Swiss ICT Award 2017

Swiss ICT Award 2017

The Swiss ICT Award rewards Swiss companies and individuals from the ICT industry that have distinguished themselves through outstanding achievements during the last 24 months. Artanim was selected among the five finalists for its virtual reality platform Real Virtuality. The jury was impressed by how the technology and software – developed completely in Switzerland – will allow for entirely new forms of storytelling. Aside from the entertainment industry, the VR platform is paving the way for a wide variety of applications, including museum applications, building and city tours, telepresence systems, and medical applications (anxiety therapy, rehabilitation, neurosciences, etc.).

ICT Award 2017

World and Swiss Premieres of VR_I

VR_I, a contemporary dance piece in immersive virtuality created in collaboration with the Swiss choreographer Gilles Jobin, was showcased at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma that took place on October 4-15 in Montreal, Canada. For its world premiere, the piece was welcomed with great success and was awarded the Innovation Prize presented by Prim for the most innovative work dedicated to new platforms, as well as the FNC EXPLORE Performances/Installations People’s Choice Award presented by Viveport (HTC).

Back from Montreal, VR_I has been on tour and was showcased as a Swiss premiere at the Théâtre Forum Meyrin on October 12-15, then in Basel at HeK – House of electronics Arts on October 25-29 and at the commercial center of Meyrin on November 8-11. More dates coming in 2018!

VR_I VR_I @ HeK

VR_I @ TFM VR_I @ TFM

Photos © Cie Gilles Jobin

Real Virtuality takes the next step with Dreamscape Immersive

Real Virtuality takes the next step with Dreamscape Immersive

We are very happy to announce that Dreamscape Immersive, a newly created VR entertainment company based in Los Angeles and Geneva will be commercializing our ground-breaking VR technology, Real Virtuality.  As you may remember, this technology gained quite some attention in the last couple years and was showcased at Sundance Film Festival New Frontier 2016 and Cannes Festival 2016.  Contrary to other static position VR systems, Real Virtuality allows users to truly feel immersed in a VR scene. They can walk around freely, interact with objects and other players, and truly experience worlds previously accessible only in their dreams!

Dreamscape Immersive will offer location based VR experiences. Its vision of the VR Multiplex is to create unique, irreproducible entertainment experiences that are vivid and compelling enough to bring consumers out of the house and into larger social and retail environments. For motion picture studios and other IP holders, Dreamscape provides another alternative for audiences to enjoy both original experiences and franchised properties. The first flagship VR Multiplex will be launched in Fall 2017 as part of the reopening of Westfield’s Century City Mall in Los Angeles.

Artanim’s Research Director, Caecilia Charbonnier and Technology Director, Sylvain Chagué, both co-founders of Dreamscape Immersive will serve as co-CTO’s of the newly created company. They will be joined by the third co-founder, Ronald Menzel as Chief Strategic Officer and two co-Chairmen: Walter Parkes, film producer on The Men in Black series, Gladiator, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can and former studio head at DreamWorks Pictures and Kevin Wall, global live entertainment producer/entrepreneur (Madonna, Jay-Z, Rihanna and more). Bruce Vaughn, 25-year veteran of Disney Imagineering, who served as its Co-Executive Leader for seven years, will join as CEO.

Moreover, Dreamscape Immersive announced today the completion of its Series A financing. Initial investors include Bold Capital Partners, Warner Bros., 21st Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), IMAX Coorporation, Westfield Coorporation, and Steven Spielberg. The venture also includes a stellar advisory group:  Yves Behar, renowned industrial designer, as Brand and Design Advisor; Hans Zimmer, Music Advisor; Dan Fellman, Past President, Domestic Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures, as Distribution Advisor; and Kevin Ratner, President, Forest City Residential West, Real Estate Advisor.

Launch of the Virtual Switzerland network

Launch of the Virtual Switzerland network

In July 2016, the federal Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) shared our vision that VR/AR technologies will drastically and rapidly transform industrial processes and that Switzerland must adopt a proactive stance to approach these disruptive technologies. They accepted our proposal to create a national thematic network in the domains of immersive technologies and virtual environments simulation, named Virtual Switzerland. The funding has initially been granted for the period 2017-2020 and is renewable.

Virtual Switzerland aims to spark ideas and foster synergies to grasp the full extent of virtual, augmented, and mixed realities. It means bringing together the academic and economic spheres around immersive technologies and linking R&D experts in Swiss universities with those in thriving companies, thereby promoting private as well as academic research laboratories or incubators. Four business sectors are targeted, which together encompass most of the Swiss economic landscape: medtech, architecture and construction, manufacturing, tourism and culture.

The Virtual Switzerland network was launched in January 2017. If you are working in the fields of VR/AR and 3D simulation, you may be interested in joining this network. To know more about the membership, as well as the activities proposed, please check here. You can also contact “info at virtualswitzerland.org” for more information.

Cannes Festival 2016

Cannes Festival 2016

At the invitation of the Geneva International Film Festival Tous Ecrans, Real Virtuality was presented from May 11 to 14 at the Pavilion NEXT of Cannes Festival with the support of Pro Helvetia. A showcase was held on May 14 to present the project.

Best VR installation at Cannes Festival Dan Benzakein, Journalist, Wearable

Our VR installation was setup on the “Croisette”, just a few meters from the red carpet stairs! This was a great honor for us to participate to the most famous film festival in the world and this was a new opportunity after Sundance to gather feedback from the motion pictures industry and a great opportunity to make interesting contacts in the field.

Real Virtuality at Cannes Festival 2016 Real Virtuality at Cannes Festival 2016

More pictures of the showcase here.

Laval Virtual Award 2016

Laval Virtual Award 2016

We are the winner of the 2016 Laval Virtual award in the category “3D Game and Entertainment” with our VR platform Real Virtuality! The team was at Laval during 5 days to demonstrate the system from March 23-27, 2017. More info here. Again, the VR platform was acclaimed in the newspaper:

The immersion is so powerful and natural that we are immediately at ease in this virtual universe full of reality   Jean-Klébert Lauret, Journalist, Les Numériques

Laval Virtual Award 2016