The Catalan audiovisual industry is present this week at the heart of the ISE show in Barcelona with more than seventy companies that have contributed innovations such as holograms, virtual and extended reality proposals, digital display cases to transform retail, or large-format immersive installations.
In total, this year there are 73 Catalan companies of all sizes, from startups to multimedia multinationals such as Mediapro or Lavinia. The sector, which represents around 3% of Catalan GDP and employs some 32,000 people, arrives at the event with the challenge of internationalizing and growing in volume and specialization to attract major international players, such as film and series production companies or platforms like Netflix.
"From a technological point of view, the global audiovisual industry is already trusting the Catalan industry, what we do need is to have more and more infrastructures so that all the audiovisual production of these major international players is done in Catalonia. That is why an infrastructure like the Catalunya Media City is absolutely essential," highlights the president of the Audiovisual Cluster of Catalonia, Miquel Rutllant, in statements to Miquel Vera and Aina Martí, from the ACN agency.
According to the entity, in the Catalan audiovisual fabric today coexist "traditional" companies, which are reinventing themselves to diversify and go beyond cinema and television, startups, mainly technological, and increasingly more foreign firms that settle in Catalonia and take root by taking advantage of local talent. "The priority we set ourselves is internationalization. Companies here must go out more, but above all what we want is for foreign companies to come and work and hire here," emphasizes Rutllant.
The roots of Catalan audiovisual content are evident in the ambitious projects that the country's companies have brought to ISE. Some, large-format, compete in spectacularity with the installations of major global players in the sector, such as Epson; others, small-format, but equally seek to attract the attention of the curious and specialists who fill the pavilions of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. However, the strength of Catalan audiovisual content is currently concentrated in audiovisual entertainment (production of films, series, documentaries, and video games), which, according to the Catalan Government's calculations, accounts for more than half of the sector's total turnover.
Holograms
Many of the startups based in Catalonia and present at the show opt to display future applications of virtual and augmented reality. One of them is the Catalan company Newtonlab Space, which has presented a 4.5-meter-long "holographic display" that shows people and products in life-size 3D in real time. This virtual showcase has been developed with proprietary technology and seeks to be implemented in the marketing of sectors such as retail, art, or automotive, since, for example, its size allows showing a life-size car without being in the dealership. "In the medium term, holograms will have been implemented. We won't take long to see devices that can project life-size people in well-known stores," Roger Belbo, creative director of Newtonlab Space, told ACN.
Capturing the attention of visitors who are bombarded by many stimuli is also one of the objectives of the immersive technological solutions presented by another Catalan startup, Marvut Technologies. They specialize in "extended reality," which combines augmented reality and artificial intelligence. At their stand, you can see a 3D hologram that can be modified with the movement of a hand, making it larger or smaller.
Also, an interactive projection designed to capture the attention of users in any store or museum. "Any company or sector that wants to attract a specific audience and engage with a powerful message, we are capable of doing it," explained the company's founder and CEO, Diego Fernández.
Immersive experiences
The show also featured immersive experiences from some of the more traditional audiovisual companies in a sector that already numbers nearly 3,700 companies in Catalonia. In pavilion 6, Lavinia is showcasing its Dreams project with Universe, a complete experience in which up to fifteen people can simultaneously participate, equipped with virtual reality glasses, sharing real and digital space on a 300 square meter surface.
In Dreams, participants can interact for 30 minutes with animals, enter a child's room and shrink to the point of being able to enter and travel on their toy train, or try to escape a labyrinth formed by domino pieces. The common thread is dreams, and new content is shown in which the viewer is immersed in the story, according to Ignasi Marcet, executive producer and director of Business Development at Lavinia, told ACN. "It has the limit that imagination has, and imagination, as far as we know, has no limits," he details in statements to ACN.
This technology allows entering new realities and new worlds that are not real and can be applied in multiple fields, such as education. In this sense, it allows seeing in detail what a human brain looks like inside; or visiting civilizations and monuments that no longer exist, such as those of Ancient Greece or Rome, among others, he adds.
Another area of application could be construction, where an architect could walk through a future home or building with their clients to show them a project that has not even been built; health ---to treat different types of phobias--- or industrial fairs, where the potential client could see the interior of machines without the need to transport them to the stands.