Broadway Street and West 43rd Street in Manhattan, onlookers can scan the QR code with their smartphones to participate in Streamline Studios' 2020 cooperative game Bake'n Switch as an "interactive audience". Those who do this can enter and play part of the game without downloading or installing.

This is part of the "Monarch Project" public test, which is a prototype that combines digital billboards with mobile games through 5G to create what its organizers call a "mobile crowd game." With the help of Project Monarch technology, billboards can be turned into interactive activities. Imagine that you can play an ad on your phone and let three-quarters of a million people play it, and then you will know what it is for. (Between this and that of the hoverboard, Times Square has recently become a rather random technology center.)

With the help of Project Monarch technology, billboards can be turned into interactive activities.

Project Monarch is a collaboration between multiple groups, including the following groups: Streamline Media Group, a developer focused on Metaverse, released Bake'n Switch through its game imprint last year; Genvid, which provides a tool set to create interactions Live broadcast; Outfront Media, which owns Times Square billboards; Intel, which contributed its intelligent edge technology to the project; Sky Packets, which provides a 5G connection hotspot that allows users to connect to Project Monarch.

Jacob Navok, co-founder and CEO of Genvid Technologies, said in a press release: "Interactivity dominates almost all types of media. This experiment proves that even the most modern digital Billboards can also be reimagined." "With our interactive live broadcast technology and Intel’s advanced 5G network platform, advertisers and brand sponsors can easily and dynamically provide more attractive and interesting content, allowing consumers not only to remember Live, you can even enjoy it directly."

During the test of Project Monarch, up to six participants can be randomly selected to help one of the two people playing Bake'n Switch, with three interactive audiences around each player. Each round of mini-games lasts for five minutes, and at the end players and spectators can click on their screens to help increase the score multiplier.

In theory, as Genvid said, Monarch's technology can be used to turn almost any type of digital broadcast into an interactive activity where viewers can jump into the action on the screen and participate in it.

Genvid claims that a larger Monarch deployment may have 750,000 concurrent users. In contrast, at the time of writing, there are theoretically more people playing interactive ads than those playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Steam.

Genvid claims that a larger Monarch deployment may have 750,000 concurrent users.

"Streamline is continuously committed to projects and partnerships that advance the development of the gaming industry," Streamline Media Group CEO Alexander Fernandez said in a Genvid press release. "We believe that by using video game technology and capabilities, we can best accelerate the digital transformation of businesses and industries. Streamline is always ready and able to innovate the global consumer experience with forward-thinking partners."

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