Zee secures US patent for tech platform that satisfies 5senses

Media house Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEE) Monday said that it has secured US patent for a technology platform developed by its Silicon Valley arm Zee Media Labs that claims to satisfy all the five senses.

Developed in the Silicon Valley, it is built on robust technologies like 3D audio, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), digital scent, holograms and touch, and aims to transform the viewers' home environment by providing an immersive experience.

"We are transforming very quickly into a tech company and with this first US patent, we have taken a pioneering step that no other media firm has been able to do so far. We've integrated all the five senses into the content to enhance and improve the content consuming experience," Z5 global chief executive Amit Goenka told PTI.

The technology will also enable the viewers to touch, feel, smell and experience products, with a seamless e- commerce transaction ecosystem.

"We filed our patent early last year and got them last week. We've been working on it for two-and-a-half years and we've progressed a lot more since we filed the patent in terms of where the platform is today and expect to commercially launch it over the next 12 months in some Western markets," Goenka added.

He said to enjoy the immersive experience, 5G broadband is needed apart from a hardware ecosystem that supports VR or headsets or digital scent device. While such an ecosystem is available in US and British markets now, it hasn't even started entering the domestic or emerging markets.

The company is also looking at creating experience centres over the next six months and will look at the US, Britain, Japan and China first as these are far evolved in these technologies.

He further said one or two senses may be launched supported by 4G in the country but the full fledged launch will need 5G.

Zee is also looking at setting up three experience centres over the next five to six months in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, he added.

"We've plans to open three centres in the country before March apart from a few international centres as well," he said adding on international front they are looking at 30- 35 centres in four-five markets.

Zee is also open to collaborations and Goenka said, "on the technology side, I don't think we can be exclusive to our own platform. We've to work with partners, now whether they are OTTs or pure tech companies or both or content companies, we will look at that."