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During his visit to the Euro Attractions Show 2010 in Rome, NewsParcs had the opportunity to meet the Alterface team, a Belgian company specializing in interactive multimedia systems that implement new communications and entertainment modes which allow users to delve into the information and to interact intuitively with it.
The Alterface's CEO Benoît Cornet, gave us a little time to answer our questions and we talk about the future. And future... Alterface has a lot because the company has big plans for 2011, 3 more precisely, and all located in Europe!
3 amazing projects for 2011
The first project will be located at the Futuroscope, France, in place of "La Citadelle du Vertige" experience. It was born of a long creative process that lasted almost 5 years! This will be the "Huitième Continent" (literally, the "Eighth Continent"), a large interactive theater called a "hybrid" because taking over the techniques of augmented reality, and the playful side of video games.
The attraction will be provided with a good projection technique, combined with a panoramic screen 13 meters wide. The film, which is not an animated film, has been developed specifically for this project, but is intended to be distributed in the future. The room will be divided into two parts, two screens will be face to face for 42 people each, totaling 84 people playing in the room at the same time.
Our friends from ParkOtheK have published a comprehensive article on the "Eighth Continent", with lots of details on the future attraction. (in French)
The other two projects will be a real revolution for Alterface that rely on them for its future. There will be two interactive dark rides, very innovative, and for which the company was involved differently.
The first interactive dark ride will be built in Rainbow Magicland, second park of the AlfaPark group, located in Valmonte, Italy, and which will open in spring 2011. For this one, Alterface is responsible for the integration of interactive animations into the set. AlfaPark has not yet revealed details about it, but we have no doubt this will soon be the case!
Benoit Cornet could not reveal the exact location of the second interactive dark ride, but he explained that Alterface will be responsible for all content of the latter, thus exceeding the "simple" integration Magicland!
The company relies heavily on this specific ride, and positions clearly itself in the field of Toy Story Mania (Walt Disney Imagineering), while asserting it will be even better! Despite the embargo about this future great European first, Alterface reveals however it will consist of 42 screens and it will be a pure concept of dark rides "media-based" in which interactivity will be very high among the players and their environment.
In the future, Alterface intends to develop a lot this concept of interactive dark ride "new generation" by incorporating the ability to customize and modify the content to create alternative scenarios! Benoit Cornet thinks there will be convergence between the attractiveness of a video game and the fact that is fun to play several times to learn all alternatives purposes. Briefly, it also states that its purpose is to make excellent quality, without making too "cerebral."
The House
Benoît Cornet highlights the success of its product "TheHouse" (the haunted house that combines a spinning gondola, special effects, 3D animations and interactive displays). The formula has been found and the two copies that have opened in 2009 (at Castle of Chaos, USA) and 2010 (at Tussenfryd, Norway) received positive feedback from visitors. A third "TheHouse" will be built in Europe in 2011, no further details at the moment, but the machine is on!
Cinema 5Di
Regarding his latest product, Cinema 5Di, Alterface currently developing distribution networks and considers itself in a year of transition. The biggest challenge this year was to create the new "Desperados" in 3D. The company now surrounds himself with new partners to expand its catalog of films, which will include 9 titles in 2011.
On the booth, Benoît Cornet also presented this beautiful interactive theater "Mission Ocean", a project conducted on behalf of Compagnie des Alpes at the Bioscope (France) in 2008.
Finally, he told us that the website of the company will be rebuilt soon, and that he is always looking for engineers specialized in programming, and content integration. This information should involve more than one, so the future looks bright for Alterface!
We will return soon on future developments, projects and news of this great company!
Interview by François Mayné and Sébastien Ganzer.
Thank you to Olivier Vincent, Alterface's Content & Communication Manager, for his help.
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NewsParcs will do a full coverage of the IAAPA Attractions Expo 2013 in Orlando to have a look at the latest trends and developments of the global theme park industry.
