{"id":16280,"date":"2025-04-13T10:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T10:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/16280\/"},"modified":"2025-04-13T10:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T10:41:09","slug":"virtual-reality-gaming-venue-zero-latency-opens-first-illinois-location-in-schaumburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/16280\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual-reality gaming venue Zero Latency opens first Illinois location in Schaumburg"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/a>
\n Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly and Mihir Patel, center, cut the ribbon during the grand opening of Zero Latency Friday at 309 W. Golf Road in Golf Point Plaza in Schaumburg.
\n Brian Hill\/bhill@dailyherald.com<\/p>\n

Zero Latency<\/a>, an international virtual-reality gaming venue chain, opened its first Illinois location Friday in Schaumburg with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by numerous local dignitaries.<\/p>\n

Mayor Tom Dailly was the first to recognize a different level of energy for this particular new business in the state\u2019s second-largest economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited how many people are here,\u201d he said. \u201cWe usually don\u2019t get so many.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a>
\n A group wearing immersive virtual-reality headsets engages in the game \u201cUndead Arena\u201d during a grand-opening open house Friday at Zero Latency Schaumburg, 309 W. Golf Road in Schaumburg.
\n Eric Peterson\/epeterson@dailyherald.com<\/p>\n

The opening marked a nearly two-year journey for Mihir and Rina Patel of Buffalo Grove to transition from enthusiastic patrons to proud franchise owners, along with partner Sagar Patel of Schaumburg.<\/p>\n

While on vacation in Germany in May 2023, the couple and their daughter were taken by some of Mihir\u2019s cousins to a Zero Latency location near Munich.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played a game, and oh, man, it was so fun, so interactive, so immersive,\u201d Rina said. \u201cIt was a blast! On our way back, we couldn\u2019t stop talking about the experience we\u2019d had.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a>
\n A monitor screen watched by the staff \u201cGame Master\u201d shows the point of view of all six players as they interact with each other and fictional environments and monsters in the game \u201cUndead Arena\u201d Friday at Zero Latency Schaumburg, 309 W. Golf Road.
\n Eric Peterson\/epeterson@dailyherald.com<\/p>\n

Already a self-employed civil engineer, Rina applied some of those professional skills to the finding and preparation of the 2,400-square-foot Schaumburg site at 309 W. Golf Road, in the Golf Point Plaza shopping center west of Roselle Road.<\/p>\n

Not only does the playing area have to be of a sufficient size, but also free of columns or other obstructions in the middle. That made the search difficult, but the ultimate discovery obvious.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the perfect place, I guess,\u201d Rina said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no venue this large for virtual reality in Illinois,\u201d Mihir declared.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a>
\n Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly, left, and business owner Mihir Patel chat during the grand opening Friday of Zero Latency Schaumburg at 309 W. Golf Road in Schaumburg.
\n Brian Hill\/bhill@dailyherald.com<\/p>\n

In fact, they were told by representatives of the Australia-based company\u2019s corporate office that theirs was the best Zero Latency venue in the U.S. so far.<\/p>\n

Based on population sizes and income levels, they had narrowed their choices for a first site to Schaumburg, Naperville or Chicago. But living in Buffalo Grove now and Streamwood previously, they knew they\u2019d feel most at home in Schaumburg.<\/p>\n

They already are considering a second location in Naperville or Northbrook, and even the possibility of expanding the Schaumburg location without moving by taking over an adjacent tenant space.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a>
\n Zero Latency Schaumburg prepares for its grand opening Friday at 309 W. Golf Road, in the Golf Point Plaza shopping center in Schaumburg.
\n Brian Hill\/bhill@dailyherald.com<\/p>\n

But Mihir said the very first challenge the entrepreneurs face is explaining virtual-reality gaming to a wider potential customer base. It\u2019s not a recreational pastime as familiar to everyone, he added.<\/p>\n

There are seven different games available. A group during Friday afternoon\u2019s open house was trying out \u201cUndead Arena,\u201d arming themselves with simulated rifles to fight off the horrific creatures that descended upon them as they donned their immersive vision-and-audio headsets.<\/p>\n

While remaining aware of each other\u2019s positions in the room, the fictional experience was convincing enough to elicit shouts and screams as they engaged in the adventure.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a>
\n The large and unobstructed game floor of Zero Latency Schaumburg at 309 W. Golf Road in Schaumburg is the biggest such virtual-reality playing area in the state.
\n Brian Hill\/bhill@dailyherald.com<\/p>\n

Mihir said sessions don\u2019t exceed 30 minutes to ensure fatigue doesn\u2019t ruin the memory of the experience.<\/p>\n

He pointed out to Dailly the mission statement of the business framed on the wall: \u201cZero Latency Schaumburg provides next level VR experiences that bring people together, creating vibrant communities through shared, immersive adventures.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the idea of the team-building,\u201d Dailly said. \u201cThat\u2019s absolutely a great idea. I\u2019m very excited to have this here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly and Mihir Patel, center, cut the ribbon during the grand opening of Zero…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3162],"tags":[51,11033,77,12,11032,2978,53,16,15,3243,3244],"class_list":{"0":"post-16280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-virtual-reality","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-communities","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-schaumburg","13":"tag-small-business","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-virtual-reality","18":"tag-vr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114330237970343475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}