Press Releases

• Created exclusively for the festival, Vodafone Rockout! combines fun with the opportunity to win prizes, including a Huawei P20 Pro
• In addition to augmented reality, Vodafone is transforming the festival site into a smart city and is extensively reinforcing its mobile network with 5G-ready technology

With the aim of making the 8th edition of Rock in Rio-Lisboa even more digital and reinforcing its focus on new technologies, Vodafone has developed an exclusive and original augmented reality game for rock city: Vodafone Rockout!. It is a smartphone app that lets players hunt for virtual music-related objects which are scattered around Bela Vista Park and qualifies the finders for various daily prizes.

“Vodafone Portugal is the longest-standing sponsor of Rock in Rio-Lisboa, an event which it has been associated with since its first edition. The list of innovations created by Vodafone in Rock City is already long, but the challenge to continue to innovate and surprise with every new edition of the festival never goes away. Providing an exclusive and original experience of augmented reality at this festival, putting next-generation technologies at the disposal of thousands of Portuguese, is something that could only originate from a company as innovative as Vodafone”, said Leonor Dias, Brand Director of Vodafone Portugal.

When users open the Vodafone Rockout! app, which is available for Android and iOS, they see an image of the festival site in real time. There are 40 Rockout! codes scattered around the festival, which users have to try to find and ‘capture’ by pointing the camera at each one and rotating the vinyl disc which appears on the screen.

Each code represents a musical instrument or a character – such as a saxophone, a piano or figures inspired by the performing artists – which, after being collected, are converted into points and added to a virtual log.

The objective of the game is to collect the largest number of these virtual objects, which carry different points, depending on the difficulty of finding each one. There are two types of prizes: progress prizes, which are awarded as users collect instruments; and score prizes, which are awarded to the players who gain the top ten places on each day of the festival.

Depending on the number of instruments collected, players will be able to double, triple, or quadruple their points in subsequent rounds, earning one of Vodafone’s coveted inflatable sofas, a scarf or an exclusive T-shirt. The first player to reach 40 markers by 8 pm on each day will receive tickets for two to Vodafone Rock Club – Vodafone’s guest area with the best view of the World Stage.

In addition, users will also have the opportunity to win top-of-the-range smartphones or Huawei Band Pro2 wristbands. These prizes are awarded daily, depending on each player’s placing:

• 1st place – Huawei P20 Pro mobile phone
• 2nd and 3rd places – Huawei P20 mobile phone
• 4th and 5th places – Huawei P20 Lite mobile phone
• 6th to 10th places – Huawei Band Pro 2 wristband

Vodafone Rockout! can be played between 12 am and 10 pm, and if there are prizes are won, these must be collected in the Vodafone Power Bar by 1 am the following day, by presenting the game and proof of identity.

This year, in addition to Vodafone Rockout!, Vodafone is again equipping Rock City with intelligent solutions under the Vodafone Digital Rock City project, which will make it possible to monitor the most critical parts of the festival, such as electricity, water, air quality, and for the first time, distant manage the queue for the attractions. Thanks to the Smart Check-in feature, incorporated in the Vodafone Rock in Rio app, it will be possible to significantly reduce the waiting time for the giant wheel and the slide.

In the communications area, Vodafone is putting in place an comprehensive plan to reinforce the coverage and capacity of its mobile and fixed networks. Vodafone is installing 17 mobile communications antennas with 5G-ready technology and a base station with two of the technologies (Massive MIMO and beamforming) that will serve as the basis for fifth generation mobile, but which today can already be enjoyed by Vodafone customers with 4G smartphones.