SPONSOR-A-SEAT INITIATIVE HELPS SAFFRON SCREEN HIT FUNDRAISING TARGET

Saffron Screen thanks community for raising over £5,000 by sponsoring cinema seats.

Thanks to the generosity of the wonderful community in Saffron Walden and beyond, Saffron Screen has raised over £5,000 from their Sponsor-A-Seat initiative to fund cutting edge technology that will hugely increase accessibility for cinema-goers.

The specialised equipment puts Saffron Screen at the forefront of cinema technology – it is one of the first cinemas in the whole country to adopt this innovative system, which uses smart glasses to provide personalised captions in cinema for D/deaf, deafened, and hard of hearing cinema audiences whenever they need.

This ‘on-demand’ service offers audiences who need captions a much greater variety of films to choose from at the cinema. By significantly increasing the availability of accessible screenings, caption users can choose which film to watch based on its title, rather than its time slot.

Saffron Screen customers will be able to book the smart glasses in advance. The glasses are designed to be worn over normal glasses and alongside hearing aids and cochlear implant processors. The captions appear on the glasses lens, making it possible to watch the film and read the captions without having to look away from the screen and miss out on any of the action.

To raise the £5,000 required to purchase the technology and glasses, Saffron Screen offered individuals and organisations the opportunity to Sponsor-A-Seat.

Jason Bond, Business Manager said: “We’d like to say a huge thank you to every single person who sponsored a seat or contributed to our fundraising drive. We cannot wait for our audiences to try this fantastic new technology – it really is a game-changer for cinema accessibility and we are delighted to be one of the first cinema’s in the entire country to adopt this technology!”

Work is already underway to install & implement this technology and we hope to have them ready for you in the next few months. Please keep an eye on our website for further details.