Making bowling amazing: How QubicaAMF is transforming the industry

Bowling entertainment systems traditionally faced a significant content challenge. For years, the industry depended on static, pre-rendered video clips. These systems lacked the interactivity, personalization, and real-time responsiveness that modern consumers expect from their entertainment experiences. As expectations evolved, driven by mobile gaming and immersive media, it became clear that a fundamental shift was necessary.

To address this, QubicaAMF, the world's largest and most innovative bowling equipment provider, embarked on a mission to redefine the bowling experience. This led to a strategic adoption of Unity's solutions for Industry.

In this blog post we hear from Jessica Suranyi-Hammond, Product Marketing Manager at QubicaAMF, how this collaboration allowed them to leverage a proven 3D engine, a core technology in embedded software development, to deliver dynamic, engaging, and truly interactive entertainment at scale, fulfilling their mission of Making Bowling Amazing.

The rationale for a 3D engine

When our R&D team began exploring options for our next-generation graphics platform, the criteria were stringent. We needed a solution that offered more than just video playback.

Our key requirements included:

• Real-time rendering: The system had to generate content that responded dynamically to the game in progress.
• Cross-platform stability: We required reliable, 24/7 performance on the embedded Linux systems used in bowling centers.
• Extensibility: The platform needed to be flexible enough to support our long-term product roadmap.
• Developer ecosystem: Access to a robust pool of talent and development tools was essential to avoid building everything from scratch.

Unity met every one of these requirements. The stability of Unity's engine on Linux OS, which we had validated in earlier experiments, gave us the confidence it could meet the always-on operational demands of a commercial bowling center.

The journey to production

Adopting Unity wasn't a single decision but a careful progression of validated experiments. This staged approach allowed us to deploy the technology incrementally while building our internal expertise.

• 2020: An engineer created a proof-of-concept for our Overhead Monitors, demonstrating Unity's potential within the bowling environment. The demo was compelling enough to secure leadership buy-in.
• 2022: We officially licensed Unity and initiated formal experiments on Overhead Monitors. According to Fabio Montanari, our R&D Principal Engineer, our CTO and CEO were "very impressed by the graphics rendering and the experience that could be obtained with Unity technology."
• 2022–2023: Development began on ‘Neoverse’, our flagship LED video wall, which made its debut at the International Bowl Expo in 2023.
• 2025: We launched our fourth-generation core product, the BES NV scoring and entertainment system. This ecosystem includes the Unity-powered Overhead Monitor, the interactive SuperTouch console, and the Neoverse wall.

This staged approach allowed us to gradually deploy the technology while building internal expertise.

Enabling the Neoverse architecture

The Neoverse LED Wall is a significant departure from traditional bowling entertainment. Instead of simply playing video files, it operates a real-time 3D engine. This allows it to:

• Render interactive, modular content that responds to lane status and scoring events.
• Animate engaging characters with synchronized audio.
• Stream live scoring data directly into the visual experience.
• Receive cloud-based content updates without on-site intervention.

This level of interactivity is only possible because we are using the same rendering pipeline found in modern video games. We are not simulating responsiveness with clever video edits; we are running actual real-time graphics that create a truly immersive environment.

From a systems perspective, the cloud-based library ensures that bowling centers always have fresh, relevant content delivered through a single, efficient deployment pipeline.

The value of working with Unity

Our relationship with Unity goes beyond the engine. We collaborate closely with their Industry team, which provides enterprise-level support for non-gaming applications. This partnership has been crucial for our success.

This level of long-term system support is critical. Bowling centers expect their systems to remain operational and updateable for many years, far beyond a typical consumer product lifecycle. We also benefit from Unity's broader ecosystem, including the Asset Store for accelerating development, extensibility for custom integrations, and WYSIWYG authoring tools that empower our content creators to work directly in the editor.

Current status and future roadmap

Today, three Unity-powered touchpoints are available in bowling centers worldwide as part of our BES NV entertainment ecosystem:

• Overhead monitors: Dynamic gaming displays above the lanes.
• Neoverse video wall: Our flagship LED wall experience.
• SuperTouch console: The player-facing interactive terminal.

These components are a part of our new BES NV scoring and entertainment system, launched in 2025. Looking forward, our goal is to migrate additional entertainment technologies to Unity, with the goal of a unified graphics stack across all entertainment touchpoints.

We’re also evaluating Unity's evolving features to further enhance our development workflows. As Giovanni notes, we are "progressively embracing the gaming industry's related toolchain" to improve our processes.

Key lessons for technical leaders

For other technical teams considering 3D engines for non-gaming applications, our journey offers several key lessons:

• Start with a proof-of-concept: Our initial 2020 demo allowed us to validate the technology's core value proposition with minimal resource commitment.
• Validate on your target platform early: Testing Unity's stability on Linux was a critical early step that informed our architectural decisions. The deployment environment is paramount.
• Leverage the full ecosystem: Unity’s developer community, Asset Store, and industry support were instrumental in reducing our time to market. You’re joining a platform, not just buying a license.
• Plan for evolution: We designed our integration with the knowledge that we would expand it across our product line. Think beyond your first release.

The result has been transformative. In Giovanni’s words, "QubicaAMF has an entertainment user journey powered by Unity...and the outcome is so fun and immersive." By bringing this level of engagement to the lanes, we are creating a lifetime of striking moments and truly Making Bowling Amazing.