The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) is a multinational mass media corporation which operates from California. In terms of revenues for broadcasting and cable company it stands second in the list behind Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA). It was founded back in 1923 and since then it has established itself as a leader in American animation industry. Bloomberg’s Jon Elrichman took a tour through Disney land and found how Walt Disney Imagineering work and their approach.
Inside The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS)’ headquarters, Elrichman explored the virtual room, which they call a Digital Immersive Showroom (DISH). This is the place where they test out the park and resort attractions before it breaks in as public attraction.
“We have actually modeled the complete kitchens in this space and we brought the chefs in and they have actually looked at night placement, preparation placement. They were like: we would like to move that cabin over here and virtually we can pick those elements up in real time and move them in a digital kitchen,” Chris Beatty, Executive Creative Director of Walt Disney Imagineering said.
DISH was created by Walt Disney Imagineers. Walt Disney Imagineering was found by the man himself in 1952. It comprises of more than 1500 artists, architects, engineers and others who brings The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) ambitious park ideas to life.
New Fantasy land expansion in Orlando is one outcome from this group. The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) generated more than $14 billion revenues from its parks and resorts in 2013 which is nearly one third of its total sales. Walt Disney Empire includes 11 parks, 46 resort hotels and 4 cruise ships.
Erlichman had the experience of entering the DISH with boulder hat. Boulder hat had sensors which enables one to virtually walk through the Park within the DISH room. With a 3D glass, testing of rides like Seven Dwarfs Mine train can also be done in DISH.
Beatty said that these kinds of 3D animations can be done pretty easily now, but at one time these kind of things used to be very complex and time consuming. One beautiful example of Imagineers work is the Dwarfs faces seen in the Seven Dwarfs mine train ride. These faces were created using 3D Audio Animatronics.
Imagineers innovative thinking has got more than 100 patents to The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS). These imagineers also had the opportunity to partner with Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm Ltd and many other companies which they relish on and Beatty think that this really is the future of this industry.
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