IMAX Enhanced, A 2020 Home Tech Trend You Shouldn’t Miss Out On

January is the month to set trends for the year to come and the tech industry is no exception. In smart home, connected appliances and smart TVs with 8K resolution and hub-like features were everywhere at CES, surprising no one. However, many attendees were taken aback by the unexpected presence of IMAX.

What is the connection between IMAX and CES? IMAX Enhanced, the home version, so to speak, of the popular camera system and image technologies. If you haven’t heard yet, IMAX Enhanced is DTS and IMAX solution to bring IMAX-quality (both image and sound) movies to your living room.

At the Xperi booth, we found dozens of people lining up for the IMAX Enhanced demo, living room setups that helped visitors understand how this technology could change their home cinema experience, devices that were IMAX-certified, a real IMAX camera everyone wanted to check out and take selfies with and, believe it or not, Spiderman itself!

Well, not Tom Holland, but his stunt double! Needless to say, fans flocked here, hoping to shake hands with the man or get a word in about the superhero character.  

We spoke to Bruce Markoe, SVP of Post Production at IMAX, about their significant presence at the tradeshow. He immediately shed light on the commotion, explaining how exciting it is to be able to offer consumers “the best representation of what the filmmaker intended in their home environment”.

[IMAX has represented] the pinnacle of highest quality image capture

Why does seeing a movie in IMAX have to be a once a month occurrence, right? Markoe believes the experience should be extended at home through IMAX Enhanced.

“Regardless of device,” he added, “this version [IMAX Enhanced] will be a better way to see the movie. And if you have an IMAX Enhanced-certified TV, soundbar or AVR, you’re getting the highest quality playback you can”. In other words, you don’t have to upgrade your TV or soundbar to an IMAX Enhanced-certified one, but if you do, you’ll definitely get the best movie watching experience possible outside of an IMAX theatre.

2020 is the year of you should get the maximum out of your home theater devices and this also means the maximum image quality. This year, IMAX Enhanced is bound to go from an option to a necessity.

Especially since, unlike other tech areas, here content abounds. Besides all the IMAX titles already digitally remastered for at home viewing, there are some new movies in the pipeline. “Tenet” is Christopher Nolan next masterpiece filmed entirely with IMAX 70mm cameras, while “No Time To Die” brings back James Bond with selected sequences filmed with IMAX 70mm cameras.

Speaking about IMAX cameras, having one on the CES show floor was quite jarring. In the midst of new, shiny gadgets ready to be unboxed, stood a legendary camera that went underwater, to Mount Everest and even in outer space! Kind of shows that in this fast-paced industry, where dozens of good products are created each day, memorable ones are hard to come by, huh?