There are few better places to show off a luxury car than the recent Cannes Film Festival – especially one fitted with an 8K rear cinema screen, immersive Dolby Atmos audio and a flagship sound system from Bowers & Wilkins.
BMW was the official mobility partner of the Cannes Film Festival for the fifth year running, providing more than 150 electrified vehicles to shuttle actors, directors and guests around the Côte d’Azur, with a chance to showcase its updated 7-Series.
The new car saw BMW, Dolby and Bowers & Wilkins demonstrating how premium automotive audio is evolving into something far closer to a home cinema experience, with showgoers able to experience Dolby Atmos through both an interactive headphone activation and inside the 7-Series itself, where the Bowers & Wilkins audio system forms a key part of the car’s immersive entertainment set-up.
With the car’s Theatre Screen – effectively an 8K fold-down cinema display integrated into the rear cabin – the Dolby Atmos and the Bowers & Wilkins tech, this is the most enveloping in-car cinematic experience we’ve seen in a long time.
It’s also a direction BMW has been steadily building towards. Earlier this year, the company added Global Player and ITVX streaming support to its in-car app ecosystem, allowing drivers and passengers to watch content directly through the vehicle while parked. It also echoes a wider shift discussed recently during the FT Live Future of the Car summit in London, where Dolby’s vice president Arkin Kol said: “Music is emotional. A car is emotional. When you blend both of them, it really intensifies.”
Cannes feels like the perfect place to demonstrate exactly what he meant.
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