NEC Group signs VR deal for arenas with MelodyVR

The NEC Group Arenas has formed a partnership with music virtual-reality (VR) company MelodyVR to offer virtual access to live events in its venues.

Concertgoers will be able to access a selection of past live events held at the Genting Arena (15,700-cap.) and Arena Birmingham (15,800-cap.) – both in Birmingham, UK – using VR technology, including performances from Royal Blood, the Script and UB40.

Over the coming months, MelodyVR will also live-stream concerts via VR in real time, and offer ‘virtual’ tickets to sold-out shows at the arenas.

Both will be available to purchase via the recently launched MelodyVR app, and promoted on selected event pages on the website of the Ticket Factory, the arenas’ official box office.

“Offering VR concerts to our customers gives them more opportunities to experience the live music they love”

Ian Congdon, head of venue sales at NEC Group Arenas, says: “VR is transforming the concert experience and shifting how fans can consume music, so it’s fantastic to partner with MelodyVR as pioneers in this field. Their usage of exciting features and technological capabilities means missing a must-see or sold-out show could become a thing of the past.

“Nothing can beat experiencing live music in a venue, but offering VR concerts to our customers gives them more opportunities to experience the live music they love and get closer to artists than ever before.”

“We are excited to be partnering with the NEC Group to deliver live and recorded VR experiences,” adds Steven Hancock, COO of MelodyVR. “Working with forward-thinking and progressive partners to make live music globally accessible via virtual reality are the foundations that MelodyVR was built on, [so] I’m very pleased that the NEC Group share that same passion for the future and we look forward to working together more closely.”

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