Founded by ex-THX executive , VRrOOm officially announced on August 26 an exclusive partnership with CFEC, a China Film Group (CFG) company. The future network of VR cinemas, a key component of the company’s VR ecosystem, was introduced at the Beijing International Radio, TV & Film Exhibition (BIRTV) under the brand VRrOOm Sanctum.
Founder
and CEO Louis Cacciuttolo, China market veteran
and global cinema expert, announced
the launch of his new company VRrOOm, a fully dedicated Virtual Reality (VR) ecosystem, today
at the Beijing
International Radio, TV & Film Exhibition (BIRTV).
“THE AR/VR Market is expected to
hit $120 billion by 2020* and the technology is going
to be the next big thing for storytelling, beyond gaming”, said Louis Cacciuttolo, who
worked for THX as Global Brand VP until
March this year and was top
executive for international communication agencies such as Saatchi &
Saatchi and Ogilvy before joining the cinema industry. “Yet, there are few resources dedicated to facilitating
the access to VR and accelerating mass market adoption.”
VRrOOm is built around three main pillars: information, through a digital media platform
www.vrroom.buzz, physical VR experience in cinemas with VRrOOM
Sanctum and VR
and AR content production.
VRrOOM in China and France cinemas this fall; scheduled to open in the
US next year“The general audience understanding of VR
is currently limited as most
people can’t afford the best equipment and
readily available content is scarce. Cinema
destinations provide a cost-effective way for
most people to experience the best that VR can offer,” Louis
Cacciuttolo added.
The first VRrOOm Sanctum theatres
will be installed inside traditional cinemas this
fall in Beijing and Shanghai thanks to an
exclusive partnership sealed with Chinese
film industry leader China Film Group’s affiliated
company CFEC. The goal is to expand the network at high speed and have dozens
of sites installed across key cities of China by the end of 2017. VRrOOm also reached an agreement with French
cinema chain CineMovida and two more VRrOOm Sanctum theatres are due to open in
France in November. More
projects are also currently under discussion in the US and in Europe.
Lin Minjie, China Film Equipment Company
(CFEC) and China Giant Screen President, said: “The thirst of the Chinese
audience for new technology makes VR an unavoidable part of our future
development strategy. We want to be the first in China to provide the highest
quality and most innovative experiences to delight our audience and further
contribute to China’s cinema industry progress. This exclusive
collaboration with VRrOOm makes a lot of sense as they have the right expertise
and resources that are necessary to keep the cinema industry moving forward.” In fact, Digi-Capital forecasts that Asia
(China, Japan, South Korea, others) could drive AR/VR revenue by 2020, followed
by Europe and North America.
Jacques Font, owner of French cinema chain
CineMovida, said: “My grandfather opened our family’s first
cinema theatre back in 1910, and it is the oldest cinema still operating in
France. I always believed in pioneering promising technologies. We were the
first here to adopt the digital format prior to Avatar’s launch. We are
currently revamping our auditoriums with laser projectors. I am convinced that
it is an obligation to embrace VR as it will be a new form of cinematic
storytelling. VRrOOm’s solution is the perfect fit to cinema professionals’
vision of integrating the virtual reality experience inside traditional movie
theatres.”
Besides VRrOOm Sanctum,
www.vrroom.buzz, an information platform in three languages
(English, French and Chinese) aimed at introducing the latest VR trends to the
general audience, is already operational; the
website is powered by an algorithm capable of analysing all posts related to
VR, AR and MR on social media and websites worldwide, in real time, providing the
company with invaluable market insights.
VRrOOm will also announce in the coming
weeks a partnership with a Beijing-based VR/AR content studio. “As the industry is still in its infancy, it
is essential to be able to test various content formats and experiments beyond
VR, for example in Augmented Reality or Mixed
Reality”, explained Louis Cacciuttolo. “VRrOOm
Sanctum will be a great platform for experimenting,
allowing the company to identify market needs real time and improve
the audience’s experience as technology and content creation evolve.”
The success of VR is strongly connected to
the "wow" effect of the experience. Offering quality VR cinematic
experiences will be an essential factor for the success of VRrOOm ecosystem,
especially as the startup wants to become the world’s
top-of-mind resource for what could soon become a new “VR lifestyle”. As Louis
Cacciuttolo sums up: “The reality is that VR has no limits and, most
importantly, enables people to realize anything they could dream of. Stories told in VR or experiences lived in
VR are truly bewitching. We aim at building a civilization of enchantment”.
* Source: Consulting firm Digi-Capital’s new Augmented/Virtual Reality Report 2016
About CineMovida:
Operators and
working in the world of cinema for many years, Alain and Laurent Lelimouzin
Kloeckner, Cinémovida group of owners have sought to develop a new operating
concept.
Based on the fact that often that mass
entertainment in cinema is screened in multiplexes and artistic films are
vested in specialized rooms, they combined the two genres in one place,
offering a wide diversity of programming. MOVIDA originated
from a Spanish word which emerged thirty years ago as La Movida was a cultural
liberation movement which sprang up in Madrid in the 80s after the death of
dictator General Franco.
