The sweet smell of success?

Is the TV and film industry finally ready to include smell as well as vision and sound? Israelibased company iRomaScents thinks so. Jenny Priestley puts her nose to the ground to find out more

The idea of using technology to help film and TV viewers smell what they’re seeing on screen has been around almost as long as moving pictures themselves. Smell-o-vision came to prominence in the 1960s with the release of the film Scent of a Mystery, which injected 30 different odours into a cinema’s seats when triggered by the film’s soundtrack. But it never really caught on with either filmmakers or viewers. iRomaScents is aiming to bring the idea into the 21st century with the development of a device that releases a tightly directed dose of scent, called a “whiff”, either on demand or in sync with a video.

“iRomaScents is the next generation of movies,”

states the company’s CEO Avner Gal. “When we go to a cinema or we watch movies at home we see and we hear. But in real life, we see, hear and smell. So the smell sense is missing and we believe it is not used enough for entertainment purposes. That’s what we’re going to change.”

Rather than pumping odours into a huge auditorium, iRomaScents is designed as a personal device, containing 45 different scents. “We’re not looking to lead a revolution in how cinemas are built, because it’s costly and it takes time,” adds Gal. “We’ve built the device in such a way that it is for personal use. It sits on the armrest in between the chairs, but it’s directed only to the viewer of a particular chair. The idea is, when you buy a ticket, if you don’t want the scent for some reason, you don’t order it, or if the chair is not occupied, the device would not work. The technology is connected to the ticketing software in order to make it more efficient and effective.”

The device itself is automated, with the team developing a ‘scenttrack’ that sits alongside the soundtrack. “You won’t smell every single second of the film, because you don’t want the olfactory system to become saturated,” explains Gal.

“The scenttrack is synchronised with what’s happening on the screen and it’s programmed to whiff the specific scent which is relevant for that scene. The main computer would sit in the projection room and trigger all the active devices. Once the film starts, they will release a whiff whenever it’s needed.”

Gal envisions a time when films arrive in cinemas with the scenttrack embedded alongside the soundtrack. But until that happens, there are thousands of films that can be watched at home that can make use of the device. “Viewers would have their own device at home,” he explains, “again, we will have to work together with the companies that are producing these films to create the scenttrack offline and then embed it through the streamer. For that we will have a connection between our device and the streaming service.”

“The viewer would either buy the device or lease it. We don’t have a definite figure to buy it at the moment, but I would say it will be in the ballpark of about $500,” he continues. “People pay more than that for a smartphone, so it’s a very reasonable price.”

Viewers would also need to buy the drum, the rounded container that sits within the device and contains the scent. “We know 45 different scents cannot be sufficient for all the movies in the world, but according to our study, a single drum is definitely good enough and more than enough for a particular film genre,” states Gal. “So the idea is that we have a different drum for each genre, and in some cases, it can contain even two or three genres in one drum. When you decide which film you want to watch, the device recognises if the drum that it currently has embedded is the right one and if not, it will alert you to replace it.”

As to how long each drum will last, Gal suggests that if a cinema is projecting one film five times a day, seven days a week, the drum would need replacing on average every other week. “The same applies for the battery,” he adds. “Again, in order not to create a revolution in the cinemas and start wiring it in, the device works on a heavy capacity battery, which can also run for two weeks.”

Asked why he believes iRomaScents will succeed where others have failed, Gal cites the fact that his device is personal. “In those early trials back in the 1960s they tried different ways to deliver the scent of a film. One was using the air conditioning system, injecting scent into a hole. The problem with that was they had to use a big amount of scent! For example, if there’s a scene where someone is eating a banana, and in the next scene someone else is drinking coffee, because of the amount of molecules still in the air, the smell from the first scene won’t fade away fast enough.

“With our device, the amount of scent that we’re using is relatively small, so it stays in the air for a lot less time. Each one of the scents has its own nozzle. When we started to think about this solution, we came relatively very quickly to the conclusion that the only way that it can work is if the device is for personal use. And that’s the major change.”

The iRomaScents team will be undertaking some pilot tests in the coming months, and expect to launch to the market in early 2023. They will be showing the device at IBC 2022. n

Avner Gal

FROM ZERO TO 50 WITH REMOTE PRODUCTION

By Pablo Reyes, chief production officer and partner at Quality Media Producciones

Launching our company in early 2017, during the industry’s worst financial crisis, meant that we had to adapt our business model to incorporate remote IP production or perish. With broadcasters’ budgets at an all-time low and pressure to provide high-quality content at an all-time high, traditional workflow proposals were too expensive.

We had to find a way to produce top quality remote productions without passing on the cost of a full crew and OB van to our clients. In just five years, we have scaled our business from zero to over 50 broadcasters and sports federation customers worldwide, including International Federations, such as FIFA, FIBA, FINA, IWF, and Rugby Europe.

We’ve utilised Dejero EnGo transmitters since day one and have now deployed approximately 120 units, all over the world; from Brazil to Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia to Dominican Republic, USA to Austria; and in Poland and Ukraine. We have also built a number of central hubs and OB trucks that are equipped with Dejero receivers so that we can receive camera feeds from any location and distribute them anywhere.

With EnGo, which blends cellular networks from multiple carriers, we do not have to rely on laying cables or parking a satellite truck on site in order to gain the resilient connectivity required to transmit high quality video for a live production; nor do we need to bring producers, directors, graphics operators, technicians, or other onsite staff to the venue. This alone saves between 60-75 per cent of the set-up time and cost of a traditional workflow.

Recently, I’ve been in the Dominican Republic working with the Dominican Republic government, national television stations and local federations. If you think about the time it would have taken to get a multicamera OB truck that is usually based in Spain, for example, across to the Dominican Republic, it would take weeks by sea freight plus the logistical challenges of customs and insurance.

Using our remote production model, all we needed to do was fly out EnGo transmitters and cameras with our camera operators and talent. We were ready to roll within 48 hours of landing. Everyone else involved in a production like this stays at home or in the office, as the EnGo is able to

The Dejero EnGo mobile transmitter is at the heart of Quality’s acquisition from the field transmit high-quality live camera feeds in real time, without interruption, back to the hub for packaging and distribution. Again, 60-75 per cent of the production team now remain at the hub, saving thousands on hotel bills, airfares, logistics and expenses, let alone the time it takes for a full production crew to travel there and back. I’ve also found the EnGo is incredibly simple to use – you just turn it on and go – no matter how remote or crowded the location may be, because it cleverly finds the most reliable connectivity paths in the background. The EnGo transmits over multiple IP networks to reliably deliver exceptional picture quality with extremely low latency; even in challenging network conditions. We simply don’t have to worry. I believe that no other mobile transmitter on the market can offer the resilience that Dejero’s EnGo does. Having tested similar devices, it’s the only transmitter that can transmit 10-12 hours continuously without any interruption. We’re currently working with a customer to plan the live coverage of a major US sports league. With a traditional OB truck, the cost per game would average $35,000, but with our remote production model, which includes multiple EnGo transmitters, we can reduce that cost to $20,000. With 80 games in a season they could be looking at a saving of around $1.2 million. n