Stichting Pleinmuseum – Meta Quest 3 & BoboVR Accessories

One of their latest projects is Rise of the Rainbow, an immersive theatre experience launched during Pride as part of Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary celebrations. Hosted at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (ITA), it brings stories from the LGBTQIA+ community to life through a mix of live performance, large-scale stage decor, mixed reality, and spatial audio.

Participants move through a colorful, inflatable cityscape while wearing VR headsets, guided past milestones such as the first Pride marches, the AIDS crisis, and contemporary activism for trans and intersex rights. Performers from the community use dance, poetry, and music to explore themes of freedom, desire, activism, and friendship, culminating in a collective finale that invites reflection on the “ongoing fight for equality”.

For Rise of the Rainbow, the Stichting Pleinmuseum set out to combine live theatre, large-scale stage design, and mixed reality into a single smooth experience. This meant overcoming several technical and creative challenges.

One key challenge was synchronising physical movement with the virtual world, ensuring that participants could walk through the set while their VR view stayed perfectly aligned, without breaking immersion or causing discomfort. Another challenge was making the experience accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds, including those with little or no VR experience. Finally, they needed to transform what could have been a solitary, headset-based activity into a shared, communal experience that would encourage discussion and reflection.

The overall goal was to bridge the gap between traditional storytelling and advanced technology, making history, culture, and activism come alive in a way that felt both innovative and inclusive.

To bring Rise of the Rainbow to life, the Stichting Pleinmuseum required technology that could keep pace with the demands of a complex, live performance environment. Real-time tracking was essential to ensure that every virtual element stayed perfectly aligned with the physical set and the movements of the performers. The visuals had to be high-resolution, delivering a rich and emotionally engaging world that could support the powerful stories being told.

Since the experience ran in 45-minute sessions multiple times a day, the headset needed to be comfortable for participants of all ages and remain reliable over long periods. Strong battery life and consistent performance were critical to maintaining immersion without interruptions. The solution also had to make content updates quick and straightforward, allowing the team to adapt the experience for different venues or audiences without lengthy technical work.

To meet the technical and creative challenges of their project Rise of the Rainbow, the Stichting Pleinmuseum partnered with VR Expert for hardware selection, setup, and guidance. After assessing the project’s requirements, VR Expert recommended the Meta Quest 3 paired with the BoboVR head strap and additional B100 batteries.

The Meta Quest 3 offered a high-resolution display and improved processing power, which ensured that the intricate visuals and lifelike environments of Rise of the Rainbow were rendered sharply and without lag. Its wide field of view helped immerse participants fully in the experience, while its lightweight build made it easier to wear for extended periods without discomfort.

The BoboVR M3 Pro head strap provided an ergonomic fit that distributed the weight of the headset evenly, reducing strain during the 45-minute performances. Its built-in magnetic battery dock allowed for quick battery swaps, helping to keep the show running smoothly without interrupting the flow of the performance.

The BoboVR B100 battery packs extended usage time significantly, ensuring the headsets could operate continuously for multiple shows each day. Their hot-swap capability meant that batteries could be replaced instantly without powering down the headset, a key feature for maintaining the pace of the production schedule.

This combination delivered the comfort needed for long 45-minute sessions while ensuring reliable battery life across multiple performances each day. The high-resolution display of the Meta Quest 3 allowed for vibrant, detailed visuals that matched the scale and emotion of the immersive theatre environment.

VR Expert’s expertise ensured the headsets were ready for large-scale use, with 72 devices running simultaneously during the show. This setup enabled the smooth integration of mixed reality, spatial audio, and live performance, creating a deeply engaging experience for visitors and allowing the powerful stories of LGBTQIA+ history and activism to be told in a dynamic new way.