The Fox Innovation Lab was

Twentieth Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

's research and development center, located in Los Angeles. Working across all film and television divisions, the lab was created in 2014 as a hub for

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

's short- and long-term projects aimed at producing new consumer technologies and experiences. Hanno Basse, CTO, Twentieth Century Fox and Danny Kaye, Executive Vice President, global research and

technology strategy Technology strategy (information technology strategy or IT strategy) is the overall plan which consists of objectives, principles and tactics relating to use of technologies within a particular organization. Such strategies primarily focus on the ...

, co-managed the Lab. In March 2019, Fox was acquired by Disney, and Fox laid off about 4,000 employees, including both Basse and Kaye. The Lab was focused on

4K Ultra HD Ultra-high-definition television (also known as Ultra HD television, Ultra HD, UHDTV, UHD and Super Hi-Vision) today includes 4K UHD and 8K UHD, which are two digital video formats with an aspect ratio of 16:9. These were first proposed by ...

with HDR, TV, digital content

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

s, and

mobile content Mobile content is any type of web hypertext and information content and electronic media which is viewed or used on mobile phones, like text, sound, ringtones, graphics, flash, discount offers, mobile games, movies, and GPS navigation. As mobile ph ...

delivery systems. Announced at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin in September 2014,

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

was the Lab's first commercial partner. In 2016, The Fox Innovation Lab released The Martian VR Experience, a

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...

experience based on the 2015 film The Martian, that was

executive produced Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

by Ridley Scott and Joel Newton and directed by Robert Stromberg. The Martian VR debuted at

CES 2016 CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...

and was then accepted into the New Frontier Program at the Sundance Film Festival. The project also received a

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...

Silver Lion in Digital Craft as well as the

Association of Independent Commercial Producers The Association of Independent Commercial Producers, or AICP, is an American not for profit organization that represents the interests of United States companies that specialize in commercial production. Its members work in various media—film, v ...

(AICP) Next VR Award. As an outgrowth of the Lab’s VR work, Fox in 2017 launched a new business unit,

FoxNext FoxNext, LLC was a virtual reality and theme park unit of 20th Century Fox, now known as 20th Century Studios. It was established in 2017 prior to Disney's acquisition of Fox and operates under the Disney Parks, Experiences and Products unit of ...

, which not only worked on VR and AR, but also on location-based entertainment and gaming. In March 2018, Kaye said that while the Lab was initially a studio-only endeavor, based on its early successes its scope has since expanded to work across the entire 21st Century Fox company, from Fox Sports to FX Networks, from the Fox Networks Group to National Geographic. In January 2020, FoxNext was sold to

Scopely Scopely, Inc is an interactive entertainment company and mobile-first video game developer and publisher. The company is headquartered in Culver City, California, with offices in Barcelona, Spain; Boulder, Colorado; Dublin, Ireland; London, Englan ...

References

{{Region 1 home video 20th Century Studios 2014 establishments in California