The Global XR Content Telco Alliance, led by LG Uplus and Other 5G-enabled Telcos, to “Take their Customers to Space” Beginning Fall 2020
Groundbreaking immersive production Space Explorers: the ISS Experience is produced in partnership with TIME Studios
SEOUL, Republic of Korea and MONTREAL, Sept. 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Global XR Content Telco Alliance, joined by LG Uplus, KDDI, China Telecom, and Qualcomm Technologies, and Felix & Paul Studios, the EMMY-award winning creator of immersive entertainment experiences, today announced a co-financing and distribution deal for Felix & Paul Studios’ upcoming season of its Space Explorers series, entitled The ISS Experience, produced in partnership with TIME Studios. The newly formed Alliance becomes a co-financing partner of this groundbreaking production--chronicling life on the International Space Station, including the first-ever spacewalk captured in fully-immersive, live-action virtual reality (VR). Additionally, several Alliance members have signed on to distribute the experience to their subscribers in immersive mobile 360-degree format with more distribution partnerships to follow. In addition to its founding members, the Alliance is in active conversation with several other telcos to grow its members in the coming months.
“The Global XR Content Telco Alliance was formed to invest in the storytelling possibilities of 5G and entertainment media and to deliver the most compelling and highest quality content to viewers in 5G-enabled regions,” said leaders responsible for 5G XR at LG Uplus on behalf of the Global XR Content Telco Alliance. “Felix & Paul Studios is the leader in immersive entertainment and the next season of their Space Explorers series--chronicling life aboard and outside the International Space Station--will be groundbreaking. We are thrilled that this is the first content deal for our alliance, enabling us to distribute high-quality, highly engaging content to customers on 5G networks in fully-immersive, 360-degree mobile format.”
Space Explorers is an EMMY-nominated immersive entertainment series, chronicling the lives of astronauts as they adapt to life in space. The latest season of Space Explorers is produced by Felix & Paul Studios and TIME Studios in collaboration with the ISS U.S. National Laboratory, NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and other space agencies involved with the International Space Station. Felix & Paul Studios and TIME Studios have been filming aboard the International Space Station with 3D, 360° virtual reality cameras since January 2019, capturing the experience of various astronauts, including the recent arrival of the SpaceX Falcon9 commercial crew. The ISS Experience will chronicle life aboard the International Space Station and will culminate in viewers experiencing a spacewalk side by side with an astronaut in fully-immersive virtual reality.
“Space Explorers: The ISS Experience is the most ambitious project our studio has ever embarked upon, and is also the longest, most involved and most immersive narrative project ever filmed in space,” said Félix Lajeunesse, co-founder of Felix & Paul Studios and Emmy-winning creative director of the Space Explorers series. “We are thrilled to be distributing our upcoming 4-episode season to a global audience through this amazing group of telco partners. Our vision for this project was to take billions of minds to space, and this is one giant leap in that direction.”
“At a moment when so much of the work we’re doing at TIME is focussed on our challenges here on Earth, it’s an incredible vote of confidence to have The Global XR Content Telco Alliance backing work we first started in 2016,” said Jonathan Woods, Executive Producer for the ISS Experience at TIME Studios and Emmy-winning producer of A Year in Space. “Working on this project has been a labor of love and we are thrilled to see it reaching a global audience.”
The premiere of Space Explorers: The ISS Experience will take place in the Fall of 2020, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of continuous human existence aboard the International Space Station. A trailer can be found here and preview stills can be found here. The first two episodes of the Space Explorers series--Space Explorers: A New Dawn and Space Explorers: Taking Flight--are available in 3D, 360-degree virtual reality on the Oculus Store.
About Felix & Paul Studios
Felix & Paul Studios is an EMMY® Award-winning creator of immersive entertainment experiences, creating unparalleled, highly engaging and inspired virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality experiences for audiences worldwide.
Felix & Paul Studios combines a patent-pending technology platform with award-winning creative expertise to produce groundbreaking immersive experiences, including:
- Collaborations with world-renowned leaders and performers: NASA, SpaceX, President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, LeBron James, President Bill Clinton, Eminem, Wes Anderson, Brie Larson, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray and many others.
- Originals: The Space Explorers series, Traveling While Black, MIYUBI, the Nomads series, Strangers with Patrick Watson and The Confessional series; and
- Productions with existing franchises: Jurassic World, Cirque du Soleil and Fox Searchlight’s Wild and Isle of Dogs.
The studio’s content is available for distribution in a range of formats including virtual reality (VR), 360-degree mobile, 360-degree dome projection, traveling VR exhibitions and 16:9 video viewing and a groundbreaking augmented reality (AR) experience is also in production.
With its forthcoming season of Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, Felix & Paul Studios is the only media company recognized as an “Official Implementation Partner” by the ISS U.S. National Laboratory.
About TIME Studios
TIME Studios is the Emmy award-winning television and film division of TIME, the global media brand that reaches a combined audience of more than 90 million around the world. Built on the foundation of TIME’s award-winning visual journalism, which has earned over 52 major awards and nominations in the last seven years, as well as 577 million video streams across all platforms in 2019, Emmy-winning TIME Studios harnesses the access and authority of one of the world’s most trusted and respected brands to bring premium truth-based programming to television and film around the world, while continuing to push the boundaries of journalism and visual storytelling through new cutting-edge mediums including virtual reality and augmented reality.
Media Contact
Connie Kuang
Director of Marketing
connie@felixandpaul.com
Jeff Lambert
EGS Group
514-519-8754
jl@egspr.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e52df6e8-1c97-4e64-8e20-146676e1a6b1