Sesame Place San Diego
Big Bird meets his fans… and says, “Hello, friend!”
"Characters are an amazing tool for live experiences and activations and they can bring any area of your attraction to life. Plus with the evolving advances of technology, it now means there are even more ways for characters to interact with your guests. This can be with pre-recorded scripting or with the insanely awesome, performer-driven, real-time show control that features characters such as Big Bird who walks freely and responds directly to kids around Sesame Place in San Diego. Something that is totally driven by performer-centric interactivity. Just imagine how truly magical that moment is!" -Natalie Dawson, Katapult, LTD [Creating Characters To Differentiate Your Visitor Attraction].
In collaboration with Sesame Workshop and SeaWorld, Beaudry Interactive’s innovative performer-based gesture & show control technology has given one of the world’s most-beloved children’s characters a voice at the brand-new Sesame Place San Diego, which opened to the public in March 2022, and was just wondering second place award for Blooloop's 2022 Innivation Awards in the category of Experiential Technology.
The patent-pending technology allows puppeted walk-around character performers to talk and interact with guests using the authentic voices of each character—for Big Bird, the iconic voice of actor and puppeteer Matt Vogel!
Performer-driven, real-time show control has been at the core of b/i’s R&D efforts, and has led to the development of a robust gesture control ecosystem using minimal sensors to translate performers’ gestures and movement into show cues and story moments – putting some of the magic, literally, in the performers’ hands. Talking Big Bird is the culmination of long history of performer-centric interactivity.
Completely untethered, Big Bird walks around and interacts with guests anywhere in the park. The technology also gives Big Bird the ability to interact with the surrounding environment, including fun exchanges with Oscar the Grouch, shoutouts to the neighboring Laundromat and Bike Shop interactives, and live shows with Sesame’s Storyteller, creating a truly dynamic and immersive environment. The result? A one-of-a-kind guest experience with one of your favorite Sesame characters!
"Thanks, David and the Beaudry team! Big Bird is magical!"
- Michelle Kreher, Director, Global Themed Entertainment at Sesame Workshop