YOMOV Named “Best Free-Roam VR Operator of the Year” at the 2026 SIVA Awards

From September 9 to 11, the 2026 Shenzhen International VR/AR Expo, jointly hosted by the China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE) and the Shenzhen International VR/AR Expo (SIVA), was held at the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center in Bao’an, Shenzhen. With “Inflection Point” as its theme, this year’s expo brought together companies from across the VR/AR industry chain and focused on the critical moment when technology, content, and applications move toward large-scale adoption.

At the awards ceremony, offline free-roam VR cinema brand YOMOV received the “Best Free-Roam VR Operator of the Year” award. The award shifts the industry’s focus beyond individual devices or projects to how content can be reliably screened, how cinemas can be operated efficiently, and how audiences can naturally step into a “film you can play.”

From “being able to experience it” to “being able to operate it sustainably,” free-roam VR is entering the cinema-chain stage.

According to reports, the “Best Free-Roam VR Operator of the Year” award had five recipients this year. YOMOV’s win reflects the industry’s growing focus on free-roam operations systems and long-term delivery capabilities.

From Devices to Cinema Chains: The Leap in Operational Value

YOMOV is an offline free-roam VR cinema brand offering multiplayer, walk-through VR immersive experiences, with the goal of becoming a benchmark for participatory films and next-generation cinema chains. The core challenges it addresses are far from simple: Can venues of different sizes and shapes reliably accommodate different content using the same methodology? When audiences arrive without advance planning, can they enter at any time, just as they would walk into a cinema?

YOMOV’s answer is proprietary high space-utilization distribution technology and a complete operations system. Through route management and spatial adaptation, content can be matched to different venues within a reasonable capacity range, achieving an operating efficiency of approximately 6 square meters per person. During screenings, walk-in entry is supported, with no need to limit admission by showtime or require audiences to wait.

Turning an Experience into a Complete Journey

From ticket purchase, reservations, and ticket validation to group assignment and screenings, and from device status and content deployment to team formation and real-time voice communication, YOMOV’s ticketing system, playback and control system, creator SDK, cinema support services, and content library together form a complete delivery chain. Operations staff can manage complex scenarios involving multiple cinemas, rooms, and pieces of content through a unified backend, while content providers no longer need to repeatedly invest in adaptation and development for each cinema.

After the experience, YOMOV’s post-experience sharing system generates personalized videos and photos, naturally extending a shared adventure to social media platforms. For audiences, it preserves the highlights; for cinemas, it turns a single purchase into a gateway for attracting the next visit.

From Individual Experiences to a Distribution Network

YOMOV currently has nearly 100 cinemas in operation and distributes more than 40 titles. When content, cinemas, and systems form a network, a cinema chain becomes more than just a name: the same capabilities can be replicated across more cities, giving more content the opportunity to be seen through a stable offline network.

For hardware manufacturers and cinema operators, YOMOV provides ticketing, playback and control, route management, and an operations backend. For content developers, YOMOV provides Unity and Unreal SDKs, content licensing, and copyright distribution protection. Once infrastructure is standardized, creators can devote more energy to storytelling, while cinema operators can focus more on service.

Policy and Industry Coordinates: The Inflection Point for Free-Roam VR Operations

The “Inflection Point” theme of SIVA 2026 corresponds to the shift in the XR industry from conceptual excitement toward real-world applications. YOMOV’s receipt of the “Best Free-Roam VR Operator of the Year” award sends a clear signal: the competitiveness of free-roam VR lies not only in delivering an impressive one-time technology showcase, but also in whether content, space, and operations can be organized into a sustainable consumer experience.

When audiences can step into a “film you can play” at any time, and content can be distributed across cinemas, free-roam VR will truly have infrastructure comparable to that of cinema chains. YOMOV’s award represents a milestone confirmation of this path.