WELCOME & CONTENTS EDITOR’S COMMENT Catch my d-Rift
WHAT ARE we to make of last month’s news of the purchase of Oculus VR by Facebook? In case you missed the story, Mark Zuckerberg’s social network has paid $2 billion for the virtual reality gaming company, which makes the Oculus Rift headset. It’s a familiar enough story in the tech world: lowly start-up (Oculus has
only been in existence a couple of years) gets bought by major industry player for eye-watering amounts of cash and shares, the founders are made for life, and the major player gets another string to its bow. Of course, a deal like this makes a lot of business sense – it catapults the company into a whole new league, and enables it to develop far faster than it could have done otherwise. Oculus Rift was originally developed through a Kickstarter crowdfunding programme – and although it raised far more than its original target (nearly $2.5 million compared with $250,000), this is a drop in the ocean compared with what Facebook has injected. The move has had its share of controversy, though. A number of
‘Many people –
including Zuckerberg – clearly believe that the company that gets VR technology
right will have massive success’
developers who worked on Rift applications when it was a fledgling company don’t approve of Facebook’s ways of doing business, have accused Oculus’ founders of selling out, and say they want to have nothing more to do with it. Some people went as far as to suggest that development would be slower under Facebook’s ownership than before the acquisition. What do Facebook’s plans for Oculus technology entail? The first applications are going to be in gaming, but Mark Zuckerberg said at the time of the announcement that subsequently, “we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face – just by putting on goggles in your home.” There’s clearly a huge amount of potential here. The worlds of virtual
reality (and its cousin, augmented reality) have been slow to take off – hampered by things such as poorly performing hardware, ineffective motion tracking and, of course, motion sickness. Many people – including Zuckerberg – clearly believe that the company that gets the technology right will have massive success. They may be right – it could be that the underlying technology can now
deliver what is required. But I’d also like to sound a cautionary note: I think there’s a parallel with what happened to stereoscopic 3D in recent years. Yes, there were almost limitless applications for it, but to succeed in any of them, the benefits have to outweigh the downsides. That wasn’t always the case, so the result was that its appeal turned out to be rather more selective than many people initially thought. If Oculus turns out only to have one or two niche applications, that doesn’t necessarily matter to Facebook – one can imagine these being a goldmine on their own. But as an industry we should listen carefully to the voice of the customer before racing off in a given direction.
Paddy Baker, Editor, Installation –
paddy.baker@
intentmedia.co.uk
NEWS & DATA 4 News 8 Appointments 10 InstallAwards: Finalists revealed 14 Expos and events 16 Data: Winter Olympics provides boost to digital signage market
PEOLPLE 18 Virginia Cheng, managing director of BenQ Europe, talks DLP domination
SHOW REVIEW Prolight + Sound p20
FEATURES 26 Unified communications: Evolution continues as collaboration becomes the norm
30 Concert venues: Specifying for different sized venues
36 Tiled displays: Despite competition from LCD displays the market remains strong
40 Regional voices: UK
EVENT 42 InstallMarket: Keynote speaker announced
SHOW PREVIEW PLASA Focus: Leeds p44
TECHNOLOGY 46 New products 50 Showcase: Cabling and connectors
SOLUTIONS 55 Digital Humanities Hub, University of Birmingham: Digital technology benefits visitors and organisers alike
58 Booom! Ibiza: Pioneer makes its club audio debut
60 Saphyre, Belfast: High-end restaurant invests in control
Cover image courtesy of Planar Systems
www.installation-international.com
April 2014 3
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