Audience Entertainment Partners with Barco

NEW YORK, March 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Audience Entertainment, the leading innovator in interactive group gaming, and global digital cinema pioneer Barco, Inc. (NYSE EBR: BAR) have announced a strategic partnership, creating a new interactive technology platform for moviegoers called iD - Interactive Dimension™. iD builds upon digital projection and 3D technology to create a new cinema environment allowing moviegoers to physically connect and control the screen's content the moment they take their seat. The partnership marks the start of the rollout of Audience Entertainment's technology as an integral experiential component of Barco's newly announced CinemaBarco entertainment concept to 3,000 screens globally in North America, China, Western Europe and Latin America.

Barco and Audience Entertainment are proud to announce the official launch of the iD platform at CinemaCon 2014. This preview for the entertainment industry will showcase how audiences can have a two-way dialogue with the big screen through group motion and sound. Audience Entertainment's technology will transform what is currently possible in the cinema space by allowing audiences to interact with content and with one another. Every show will become unique as no two movie experiences will be exactly alike. iD is designed around a sense of community and of engaged reach, bringing the current trend of interactivity off of the smart phone and onto the big screen, and back again. The audience can move and interact as a group, working as a team to influence and determine the outcome of the stories unfolding in front of them.

"We believe that the cinema is the perfect entertainment environment with the best seats, the best sound and the best picture, and of course popcorn" said Barry Grieff, Founder and CEO, Audience Entertainment. "As the digitization of cinema nears completion we are left looking for what is next. What will make the cinema the entertainment destination for the 21^st Century consumer? At Audience Entertainment we see ourselves as the enablers of a new interactive dimension to big screen content and stories. Advertising is a great place to start, but we also expect to see movie trailers and feature films taking advantage of iD – Interactive Dimension™ capabilities that are being made possible through our alliance with Barco."  

"As we launch our new CinemaBarco theater-wide entertainment concept, audience interactivity plays a significant role among several immersive technologies designed to bring showmanship back to the cinema and effectively engage this media-savvy generation of moviegoers," comments Wim Buyens, Vice President Entertainment & Corporate for Barco. "Audience Entertainment's Interactive Dimension will add a tremendous new facet to the movie-going experience, and we couldn't be more pleased to partner with such a forward-thinking company."

About Audience Entertainment: Audience Entertainment is a New York-based media technology company that makes big screens interactive by understanding and reacting to the audience. Since the company's inception, they have worked with storytellers and brands to harness interactive technology for groups. In the last five years, Audience Entertainment has validated its technology in movie theaters, arenas, stadiums and concert venues in eight countries and on four continents. Audience Entertainment's growing global interactive network enables a new proven content category (iD – Interactive Dimension™) for advertising, alternative content, movie trailers and movies. Past clients include brands such as Coca Cola, Disney Cruise Lines, Nokia, Orange Mobile, Samsung, Sony, Volkswagen, and Volvo among others. http://www.audienceentertainment.com  

About Barco: Barco, a global technology company, designs and develops networked visualization products for a variety of selected professional markets. Barco has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, R&D and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and APAC. Barco (NYSE Euronext Brussels: BAR) is active in more than 90 countries with 4,000 employees worldwide. Barco posted sales of 1.158 billion euros in 2013. www.barco.com

CONTACT: VICTORIA TARKHAN/212-843-9329
[email protected]

SOURCE Audience Entertainment