You'll believe it when you see it

A hologram of Australian entertainer Rove McManus (left) greets New Zealand comedian Jeremy Corbett. Photo / Brett Phibbs

It's not exactly fashionable right now to mortgage your house to the hilt in order to launch a "visionary" new business. But for former Zimbabweans Ronel and Karl Schodt, the 3D revolution is not going to wait for the global economic crisis to end.

When the pair read about Nextspace in Friday Business last year, a large lightbulb exploded in their heads. At the time they were running video and film production company Shotz. They got in touch with then-Nextspace CEO Roy Davies and his team and decided to make a brave move - to rewrite their business plan and create a new company, 3DLive.

Partly on Davies' recommendation they have bought the New Zealand rights to what is arguably the world's leading holographic technology, produced by British company Musion.

One of Musion's early public successes was to create a hologram of Prince Charles so he could deliver a speech to a green energy conference in Abu Dhabi, but remain in Britain. Michael Phelps and Lewis Hamilton are some of the many celebrities who have since appeared in holographic form as part of corporate marketing campaigns, and the Musion technology is now licensed in 44 countries.

"It's very pricey technology because of its uniqueness, but around October we suddenly decided we'd go for it," says Karl. "Rather than waiting for the economy to recover and following what was happening, we thought we'd take a leap and start leading."

In fact, an Australian company has already beaten them to the first public outing of the Musion Eyeliner technology in New Zealand. Last September TelstraClear beamed in a live hologram of Australian TV personality Rove McManus at a promotional event in Auckland. The service is known as HoloPresence and will allow companies to beam virtual versions of their staff to almost anywhere in the world, Star-Trek-style.

"It'll be pricey but it will be substantially cheaper to have five people come here and have it set up than it would to have them fly over to the UK and have them waste five or six days on the flights there, and their accommodation," says Karl.

It goes without saying that everyone in the 3D industry is impatient for high-speed broadband, but there's still plenty of wow factor in the meantime, says Ronel. So far, everyone who has watched the 3DLive showreel at its specially built demonstration suite just down the road from Nextspace in Greenlane has been blown away, she says.

Even at this stage the effects are indeed impressive. At the TelstraClear event the holographic version of Rove patted the backside of the real person with whom he shared the stage. There were laser lights, live music, acrobatic BMX riders, and daredevil motorcyclists.

And in the darkness of 3DLive's private viewing room you can't help feeling slightly spooked that what was once science fiction is finally becoming fact. There is Richard Branson up there, of course, cementing his reputation of being at the cutting edge of absolutely everything. Naturally there's a vortex or two, and lots and lots of Fortune 500 company logos, levitating and spinning and dancing to the corporate beat. But the bit that gets the Herald photographer excited is the giant, latex-clad swimmer who

appears to burst through a pool of suspended water.

It will cost a New Zealand client tens of thousands of dollars to create similar effects. But 3DLive has less costly 3D gimmicks available as well. For just $5000 you can hire for a whole day what is known a FogScreen, which is like an airconditioning unit that generates a very fine curtain of water droplets. 3D images are projected onto the misty veil (which can be anything from approximately a metre to several metres wide), enabling anyone to touch or move through the holographic images. The Schodts expect

they will be particularly popular with the entertainment and fashion industries.

They are also promoting a clever piece of technology, developed by Kiwi company HIT Lab, known as "augmented reality", which allows the placement of computer-generated images against a real-life object. The technology enables virtual images to appear in real-life scenarios, and for that content to be displayed on hardware such as mobile phones.

3DLive is also the exclusive NZ agent for the Philips auto-stereoscopic television, known as the WOWvx. Unlike some 3D-TVs, the Philips TV doesn't require the viewer to wear special glasses.

The couple hope businesses will be keen to use the special monitors for digital signs, point-of-sale advertising and entertainment, 3D gaming and 3D-TV. They can be hired for $1700 a day.

As yet, of course, there isn't much content for 3D-TVs. But that may be about to change. 3DLive has acquired the technology which enables it to convert 2D images into 3D, and it also has the special stereoscopic cameras needed to produce original 3D content.

It is already talking to other local companies - such as Davies' new venture, FlexStudio - about creating 3D productions for various "theatrical and event presentations".

"There's a lot of very creative and very technologically savvy people here in New Zealand, which is why we are creating this umbrella group," says Karl. "And that means more people get a chance to develop themselves and develop a business case both locally and internationally."

The BBC has already begun experimenting with 3D broadcasts. When England played Scotland in Edinburgh in the Six Nations rugby tournament last year, an invited audience of 200 people in London saw it as though they were sitting in Murrayfield Stadium. And in the United States this year several commercials were screened in 3D during the SuperBowl final.

There has been talk of the next Olympics and World Cup being broadcast live in 3D on big screens in major cities, and the Schodts are also keen to see the 2011 Rugby World Cup showcase New Zealand's 3D expertise.

Meanwhile, Hollywood is finally getting serious about 3D, now that the technology has developed enough for it to move beyond the silly novelty films that it began taunting viewers with in the 1950s. It has a strong incentive - not only could 3D help solve piracy problems plaguing the industry, but it might also woo back to the big screen viewers who have been distracted by the small screen in recent years.

There are already more than 2000 digital 3D cinema screens worldwide - a figure that some in the industry predict will increase five-fold over the next three years.

DreamWorks has already announced it will release all its animated films in digital 3D in future. Two 3D titles, Monsters vs Aliens and A Christmas Carol, will be released this year, and the latest instalments in the Toy Story and Shrek franchises are due to be released next year. But the movie tipped to be the turning point is Avatar, which is scheduled for release in December 2010.

Some cinemas are also experimenting with beaming live events such as opera, via satellite, into cinemas in 3D. Just before Christmas Hollywood's Mann Chinese Theatre screened a live American football game in 3D.

While most experts are reluctant to predict that we'll all soon have 3D-TVs in our homes, there is another good reason for the industry to push along developments: TV manufacturers will soon need a new selling point once everyone has replaced their old cathode ray TVs with new high-definition flat-panel screens.

In January the Economist got all excited about the latest versions of 3D-TVs on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. "The last time your correspondent reported on 3D television was in 1996," one of its journalists noted. "He naively thought it would be in living rooms by the turn of the millennium. Ever the optimist, he's ready to bet that, this time, 3D in the home is for real."

There's a couple in Greenlane who hope the public will believe it - as soon as they see it.