If a nearly 500-foot megayacht being designed by Ken Freivokh Design gets signed, she’ll be the first megayacht built with an IMAX Private Theatre system. The special Nemo Room, as the cinema is being called, will show not just movies but live CCTV feeds of the sea life surrounding the yacht—on both the screen and the walls.
Ken Freivokh Design is the first to incorporate IMAX Private Theatre on a megayacht thanks to Yacht Intelligence, which customizes A/V setups aboard private vessels. Yacht Intelligence brought the concept to his attention after working with IMAX to adapt the system for the marine market. Freivokh was in the midst of designing the above-mentioned megayacht for a client. He knew his client would welcome having something truly special aboard.
IMAX Private Theatre, unveiled last year for high-end homes, employs a 20-foot-wide screen. Both traditional and 3D imagery are projected in 4K. Those images are “read” by a camera facing the screen that reports back to the projector so that it can modify the visuals as needed. As for sound, it, too, is continuously monitored in real time and adapted as needed. The overall IMAX Private Theatre setup is meant to provide an immersive experience.
It was no easy task for IMAX and Yacht Intelligence to adapt IMAX Private Theatre to become the Nemo Room. For one, commercial and home theaters don’t have the space restrictions of yacht hulls. That’s why the screen size and related equipment for IMAX Private Theatre are best suited for megayachts measuring 328 feet (100 meters) and more, according to Alan Bernardi, founder and managing director of Yacht Intelligence. Even furnishings need to be taken into account, for acoustics. Furthermore, aboard Freivokh’s project, the IMAX Private Theatre will have sliding walls as the entrance. This will make the full room one giant screen.
One of the most challenging aspects of the Nemo Room is the download time for the IMAX movies, which can be 60GB files. Currently, VSAT providers for the megayacht market offer download speeds between 10 and 20 Mbps. At that rate, Yacht Intelligence says, a 60GB file will take four hours. The company therefore recommends a setup with higher bandwidth speed overnight and lower speed during peak daytime periods. By the same token, IMAX Private Theatre movies should start downloading overnight.
If Freivokh’s client signs a construction contract, the Nemo Room will stream live feeds from underwater cameras and show Blu-Ray movies. It will further be the ultimate gaming room, and a video-conferencing room.
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