Ed Lantz, CEO of Vortex Immersion Media.

On a sunny LA summer day, Ed Lantz, CEO of Vortex Immersion Media, walks through the bustling Los Angeles Center Studios complex towards the Vortex Dome. Today in the darkened dome, a game company team is at work testing their latest immersive sci-fi game. They’re laser-focused on a young man in a special chair in the center of the space, careening a car on the moon’s surface while managing the threats coming at him from one side of the dome to the other. It’s engaging if a bit awe-inspiring for a non-gamer, making Tron seem more realistic as a possible, near-term human experience.

The Digital Dome Studio and Immersive Theater Venue is Los Angeles’ first fulldome screening facility. Vortex put the 50' diameter dome in place to show the potential of the environment, and the company has seen increasing interest in its value for transmedia entertainment as well as in its use as an events and performance venue since it was installed last year. Lantz, an internationally recognized pioneer and leading authority in large-format digital cinema and immersive experiences for mass audiences, is at the cutting edge of what may just be the next step in entertainment. “The dome is a powerful cinematic medium - it’s physical and multisensory. Stories have an entirely different affect when you’re fully immersed, requiring a new cinematic language.” Just as 3D engages the brain at a deeper level, the fulldome immersive experience engages different brain centers, including the opto-vestibular response that regulates our sense of balance and cognitive mapping, our sense of presence within a physical space. Activating these responses brings the participant into a more dynamic experience with the content. In other words, it’s more "real" and potentially more emotionally evocative. That richer experience, the expansive digital landscape, and the changing consumer consumption patterns are all part of the possibilities opening up as next-gen cinema extends the movie going experience. According to Lantz, the potential for games, experiential, interactive entertainment and user-generated content is “vast.”

Hollywood is increasingly engaged in the discussion of next-generation cinemas. In a recent article for IMERSA, the professional association founded to advance and promote the art and science of large-scale digital immersive media, Lantz wrote “Theaters have physical space that offers the potential for regional community outreach, merchandising, and new forms of experiential entertainment that are less prone to piracy while being potentially more engaging.” He notes the rapidly growing interest in transmedia “…the seamless storytelling across multiple media channels — bodes well for cinemas, which could ultimately serve as local transmedia distribution hubs, offering not only the distribution of films, but the concurrent introduction of immersive cinema features, interactive games, merchandise, live theater, and other modalities to more fully immerse and engage viewers with their favorite games, stories, and characters.“ As studios face the digital threats that have hobbled the music industry, experiential entertainment may offer its best hope. And, notes Lantz, with the audience migration to streaming, video games, and cyberspace, “it is the opportunities presented by experiential entertainment that may be the most important.”

In short, the potential of the full dome experience could extend the life and value of content, especially in a franchise-driven environment. And that is a compelling opportunity that is crucial to studios.

Lantz, whose background as an engineer and scientist empowers his artistic vision, sees the expansion and implementation of true digital as a turning point. “My personal experience led me from aerospace engineering to the design and engineering of planetariums and digital dome for themed entertainment, which are a natural launching pad for the expansion of the immersive entertainment experiences into a mass market. As a storyteller working with storytellers, the future is a wide canvas.”

Ed Lantz will be the Keynote speaker at Createasphere’s Entertainment Technology Expo on March 1, 2012 in Los Angeles.

ED LANTZ BIO:

Ed Lantz is an entertainment technology engineer, entrepreneur and pioneer of large-format digital cinema. He is President and CEO of Vortex Immersion Media, a new venture bringing next-generation entertainment experiences to the cinema, experiential marketing and themed entertainment markets. He is also co-founder of IMERSA, a trade association promoting the fulldome format.

Ed has pioneered large-format digital cinema and immersive experiences for mass audiences over the past 20 years. Through Vortex, IMERSA and other endeavors he continues to nurture the development and standardization of the fulldome format that has already surpassed the number of IMAX screens by replacing film and analog star projectors with large-format interactive computer graphics projected onto domed screens.

Ed has a background in hardware and software engineering, quantum physics and electromagnetics. He spent seven years leading photonic signal processing R&D at Harris Corp. in Melbourne, Florida. At the Astronaut Memorial Planetarium and Observatory in Cocoa, Florida, he led the development of the first polychromatic acousto-optic modulator (PCAOM) for laser graphics, an advanced DSP-based celestial motion control system, and design of Florida's largest domed theater utilizing next-generation video graphics.

At Spitz Inc. (E&S Spitz), Ed developed new products that transformed old-style planetariums into immersive visualization environments. He also founded Harmony Channel, a television network delivering mood-elevating digital media, including MoodZones - which has been described as "MTV for the Soul" - and Visual Bandwidth Inc., an immersive cinema and fulldome video advisory group.

Ed has published and presented numerous papers on VR and entertainment technologies and is a regular contributor to ACM SIGGRAPH papers, panels, and courses. He founded the International Planetarium Society's Fulldome Video Committee and the first Fulldome Standards Summit held in Valencia, Spain, in 2004; co-organized the first Immersive Cinema Workshop in Espinho, Portugal, in 2005; and moderated the NASA Explorer Institutes focus group on fulldome video held at Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, California.

Ed received a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from Tennessee Tech University (1984), serves on the boards of IMERSA, the Center for Visual Music and c3: Center for Conscious Creativity, and holds two U.S. patents on immersive video-based theater technology.