Business students found subtitle company
(From left) Entrepreneurs Michael Nudelman, Jason Meltzer, Han Li, Dan Birnbaum, Michael Ross and Adam Burnett look out over a balcony at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
By Claire Makepeace
Feb. 2, 2010 2:57 a.m.
After watching his grandfather struggle to hear the movies he once loved seeing in theaters, Daniel Birnbaum came up with an idea to allow deaf and hearing-impaired people to watch movies along with regular theatergoers.
Birnbaum, a second-year student at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, co-founded SightCine. SightCine is a company that will produce digital projectors along with special glasses allowing hearing-impaired people and non-English speakers to see subtitles superimposed on what is a normal movie to people without the glasses.
“The hearing impaired and deaf are almost 10 percent of the U.S. population who are really underserved in going to movies, and we are just trying to create value for them and for the movie theaters,” Birnbaum said. .
He started the project along with Jason Meltzer, a doctoral student in computer science, who is developing the technological side of the business.
Four other Anderson School students then joined the team as part of a project for their master’s thesis.
The group has been overseen by Anderson School Professor William Cockrum, an entrepreneurial professor who is positive about the prospects of the business.
“We know there’s a market (for the product),” Cockrum said.
“They have a prototype developed, and there’s interest from manufacturers as well as major film studios. It’s developing pretty quickly,” he added.
Each projector should cost around $5,000 to install, and the glasses will cost around $30, though this will be dependent on whether or not the team members decide to sell their glasses directly to consumers or to theaters, Birnbaum said.
They have secured funding to produce the technology from a professional investor based in Philadelphia.
“Securing funding has been a long process, involving pitching the idea to venture capitalists and investors, until recently we found an investor who is providing us with funding,” said Adam Burnett, an Anderson School master’s candidate and team member.
The SightCine team members are currently in talks with major movie studios about purchasing the technology.
The team is looking to release its prototype within the next three weeks.
“Movie theaters are facing a lot of pressure from the United States government on the Americans With Disabilities Act, which is adding a lot of pressure to caption more movies for the hearing impaired,” Birnbaum said.
