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Vortex Immersion Media specializes in the development of innovative group interactive entertainment venues and related products and services including displays and content for immersive virtual reality experiences, fulldome theaters, audience interactivity systems, and entertainment content management systems.

The face of entertainment has changed radically in the past decade. The number of television channels has more than doubled, the video game market has tripled, and the number of internet users worldwide has increased by a factor of 60. People now shop online, work online, play online and meet one another online. The Second Life “metaverse” – an immersive virtual world where people create self-representational “avatars” that work and play – boasts 9.8 million members and $40M in actual transactions each month. In contrast, the $2.4 trillion U.S. leisure market remains decidedly low-tech. Cinema exhibition is still largely film-based, and even newer 3D digital cinema systems cannot provide audience interactivity. Theme parks are clearly behind the curve in adapting interactive technologies for group experiences. Today’s new generation of consumers - the “millennials” - are clearly going to demand more from their leisure entertainment experiences.

Vortex Immersion Media is developing proprietary, next-generation entertainment experiences that combine immersive displays, computer games and virtual reality technologies with high-end “Hollywood” entertainment programming. The company will offer a suite of open-access entertainment/advertising delivery systems for clients ranging from corporate tradeshows, special events, destination entertainment, and next-generation nightclubs. VIM’s team utilizes recent research in brain science and the latest advances in computer graphics technologies to create personalized experiences, facilitate social interaction, and to deliver total sensory immersion programming to the world’s premier out-of-home entertainment and corporate destination venues.

In addition to developing proprietary systems and solutions for clients, VIM has engaged a number of technology and media partners and is representing current off-the-shelf products and services. These products are all tied together by a common theme of innovation, immersion, and interactivity targeting the events, tradeshow, and entertainment venue markets.

Vortex was founded by Matthew Fannon, CEO and Ed Lantz, CTO. Matthew has extensive business experience, having managed and operated several ventures including Trancend, LLC, a concert, music festival and event production business. His business background has provided him with valuable skills in finance, real estate acquisition and disposition, strategic targeting, deal structuring and negotiation, marketing and sales.

Ed brings to Vortex creative engineering management as an internationally recognized pioneer and leading authority in the Fulldome Theater industry. He also offers media business expertise as founder of Harmony Channel, a television network offering innovative visual music content. Ed holds two US patents on immersive theater technologies, published numerous articles, and chaired several ACM SIGGRAPH panels and courses. He co-founded the Full-Dome Standards Summit, was founding chair of the International Planetarium Society's Committee on Full-Dome Video, is a keynote speaker at many Fulldome Theater symposia and serves on several boards.