The degree of visual enhancement in film and TV during recent years has been astounding. With Digital Cinema Initiatives 4K standard in theatres and 4K UHD at home, as well as a resurgence of 3D stereoscopic films in theatres using technologies like RealD 3D (NYSE: RLD), Dolby 3D (NYSE: DLB) and IMAX 3D (NYSE: IMAX), films look better than ever on the big, and small(er) screen. Similar innovations in the world of audio, led by top players such as Dolby, DTS (NASDAQ: DTSI) and Sony (NYSE: SNE), have allowed for an unprecedented level of acoustical richness and fidelity, resulting in viewer immersion horizons unimaginable to previous generations.
However, even as consumers start to get their hands on technologies like Oculus VR’s Oculus Rift head-mounted display, or the comparable virtual reality device developed in collaboration with Samsung (OTC: SSNLF), the Gear VR, there is one dimension of sense perception that has yet to see similar advancements: touch-feel. This is where pioneering haptic-tactile (of or relating to the sense of touch) technology developer Guitammer (OTCQB: GTMM) really shines, with a rapidly emerging brand presence driven by its portfolio of patented and patent pending broadcast technologies like the award-winning line of ButtKicker low frequency audio transducers. Haptic-tactile events experienced by viewers may have a visual and auditory portion to them, but Guitammer takes it that extra step and really puts viewers in the game, or lets them experience movies in a whole new way by letting them “feel” the impact of a hockey player getting checked into the boards, or the force of an explosion narrowly escaped by their favorite heroes.
Guitammer’s dynamic haptic event transmission technology is now coming to more theatres across the U.S. than ever before, on the back of a sweeping new deal with AMC Theatres (NYSE: AMC) which will expand the company’s installed footprint of ButtKicker-enabled theatres via 34 new deployments, more than doubling GTMM’s existing install base with AMC. President of GTMM, Mark Luden, was keen to point out how mounting order growth among theatres is driven by audience/proprietor receptivity to this innovative technology, which allows viewers to actually experience haptic events physically. As this new feature picks up steam, with more and more theatregoers actively seeking out this enticing and hitherto unexperienced dimension of film, the potential upside for GTMM as the leading hardware provider is quite significant.
This is especially true when one considers that, globally, total filmed entertainment revenue is estimated by PwC as being on-track to experience a CAGR of 4.1 percent through 2019, hitting upwards of $104 billion, led by hot markets like China (14.5 percent CAGR) and Latin America (Brazil 6.4 percent, Argentina 11.5 percent). In 2014 alone, the MPAA reported a $36.4 billion global box office take, with China experiencing a 34 percent jump over 2013’s figures, even as the number of cinema screens worldwide grew by 6 percent. With blockbusters like Star Wars:
The Force Awakens currently sitting on around $1.88 billion in worldwide gross, more than half of which came from the international market, the sky is indeed the limit for GTMM’s technology.
Westerville, Ohio-based Guitammer anticipates similarly robust growth moving forward in terms of adoption rates and estimates that some 2.5 million Americans will experience a ButtKicker enabled viewing after the company’s install base is bolstered by the new AMC additions. This end-user buzz feed system will in turn accelerate interest in Guitammer’s consumer grade solutions, driving sales of the company’s haptic-enabled broadcast services and hardware aimed at the home theatre market. The company’s technology is more musically accurate and considerably more powerful, as well as longer lasting, than competing voice coil shakers or other tactile devices, employing a magnetically suspended precision-guided piston that transfers vibration directly to whatever the unit’s housing is attached to.
Guitammer’s “4D Sports powered by ButtKicker” is a concept whose time has come and it is not hard to imagine this technology quickly proliferating out to the sports bar market. Because ButtKicker transducers accurately reproduce the feeling range of audio in a vastly more direct way than sound waves travelling through the air, and because when using headphones or speakers at a reduced volume the sound is completely isolated to the listener, the full range of possible implementations for this technology is immense. PwC estimates that global sports revenues were in the neighborhood of $145 billion last year (including factors like gate receipts), driven by rebounding TV advertising and an ongoing migration toward pay TV, as well as a return to the sponsorship space by financial services and automotive companies. It is no leap of faith to imagine ButtKicker devices in sporting arenas to help deliver a more realistic, front row seat experience to attendees at sporting events, even up in the cheap seats.
Delivering this level of powerful, concert-level audio directly to the listener, via a method that is driven by exacting capture and reproduction of remote haptic events, and in a fashion in which the user feels the event in perfect sync with (in the case of film) the audio and video – is something which has to be felt to be believed. To accurately comprehend the potential market for this technology, investors must experience it firsthand. Luckily, Guitammer has put together and maintains a Google Maps-based listing of venues where users can experience it for themselves. A listing which also illustrates how this incredible technology will soon be present on over 22,000 seats, in 11 countries, and in front of more than 100 screens worldwide.
Take a closer look by visiting http://www.guitammer.com/index, or head over to the company’s Facebook and Twitter feeds.
