Recently, my car got to ride in an elevator. The way into Cinemo’s underground garage is via a freight elevator that is barely larger than a passenger car. I had only experienced something like that in Budapest in the mid-90s. It was not only a very original start to the Cinemo Press Days, where the software specialist, which usually works behind the scenes, wanted to show some exciting projects to a wider public. The procedure was also symbolic of the mission behind the developments: Cinemo wants to take driving to a new level with limitless streaming possibilities.
The company’s history begins back in Nero’s time. But not with the Roman emperor who let his capital go up in flames, but in 1994 with the software company named after him, whose ingenious claim some will probably never forget: “Nero – Burning ROM”. Nero was THE program of choice for burning CDs or DVDs at the time. Cinemo is a spin-off of the company, which is also based in Karlsruhe. There, a team of specialists develops solutions for in-car entertainment and the connected home.
The founder of Nero, Richard Lesser, served as CEO until 2008 and now manages the fortunes of the new company, which feels right at home in Karlsruhe, partly due to its direct proximity to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The overused term “hidden champion,” which applies to many medium-sized companies in Germany, fits Cinemo perfectly. Although the Karlsruhe-based company remains largely silent about its customers, it works with manufacturers such as Škoda, Renault, and numerous other companies in the automotive industry to take audio and video streaming to a new level. What they showed us during a press day at the company’s premises certainly raises high expectations.
From DVD burners to automotive software
Cinemo’s origins lie deep in multimedia technology. Even back in the Nero days, they were intensively involved with topics such as video playback, audio processing, and media management across a wide variety of codecs. It was precisely these competencies that eventually led automotive manufacturers to take notice of the company.
This is because modern vehicles increasingly developed into rolling entertainment hubs. Blu-ray playback, media management, smartphone integration, and later streaming services presented requirements that classic automotive suppliers often couldn’t solve at the time. This is exactly where Cinemo was founded as an independent company in 2008.
Today, more than 300 employees from over 40 nations work for the Karlsruhe-based company, around 80 percent of whom are software engineers. The technical orientation is palpable throughout the entire company. The focus is on stable, scalable, and at the same time highly flexible software solutions that must function reliably in vehicles worldwide.
Cinemo software is in every third car
The extent of Cinemo’s influence has surprised even industry experts. More than 180 million vehicles worldwide already use technologies from the Karlsruhe-based company. Over 40 OEM partners rely on the company’s software solutions, including manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Renault, Škoda, and NIO. Mathematically, software from Cinemo is in about every third car driving worldwide. Particularly noteworthy: many users are probably not even aware that they interact with the company’s solutions every day. This is because Cinemo usually works invisibly in the background.
The Karlsruhe-based company provides technologies for, for example:
- Media management
- Video playback
- Smartphone projection
- Apple CarPlay
- Android Automotive
- Multi-screen systems
- Cloud-based media integration
- Dolby Atmos integration
- AI-powered media control
Innovations since 2009
Cinemo’s development history reads almost like a chronicle of modern automotive infotainment systems. As early as 2009, the company developed the first digital automotive media solution with interoperable collaboration between operating systems and SoCs. In 2011, the first fully software-based multi-screen solution for cinema-like experiences in the vehicle followed.
In 2012, Cinemo presented an ultra-fast media management solution that could search and index content simultaneously. One year later, the first so-called “built-to-order” architecture was created. This allowed vehicle manufacturers to configure and customize functions much more flexibly.
In 2016, Cinemo launched the first cloud-based content system in the automotive sector, which could be controlled via a single software interface. In 2019, a backend infrastructure followed, where music services can be updated without the vehicle software itself needing an update.
Later, hardware-accelerated embedded browsers, cross-platform screen mirroring for premium content, and finally AI-powered media recognition systems were added.
Cinemo CORE, CARS, and Cloud Services
Technically, Cinemo now divides its portfolio into several areas. Cinemo CORE is particularly important. This is a flexible middleware platform for multimedia applications. Simply put, OEM partners receive a modular toolbox from which they can select exactly those functions they need for their respective vehicle platform.
Building on this, Cinemo CARS expands Android Automotive OS in particular with additional multimedia and integration functions. Especially when it comes to topics like Bring Your Own Device, premium audio, or Dolby Atmos, Google’s standard platform often reaches its limits. Cinemo provides additional software layers here that allow vehicle manufacturers to differentiate themselves.
Cinemo Cloud Services seem particularly exciting. Instead of updating apps and content locally in the vehicle, many functions are managed directly from the cloud. This allows new features or regional adjustments to be provided often without a classic software update.
From the car to the living room
But Cinemo has long been thinking beyond the vehicle. In the future, the Karlsruhe-based company wants to bring its technologies increasingly into the connected home. The idea behind it: media should move completely seamlessly between the car and the home in the future.
A typical example: a user listens to an album at home and later continues playback in the car at exactly the same point. Technically, this sounds simple at first, but in reality, it involves highly complex synchronization of a wide variety of platforms, services, and cloud systems.
Cinemo’s approach of bringing content and services closer together is particularly interesting. So far, music, podcast, and video services mostly exist in separate ecosystems. Users constantly jump back and forth between apps, logins, and user interfaces.
Cinemo wants to break up this fragmentation. The experience gained from the automotive sector in integrating a wide variety of media sources is intended to ensure a much simpler user experience in the living room in the future.
Cloud instead of overloaded hardware
Cinemo is pursuing an interesting approach here: the actual intelligence is increasingly located in the cloud and no longer in the end device itself. As a result, streaming speakers or home systems require less local computing power. Functions, interfaces, and content are managed centrally and updated dynamically.
This benefits not only end customers but also hardware manufacturers and content providers. Changes to user interfaces or new functions can be rolled out quickly without users having to install new apps or perform complicated firmware updates.
According to Cinemo, more than 20 content providers are already cooperating with the Karlsruhe-based company. At the same time, OEM partners can flexibly adapt their products to regional content and services depending on the market.
Invisible, but enormously influential
Cinemo is one of those companies whose name is hardly known to most consumers, even though their technologies have long been used millions of times. That’s exactly why the press day in Karlsruhe was so exciting: you get a rare insight into the software layer that makes modern entertainment in the car, and perhaps in the home in the future, possible in the first place.
And that is probably where the Karlsruhe-based company’s greatest strength lies: Cinemo doesn’t develop visible prestige products, but infrastructures. Previously invisible to the user, but crucial for ensuring that music, movies, and content work as seamlessly as possible between the vehicle, smartphone, and home today. If everything goes according to plan, the hidden champion will go public later this year with its own smartphone app, which bundles various services so conveniently that you can, for example, search for specific titles across all your services in this one app. If the software then delivers what the demonstrated beta version promises, it will abruptly end the anonymity of the Karlsruhe-based company. We’ll stay on top of the topic.
Further information: www.cinemo.com
