Ripley’s Venture Realm, powered by augmented reality developer AStation, officially opened on Thursday, 11th June, at Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies' famed Penguin Pavilion. 

The experience marks a world first: a  live animal exhibit, enhanced with mixed reality entertainment, a feat that has never been done before.

AStation chief technical officer Sion Yang remarked: “Ripley’s has spent over a century finding things that seem impossible and putting them in front of people. That spirit made them the perfect partner for technology that most people have to see to believe. We are honoured they trusted us with their stage.”

Ripley’s Believe It or Not! World Entertainment regional operations manager Pablo Chavez added: “AStation’s Enterverse technology is far beyond anything we’ve seen in the attractions industry.At this time, Ripley’s is the only place it can be experienced in North America.”

Running with the dinosaurs

Guests now share the Penguin Pavilion with Tyrannosaurus rex and flying pterodactyls, all thriving once again in a lush early Earth setting. 

The Earth, it should be noted, was still very much under renovation at this point in history: erupting volcanoes dot the landscape, and the occasional meteor shower lights up the sky; the African penguins, for their part, appear unbothered.

The Penguin Pavilion is an expansive outdoor area, and AStation’s patented Enterverse platform is the only mixed reality system capable of operating at that scale outdoors, geo-sensing the environment and seamlessly layering digital worlds onto the real one.

Guests wear Apple Vision Pro headsets and walk freely, without tethers, through a prehistoric world that coexists with the very real African penguin colony waddling past their feet.