INTERVIEW: STUART HETHERINGTON, HOLOVIS
sun and a moon light source, so we can replicate the intensity of the sunlight and of the moon reflection. It’s a complex testing environment and only two companies in the world can do it: a traditional military company, and us.
A HoloVis immersive dome solution at Linköping University, Sweden – here showing synapses in the brain (Picture: Sofia Andersson, M&F Foto)
can go up against people way bigger than us but dominate the sales process with the client by showing them the difference in our approach.
Do you have a favourite project? I think they all are. When we did the first CAVE system for Jaguar Land Rover, that was world-beating technology. It was five or six years ago, but still today it’s a system that everyone looks at and says is one of the best technological immersive solutions ever built. One the theme park side, I
would say the Italy job – a flying theatre and an immersive tunnel, two major installations. They’re high-end
systems – what we call e-ticket rides, they’re big capacity systems, they’re groundbreaking.
I understand that you’ve done work in sunlight simulation. That was a completely off-the- wall project. It was a military project where the client was testing head-up displays and GUI interfaces, and they needed to replicate all the different lighting conditions. We built a system where we flood a dome with light and use the dome to reflect it onto a prototype in the middle; and we can rotate that prototype on a turntable to any position, and can move, on an arc arm inside the dome, a
Are there any particular areas of technology that you are excited about or see as being the next frontier? We have a complete software development division – we’re innovating our own software solutions to be able to turnkey the whole thing. That’s the game changer for us. It’s about our software development and all the classic things like applications, interactivity, enhancing the user experience and making things more seamless and more transparent. So it’s that rather than
saying, for instance, is the laser projector the next big thing? We’re aware that it’s a new technology that will help us, but it’s just a tiny piece of a component of a solution.
And in terms of the application sectors for your
Stuart Hetherington –
a brief biography Stuart Hetherington graduated from De Montfort University with a degree in electronic engineering
He joined vehicle engineering consultancy MIRA in 1996, where he first worked with Joe Jurado
After leaving MIRA in 1999, he worked in simulation and
work, do you see that mix changing over the years to come? It’s always going to be something that grows, because of the way we are expanding the business. The core stuff is still manufacturing, design, automotive. Entertainment has been a massive growth area over the past four years. We are getting into things like retail, where we’re adding value through the interactive viral marketing approach to immersive solutions. We’re seeing the hotel business picking up as well: they want
visualisation in the military and oil and gas markets, before founding HoloVis in 2004 with Jurado, who became technical director
Today, the company’s UK demo suite is the only place in the world where dome theatre, CAVE and dark ride technology can be seen side by side
to change the experience around guest engagement in high-end hotels and resorts. There’s lot of other markets we could go after but it’s about being strategic in the ones that we can focus on and add massive value to – and win quickly. Medical is a huge area where we’ve dabbled with things like the MRI simulators, using immersive technology. I don’t think that’s a market that’s matured in a way it should have done, but it will over time.
www.holovis.com
www.installation-international.com
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