IMAX Plans To Bring VR Movies To The Mainstream With VR Theaters
With VR’s popularity soaring to new levels, many companies are taking advantage of this technology to bring even better experiences. IMAX plans to use VR in its entertainment portfolio by opening a first batch of physical venues for VR content, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company says it wants to create locations that offer virtual reality experiences more immersive than what consumers can get at home. The announcement follows yesterday’s news that the company is working with Google to create a cinema-quality VR camera, which is expected to be ready for commercial use a year and a half from now.
The entertainment company is reported to have plans in opening six VR locations worldwide in malls and multiplexes before the end of 2016, with the first location to be in Los Angeles. Moving further, the company wants to expand its VR operations to China. The venues will use Star VR headsets created by Swedish company Starbreeze which boast a very wide and immersive field of vision, rated at 210 degrees – which is leaps and bounds greater than the 110-degree FOV offered by the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Starbeeze recently announced it was teaming up with Taiwanese firm Acer to develop the headsets.
IMAX chief executive Richard Gelfond told The Wall Street Journal that he imagined that the VR content would be tied to existing movie franchises, that they would last around 10 minutes and cost between $7 and $10. This idea is similar to bringing the grand movie theater experience to the comforts of your home, besting out the flat-screened HDTVs in delivering movie watching experiences.
For more information on IMAX’s VR plans, please visit the following websites:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/sethporges/2016/05/20/imax-is-building-vr-theaters-heres-why-this-is-a-huge-deal/
http://fortune.com/2016/05/20/virtual-reality-imax-movie-theater/
http://www.engadget.com/2016/05/20/imax-plans-to-bring-virtual-reality-into-theaters/
