The outdoor cinema sound app Cinewav of Singapore has been granted a U.S. patent. Cinewav, which was invented by filmmakers Jason Chan and Christian Lee, is a phone-based app that replaces expensive, heavy, manpower intensive audio systems or FM transmitters or broadcasting at outdoor cinemas.
Users can simply watch on a big screen and listen on their phone via a small, downloaded audio file that is synced with the images on screen. Users need the Cinewav app and their headphones, while event holders need the Cinewav player on a laptop.
Chan and Lee, through their company BananaMana Films made the film Jimami Tofu. It was during the distribution process of the film that Chan and Lee realized that the sound they had painstakingly mixed did not always have the desired effect on audiences, particularly at outdoor screenings.
Chan and Lee also realized during the Jimami Tofu release process that for many screenings they laid on independently, a convenient app would obviate the need for expensive audio equipment and convey virtually any space into a cinema. They developed the technology themselves with a team and the process was funded to the tune of $500,000 by angel investors.
The app has secured the approval of major U.S. studios including Disney and its brands and Sony Pictures to use their IP.
Cinewav is now talking to some studios in Malaysia to get their content libraries on the platform and create instant cinemas at small town and village spaces across Southeast Asia using their now patented audio technology.
Meanwhile, they also plan to realize their dream of building the world’s largest cinema, seating some 30-40,000 people at Singapore’s Marina Bay. Cinewav ran a season of outdoor screenings at Marina Bay over the past summer and the plan is to scale up.