What will cinema be after lockdown?

: on 15 June 2020

What will movie thetres be like in the near future? What’s immersive cinema? Maciej Głowiak, head of the New Media Department at the Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC), sheds light on new immersive media that may change the perception of cinema.

Polish Academy of Sciences: What might moviegoing look like when theaters reopen after shutdowns?

Maciej Głowiak: Many people, who fear of being infected with the novel coronavirus, will probably give up going to the cinema for a long time. Some of them, may be interested in new technological solutions. Cinemas of the future will embrace technologies including side-wall projection, which gives the effect of immersion in film content. Related techniques that we test in PSNC are referred to as "immersive".

How do immersive cinemas work?

Recording, production and delivering huge files through the network, which is associated with immersive media applications, requires appropriate technological facilities and the creation of cutting edge tools. We're talking about terabytes of data that need to be encoded and processed every second, and finally displayed on – often prototype – visualization installations. We do this as part of collaborative research project – Immersify – under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 framework programme. Immersify is a European R&D consortium made up of five renowned institutions based in five European countries (France, Germany, Austria, Sweden and Poland).

Why did you choose immersive media?

It is worth testing such solutions, because they will allow you to watch movie without cumbersome VR headset, maintain the right distance, or experience new ultra high quality of immersive content.

Are there any chances for such cinemas in Poland?

There is still a long way to go until we reach a widespread implementation of immersive technologies. But there are more and more places of this kind around the world where content is displayed by hundreds of projectors. A good example is the Atelier des Lumières in Paris. I hope that someday we will have the chance to enjoy this type of movie theater also in Poland.

About PSNC

Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC) is an internationally recognized research center affiliated to the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences. PSNC specializes in new generation networking, media, scientific applications and visualisation, Grids, clouds, digital libraries and cyber security, as well as technologies, applications and services for Information Society. It collaborates with numerous international partners throughout world implementing IT projects. PSNC is also responsible for the development and management of the national research network in Poland – PIONIER.