Shaken and stirred at CineEurope

Among the popcorn machines, ticket printers and cinema lightbulbs on offer on CineEurope’s trade floor, there was also something of an exciting demo from a company called D-Box.

The outfit, headquartered in Quebec, builds seats that are programmed with movements and sensations to complement the action on screen.

D-Box had a mini cinema set up for exhibitors to try out the technology with their own bums in seats. They showed footage of Fast & Furious 6, so that the seats dip, drop, shake and lean and give the sensation the viewer is experiencing the action seen on screen – think of it as a cross between a massage chair and a roller coaster.

That’s to say SOME of the action, you don’t get thrown to the floor in a car crash. While I’m not sure my body could take a whole film of car chases, the sensations did add to the viewing experience and made for quite a fun cinematic experience.

Sure, it’s maybe a little gimmicky, but it’s also something you can’t get in a home cinema – and that’s what every exhibitor is on the lookout for.

D-Box is in about 200 screens worldwide as of now and films to be shown with D-Box movement in coming months include Pacific Rim, Riddick and The Lone Ranger.

Another new technology on offer at CineEurope were Sony’s audio describing and subtitling Entertainment Access glasses – brilliant for those with audio or visual impairments but also potentially quite useful for subtitling films not on the print or DCP?

In lower-tech advancements, the frozen Fanta on offer at the Coca-Cola stand was pretty tasty too.