FAYETTEVILLE — From Super Bowl halftime shows to the opening ceremony of the Olympics, PixMob has become a popular attraction at sports venues worldwide.
On Saturday, the Montreal-based company that was established in 2010 will try its hand at college basketball for the first time.
PixMob representatives have been setting up their technology inside Bud Walton Arena the past two days in advance of Arkansas' sold-out game against Oklahoma State on Saturday at 5 p.m. The finished product will result in a synchronized light show inside the arena during pregame ceremonies and at various points throughout the game.
Fans sitting in the lower bowl of the arena will be given LED wristbands that act as infrared receptors. When activated, the wristbands become pixels in images projected onto the crowd.
"It's the same technology as a TV remote - we send an infrared signal that is received by the wristbands, and they light up accordingly," said Stuart Wershof, PixMob's on-site project manager in Fayetteville.
"What's unique about the Arkansas game is we're using a technology we debuted at the Super Bowl with Bruno Mars (in 2014). Essentially, we'll project an image onto the crowd using infrared and then the crowd will become a video screen."
Asked what kind of image will be projected, Wershof said, "You've just got to be at the game to find out."
Wershof said the pregame show - which features the national anthem and player introductions - will be the main attraction Saturday. In a promotional email sent by the university this week, fans were asked to get to their seats "a little earlier than normal" and not to turn on their cell phone flashlights when the house lights are turned down, as has become custom in the past few years at Arkansas.
Wershof said his crew is working in conjunction with the arena's gameday production crew to create a cohesive look between the images projected onto the crowd and the images on the video and LED ribbon boards around the arena.
"The best moments are when all these elements are playing off each other and all happening at the same time, overwhelming your senses," Wershof said. "If every element of the show gets its moment, that's when you really get that wow moment.
"It's really something unique. When the lights go out and everyone in the audience lights up, you can hear a gasp and a cheer."
Arkansas began talks with PixMob about a year ago, said Chris Freet, a senior associate athletics director who oversees promotions. Partnering with PixMob was the idea of Andrew Silvia, a worker in the Razorbacks' broadcast services department.
"He had recently been at a concert where they had used this and said, 'Hey, I think this is something we should explore,'" Freet said. "Taylor Swift uses them, Coldplay uses them...and we felt like we wanted to try it out."
Freet and his team have been responsible for the proliferation in special events that coincide with Razorback games, such as Saturday's PixMob production and traveling halftime shows.
"If you're a season ticket holder, it changes the experience a little bit," Freet said. "Most of our season ticket holders have a diehard love for the basketball team, but (attending a game) can become routine, and that's a negative word in our business.
"For someone who is only coming to one game a year, this will be more than they expected to see. There also is the benefit that it creates a little bit of a community and the crowd is involved."
Wershof said the number of times the wristbands will activate Saturday will "depend on how many big plays we get from the Razorbacks."
"Part of the technology actually responds to the wristbands' motion," said Wershof, who is based at the PixMob home office in Montreal. "It can sense the energy in the crowd. We are doing something during the Hog Call. I'm excited about that because I've never heard anything quite like that."