An innovator in the entertainment technology and known for its high-end cameras and giant movie screens, IMAX has plans to bring the Virtual Reality into the mainstream. Since most people cannot afford expensive VR headsets like HTC Vive, Oculus Rift or PlayStation VR, IMAX’s premise for experimenting in the VR theaters backed by solid commercial reasons. In its announcements regarding the IMAX VR theater, the company talked about developing premium location-based VR centers offering high quality immersive, multi-dimensional experiences including games and entertainment content.
Just like the CEO of IMAX, Richard Gelfond says, “Because of IMAX"s brand, we felt we were in a very good position to be a first mover in the VR entertainment space”. There are companies which claim to be the IMAX of VR; to which he responded as, “Why couldn’t we be the IMAX of VR rather than someone else being the same?”
A New Era of Entertainment
Theaters hosting VR experiences have entirely new, futuristic lounges to host head to head multiplayer, room scaling and haptic responses to offer viewers a hell of an immersive experience. You enter the POD, put on the IMAX VR headsets depending upon the experience you choose from the likes of raw data, Eagle flight, the walk, IMAX VR sampler and much more.
The VR centers are conceived in a partnership of the co-builders of the high-end StarVR platform, Electronics company Acer and gaming company Starbreeze. Under this agreement, the IMAX Company will be providing premium Virtual reality experience leveraging Starbreeze’s StarVR headset technology to offer 210° peripheral field of view. The partnership should obviously not be inferred as being the possibility of watching latest Hollywood movies in VR as it is mainly aimed at offering shorter content as short as 10 minutes that’s tied to the movie franchises.
All this will be offered to people for a fee of about $7 or $10, which at first can look a lot for such duration, but the agenda here is to offer experience better than Oculus rift, or HTC Vive can offer at home. Further, Starbreeze’s stock library of unique VR entertainment content and games will be made available to the customers along with the premium content shot with the IMAX’s VR camera built in association with Google. To add to the library of entertainment content, the company will also look at establishing new VR content partnerships through its existing Hollywood relationships while Starbreeze will focus on same with its relationships in the gaming sector.
It is needless to say that the VR is the future of the entertainment industry and soon it will make its way to homes as the primary means of entertainment. But all this will require time, and in the long run, the cost will come down and so will the limitations the technology bears. But in short term, the best bet is to attract customers towards this innovation through location based VR, because of which IMAX wants to be the pioneer in VR theaters. The main idea is to include IMAX VR headsets which are actually the ones from StarVR, in modular pods to provide 7 to 15 minutes long VR experiences. Initially, the experience will be offered at safe home turf of the IMAX VR Theater, but as the technology improves and feedbacks start to appear, the pods will start appearing in malls, museums, and other crowd attraction spots.
Over the past years, the VR industry has been experiencing the popping up of standalone VR theaters, but this initiative from IMAX is sure to take the Movie theater and Virtual reality marriage to another level. The company describes its IMAX VR headset as a next generation headset mounted display (HMD) offering an extra wide 210 wide degree against the 110-degree views of the top VR headset contenders. Targeting young filmgoers, the content to be showcased includes the lights of The Walking Dead and Assassins battles. IMAX VR Theater will employ an IMAX proprietary new modular design which consists of several pods allowing players to enjoy interactive, mobile and exciting VR experiences. These pods can also be adjusted according to the specific content experiences whether multi or single user.
The company is in the process of coming up with its theaters with VR experience in the US while it also targets to open the additional test facilities in Japan, China, Middle East and Western Europe in the months to follow. These pilot locations are being launched to test several factors including the pricing models and types of content to be featured in the theaters. The first of many of these pilot centers have opened in Los Angeles where a mixture of HTC Vive and IMAX VR headsets. These pods contain along with the headsets, D-Box cinema chair, physical controllers and vibration emitting vests. Since the company has been teasing the IMAX VR Theater for over a year now, finally the launch of the center comes as an opportunity to experience VR on pay as you go basis for those who can’t afford expensive Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.
As far as the things go for the use of IMAX VR tied with the movie, the only concern is the price it charges. Since for the premium tickets, a consumer is already paying an above regular price and will he be willing to pay for 15 minutes VR content tied with the movie he just saw? Perhaps not every Movie Goer will, as they can experience the same with the new play station game system at home. The VR content has now been supported by platforms like Facebook and YouTube, but there has not been any killer content that can attract masses towards it and urge them to invest to experience this technology. The content is the primary concern; in this regard that IMAX has to make sure is spot on. Remember, Disney has a huge deal with IMAX and the fact that it is also working on Star Wars’ line-up of VR stories. So if IMAX VR theater can pull the deal off, there is every chance that the technology becomes common around the world in a short span of time.
Immerse Yourself with IMAX VR Headsets
With Imax VR, you get the motion tracking technology and most advanced VR headsets which easily surpass the best ones in the industry. All of this powered by blazing fast computers in a state of the art facility results in the unmatched quality and immersion. The uniquely designed pods track every movement so that anywhere you look; the senses are bombarded with stunning 360 degree VR and over the ear sound for complete immersion. It also features unique haptic feedback with its industry leading devices which means that you every shot’s recoil, ever arrow as it leaves bow and every single detail in the content. It’s the time to level up the entertainment experience forever.
Richard Gelfond stated at the launch of its first IMAX VR Theater “Whether it’s the lack of content or consumer access to headsets, the industry has been in a holding pattern, slow to go the mainstream. VR is a complex ecosystem that’s in need of a jump-start, and IMAX is here to start to provide the spark.”
Hoping for the best results by betting on VR, both Gelfond and IMAX are optimistic towards the technology which is why the company plans to open six plot centers this year including the LA center which opened to the public recently. Each center costs $250,000 to $400,000 to create, after excluding the real estate spending. The company recently initiated a fund with companies with the likes of Acer and CAA to finance new games for its IMAX VR headsets which totals $50 million. Also, IMAX is also working with Google to develop a new cinema-quality virtual reality camera to offer high-quality content. Hollywood has shown a lot of interest in virtual reality, but not yet for full-length movies made for VR headsets. VR experiences in IMAX centers are meant to be maximum 15 minutes long.
Gelfond recently stated that “These pilots are really going to be the testing ground. I look at this as a very flexible platform that is intended to be IMAX’s flag on the ground and will evolve as we go along.”
However, the success of the Venture is still in the womb of future. The LA center already has been visited by more than 5000 viewers which in itself is a sign of keen interest people have in this technology. The conquest of the IMAX to define itself as the Pioneer in the dynamic and still evolving industry will surely do one thing apart from benefiting the company itself; it might just change the face of entertainment industry forever. The launch of LA IMAX VR Theater is just the first stage of its plan which follows the launch of more VR theaters in New York and California as well as overseas, in the United Kingdom and China.
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