Breaking down traditional videoconferencing barriers, Musion’s Eyeliner™ TelePresence system took its inspiration from a surprisingly simple trick. John Pepper’s infamous ‘Pepper’s Ghost’ illusion originally wowed Victorian audiences with simple lights and mirrors to produce a ghostly ‘holographic-like’ presence on stage. Musion borrowed this concept and gave it a 21st Century, technological makeover. The crystal clear HD 3D images are created by Musion’s unique HD video image capture process and patented revolutionary holographic Eyeliner™ Foil apparatus. Smooth motion is on account of Musion’s faster frame rate of at least 50 interlaced frames per second, which creates both the natural image edge blurring necessary for 3D images to look realistic whilst ensuring a smooth rendition of faster motion displays. Using a high-speed (20mbites/sec) Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Internet connection it is, quite simply, transforming the future of communication, where speakers are freed up to roam the stage seamlessly amongst simultaneously moving graphics with no latency to slow down the transmission. These spectacular freeform 3D moving images which appear within a live stage setting allow dramatic, previously unseen 21st century video film effects to combine with the live set mediums of stage in areas such as Audio Visual conference or trade show presentations, retail displays, large scale out of home digital signage and artistic performances.

Musion Eyeliner™ technology has been used in a variety of applications including a lifesize hologram of Prince Charles delivering a major keynote speech in Abu Dhabi. Such keynote speeches are where the technology really comes into its own by allowing the speaker to still present at an event even though it may be inconvenient to physically be there. This delivery of a public speech from a remote location to an audience without any traditional audience props, such as 3D glasses, allowed Prince Charles to interact with the audience, take questions and act as if he was physically present, all in real-time. 

Another more recent example of this technology being used in a keynote speech is a link from a studio in Moscow to a live stage in Vancouver. To celebrate the end of the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Russian Minister of Transport Igor Levitin appeared as a hologram from a studio standing and interacting with Russian Vice-President Dmitry Kozak and two other major figures. This was a true spectacle which demonstrated how a speaker can be based anywhere in the world and be able to interact in real time with fellow speakers and a large audience. Not only broadcast to a live audience, this presentation was aired live on TV and the internet throughout the world thanks to the presence of TV camera crews.

Musion’s holographic TelePresence has pioneered a number of world firsts in this area of keynote speeches. The world’s first live transatlantic broadcast of an interactive live hologram took place last year from London to Orlando for major telecoms trade event InfoComm. This also demonstrated a panel discussion in which holograms were interacting with physical on stage speakers as well as the audience. The two-way signal latency of fewer than 200 milliseconds reached is around six times faster than satellite and this incredible quality was possible because the global network provided by MASERGY was purpose-built to deliver consistently superior video performance under all network conditions.

In October 2009 another world first was achieved by Musion with pop band Tokio Hotel and the world’s first ‘virtual tour’, which saw the band perform on stage around the world in a chain of commercial shops as pre-recorded 3D holograms. This eye-popping 3D tour was a resounding success scoring hundreds of thousands of hits on YouTube and with audiences of up to 700 fans at each store.

In terms of advances in Musion’s technology, Musion is now offering a pioneering Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL) solution to transmit its holographic TelePresence at considerably lower network line rental costs compared to the dedicated MPLS. SDSL stands between Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) and MPLS in terms of speed and Musion has achieved higher than average quality SDSL trials of its holographic TelePresence system thanks to implementing an additional signal latency management solution in the codecs used. By adding this system to the codecs, Musion is able to effectively decrease the encode-decode process to between 700 milliseconds and 400 milliseconds and provide complete in-sequence packet delivery with low latency and no video artefacts present. To make a simple comparison, a typical mobile phone call is timed at 700 – 800 milliseconds, so by capitalising on the SDSL standard, Musion’s holographic HD video TelePresence interactive link works out at faster than a mobile phone call.

Musion has been honoured recently for a number of awards which recognise how its pioneering work has impacted on various industries. The theme park industry’s equivalent of the Grammy’s, the Themed Entertainment Association’s Thea 16th annual awards (2010) presented Musion with an Outstanding Achievement award for the use of its holographic projection technology in a disaster-themed attraction at Universal Studios, USA. Last year, Musion was awarded a prestigious Global Telecoms Business award in the category of Advanced Video Services Innovation for its implementation of the world’s first live interactive holographic transmission between fixed lines which took place in February 2009 in London. Additionally, Musion won an established IVCA LiveCom award in the category of International Entertainment Experience for its retail digital signage implementation of Tokio Hotel’s ‘virtual tour’.

In review, Musion’s dissatisfaction at traditional forms of TelePresence has resulted in a new form of interactive holographic 3D communication which stands at the forefront of current telecoms innovations.