bmuse
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Team overviewTRANSCRIPT
Reimagine Media
We build companies that reshape the way people create and consume media.
The Mobile Era Is Upon UsNew technologies can radically change how media is produced or distributed, but what makes media
valuable remains the same: great stories and insightful information. Media either tries to move you or inform you. Technology is what creates or carries that message. You can’t have one without the other. At bMuse, we build companies and products that reshape the way people create and consume media. Our products span from new forms of video and mobile gaming to physical toys and digital publishing.
Simply put, we use technology to reimagine media. Transformations in technology are causing massive shifts in the media landscape. These include the proliferation of smartphones and mobile applications, the arrival of the tablet as a primary media consumption platform, and the rise of social networks and new forms of distribution. Each one will breed new business opportunities.
bMuse takes advantage of these shifts to develop immersive technologies and new media experiences.
The PC era is over. The mobile computing is era ramping up at an astounding rate, and new forms of immersive computing are right around the corner. Smartphones and tablets already outsell PCs. By the end of 2013, their total installed base will surpass that of PCs. And it is not just smartphones. Nearly one third of Americans now own a tablet or eReader.
In the past, media was siloed by technology: print, radio, TV, film. The future of media is immersive, multimodal, and ubiquitous. Digital bits are digital bits. They don’t care if they are carrying bits of music, bits of video, bits of text, or bits of software. Modern media experiences blend all of these together artfully.
The way technology products and companies are built today is also changing. The time and cost to design, build, and ship products has shrunk considerably over the past few years. Startup founders are taking advantage of this structural shift by building products at their kitchen tables before they even seek funding.
While it’s never been easier to start a company, it’s still difficult to build successful ones. Startups are one-off experiments. We’ve built an entire digital studio system at bMuse that scales product ideas into viable standalone businesses again and again.
We understand how media and technology can be harnessed together to tell better stories.
The mobile computing era is ramping up at an astounding rate.
Mobile Revenues Are Surging
Smartphones & Tablets Are Outselling PCs
One Third Of Americans Own A Tablet Or eReader
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2007200319991975 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 2011
Market Share of Personal Computing Platforms by Operating Systems (%)
Apple Android Atari
Commodore TRS-80
Wintel
Other
Wintel - 25%1983
Wintel - 96%1998-2005
Wintel - 35%2012E
Amiga
Source: Mary Meeker, Kleiner Perkins
The PC Era Is Over
24/7 InnovationWith 4 offices around the world, bMuse has the capacity to innovate, develop,
and build products around the clock.
LOS ANGELES Suite 227, 107 South Fair Oaks Ave. Suite 308, Pasadena, CA 91105, USA
INDIA First Floor, Amstor Building,
Technopark Campus, Technopark Road, Kazhakkoottam, Karyavattom, Kerala 695581, India
NEW YORK 603 Greenwich St. New York, NY
10014, USA
UKRAINE Zavodskaya str. 5, Zaporohye, Ukraine 69000
Our Model bMuse represents a new model
in corporate innovation. Using a studio model, we incubate products
and companies aimed at recasting video, publishing, gaming, healthcare, education, and entertainment for the digital age. bMuse is the studio, and each product or company is the equivalent of a production.
We are currently incubating a dozen companies at different stages of development, including TouchCast (an interactive video platform), ReToy (hybrid digital-physical toys), lm/nl (gaming studio), Transform Health (mobile health), Knomadic (tablet publisher), Paragraph Shorts (tablet fiction), 3D360 (miniaturized 360° video camera), and Takes (mobile video).
bMuse is really a new kind of studio system, where our main activity is company building.
Viable Company
Phase 3
These explorations range from the earliest product ideas up through a working prototype.
Once we’ve determined an idea is viable, we start to build a team to develop it further, allocate a production budget which is the equivalent of an internal seed round, and launch the product in the market.
When products start to gain traction in the market, we seek external funding and release the production as a standalone company.
BMUSE PRODUCTIONS FALL INTO ONE OF THREE PHASES:
Viable Product/ Team
Phase 2Proof of Concept
Phase 1
Our PlatformbMuse brings to the table hands-on
expertise across emerging media domains and a production system
to turn products into companies. Over the years, we’ve developed a technology stack from electrical engineering and industrial design to software programming and integration with Web services. We can go from prototype to scale overnight because we’ve done it repeatedly.
Our model is extremely efficient. bMuse employs 50 people worldwide, with revenues of $3 million in 2012. Revenues are growing at a 30 percent clip and the company has been profitable since launching three years ago.
One of bMuse’s core competencies is the ability to accelerate product development by tackling multiple disciplines in parallel. Our wide-ranging engineering teams across the world can develop apps on all mobile and desktop platforms (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows 8) and we are often able to reuse software components from our code library.
Underlying all this is deep expertise in backend infrastructure on the LAMP stack and Amazon Web Services.
We can also bring to bear industrial design, electrical engineering, and content creation. This allows us to tackle problems from all sides at once instead of focusing on them in a serial manner. By working in parallel across disciplines, we’ve successfully figured out how to fold the time required to get highly-polished products out the door.
For example, the recent ElfYourself app that Magic Mirror made for OfficeMax took a few weeks to develop to launch in time for the holidays. By Christmas, it was the No. 2
bMuse brings to the table hands-on expertise across emerging media domains and a production system to turn products into companies.
iPhone app overall in the App Store (No. 1 in Entertainment), with close to 7 million downloads in a matter of weeks.
The bMuse studio offers many shared functions to each portfolio company, such as sales and marketing, legal, business development, and hands-on strategy.
All startups basically want two things: millions of people to use their products and to get paid for what they work so hard to create. We help bMuse companies achieve these goals by making sure they launch with the best product possible and brokering deals with strategic partners to get those products in as many hands as possible.
TECHNOLOGY CREATIVE SERVICES BUSINESS INFRASTRUCTURE
Software
Hardware Development Rapid Prototyping
Production
Electrical EngineeringCircuit design
Circuit Fabrication
App DevelopmentiOS /AndroidWindows 8
Desktop ApplicationsPC/Mac
Full LAMP Server Side Stack
OPS Supportfor Hosting
Scalable Server Architecture
on AWS
User Experience
User Interface
Digital Design
Industrial Design
Print & Package Design
Marketing
Business Development
Sales
Fundraising & Corp. Dev.
Hardware
Our People
Edo Segal
Edo is the founder and CEO of bMuse. Prior to bMuse Edo was VP Emerging Platforms at Aol. He joined AOL following the acquisition of Relegence, a real-time search company he founded in 1999. Edo is a serial entrepreneur, prolific inventor and private investor, who has founded, launched and sold several companies. With over 20 years of experience in the technology and media world, Mr. Segal is a noted expert in emerging media technologies and platforms, including immersive entertainment, stereoscopic 3D and 360 Video formats. He has invented and patented a wide range of game changing media technologies.
Michael Kohlmeyer-Hyman Michael has served as the EVP of Business Affairs and a partner at bMuse since its inception. He heads the business strategy, operations, finance, and legal activities for the company. For 25+ years, he has invested in, been a trusted advisor to, and a senior executive at technology companies. Prior to joining bMuse, he co-founded a boutique business strategy and branding firm. He was an SVP and General Counsel of Fundtech Ltd., a publicly traded global provider of financial software, where he headed the acquisitions team and served on the strategic planning committee. He also was a special counsel at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Ziv Navoth Ziv Navoth is the founder and CEO of Paragraph and a partner with bMuse. Prior to Paragraph, he was SVP Marketing & Partnerships at Aol. Ziv joined Aol through its acquisition of Bebo, where he was a member of the executive team that led the negotiations and eventual sale of the company for $850M. Prior to that he was the founder and CEO of Startup Station, a publicly-traded incubator for investing in and accelerating startups.
Erick Schonfeld Erick Schonfeld is a technology journalist, the executive producer of DEMO and part of the management team at bMuse. He is also the founder of Knomadic, a bMuse portfolio company. Schonfeld is the former Editor in Chief of TechCrunch. At TechCrunch, he oversaw the editorial staff and content of the tech news site, helped to program the Disrupt and other conferences, produced TCTV shows, and wrote daily. Prior to TechCrunch, he was an Editor at Large for Business 2.0 magazine and a senior writer at Fortune.
Josh Shabtai Josh is a game designer, interactive marketing pioneer and co-founder/creative director of lm/nl (Liminal), where he builds game experiences and platforms that promise breakthroughs in player immersion. Josh founded Ketchum Public Relations’ social media practice, where he helped architect Best Buy’s Geek Squad service, and has recently served as a creative director at the ad agency JWT. In 2012, he took home a Cannes Gold Lion and Gold Clio for Band-Aid Magic Vision: Starring the Muppets, which transformed everyday bandages into media experiences for parents and kids to share.
Charley Miller Charley Miller is a New York City-based game designer, software producer, and part-time teacher and consultant with a focus on helping non-game products develop long term user engagement strategies. He has led design and production on games that range from reimagining toys like Nerf Hoops, to 3D iPhone experiences, to training simulations, to urban games, to tabletop games. His projects have included work for Hasbro, the New York City Office of Emergency Management, and the Center for Health and Learning. His urban games have been featured in the New York Times and he was commissioned by New York University for their “No Quarter” Exhibition.
Shane Norman Shane is a digital publisher & marketing innovator specializing in the exploration, creation and execution of new strategies that effectively positions brands & companies in the interactive space. He is a partner with bMuse and Co-Founder of Magic Mirror. While at HarperCollins Publishers, he led Global Digital Marketing making notable strides in digital innovation and marketing, and received an Emmy Nomination during his tenure at Fox Television Stations. He is one of the inaugural members of NewsCorporation’s Creating the Future Leadership Group and was responsible for significant achievements in cross-company initiatives.
An accomplished visual branding and design professional, Corrine serves as Design Director at bMuse. Prior to joining bMuse, she co-founded and was a principal at a boutique business strategy and branding firm. She has helped dozens of companies, educational institutions and nonprofit organizations develop their brands and position themselves. Corrine served as the Art Director at two of NYC’s leading universities, SPA at Baruch College/CUNY and Rockefeller University, where she worked with Nobel Laureate and President David Baltimore in repositioning the university’s brand.
Corrine Kohlmeyer-Hyman
Amanda Ferber is the Director of Business Affairs at bMuse and Editorial Director at Paragraph. She was previously Marketing Specialist at Simon & Schuster and Publishing Manager at Vanguard Press, a member of The Perseus Books Group. She graduated magna cum laude from New York University.
Amanda Ferber
Igor Kosanovsky Igor Kosanovski leads the bMuse Ukraine design team. He is an expert in user interface design and studied at Zaporizhia State Engineering Academy.
Julia Kotenko Designer/Illustrator
Andrew MalikAfterEffects Designer
Andrew Akulov3D Designer
Evgeniy SarichevDesigner/Illustrator
Dmitry Panin
Dmitry Panin leads the bMuse Ukraine team. He is an expert in Computer Graphics and one of the early developers on the iOS platform. Dmitry holds a bachelors degree in Computer Science from Zaporozhye National Technical University in the Ukraine.
Andrey SkoropadskyAndroid Developer
Alexey Zabrodin iOS Developer
Alexey Karzov iOS Developer
Denis Plevako iOS Developer
Yuriy BelozeroviOS Developer
Evegeny KuzminovHR Officer
Pavel KapinosiOS Developer
Vitaly KolomoetsiOS Developer
Evegeny FominCOO
Michael PonomareviOS Developer
Egor BorodayiOS Developer
Dmitry BorenkoiOS Developer
Artem ManzhuraiOS Developer
Anton SkripnikiOS Developer
Andrew SosnaiOS Developer
Abhijith Babu Abhijith Babu leads the bMuse India team. A seasoned developer, he has made several contributions to Jquery Plugins and many other open source platforms. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from Cochin University of Science And Technology.
Anson Peter AntonyServer Admin
Arun BosePHP Developer
Danie JacobPHP Project Manager
Hanif MohammedFlash Project Manager
Jasmin ShamsudeenPHP Developer
Saju SatheesPHP Developer
Saritha SwarnammaFlash Developer
Thomas JebbasinghFlash Developer
Vinod Rajan PHP Developer
Marius BratuSenior Client Developer
Daniel GuerreroSenior Assistant
Administrator
Reimagine
PublishingMagic Mirror
Knomadic
Paragraph
Paragraph Shorts
Convert A Book
Holopad
Reimagine VideoTouchCast
3D360
Takes
InterU
Reimagine
GamesReToy
Lm/nl
Reimagine
HealthcareTransform Health
Our Companies and Products
Reimagine Video
3D360TOUCHCAST TAKES INTERU
We are visual creatures. But until now, video has been a passive medium. You sit. You watch. Maybe you eat some chips. That is the extent of the interaction. What the web has taught us is that people want to control their media, and increasingly they want to create their own media too. Video is no exception.
Reimagine Video
One of bMuse’s core strengths is our suite of video technologies. We can create immersive experiences by pulling in video from, literally, every angle with 360° video. The web and video finally come together in a seamless way with TouchCast, which gives viewers a reason to touch their screens while they are watching. With mobile phones, everyone has a video camera in their pocket connected to the network. We can make capturing (and editing) video as easy as snapping a photo. Software takes care of the rest.
Anyone can create and publish a video, but making a compelling video is another matter. Technology can help. Technology lowers the barrier not just to distribution, but also to achieving high production values. It also opens the door for new production values to take hold.
Our goal is not just to recreate a TV studio on an iPad. It is to unleash connected cameras into the world and bring the web into the videos themselves.
On the consumption side, videos need to be social and shareable. They can be containers
for more than just visual information. They can stream live data, open windows to the web, and become an information canvas.
The choice is no longer between leaning back or leaning forward. Put away those chips, lean back and touch.
Reimagine Video
TouchCast: Try to imagine the future of TV . Sure, it will be on a touchscreen and delivered as a stream over the Internet. But what will it look like? What will it feel like? Our answer is TouchCast, a new medium that looks like TV but feels more like
the web.
Video and the web are coming together and TouchCast is leading the way. A TouchCast is a video that is fully browsable, interactive and alive. Webpages, images, and an assembly of video Apps (vApps) can be placed on the screen by the
video creator and later be interacted with by the viewer... all inside the video frame while the video plays.
A TouchCast is created by connecting a camera to the Internet through our software. We’ve built a studio in a box in the form of patent-pending software for iPad and Windows 8 PCs, as well as hardware via an actual studio-
quality pro rig for broadcast TV and large media companies.
Everything gets captured on the fly—including titles, whiteboarding, and other effects—and is recorded as a native video. No post-production or editing is necessary, reducing the cost and effort required to create
highly-engaging videos.
Video Is The New Canvas Of The Web
Roughly one-fifth of all time spent online is watching video and that amount is growing. Yet video is still treated as a separate experience from the rest of the web. TouchCast turns the video
player inside out by pulling the rest of the web into the video. Webpages can be clicked on and browsed in full-screen while the TouchCast video continues as a picture-in-picture. TouchCast
makes it possible to experience the web without leaving the video. This fixes the problem of viewers clicking away to other websites.
It’s more than webpages. TouchCast is a platform for a new class of video Apps, which
have the look and feel of TV graphics, but the interactivity of full HTML widgets. These vApps include live polls that viewers can vote on simply by touching the screen, as
well as maps, twitter streams, clickable headlines, photo gallery slideshows... and anything else the TouchCast developer community can dream up.
In this way, TV will soon join the web with an interface that is natural, intuitive, and familiar. It’s not a broadcast. It’s a TouchCast.
Partners:
Every TouchCast can include webpages and video Apps. that viewers can explore.
Reimagine Video
TouchCast is a studio in a box that lets you create interactive videos on the fly.
3D360 has created the first mass-produced, low-cost 360° image sensor. This sensor will be used in both personal computing devices and in consumer electronics. Examples include: laptops, desktops, tablets, and mobile phones. A small flip-up 3D360 camera could turn any laptop into a 360° teleconferencing unit. Just place it at the center of a conference table and remote participants will be able to see all the way around no matter who is talking.
We also aim to explore a stand-alone camera along the lines of GoPro that captures 360° video autonomously. Imagine a 3D360 camera built into a football helmet, offering views from the quarterback’s head. Our cameras will put viewers right in the middle of the action, and give them the option of picking from multiple camera angles. Once we execute on this, we will explore how to couple two of these sensors to extrapolate 3D images to achieve the ultimate vision of 3D360—capture video with depth and finally be able to reproduce experiences in 3D 360.
Reimagine Video
Black Eyed PeasPartners:
Takes is a magical new camera app that instantly turns your daily snapshots into beautiful movies. People love taking pictures with their phones, but capture videos much less often because they are intimidated by video or think about taking them too late after the moment is gone.
Takes lets anyone create amazing movies by doing exactly what they are already used to doing: taking pictures. As you take pictures, the Takes iPhone app smartly captures short video clips at the same time. You end up with both stills and video. But each video clip is candid, authentic, and pleasantly short.
Reimagine Video
Takes uses a proprietary technology to extract and stitch together the best video clips using your camera’s sensors and metadata. You just add a filter if you wish, and a soundtrack, and you are done. Takes turns your most precious moments into remarkable, moving portraits.
The more that people use Takes, the smarter it will become. For instance, It will be able to assemble videos taken at the same location but at different times. Or create a video montage of your child throughout the year. Takes can also be deconstructed and mashed together with your friends’ Takes to create entirely new memories.
InterU allows anyone to record a brief video where they start a discussion and others respond with their own video using their computer or smart phone. As members of the discussion bounce the conversation back and forth, the InterU software threads the video responses together so that the disparate conversations are played back as a single video. With each additional answer or question, the InterU is reinvigorated and watched anew. Journalists can use InterU to conduct asynchronous interviews, employers can use it to remotely interview job candidates,or friends can use it as a fun way to communicate.
Reimagine Video
Reimagine Games
RETOY
Reimagine Games
Playing is a basic human activity. It is how we learn and socialize. It stirs our emotions. Games are everywhere these days. With mobile phones, we can carry literally hundreds of games in our pockets to fill every idle moment. But they are more than just fun. Games motivate us,
and give us a sense of achievement. The rise of mobile computing has forced us to rethink games. As a category, games are the most popular apps on mobile phones, and also among the most lucrative. Mobile games are taking time and mindshare away from older console games. They can be played in short bursts. They can be played against friends who don’t have to be in the same room, or even be playing at the same time. And there are always millions of anonymous players looking for a challenge in case no friends are available. But physical toys are not going away. People, especially children, are still very much attached to physical objects. However, those objects can be infused with digital powers. Blending the physical and the digital can infuse a toy with new superpowers. We take games very seriously at bMuse. With lm/nl, we have a full mobile gaming studio. And our next-generation toy company, ReToy, works with Hasbro and others to bring physical toys into the digital age.
LIMINAL
Partners:
Reimagine Games
With ReToy Kids take their toys with them everywhere they go. Why shouldn’t they be able to take them into mobile games as well? At ReToy, we are building connections between physical toys and virtual games. The ultimate goal of ReToy is to become a platform for what a next-generation toy company is in this day and age. While incumbents in the toy category are hobbled by the legacy model of high overhead and the complexities of longtail retail distribution, we are going to where the fish are —mobile and online.
Two of ReToy’s products were developed with Hasbro. One is a LaserTag toy gun with a built-in iPhone mount (the game on the iPhone keeps track of hits). The other is CyberHoops, a Nerf basketball game with a physical ball and hoop that registers each basket on the iPhone scoreboard. Friends can challenge each other to games across the city or across the country, and capture video footage of their slam dunks. ReToy is also creating a new toy platform called TELEPODS.
Retooling The Toy Industry With
Telepods are plastic figures of game characters sold in blind packs or sets. Imagine characters such as the cast of How to Train your Dragon, Shrek, Madagascar, Star Wars, Avatar or even the NFL/MLB/WWF Players sold as Telepods and enhancing and upgrading the mobile gaming experience. By placing a Telepod on top of a smartphone or tablet, each character can teleport into the game. The consumer can then see
Partners:
that physical product instantly come to life in the game experience. These characters can then level up, increase their abilities and attributes and be upgraded with further in-app purchases.
With Telepods, we are connecting two separate business models: toy merchandising and media. Toy merchandising already represents a large and growing portion of revenues for the media industry, even as the traditional toy industry is stalling. There are many examples in the history of media where the value of the merchandizing eclipsed that of the movie. One just needs to think of phenomena like Star Wars or Power Rangers.
The future paints a grimmer picture as increasingly the role of physical toys is diminishing and the traditional retail experience is evaporating. But demand for physical toys is not going away, it is just shifting to other channels. In fact, merchandising plays an increasingly important role in the media ecology.
Our toys are the physical manifestation of in-app purchases, bringing the powerful element of merchandising to mobile games.
Reimagine Games
As mobile games take up more of the time kids spend with media (and play), an opportunity exists to tie the sale of branded physical toys to in-app purchases. In-app purchases generate
roughly 70 to 75 percent of all mobile revenues for iOS and Android apps.
Instead of buying a virtual item inside a mobile game, the Telepod platform will give rise to toy figurines (characters, Weapons, Abilities, etc.) which can be bought at retail and then used to add elements to a digital game— “Teleporting” the physical toy into the app experience. People like to buy real goods. By pairing virtual items with real toys, game creators can charge more for in-app purchases.
All of the information relating to each unique toy is saved in the TELEPOD CLOUD so that it creates a persistent life for these unique and tradable toys. Properly built game experiences will compel consumers to want to have a “full set” to unlock new levels and make it possible to advance in the digital realm.
A model for this already exists called Skylanders, which is a $500+ million business for Activision, going to an estimated $1 billion this year. Skylanders is outselling Star Wars action figures. But Skylanders are expensive, work only with older Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo video game consoles, and require separate WiFi-powered “portals” to transport the characters into the games. More importantly, while Activision has proven out the model they have not offered a platform. It is unique to one franchise. A similar Disney Infinity line of games will launch in June, but they too will be expensive and limited to Disney characters.
Telepods is a platform that will work across many franchises and in partnership with a robust and vibrant ecology of licensors and app developers. Telepods work with mobile devices (which are grabbing a larger share of gaming) at a much lower cost, as well as personal computers with webcams to expand the addressable market to almost every home. Unlike Skylanders, there is no memory stored in each figure and no expensive wireless
The ultimate goal of ReToy is to become a platform for what a next-generation Toy company is in this day and age.
base. The characters are unleashed via a passive solution that involves no electronics and costs cents per product. The system is secure and ties into a currency system with unique codes per product that are practically impossible to counterfeit, facilitating a vibrant economy for consumers of the product.
Like any good platform we aim to partner with game developers and media companies. We are developing an SDK that developers will be able to download to build Telepod readers into their games, as well as to upload 3D models of their characters to be manufactured or printed on-demand and at scale when they qualify.
Partners:
But our platform extends beyond software and hardware to actual distribution. Telepods will be distributed at outlets starting with a handful of major retailers, and extending to a larger base of convenience stores via key distribution relationships.
The Telepod retail presence is akin to a stand of gift cards that allow the unlocking of amazing digital experiences across a range of top-of-mind interactive media brands. Telepods are also perfect for promotional distribution through fast-food chains or to be given away as prizes due to the incredibly low cost of production.
Let the retooling of the toy industry begin.
Reimagine Games
Every great technological innovation needs a killer application, and more often than not, that app is a game. lm/nl builds gaming experiences that blur the boundaries between reality and fiction. We build augmented reality games that warp your senses of sight, sound and touch to immerse you in new universes and to transform the way you see and interact with the world.
Games drive computing. They always have— from Flight Simulator to Angry Birds. We’re on the cusp of a new computing era, the promise of deeply intertwined digital and physical experiences delivered through technologies like augmented reality and location-aware devices and services. Some estimates peg the LBS market as generating more than $12 billion by 2014 (Juniper Research), the AR market as
generating more than $3 billion in revenue by 2016 (ABI Research) and corporate gamification ballooning to $2.8 billion by 2016 (M2 Research).l
We’ve invested in the tools, partnerships, and, most importantly, the compelling game experiences that position us as a leader in this evolving space. Our games include Lazer Tag: AR, the world’s first augmented reality, real world first-person shooter and Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner, the iTunes “Best of 2010” augmented reality game that introduced AR to the mass market . Star Wars Arcade witnessed a 16% in-app purchase conversion rate. With every new title, we aim to establish a world-leading enhanced reality gaming platform.
l m / n la b M u s e c o m p a n y
lm/nl: Building Games That Blur
Reality and Fiction
lm/nl’s business breaks down into several key areas:
Game Development and Co-Publishing: Advances and revenue share on game sales, in-game micro-transactions, and sponsorships (currently 100% of revenue)
Gamification Services: lm/nl has relationships in place with leading cross-industry brands to develop gamification strategies and platforms, designed to transform their fictional brand platforms into real-life, ‘big’ games
Toolset Licensing: Fees or revenue share related to the licensing of the sub-lm/nl Engine
Discovery Engine for AR Experiences: Real world "recommendation" layer for gaming and retail experiences
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Partners:
Reimagine Games
Game Development & Co-Publishing
Partnerslm/nl is partnering with a number of the world's most beloved properties to create powerful game experiences that will build the AR layer and gamify traditional media.
One of the promises of augmented reality is the notion that the physical world will be made indexable, searchable and monetizable via a digital layer.
Most companies aiming to create this layer focus on the basic AR platform (Layar), game-in-theory-but-city guide-in-practice functionality (Foursquare, Gowalla, Scvngr) or
media-sharing (Instagram). We approach AR from a distinct gaming perspective. Gaming, which eats up more than 3 billion hours of players' cumulative free time each week will be the most powerful engine upon which to build this global AR layer.
Dedicated augmented reality games, ranging from simple casual experiences to hardcore,
deeply immersive quests, will generate mountains of valuable data, all tied to physical spaces: social relationships; player typographies; historical in-game events; retail proximity; and so on.
lm/nl has been developing the creative, technological and partnership platform with which to realize this vision.
HasbroLazer Tag 2.0 - Spring 2013
Electronic ArtsBattlefield: AR - Q3 2013
Dreamworks ClassicsThe Lone Ranger: PlayComics - Q2 2013
FoxIndependence Day - mid-2013
“Gaming As A Gateway Drug”: Building The Enhanced Reality Layer
Tools: The Sub/Lm/nl EngineAt the heart of lm/nl's experiences is the sub/lm/nl Engine, a proprietary technology platform built from the ground up in C++ and optimized for iOS, Android and Windows Phone, tapping into the existing potential of these new devices. sub/lm/nl combines full-body, multi-axis motion control; high-end 3D graphics and sound; and augmented reality technology to create an immersive gaming experience like no other.
Partners:
lm/nl’ proprietary engine fuses a number of innovative technologies to create game experiences never before seen on a mobile platform (or, for that matter, home console).
Multi-Axis Motion Control: sub/lm/nl can track a player’s movement across X-, Y- and Z-axes to enable the next generation of full-body motion control.
High-End 3D Graphics: Baked into the engine is a high-end graphics rendering and compression system that maximizes device performance while serving up visuals that appear to be pulled from a high-end home console. Coupled with our revolutionary system for creating panoramic images, sub/lm/nl is capable of serving imagery previously unheard of on a mobile device -- with no drain on overall performance.
360-Degree Sound: While total immersion begins with controls and graphics, it’s the sound that seals it. Our 3D sound processor is
frighteningly real. Wear headphones.
Augmented Reality Camera Overlay: Bringing fictional properties into the real world is another powerful way to immerse players in an experience. Our AR technology allows for rendering 3D objects in real life, all in real-time.
Stereoscopic 3D Support: sub/lm/nl is optimized for stereoscopic images, making it ready for a new generation of 3D mobile devices and head-mounted computing.
Geo-Social Integration: Integration with players’ social networks and GPS coordinates is a fundamental aspect of the engine, which makes it easy to ensure that player
experiences can be shared with friends.
Massively Multiplayer Experiences (Coming in 2013): The sub/lm/nl Engine will facilitate epic, augmented reality multiplayer experiences, with the potential to host millions of players, synchronized real-time events and persistent "activity spots" that can unlock unique experiences and retail integrations.
Micro-Transaction Support: Virtual good sales are reaching massive heights in “traditional” game experiences (in Star Wars Arcade, we saw 16% of all app buyers purchase an additional $0.99 upgrade). As the fourth wall vanishes in the AR environment, there exist significant opportunities to generate new kinds of purchases.
The rise of digital publishing represents a sea change in the way people discover, consume and share stories. The entire value chain of story production, distribution, sales and marketing is being blown to bits, threatening entire industries and challenging traditional business models.
The number of eBooks published in 2012 has exceeded 1 million—eight times the number published in 2011, and many authors and publishers have already seen the bulk of the demand for their stories shift from print to digital. The reaction of many companies to these changes has been to ask how digital can help their business, only to realize that digital undermines their business model and requires a new approach to finding, developing and keeping customers.
Reimagine Publishing
MAGIC MIRROR KNOMADIC PARAGRAPH SHORTS CONVERT A BOOK HOLOPAD
For authors and their publishers, this new reality means that the primary way consumers engage with their stories is about to shift from physical books printed on paper to digital experiences on tablet devices. This new reality represents a paradox for many publishers: to succeed they must move away from the formula that has served them so well and
embrace digital as the key to their growth and longevity. While some see digital as a threat, we believe it represents an incredible opportunity.
The ability to build a direct relationship with fans and provide them with an end-to-end experience means that, for the first time
ever, authors can create one touchpoint that encompasses their entire story universe. This intimate experience between a writer and her fans can then be promoted and amplified through social networks, which effectively serve as marketing, sales and distribution arms operated for and by the people who love the stories.
Reimagine Publishing
Magic Mirror is on a mission to blur the lines between reality and produced media by injecting the consumer into the story and developing new interactions with characters and brands.
This is accomplished by leveraging technoogy to provide access or portals into the fictional world and creating exciting and memorable moments from the experience.
Magic Mirror is comprised of a team of dreamers, thinkers, doers, writers, artists, inventors and storytellers, brought together with one goal in mind; to redefine the way stories are told by mixing together the very best characters and stories along with amazing technology.
Magic Mirror
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Using cutting edge voice recognition technology, Magic Mirror will usher in the ageof “stories that listen”
With over 7 million downloads and above-average in-app purchase rate, Magic Mirror’s ElfYourself is the No. 1 Entertainment app of the Christmas Season, holding that spot worldwide for 15 consecutive days. It reached No. 2 overall just behind Google Maps.
ElfYourself
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Looking at the numbers, you will see that they are astounding. Almost 7 million people have downloaded the app to date. Resulting in the collection of nearly one million users on Facebook opting in for future updates. ElfYourself has experienced an above average in-app purchase conversion rate of 8.3%, that’s resulted in the creation of over $500,000 dollars in revenues.
Just as the desktop web changed the way we publish and consume information, so too will tablets and touch computing alter our media habits once again. So far, iPad magazines and video apps have struggled to find their voice (and an audience) because most of them try to do nothing more than pour old-media experiences into new-media bottles. Knomadic is taking a different approach. It is starting with a clean tablet. Founded by former TechCrunch editor-in-chief Erick Schonfeld, Knomadic is a tablet-first technology publication under development that will tell stories through TouchCasts, text articles, and interactive infographics. It will focus on mobile and touch computing—the products, people, and technologies defining this new era.
The target audience for Knomadic is the 100,000 most influential people in technology—startup founders, investors, engineers, and designers. These are the people jumping head-first into the mobile computing era and forging a new industry. Knomadic will be designed to
Reimagine Publishing
engage them in conversation and to plot a path forward together through regular polls and information apps that tap into their crowd intelligence. We expect the data culled from our audience to be an extremely valuable cornerstone of the overall Knomadic experience.
Knomadic will not only cover these topics, but also will pioneer the use of mobile technologies to tell stories more effectively. Knomadic will be designed for the tablet, but also will be a full citizen of the web. The tablet-first sensibility will inform the web experience and make it more distinctive. Publishing today must exist across both mobile and web, otherwise it risks becoming invisible. The link structure of the web is too powerful to ignore, and one of the great strengths of online publishing. Mobile publishing can embrace the rest of the web while still pushing it forward.
Over time, Knomadic will use its platform to launch mobile titles across other categories, and to explore creating interactive video for next-generation TVs. Immersive technologies will also play a central role in the conference side of the business.
Partners:
Reimagine Publishing
Paragraph’s mission is to help people discover, tell, and experience great stories. We do this by offering innovative products and services that help authors, publishers, and other organizations bring their stories to the public and by giving people exciting new ways to create, discover, and experience stories. Through Convert A Book, Holopad, and Paragraph Shorts, we are connecting readers to books in revolutionary ways. Only by creating products that will delight both readers and publishers together can we forge a path into the digital future.
Built on top of the Paragraph Publishing Platform, Paragraph Shorts brings you the world’s best short stories in text, audio and video. Each issue features some of the most captivating storytellers from the most interesting literary publications, coupled with moving imagery from amazing photographers and artists. Read stories straight from your iPad or iPad mini, save them in your favorites list for later, or print them on paper using Apple’s AirPrint. Share stories with your friends via e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter and plug into the conversation to see what your favorite authors and publications are talking about.
Paragraph Shorts
Partners:
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The production arm of Paragraph, Convert A Book sits at the crossroads of the publishing industry as it moves from print to digital. Convert A Book helps companies, publishers and authors convert, market and distribute their books, manuals and marketing collateral to the widest audience possible using innovative approaches and state of the art technologies. Convert A Book then extends its customers’ reach by deploying a promotional platform in the form of iOS and Android Author apps and Facebook applications that work in concert to promote books and create conversion to sales.
Partners:
GROW YOUR AUD
The Holopad platform aims to take the world of publishing into the third dimension by blurring the lines between books, movies and apps. Some books are perfect made up of only text. Others have a richer story to tell— full of visual treasures that stimulate the senses. Holopad wants to evolve those books into the digital age by re-imagining how we can engage and interact with what was once a static, printed book. Every element on every page of a Holopad App is interactive and every element can be shared. The result: Books come to life in ways never before possible.
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The Art of the Adventures of TintinThis critically-acclaimed app was the first of its kind, allowing viewers to immerse themselves into the animated world of Tintin as recreated by director Steven Spielberg. The app features 3D images, 360° immersive environments, 360° turnaround characters, video clips and exclusive new content, all integrated into the incredible story of how this groundbreaking movie was created.
Reimagine Healthcare
Reimagine Health
With the emergence of new ways of gathering and collecting information, people are more informed than ever regarding matters of health. Everyday health research now increasingly consists of using a mobile phone or an app as the primary method of gathering information, and consuming media specific to healthcare. We are applying some learnings at bMuse from games and mobile apps to build products that allow people to better monitor and understand their personal health data. Traditional healthcare is intimidating and seemingly out of our control. We rely on doctors, hospitals, and other institutions to fix our bodies when things go wrong. But now that we carry small computers on our bodies in the form of smartphones that can be coupled with cheap sensors, our health mysteries are slowly being revealed.
We can measure our bodies now with incredible accuracy. Not only does this help us better diagnose our own illnesses, but better information will also help us prevent illnesses in the first place. And constant measurement means we can move from a reactive mode of seeking treatment only after the fact to catching signs earlier. Personalized body measurement can lead to personalized healthcare.
Mobile health goes hand in hand with the growing quantified-self movement, where people are increasingly measuring their body’s performance when they exercise, sleep, and go throughout the regular day. All of this personalized data can be used for health applications as well. People are taking
charge of their health by taking charge of their health data—collecting, analyzing, and sharing it themselves with the help of their phones.
TRANSORM HEALTH
Transform Health is building the world’s first real-time map of human health. We will accomplish this by providing consumers with extremely-low cost connected health products. Our first product is a smartphone-enabled analog of a common household thermometer. Over time, by collecting data when it is used, we will create a real-time map of human illness. With this map, individuals can take action to avoid getting ill, and society will finally have the tool it needs to track, and potentially stop, the spread of disease.
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Partners
Through these partnerships, bMuse can tap into the movies, music, and books from some of the most creative minds on the planet including George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, and Will.i.am. Together, magic happens. For example, we’ve produced the best selling Star Wars mobile game of all time for the iPhone, an interactive Tintin picture book for the iPad with Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg, and a 360° music video app with the Black Eyed Peas.
The beautiful part of our model is that bMuse retains ownership of all the underlying component technologies it creates for partners and can leverage them across multiple products.
bMuse partners with some of the leading brands in entertainment and technology, including LucasArts, Intel, Hasbro, Electronic Arts, and News Corp.
LucasArts is one of most iconic video game developers and publishers. Working with the company’s Star Wars brand, we launched Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner - the world’s first Star Wars-themed Augmented Reality app, and the best-selling Star Wars mobile game.
Paramount is a film and television production/distribution company and one of the world’s largest movie studios. We worked with the company on the development and release of the Art of the Adventures of Tintin app.
DreamWorks Classics is an American animation studio and production company, owned by DreamWorks Animation. We have a licensing agreement with the company that gives us the digital rights to some of the world’s most iconic brands, including Casper the Friendly Ghost, The Lone Ranger, Where’s Waldo?, Olivia, Godzilla and many more.
20th Century Fox is one of the world’s largest film studios. We are working together on a transmedia project based on their Independence Day franchise.
Lightstorm was founded in 1990 by Canadian filmmaker James Cameron and producer Larry Kasanoff. It is best known for producing the films Titanic, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and most recently, Avatar.
News Corporation is one of the world’s largest mass media companies. We worked with the company on reimagining the future of news.
Warner Music operates some of the largest and most successful recording labels in the world, including Warner Bros. Records and Atlantic Records. WMG also owns Warner/Chappell Music, one of the world’s largest music-publishing companies. We have a licensing agreement with the company that provides us access to its song catalog.
Sony Music Entertainment is the second largest music corporation in the world. We have a licensing agreement with the company that provides us access to its song catalog.
Universal Music Group is the largest of the “Big Three” music companies and owns Universal Music Publishing Group, which is the second largest music publishing company in the world. We have a licensing agreement with the company that provides us access to its song catalog.
Agilent is a global company that designs and manufactures electronic and bio-analytical measurement instruments and evaluation. We helped the company make the transition into digital by converting their marketing collateral and making it easily accessible.
HarperCollins is one of the world’s largest publishing companies. We worked with the company on several projects to re-imagine the future of books, including the creation of the Ask Steve App.
Hasbro is one of the largest toy makers in the world. We’ve worked with the company on a number of projects to reimagine toys, including Teleport LA - the first virtual 3D app, Nerf Lazer Tag: AR - the first augmented reality, massively multiplayer first-person shooter, and Sector 17 - an innovative 360°, stereoscopic 3D title built for the company’s my3D viewer.
Intel is the world’s largest and highest-valued semiconductor chip maker. Together with Intel we’re exploring the intersection of media and computing.
Siemens is the largest European-based electronics and electrical engineering company. We worked with the company’s Healthcare division to turn their create digital diagnostic tools.
Coca-Cola is one of the world’s largest beverage companies and the world’s most valuable brand. We helped the company launch Ekocycle, an initiative to brand recycled products and encourage sustainability among young consumers.
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