IMAX will open six VR halls by the end of 2016
The company IMAX is going to open six rooms based on virtual reality helmets. The idea of creating such halls was based on the desire to provide the audience with a unique experience compared to watching movies using VR helmets at home.
The announcement of the opening of new halls with VR occurred just after yesterday's announcement of the camera for shooting VR-video from Google, developed in partnership with companies such as IMAX. Such a camera should appear on the market within a year and a half. The six IMAX halls with VR helmets should open before the end of the year, and the first in Los Angeles will be the hall. As a developer of VR-helmets, the Swedish company Starbreeze was chosen, whose solutions have a wide viewing angle - 210 degrees versus 110 for Oculus Rift. For the production of helmets from Starbreeze, the company entered into a partnership with the Taiwanese Acer.
IMAX Executive Director Richard Gelfond believes that VR content will be closely associated with existing franchises, and the total duration of the viewing session will be around 10 minutes. The cost of such a session will be in the range of $ 7- $ 10.
“Impressions of virtual reality at home can deteriorate due to the small free space. The main idea is to create such a hall, in which there will be enough space to provide a unique user experience. The same, which makes the audience go to the movies. We will be able to get ahead of the existing personal solutions for immersion into virtual reality for five years, ” said Richard Gelfond to The Wall Street Journal.
Despite the promise of virtual reality technology, it is still unknown whether IMAX is going to provide viewers with the opportunity to interact with content of this kind. Due to the duration of the session, viewers can regard this type of hall only as an attraction, which can adversely affect revenue in the long term.
It should be noted that the halls of IMAX are very popular in Russia. The IMAX Sapphire hall was the first to open in Moscow , and of the twenty most profitable, six are located in Russia. Therefore, Russia could potentially become one of the first in line to open the IMAX VR halls by the end of 2016.