Focus on 4D View Solutions

Interview with Richard Broadbridge, co-founder and chairman and CEO of 4D View Solutions, the provider of Real-Time 3D Video Solutions.

Why were you tempted by the start-up adventure?

Richard Broadbridge: There were two main reasons behind the idea of establishing a start-up company. The first came from the quality of the engineers and scientists encountered at INRIA. Clément Ménier and Florian Geffray were already working on a project for a 3D real-time camera. GRAIN (Grenoble Alpes Incubation) and INRIA Grenoble - Rhône-Alpes had already given their support to it. We started to work together after an initial meeting in London. In March 2007, I took advantage of my HEC MBA dissertation to devote three months to the validation phase of the project. Clément Ménier and Florian Geffray, major designers and the founders of this company, were highly motivated. They put a great deal of energy into it and worked very well together. The second reason which prompted me to get into the start-up company venture was the product itself and its aesthetic aspect. When you handle a real-time 3D camera, its potential opportunities for artistic expression become very obvious. We also hope that this kind of technology will pave the way for other new and complementary ones. I am certain of it. To persuade an investor, one normally says it is better to present an average product with a good team than a good product with an average team. At 4D View Solutions, we have an excellent product and a fantastic team. That is extremely rare!

How does 4D View Solutions respond to a current need?

Richard Broadbridge: To get a better grasp of 4D Views technology, let us take a look at, for instance, some scenes from the movie Titanic. The characters walking on the deck of the liner were created by computer-generated picture. Similarly, with our camera, we can reproduce characters that are both photo-realistic and 3D, which offers a much better quality when composing these types of scenes and more particularly in the camera movements creating them. For television, we can also produce slow-motion replays that take advantage of 3D technology in near real time, in other words, with a maximum lag time of 10 seconds. Another example: For a boxing match, you can install 20 to 30 fixed cameras, allowing spectators to get pictures of the match from all the possible viewpoints up to a perfect view of the KO from inside the ring. Our technology’s potential is enormous!

Who today is interested in 4D views?

Richard Broadbridge: The start-up company has already signed several R & D contracts. The first was with Deutsche Telekom; the second with the University of Berlin. A collaboration with Brown university (east coast of the United States) is taking shape. We also aim at the industrial estates, notably at those whose activity has important risks. Our solutions could be loaded onto surveillance, control and intervention devices.