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ROTTERDAM
Seats shake to add spice for movies
Cinema 7 is first in state to offer ‘realistic motion’
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA AND MICHAEL GOOT
Gazette Reporters

    The Rotterdam Square Cinema 7 will become the first theater in New York to offer seats that shake, rattle and roll to simulate action on movie screens.
    Zurich Cinemas plans to introduce 21 “realistic motion” theater chairs to its Rotterdam-based cinema in time for the screening of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.” The highly anticipated movie opens July 15 nationwide.
    Conrad Zurich, president of Zurich Cinemas, said the new technology will help create a firstrate movie-going experience. “We’re presenting a completely new way to experience movies and expect the D-BOX tickets to be extremely popular,” he said.
    Theaters already offer 3-D and surround sound and a new hightech digital projection system called Sony 4-K.
    D-BOX Technologies of Longueuil, Quebec, manufactures the MFX chairs. Company CEO Claude McMaster said the contract with Zurich shows the growing demand for the new technology both in the North America and overseas. “Following one of the company’s most successful years to date, interest from new theater exhibitors, both foreign and domestic, remains strong and we are very pleased to announce a first location in the New York area,” he said.
    The company also makes the seats for home theaters and games.
    The seats use a patented computer code that synchronizes onscreen action to a motion generating system, creating an immersion experience, according to the company’s website. The D-BOX “motion code” is available on more than 900 titles, including Blu-ray format and theatrical releases.
    During a movie, for example, the seat shakes during explosions and rolls or pitches with the movement of vehicles. It also emits tiny jolts during explosions on screen.
HANG ONTO POPCORN
    Theater officials on Wednesday showed a five-minute clip of Vin Diesel’s action film “Fast & Furious” that had incorporated the motion technology. In the first few minutes of the movie, Diesel’s crew attempts to steal a gasoline tanker but has to abandon the mission. People in the seats could feel the vibrations when he accelerated the car and then are lurched to the side after he slams on the brakes, spinning the car.
    There are jolts when another character falls from the gasoline tanker on top of the car and when the tanker careens off the road and explodes in a fi reball.
    Theatergoers could set the vibration intensity level as low, medium or high or shut it off altogether.
    David Amato, sales engineer for D-BOX, explained that every sensation that the audience felt was manually programmed by engineers, who synchronize what is happening on screen with what the audience feels on a seat. “It’s all done by human hand,” he said. There are three small motors in the rough shape of a triangle in the seat to control the movements.
    In addition, various movements can be programmed simultaneously. For example, if watching “Pirates of the Caribbean,” a person could feel the rocking of the boat as well as the firing of a cannon.
    “We’re bringing those textures, vibrations and motions into the room to make you part of the film,” Amato said.
    Theatergoers will have to pay a premium to use the seats, however. The cost is $8 in addition to the price of admission. For Harry Potter, the cost will be $19.25 during prime time. The cost for senior citizens and children will be $16.50 and $17.25 for matinees. The price includes a $2.75 premium for 3-D.
    There are 21 D-BOX seats in the theater so it will be first-come, firstserved.
    The seats come with warnings as well. D-BOX Technologies said the seats may be harmful to women who are pregnant, people with heart conditions, the elderly, persons with back, head or neck conditions or injuries and people with other pre-existing medical conditions. .......................>>>>...................>>>>..............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01103&AppName=1