Brand New Better Leisure Centre Active Multi-Zone with Six Interactives
Background
Sobell Leisure Centre has opened its one-of-a-kind Active Multi-Zone Area, including six Rugged Interactive Products, Trampoline Zone, Inflatable Zone, and Zip Zone, alongside two extra Rugged products in a separate Active Play Area.
This new space offers inclusive and engaging ways for people of all ages to stay active, connect with others, and improve their physical wellbeing.
Airparx kicked off the project, with Rugged Interactive, The Play Company and ZipZag Rides collaborating with them to bring Better Leisure Centre’s vision to life: A multi-attraction arena offering a unique, interactive, multi-attraction space for customers 18 months and above.
Active Multi-Zone Overview
About Sobell Leisure Centre
Sobell Leisure Centre is one of 273 Better Leisure Centres in the UK, a charitable social enterprise which focuses on enriching communities through healthier, more active living, and aims to ‘get more people, more active, more often’.
After Sobell Leisure Centre experienced a damaging flood in 2022, the leisure centre had a huge refurbishment, bringing the opportunity to find ways to make the most of the venue and its offering.
Located in Islington, London, just minutes from Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, Sobell Leisure Centre now has a state of the art Active Multi-Zone Area alongside it’s Active Play soft play zone and leisure centre facilities.
Motivation for Investment
After the flood, Sobell Leisure Centre went through an entire redevelopment process to get the centre back up and running, but with more to offer than ever before! The brand new Active Multi- Zone Area previously hosted sports courts, but Sobell saw an opportunity to create an exciting, immersive arena to keep people of all ages active and having fun.
With the Active Multi- Zone Area now providing entertainment for customers from 18 months old and above, it captures the whole life cycle of a customer.
On one side – a bespoke 120-lightpod Freedom Gaming Strike Arena, with PowrPlay football targets, TrailBlazer climbing wall and arcade-style BattleBasket targets incorporated into the design.
On the other – a large trampoline court with FreeStyle Duo and High-9 reaction walls, and an Inflatable Park. With high capacity and the added thrill of interactive competition, these attractions offer endless opportunity for adventure.
And above – an aerial amusement ride, fuelled by gravity, provided by ZipZag Rides for the thrill seeker, really utilising the high ceilings and underutilised space.
In addition to the Active Multi-Zone Area, the 10 and under Active Play also incorporates our TriggerTrac raceway timer attraction, and our fun, non-competitive TalkingBags.
New Active Multi- Zone Area Concept at Better Leisure Centres
Better is developing its active fun model that offers a mix of attractions for a wider demographic and making the most of the space through high-capacity, safe and engaging attractions for all ages, such as our Freedom Gaming Strike Arena.
After the success of Sutton Sports Village, Better Leisure Centres is opening more venues with this new play design, incorporating our Rugged interactive attractions.
120-Lightpod Freedom Gaming Strike Arena
This is our first ever 120-light pod Freedom Gaming Strike Arena, with the same layout at Sutton Sports Village: six entry lanes into the arena with each colour of the lightpods to filter players at the start of the game. With a capacity of 150 people, this impressive 4-layer Freedom Gaming arena can host 75% of the total capacity of the entire Active Multi-Zone – a high-energy play arena where toddlers, teens, and adults can compete and collaborate.
This play structure, which incorporates 4 Rugged interactive products, was custom built by our partners, The Play Company, to create a versatile light chasing arena. Our Freedom Gaming technology features RoboRun, a free-play single or group player game, and CyberChase, a multiplayer party game.
Partner Collaboration – Airparx and The Play Company
Bringing these venues to life includes collaboration and teamwork, and this project was a great opportunity to work with our trusted partners – Airparx and The Play Company!
Airparx, who led this project at Sobell Leisure Centre, installed our FreeStyle Duo and High-9 reaction walls over the trampoline court to create a more engaging and repeatable trampoline court experience. The Play Company also both the TrailBlazer and TalkingBags in the Active Play, and the Freedom Gaming Strike Arena structure in the Active Multi- Zone Area, we had experts covering all bases.
It has been an exciting collaboration, bringing Better Leisure Centre’s goals to life through meaningful partnerships, with engaging interactive products at its heart.
We came on board and worked alongside other Partners to create a brand-new immersive family entertainment centre in the heart of Islington. What’s been great is the way we worked together to create an engaging, multi-faceted activity space for the local community to come and experience, be active, and have a lot of fun.
What we’ve done is incorporated one of our Freedom Gaming Strike Arenas, an inflatable area, and trampolines within this space. Sobell Leisure Centre will be tremendous for the area, there’s nothing of its kind for miles, it will be fantastic. It’s going to be amazing for people of all ages to come here, including the parents.
This was a sports hall before, which was fairly used, but we looked at what we could provide that would get everybody more active. We consulted with Airparx, The Play Company, Rugged, ZipZag, and more, who helped us achieve that. This venue will get everybody active.
I think this active zone concept is going to be amazing for Better Leisure Centre. Originally, they had soft play but this is really pushing the boundaries in terms of age groups. It’s fantastic for team building events, for student groups, there really is something for everyone here.
The project here was very exciting from the start! Just entering the centre this morning, seeing the families walking in, the party bookings happening – I can see it’s just going to be an amazing centre for families to engage and experience such a fun, active play centre.
