HyperCinema generates hyperpersonalized storytelling experiences in minutes with Azure AI

The creative minds behind New Zealand startup HyperCinema had a revolutionary idea: What if a show could be generated in real time as you walk into a venue and immerse you more deeply than ever in the story world of the brand or attraction using generative AI?

Using Microsoft Azure AI infrastructure, that vision is now a reality. The company puts 50,000 images and 6,000 30-45-second videos through its HyperEngine every day to deliver automated and hyperpersonalized in-person storytelling experiences in real time.

Already delivering excitement to thousands of guests across existing exhibitions, HyperCinema is gearing up to roll out similar experiences for guests of a theme park and large retail brand without stressing over scalability or speed.

Your favorite brand or attraction, now starring you

Storytelling is a fundamental currency. Think of your favorite attraction or brand and imagine yourself inside it. HyperCinema sees itself as the future of personalized entertainment and media, transporting you into any brand world and making you the star, using generative AI as the driving force.

HyperCinema was born out of the generative AI surge in 2022, when a renowned digital agency from New Zealand—Gladeye—saw the power of bringing together large language models (LLM) narratives with AI generated imagery and sound to create incredible in-person, personalized experiences.“Imagine walking into an attraction and seeing a narrative unfold that revolves around you—your personality, interests, and likeness,” says Conrad Blight, Chief Sales Officer at HyperCinema. “It’s a brand new artform. You’re no longer crafting single stories; you’re crafting rules that generate infinite, personalized stories.”

The first HyperCinema exhibition, “Enter the Multiverse,” took over a department store in the heart of Auckland, marking one of the first real-time, personalized AI experiences in the world. After filling the venue on opening night with a mix of curious guests and VIPs like Auckland’s head of tourism, interest went beyond team expectations and prompted them to double the duration of that activation. “People are laughing out loud, pointing, taking selfies. They’re seeing themselves and their friends inside epic memories that never existed,” adds Blight. “It’s a really social experience.”

We generate hundreds of thousands of images and videos a day that are hyperpersonalized to look like our guests in various creative scenarios. It’s about generating content that looks like you and connects with you but also forms a coherent story, while also nailing brand colors, logos, and more.

Gareth Hordyk, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, HyperCinema

Behind this major evolution in location-based entertainment is a significant technical feat. Every HyperCinema experience starts with a process of scanning each guest’s face and taking them through an interactive personality quiz that generates hyperpersonalized stories and media in as little as five minutes. All of that is made possible by their powerful software platform producing unique content for every person who comes through in a very time-constrained environment. “We generate hundreds of thousands of images and videos a day that are hyperpersonalized to look like our guests in various creative scenarios,” describes Gareth Hordyk, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at HyperCinema. “It’s about generating content that looks like you and connects with you but also forms a coherent story, while also nailing brand colors, logos, and more.”

This is also where the huge compute power of Microsoft Azure AI infrastructure comes in. Rolling out the initial experience in Auckland and preparing to deliver it to thousands more people uncovered technical challenges that were only heightened by the in-person settings, such as rapid scaling and reliable AI outputs. While other generative AI solutions can create avatars that look like their users, it might take 30 minutes or more with a high degree of human intervention to keep generating and regenerating the person’s likeness and get a close match. Going forward, everything had to be one and done, and 100% automated. “As a live in-person experience platform, time is our enemy,” says Blight. “We win by combining powerful compute, efficient models, and smart creative approaches.”

As a live in-person experience platform, time is our enemy. We win by combining powerful compute, efficient models, and smart creative approaches.

Conrad Blight, Chief Sales Officer, HyperCinema

Confidently and continuously delivering hyperpersonalized experiences in real time

HyperCinema migrated to Azure with the goal of scaling its system to handle the large volume it was already starting to see and expect at future sites. “We’re collaborating with our Microsoft team to harness the immense compute power of Azure, enabling us to deliver real-world experiences that match the complexity of film postproduction—but all happening in real time,” says Hordyk.

At the heart of HyperCinema is its HyperEngine, which is now built on Azure AI infrastructure. As part of the company’s migration to Azure, HyperCinema re-architected the system to run without any human intervention over a much higher throughput of guests as they came through—often in waves. From peaks to lulls, the company confidently and continuously generates experiences using both Azure Storage and the latest GPT-series models on Azure OpenAI Service. “The GPT models on Azure OpenAI are incredibly reliable. They produce high quality, creative content with minimal errors, which has made them an excellent fit for what we’re doing,” says Hordyk.

All these considerations went into HyperCinema’s first client go-live in the U.S. in August 2024, which welcomes thousands of guests per day and features 15 touchpoints, including two video-based experiences, that transform guests into a character in the world of one of America’s most beloved sports. “We effectively run a mini photo shoot and interview for every guest,” says Blight. “In our first installation, we had a three-point lighting system with a camera operator. Now, as we scale with Azure AI, it’s completely automated with kiosks or mobile apps interfaces, scanning as many guests as each venue’s footfall requires.”

We’re collaborating with our Microsoft team to harness the immense compute power of Azure, enabling us to deliver real-world experiences that match the complexity of film postproduction—but all happening in real time.

Gareth Hordyk, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, HyperCinema

A story where anything is possible

Given the fanfare for its existing exhibitions, the company is working on an inspiring next wave of projects. “HyperCinema is an automated AI and visual effects storytelling platform that puts visitors inside any brand’s intellectual property (IP) storyworld. The possibilities for in-person experiences are limitless,” says Blight. “Instead of media being broadcast at you, we use Azure AI so that everyone experiences stories generated just for them.”

As it scales its market reach, HyperCinema also plans to continue exploring ways to strengthen its autoscaling capabilities, including evaluating additional AI services to rely less on bare metal GPUs and becoming more ingrained with Azure to bring both cost and management load down. “There’s something new coming up every single day in the AI industry that could then be superseded a few weeks later. We need to focus our team on that, by working with a cloud provider that's able to take away a lot of the platform pain for us,” notes Hordyk. “We float our plans with the Microsoft team and they identify Azure products that can do it out of the box. That allows us to focus on the creative tech and delivering more incredible experiences.”

Discover more about HyperCinema on LinkedIn.