Interest

Nico Nico Plans Event Hall with Ceilling/Wall Screens

Niwango, the company that runs the video-sharing website Nico Nico Douga, announced on Sunday that it and its parent company Dwango are planning to build a live event hall in Tokyo's trendy Roppongi district. The nicofarre hall will have giant LED monitors on the ceiling and four walls, which will immerse visitors in seemingly full 360 degrees of Nico Nico Douga's signature scrolling comments from online users. Niwango made the announcement at its "Nico Nico Daikagi 2011 in Taiwan -Kansha•Kangeki•Kandō•Taiwan-" fan appreciation event in Taipei, and it plans to hold the first event at Nicofarre in late July.

The new hall will open in the vacant space where the popular velfarre disco hall once attracted throngs of young people until it closed in 2007. When remodeling ends at a cost of several hundred million yen (several million US dollars), the 764.1-square-meter (8,225-square-foot) hall will have a standing room capacity of about 250 people. In addition to live concerts and events with human performers and virtual characters, the hall will stream Nico Nico Douga's live programs in real time.

(To turn off the superimposed comments in the video, select the word balloon icon in the bottom right corner of the video.)

Sources: Asahi Shimbun, Sankei, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web