New Cathay Cineplex to open at Parkway Parade, will cater to hearing- & visually-impaired

Other than being convenient for Easties, this is a big step forward for differently-abled movie goers.

Guan Zhen Tan | August 18, 2017, 07:39 PM

You might have heard the news by now, a new cinema will be opening at Parkway Parade come September 2017.

This will be the eighth Cathay Cineplex to open in Singapore.

There will be seven spacious halls that can comfortably accommodate 880 cinema-goers, with advanced visual digital projection and Dolby Surround Sound technology.

Pretty neat, but one thing that's more impressive than that is their Assistive Listening Device system for hearing and visually-impaired individuals.

An inclusive movie-going experience

According to a press release from Cathay Cineplexes, the system uses infrared to provide clear high-quality sounds with maximum intelligibility. It's also designed for low distortion and high clarity.

Not much is known about this assistive system for now, but a quick look at how a similar system is used in movie theatres overseas might allow us a preview of what is to come:

It's still uncertain how exactly it will be like for this particular cineplex in Cathay — will it have the closed-captioning device we see in this video, for example?

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One thing's for sure, however, movie dates with friends can get even more inclusive with these new technologies.

Netflix has shaken up the movie industry, but you've got to admit, this is a pretty smart move to help attract differently-abled movie-goers, who may have been neglected in the cinema's industry ever-evolving form and format.

 

Top image courtesy of Cathay Cineplexes

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