Vancouver’s Departure Lounge has entered into a lease and education collaboration agreement with the Centre for Digital Media to develop a Metaverse Innovation Centre.
Departure Lounge will house its range of Metaverse-related technology solutions, including its recently announced state-of-the-art Metastage volumetric capture stage, on campus at the CDM.
The facility is expected to be used as a catalyst for a range of work-integrated learning and research opportunities including students, faculty, and the community of digital content creators across the province.
Earlier this year Departure Lounge and Los Angeles’ Metastage announced that they had been selected by Microsoft as the exclusive licensee for its volumetric capture technology in Western Canada. Metastage Canada will be the first 4D holographic capture facility in the region to bring humans into the metaverse.
RELATED: Vancouver Enters The Metaverse With 4D Holographic Capture Facility
Located in East Vancouver on the False Creek Flats, the CDM was established in 2007 through a ground-breaking education consortium of four leading academic institutions: University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia Institute of Technology and Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
The CDM will collaborate with Departure Lounge and other industry and community-based partners to develop Metaverse-related micro-credentials and other programs to help address skilled labor shortages and ensure resources are made available to a broad cross-section of the community.
“Our founding team has enjoyed working with CDM students, alumni, and faculty on many collaborative projects over the years, and I am pleased that we have been able to establish our Departure Lounge Vancouver HQ at the heart of such a thriving digital media community,” said James Hursthouse, CEO at Departure Lounge.
“Departure Lounge and our partners will take an active role in promoting industry academic partnerships and helping to develop the next generation of digital creative talent here in BC as we embrace the opportunity represented by the Metaverse and new frontiers in immersive content development.”
Hursthouse also sits on the recently launched DigiBC Micro-Credentials Industry Advisory Committee, an initiative between DigiBC and BC public post-secondary institutions to develop innovative creative technology training in BC to address skills gaps identified by employers.
“We are thrilled that Departure Lounge has chosen to locate the new Metastage at the CDM,” said Dr. Ted Gervan, Managing Director of Academic and Business Operations at the CDM. “For the last 15 years, we have emphasized the importance of experiential learning through industry project courses, as well as the importance of inclusion and diversity in digital media production. Departure Lounge’s Metastage initiative will help grow these opportunities for CDM’s teaching and learning community.”
Departure Lounge is seeking expressions of interest from other potential collaborators.
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