Yacht Intelligence, the world-renowned supplier of custom audio visual and control solutions for superyachts, is teaming up with the industry’s most pioneering minds and the company behind the most immersive, premier cinema experience available, IMAX Corporation, to create a concept for the world’s first IMAX Private Theatre™ on a 150m Superyacht designed by Ken Freivokh.
The ultimate cinema experience aboard a Superyacht - The Nemo Room
This groundbreaking private theatre will not only be used to watch current theatrical blockbuster releases, but it will also project live underwater CCTV images from outside the yacht onto the walls inside the theatre, thus giving the concept its name, The Nemo Room. The high-tech private media room is being designed to entertain in many different ways with both the owner’s family and their guests in mind. It is anticipated that the theatre will also be used for Blu-Ray, streaming live content, gaming and video conferencing.
Having come up with the original idea for The Nemo Room, Yacht Intelligence, with the support of IMAX, approached world-renowned yacht designer and good friend, Ken Freivokh, to help take the concept to the next level. Ken Freivokh, famous for his inventive designs and passion for audio visual excellence, happened to be designing a 150m superyacht for a client who he knew would be happy to try novel ideas. This project has created the perfect opportunity for the group to work on this unique concept.
Alan Bernardi, Founder and Managing Director of Yacht Intelligence commented: “With IMAX’s strict parameters and incredibly specific technological requirements, our first challenge was to persuade them to take us seriously, and prove that it would be possible to create a truly unique private theatre on a superyacht.”
Ken Freivokh said: “We always strive to be very innovative. We work to evoke an exclusive feeling by developing uncommon spaces that are fundamentally spectacular. The first IMAX cinema on a yacht will be just that!”
The design parameters for the IMAX Private Theatre are being pushed to the limits by the design team who are working within the unusual space of a hull (an area which would otherwise be used for tankage and storage) in order to create the desired cinematic experience. The space is being cleverly designed so that the client will enter the theatre via sliding walls instead of doors, thus creating a seamless surround screen and completing the famous IMAX immersive effect.
It’s not only the space constraints that are proving challenging. The revolutionary technologies behind IMAX also require the utmost attention. Each IMAX Private Theatre system has an image enhancer – a camera that reads the image on the screen and feeds back to the projector – enabling real-time adjustments to ensure that the on-screen image is perfect. IMAX also uses a state-of-the-art dual 4K projection system to deliver lifelike crystal-clear images, and a microphone system that collects data from each individual channel in the speaker system and performs daily tuning calibrations, correcting the response of the channel so the sound is always perfectly tuned.
Incorporating these technologies is only half of the story however, because the challenge behind the scenes is just as intriguing. File sizes for this second-to-none technology are huge, with a typical IMAX movie being anywhere up to 60GB. Bearing in mind that a typical movie download for the average client with a 10-20Mbps bandwidth will take four hours, working to solve the bandwidth issue will be a critical success factor for the project. Yacht Intelligence has experienced similar issues before and, for this particular project, proposed a solution that will vary bandwidth speed so that it is higher at night during low-use and lower during the day when usage is at its optimum. If the yacht is deep at sea, they will use a Very-Small-Aperture Terminal (VSAT) and start the download onboard overnight.
Wim G.e. De Vos of Genesis technologies (a distributor for IMAX private theatres) said: “Yacht Intelligence and Ken Freivokh Design are doing an amazing job like few others in the industry could. Superyachts are huge entertainment vessels and the use of good technologies is an integral part of this. There are so many exciting things happening in this space – I see this as just the tip of the iceberg of what can be achieved.”
Alan Bernardi commented: “This collaborative process between Ken Freivokh Design, IMAX, Genesis Technologies and us is creating something truly unique to the superyacht market. Working with such an innovative group of people to come up with something this spectacular is an absolute pleasure, and a collaboration we look forward to continuing with future projects.”
He continued: “We believe that IMAX Private Theatres could be integrated into yachts of over 100m as long as they’re designed in at an early stage. Therefore if the existing owner opts for the cinema aboard his 150m yacht, or it’s taken up by the next client, we will work to ensure none of the normal operations or spaces are adversely affected. Everything needs to be considered in the design and build – from the technology itself to the usability of the yacht and even which furnishings provide optimum acoustic performance. However, we’ve always been a company that likes a challenge and to push the boundaries of what’s ‘possible’. That’s what we are doing again here and I firmly believe that our work will change the way people look at AV on superyachts in the future.”
