Top 10 Companies Leading the AR/VR Revolutions, 2020 September 2020

VOL 09 | ISSUE 07 | 2020
R
REVOLUTION 2020
T
O
P
10
COMPANIES LEADING THE
Ken Ehrhart
Founder & CEO
Company of The Year
THE NEW REALITY
WHY WITHIN HAS
BECOME A
SIGNIFICANT NAME
THE NEW REALITY
HOW SNAP INC. IS
CARVING ITS NAME IN
THE XR SPACE

A New World to
Experience
Since 1956, VR is constantly gaining progress, but the
prominent change was seen when in 2014 Facebook
bought Oculus a well-known VR company. It was the
changing moment for VR industry where multiple
industries had started to look into VR’s actual potential.
Past few years was a growth years for virtual and
augmented reality (VR/AR). These technologies has
narrowed the line between reality and virtuality and
collectively known as extended reality (XR). The
emergence of these technologies first began to be felt
from the arenas of gaming and entertainment, where they
first started to become popular.
Most people's first interaction with VR and AR today is
likely to be in entertainment and gaming. This situation
is about to change, as studies shows that the
development of enterprise XR solutions is passing to
consumer solutions. According to ‘The 2020 XR
Industry Insight’ reports collated from VR Intelligence
states that 65% of the AR companies surveyed showed
that these companies are working on industrial
applications, whereas just 37% working on software and
consumer products.
So, in this edition, “Top 10 Companies Leading the
AR/VR Revolutions, 2020” Insights Success has
shortlisted prominent AR/VR services/solution providers
which are enhancing the viewing experience with their
advance and innovative AR/VR solutions.
Editor’s Desk
Erasing the line between
Reality and Virtuality

The company of the year features Paracosma Inc, an
AR and VR design, consulting and systems
integration company that provides solutions and
skills to both small and large customers. The
company believes that Paracosma is one of the
larger pure-play AR/VR startups. There is a
paradigm shift taking place in computer technology
from 2D systems to 3D systems. And the company
rapidly embraced Augmented Reality as well a year
later with the release of Apple’s ARKit and
Google’s ARCore. Over the last four years, in
addition to VR and AR application development, its
3D modeling team has dramatically expanded. This
gives it exceptional capability as 3D content
creators, in such diverse areas as photography
replacement and Digital Twin creation.
Also, while ﬂipping the pages, don’t forget to go
through the articles and CXOs written by our in-
house editorial team and industry experts
respectively.
Rohit Chaturvedi

Paracosma
Making Virtual Reality
Better than Reality
Augview
Helping Organizations
to be Agile
Bitsens
Boosting Digital Image
Since Inception
CleverBooks
An Incredible Way to
Make Study Come Alive
ARTICLES
COMPANY
OF
THE
YEAR
The New Reality
Why Within has
become a
Signiﬁcant Name
The New Reality
How Snap Inc. is
Carving its Name in
the XR Space
16
18
28
08
24 44
C O N T E N T S

Digital Artflow
Enhancing Visual
Experience through
Multiple Realities
Snaappy
Making Visual
Communication
More Approchable
East City Films
Immersing Audiences
in Important Stories
My Basic LLC:
Minority-Owned Business
Strives to Help Businesses
Grow With VR and
Digital Marketing
Kagiso
Interactive RSA
Improving Business
Practices by Using AR/VR
VR Vision Inc.
Delivering Unparalleled
Virtual World Experience
30
34
38 50
48
42

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July, 2020
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Managing Editor
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Visualizer
David King
Art & Design Director
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Associate Designer
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Daniel, Ethan, Vishnu Vardan
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Anish, Joe, Alan, Omkar
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Co-designer
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COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Ken Ehrhart
Founder & CEO

Making Virtual Reality Better than Reality
COMPANIES
Leading the
Revolutions, 2020
Top

Through Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality
(VR), one can experience realities that are rare
(fleeting or remote), impractical (dangerous or
expensive), impossible (past or future); or otherwise enable
people to experience things (emotion or empathy) from a
different perspective (identity or scale).
With headquarters in San Francisco and offices in Japan and
Nepal, Paracosma Inc is an AR and VR design, consulting
and systems integration company that provides solutions
and skills to both small and large customers.
In an interview with Insights Success, Ken Ehrhart, the
Founder & CEO of Paracosma shared a few key insights
and struggles, which eventually helped the organizations to
reach new heights.
Below are the highlights of the interview between Insights
Success and Ken Ehrhart;
What led to the inception of the company?
There is a paradigm shift taking place in computer
technology from 2D systems to 3D systems. Paracosma is
focused on the opportunities arising from this transition.
Paracosma was founded as a Virtual Reality service
provider at the start of 2016, when the Oculus Rift and HTC
Vive VR headsets launched. We rapidly embraced
Augmented Reality as well a year later with the release of
Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore. Over the last four
years, in addition to VR and AR application development,
our 3D modeling team has dramatically expanded. This
gives us exceptional capability as 3D content creators, in
such diverse areas as photography replacement and Digital
Twin creation.
Describe Paracosma’s innovative VR and AR solutions
which address all the various needs of its customers.
Paracosma is one of the larger pure-play AR/VR startups.
We now have over 75 employees including 45 artists and 30
AR/VR developers and engineers. This breath of expertise
is really critical in allowing us to provide a one-stop shop
for our clients across many sectors.
For AARP, we are producing VR brain games to improve
aging users’ mental fitness. For UrsaLeo, we make Digital
Twins to visualize Internet of Things data overlaid on client
facilities. We developed a library of holographic video
content that can be viewed in AR or VR for business
simulation training by an HR and Talent Management
company. For IVN, we built a demo of live point-cloud-
based 3D video communications. We have a manufacturing
client using AR for machine maintenance to reduce
downtime and improve efficiency. Medical clients using
VR laparoscopic surgery training to save lives. Oil and gas
clients using VR training to prevent spills and fires. An
online retailer is replacing expensive studio photography
with digital renderings of our photorealistic 3D models.
In this time of Covid19 lockdowns, we are creating realistic
virtual copies of real offices and corporate facilities, and
turning those Digital Twins into fully interactive, multiuser
VR environments that can be used for virtual face-to-face
remote meetings, for company presentations and large
group events, or for real-time collaboration and training. We
are also giving away our consumer VR sandbox game,
Shelter in Place, in which players find themselves within a
large mansion filled with minigames and entertainment.
How is the company’s VR solution more advanced
compared to other companies’ solutions?
At our core, we are a Solutions Provider. We provide
bespoke solutions not a least-common-denominator off-the-
shelf product. We help our clients by creating custom
solutions to realize the specific results they are looking for.
We are not trying to force the sale of a one-size-fits-all
generic product, which is unfortunately sometimes the goal
of smaller companies that may struggle if they don’t
standardize on a general-purpose offering. Because we have
scale and longevity, we can be more innovative and pursue
cutting edge research that better meets the forward-looking
visions of our clients.
As Founder and CEO of the company, how does your
background influence the company and your approach
to the industry?
At Paracosma we are focused on creating and delivering
world-class business-to-business solutions to some of the
largest global companies. As a Venture Capitalist for 20
years, I have experience guiding startup companies to
successful global growth. My focus on establishing the
Japan subsidiaries for multi-billion-dollar Enterprise SAAS
companies (like Concur, Marketo and Demandware)
provides over a decade of experience serving the business
needs of large enterprise clients. It is somewhat rare to be
able to bridge between the worlds of small high-growth
startups and more conservative and demanding large
enterprise clients. I believe my background contributes to
our ability to successfully do just that.
Describe in detail about the work culture and the values
that drives the company.
The current pandemic lockdowns lay bare the truth that
companies are only as strong as their employees. Offices,

facilities, and workstations stand empty and unused, while
the capabilities, creativity and dedication of individual
employees remain crucial. As a Service Provider,
Paracosma’s quality and capacity is a direct reflection of the
experience and ingenuity of our employee teams.
Therefore, we put our employees first, and during these
difficult times, we have maintained full employment. In
fact, we are continuing to expand our client services. This
is only possible because of our people.
Which technologies are bringing disruption in AR/VR
industry?
Over the last few years, AR and VR have seen steady
adoption and expansion from consumer to enterprise and
industrial applications. In areas such as medical training
and oil and gas handling, in which mistakes can cost lives,
risk-free VR training is the ultimate solution. This year,
with the pandemic lockdowns, we have begun to realize the
greatest potential of these technologies. The fundamental
goal of VR is to create virtual worlds as vibrant, interactive
and useful as the real world, which has been closed off.
Through multiuser VR we can recreate offices, meetings,
tradeshows, concerts, entertainment, retail, education, travel
and other social experiences that are currently restricted in
real life. This provides the greatest opportunity that we have
yet seen for the expansion of the VR market. We believe
we are seeing an inflection point in the industry that was
facilitated by high-quality, low-cost, stand-alone VR
headsets like the Oculus Quest.
How is Paracosma contributing to the evolution of the
AR/VR industry?
Paracosma’s goal has always been to expand the availability
and adoption of AR and VR through the offering of high-
quality, low-cost solutions. As a direct response to the
Coronavirus Pandemic, Paracosma has been offering both
consumers and businesses free VR solutions as a
community service. In addition to offered “Shelter in
Place”, our consumer VR game, for free to players, we have
also been giving away free virtual offices to companies that
want to try out remote VR collaboration. Surveys have
shown that once companies try and begin using AR and VR
they continue to invest in and expand that use. We believe
that now is the best time for companies and individuals to
experience what VR and AR have to offer, to improve their
businesses and lives. Those positive experiences will
continue to expand the industry.
What technologies is the company leveraging to make its
solutions resourceful?
To offer the most scalable, affordable solution for VR
collaboration, Paracosma has been building VR Worlds on
top of Microsoft’s free Altspace VR platform. This enables
companies and their employees to very quickly realize the
benefits of real-time multiuser collaboration in their own
virtual offices and auditoriums at just the price of the users’
VR headsets, or even at no extra cost when accessed
through a standard PC.
What are the company’s future aspirations? What
strategies is it undertaking to achieve those goals?
We are working with several clients and partners on long-
term projects and collaborations that absorb almost all our
capacity as fast as we can increase it. So, we continue to
hire and train team members as rapidly as possible. This is
of course complicated during the current crisis. But, as a
global organization with operations in the US, Japan and
Nepal, we have of necessity fully embraced the use of
virtual office environments and remote virtual operations.
We have ourselves become a test subject and now a case
study in adoption of remote collaboration in VR, with daily
meetings and frequent all-company presentations. The
technology works great and is helping us accelerate our
growth and productivity. Our goal is to share that message
as broadly as possible and help other enterprises realize the
same benefits.

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VOL 07 | ISSUE 05 | 2020
EXPERT’S ADVICE
THE GLASS CEILING
EFFECT: ANOTHER
PERSPECTIVE ON
WOMEN AND LEADERSHIP
WOMEN IMPOWER
DYNAMICS OF WOMEN
PARTICIPATION IN THE
EVER-CHANGING
MODERN WORKFORCE

Top 10 Companies Leading the AR/VR Revolutions, 2020
16 | September 2020 www.insightssuccess.com

17
|
September 2020
www.insightssuccess.com

Boosting Digital Image Since Inception
18 | www.insightssuccess.com
Top 10 Companies Leading the ARVR Revolutions, 2020
September 2020

otivated by challenges, supercharged by hard
Mwork, Vilnius, Lithuania based Bitsens came
into existence to boost its client's digital
presence. The company features a hi-end cross-cultural
team with data-driven approach and creative mindset that
helped numerous clients from 23 countries grow their
businesses. The organization's portfolio features award-
winning solutions in all major business niches.
In an interview with Insights Success, the spokesperson of
Bitsens has shared important insights about the company
and its road to success.
Below are the highlights of the interview;
Two motivated and passionate men once made a decision
that changed their lives. They took a risk to start their own
business with no investment put into it. One of them has
extensive expertise and advanced knowledge in
advertisement and media production ﬁelds while another
possesses a solid background in IT development. They
strongly believed in future success as their analytical and
technical skills fairly exceeded the market competitors had
at that time. Finally, it came up trumps. Here is why Bitsens
has already existed for more than 8 years providing clients
with the best design and technical solutions for their
projects.
Vadim Khadakou
founder
Bitsens
19
|
www.insightssuccess.com September 2020

Describe your company and its cutting-edge AR/VR
services which address all the needs of your customers.
We are setting ourselves up as a creative digital agency. Our
services are placed at the junction of creativity and
innovative digital technologies. No doubt, AR and VR
directions perfectly represent it. To tell the truth, for the last
few years we've completed numerous projects in AR/VR
fields and our intense work resulted in a massive and
diverse portfolio of projects from various industries (game,
media, tourism, etc.). It's safe to bet that we've tried each
and every framework, engine, and technology to make our
AR/VR products stand out.
Could you throw some light on your mission and vision
statement?
Bitsens's core values include perfectionism, hard work and
analytical thinking. We're hell-bent on delivering the best
products we can in a digital-led world. Upon our values, we
carry out all the preparation and production works to
deliver outstanding results to the clients. “Digital perfection
in every bit” is what unites and defines us as a team.
How does your AR/VR services unique from the other
companies' offerings?
To ensure we provide clean and flawless products to our
clients, our AR/VR department consists only of senior
developers with years of experience in the field. Moreover,
in comparison to one-dimensional AR/VR studios, we've
compelled a strong team of interface designers who can join
such kinds of projects to enhance the workflow of any
application created. We believe it's a great advantage that
makes our offerings in AR/VR unique.
Give a detailed description of the featured person's
influence over the company and the industry.
Vadim Khadakou is the founder of Bitsens. Before
establishing his own business, he had a chance to work in a
few advertising agencies and become an Art Director in a
big toys/game company. Growing up as a professional,
Vadim has obtained vast experience and multiple skills
essential to working on web, mobile, interface, and startup
projects. An influencer, entrepreneur and startup advisor,
Vadim is highly committed to his team and people he is
working with. Bitsens's team under Vadim's supervision has
already collaborated with companies such as UEFA, Nestle,
DDB, Wargaming, IBM Israel, Toronto University, and
Pavia University.
How is AR/VR technology disrupting the entertainment
and gaming industry?
We believe that every product
launch is exclusive. However,
some repetitions appear in the
lunch process. If you can identify
them and learn, every new
product release will be more
successful and efcient.
‘‘
September 2020

Despite the statement sounds like a persuasive one, we
slightly disagree upon it. From our point of view, AR/VR
technology enhances and makes entertainment and gaming
industries more efficient rather than become a big trouble-
maker there. No doubt, the implementation of these
technologies still requires a lot of effort, time and certain
expenses. For instance, a user needs a helmet for VR while
AR applications require an ARKit or ARCore frameworks
to be able to work with this technology. Nevertheless, we
see it more as a temporary difficulty than a blocker on its
way.
What technologies are you leveraging to make your
services resourceful?
To provide excellent services we always keep up with the
latest technologies which can improve our work. Thus, for
the design needs we use such applications like Zeplin,
Invision, and Miro. Moreover, we use special groupware
technologies for a better information structuring which help
us to reach the most effective project performance.
However, we understand that some of our clients might be
unfamiliar or feel uncomfortable following up on the
projects using unknown tools. That's why, being agile and
easily adaptive, our team is always ready to move and work
in suggested workgroup support systems.
What are your company's future aspirations? What
strategies are you undertaking to achieve those goals?
Bitsens has grown up from a service company offering web,
mobile & interface development and branding to a creative
digital consulting agency. However, over the past several
years our expertise in certain fields has been dramatically
improved and widened to let us move on to the next step -
becoming a product company. Thus, recently we've
launched two highly successful mobile applications: Heart
Rate - Track Your Pulse and Day Tracker. Count Up &
Down. Analyzing its strong performance, we're aiming to
continue releasing new products under Bitsens's
benchmark.
Give us a few testimonials of your clients that accurately
highlight your company's position in the market
Flexibility is Bitsens's main strength. Because our
environment is constantly changing, they're always
prepared to modify the plan even if we haven't discussed it
during the initial stages. The team adapts their processes to
fit our design and development needs. I'm particularly
impressed with their design and frontend capabilities. -
Head of Production, Play2Live
When there were issues, they were diligent about finding
the root cause of them. I appreciate their direct
communication, consciousness of our budget, and positive
attitudes. They were extremely reactive and got things
done. All in all, I've never doubted our decision to hire
them. In fact, I've recommended them to others because of
their awesome, professional work. - Managing Partner,
EVOCEAN
21
|

Why
Within
has become a
SIGNIFICANT NAME
September 2020
The New Reality

What lies within can be brought out to the world
in all its colors, shades, ideas, and themes…if
only one knows how best to make use of
technology, more specifically AR and VR.
And it is precisely here, that Within’s repertoire finds it
widest amplitude. Where it can be and needs to be
expressed with the help of the latest and best in AR and VR,
they have the wherewithal and creative folks to do the
needful, every time!
Founded in 2014 in LA, it was called Vrse at inception with
founders, Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin being the erstwhile
part of Google’s Data Arts team. From the onset, the
founders had their ideas set on communicating to the world
at large using premium AR, VR and XR experiences, across
mediums be it the web, the mobile phones, tablets,
computers, or consoles.
With headsets being an important element in the world of
immersive AR and VR, Within’s VR app supports major
headsets, including Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, Samsung
Gear VR, HTC Vive, Sony PlayStation VR, and Google
Daydream. To facilitate wider reach, Within is available on
a variety of platforms including Oculus Store, iOS App
Store, Steam, and Google Play while remaining compatible
to iOS and Android OS as also HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and
Quest, Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR.
Into the present, Within remains a pioneer in creating,
acquiring and distributing top-of-the line AR and VR
besides XR experiences across platforms and gadgets and
was named by FastCompany as one of the most innovative
entities in this space for its child-specific app, the
Wonderscope, an AR-assisted feature encourages children
and young people to read. In fact, taking their ideas the
logical way, the company is also said to be in the process of
25
|

releasing a fitness training app with extensive use of its AR
and VR platforms.
What truly marks Within as being distinct from others is
that it uses all its energies and resources into making its
features stand out while using a mix of reality burnished
with VR and AR. Take for instance the “Vice News VR”
about the Million March that took place in New York in the
year 1995. Through the footage of an insider in the march
digitally enhanced using AR, it brings to life the palpable
feelings of the marchers, their anguish, hope and feeling of
disgust. Had it not been for the augmentation brought about
by the software, creating the same and seamlessly adding it
to the main theme could have taken enormous time and
resources.
Within’s repertoire is not limited to serious stuff. In fact, a
sizable quantity of the content delves with things as diverse
as music, documentary, horror and experimental, all of
which go to show the power of VR to augment the
production of features which would otherwise be difficult, if
not impossible for a variety of reasons including expenses,
and which would never-the-less be no match for AR in
terms of quality of the final output.
What is also interesting today about Within is its ownership.
It is in parts held by the likes of Andreessen Horowitz,
Annapurna Pictures Temasek, Live Nation, Emerson
Collective, Raine Ventures, WME, Vice Media, 21st
Century Fox, Legendary Pictures, and Tribeca Enterprises.
As per information updated on Wikipedia, Within’s work
has had their share of recognition and appreciation. It has
been named the #1 VR app for iOS by Apple Insider, the
“Best New App” on iTunes and is the most downloaded and
highest rated cinematic VR app for Google Cardboard.
Within’s VR films found their way to the Tribeca Film
Festival and for the Sundance Film Festival of 2015 and
2016.
“The Displaced” won the Most Next Award at 2016’s AICP
Awards and the 2016 Cannes Lions Grand Prix in the
Entertainment category. Founder Chris Milk’s SNL40 VR
won the Best Online Film & Video Award of the 2016
Webby Awards. Besides, “Clouds Over Sidra” won the
Interactive Category at the 2015 Sheffield Doc/Fest Awards.
In 2020, Within was named one of Fast Company’s Most
Innovative Companies.
Within thus goes to show the power of technology over
storytelling. With the backing of the right technology,
getting the right nuances, senses, and settings besides
enhancing images is a complete possibility. It helps bring an
overall reality to the feature while also adding to the
essential “fillers” to make things look plausible, real, and
imaginable. In its other genres too, its more than liberal use
of AR and VR goes on to show that with the right
technology, the possibility of impossibility reduces so much!
September 2020

September 2020

29
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September 2020

31
|

East City Films
Immersing Audiences in Important Stories
East City Films, the leaders in the production of
purpose-driven, social-impact storytelling was
founded by CEO, Ashley Cowan and CCO
Darren Emerson. East City films is the foremost VR
documentary producer in Europe, and is also one of the
best known virtual reality and augmented reality production
studios in London. In an interview with Insights Success,
Ashley has shared key details regarding its services and
how it is disrupting the whole industry.
Below are the highlights of the interview;
The company was originally set up as a video production
company. Myself and Darren met at MTV and we decided
to create a company of our own to produce music videos,
live concert films and branded content. We had great early
success while delivering content to MTV, Channel 4, the
major record labels (and some smaller ones) and multiple
brands and agencies. Then in 2014 I got a call from an old
school friend at Pearson Education asking us to produce a
VR experience. This opened us up to the land of VR and
AR.
Describe your company and its cutting-edge AR/VR
services which address all the needs of your customers.
We pride ourselves as a company that produces purpose-
driven storytelling in VR, AR and film. If your content need
is in some way helping the world become a better place,
then we’re all ears. We also produce a great deal of our own
IP – which is perhaps what drove more into the world of
social impact content-making – and our work has been
recognised with incredible festival selections and global
licensing deals. Our VR documentary Common Ground was
recognised with the Outstanding VR Narrative accolade at
this year’s World Press Photo and our multi-sensory VR
documentary Some Inattention On The Left is a finalist in
the VR Social Impact category at this year’s VR Awards.
Could you throw some light on your mission and vision
statement?
It is pretty much tied into the statement above – East City
Films produces purpose-drive storytelling in VR, AR &
film. We believe that immersive technology particularly is
at its most effective when putting a viewer deeper into an
important story. This is where we want to be, and we are
constantly exploring and pushing the tech to see how it can
improve the impact of our storytelling.
How does your AR/VR services unique from the other
companies’ offerings?
I think with us, story always comes first, and if that story is
purpose-driven then East City Films is the place for you.
Our background is TV and online content rather than VFX,
gaming or panoramic photography, so our point of view
tends to start through a moving camera lens. However, with
AR becoming a much larger part of what we do that is
changing, and we are enjoying thinking about how we can
augment people’s lives rather than transport them.
Give a detailed description of your influence over the
company and the industry.
I picked up the phone from Pearson Education in 2014 and
from then on East City Films has been building a global
reputation as VR and AR producers of note. We’ve worked
with ITV as they stepped into 360 video with their coverage
of horseracing and boxing; helped develop multi-sensory
VR tours of whisky distilleries for Diageo and Beam
Suntory; brought the Old Vic theatre to 360 video with
PwC, collaborated with British Heart Foundation as they
stepped into augmented reality and recently helped lobby
parliament with a multi-sensory documentary about the lack
of community rehabilitation in the UK. But every step of
the way has been a team effort - from the day CCO Darren
joined me in seeing its potential and created East City
Films’ first VR documentary Witness 360: 7/7 to the present
day where we are creating an educational AR app, we have
Top 10 Companies Leading the AR/VR Revolutions 2020
September 2020

35
|

www.insightssuccess.com
36 | September 2020

been a complimentary duo. With Darren driving much of East City Films’ original
documentary making (Common Ground, Indefinite, Waiting Room VR) and me
keeping the servicing side of the business busy and looking for new avenues in AR,
we are a formidable and forward-thinking team.
How is AR/VR technology disrupting the entertainment and gaming industry?
VR and AR are entirely new mediums and must never be mistaken for versions of
TV or worse still, 3D. The experiences we create are simply not possible in any
other medium and that is of crucial importance to us. Our VR documentary Common
Ground for example is a combination of room scale, 6 degrees of freedom,
interactive, stereoscopic 360 video and spatial sound and has been described as
providing a “new dawn in documentary” by Sight & Sound magazine. Some
Inattention On The Left is a multi-sensory VR documentary which creates an
emotional experience in 6 minutes which we hope will change government mandate
on community rehabilitation in the UK. Our VR experience Indefinite put viewers in
the shoes of asylum seekers in the UK. For us VR and AR is best when purpose-
driven, and that is in the reason the medium is being used as well as the subject
matter it is shining a light on. At its best, immersive technology can change how you
feel and think, create a memory which will never fade and perhaps even inspire
action. That is a powerful tool already disrupting an entertainment industry looking
for more and more immersive experiences.
What technologies are you leveraging to make your services resourceful?
We have always been technology agnostic - choosing the best camera for a particular
shot rather than a particular project, for example. More recently we have been
developing photogrammetry and volumetric capture both of which are going to be a
big part of what we do in the future, both in VR and AR. But as I said earlier, story
comes first, tech second.
What are your company’s future aspirations? What strategies are you
undertaking to achieve those goals?
We’re enjoying taking on selected larger projects rather than many small ones and
are excited by a couple that are very big indeed. We want to continue producing
immersive experiences which are purpose-driven and have social impact at their
core.
Is this post COVID-19 world going to be a stimulus for AR & VR? We’re looking
forward to finding out. Watch this space!
“East City Films are well-known for
producing VR documentaries that
aspire to drive change. This vein runs
through their always brilliant, thought
provoking work.”
37
|

he world is evolving and embracing new technologies,
Tespecially during COVID-19. Technology has become the
backbone of every industry out there. Despite this truth,
there are many businesses still behind the curve. Because of the
pandemic, we're seeing businesses affected and many shuttering.
But some companies are starting up, and many are making it. We're
excited to highlight one Georgia based business, steadily humming
along.
This article will focus on a technology-oriented, digital marketing
company ready to help local businesses grow. My Basic LLC is a
marketing communication firm in Smyrna, Georgia, contributing to
small businesses for more than a decade. Their growing marketing
tools and techniques help clients reach and connect with their
audience in unique ways. It doesn't matter if they are at home or on
the go.
Steward D. Clinton leads the team at My Basic. With a background
in marketing, he enjoys helping businesses develop strategies to
sustain and grow their business. Creativity and assisting business
growth are two of the many factors that drive My Basic, he states.
The Story behind Basic LLC
Steward says My Basic LLC started to help businesses embrace and
harness technology. They're problem solvers and aim to empower
their clients to macro-manage their business. The company traces its
roots to Decatur Georgia, where Steward helped a couple of friends
launch their websites online.
There was no blueprint to running a business, but Steward learned
quickly to come up with a plan, work the plan, and adjust it to fit.
Years later, he saw an opportunity in virtual reality and took it.
Steward says his team is creative, skilled, and always growing.
They're passionate about virtual reality because they see it's
potential. They can create fluid VR spaces that cater to education,
the medical field, and business. They say VR allows users to learn,
train, work, and do business. Virtual reality will enable people to
communicate as if they're in the same physical location. "There is
nothing new under the sun, but we have a unique perspective to add
to VR/AR," says Steward.
The company's mission is to be good stewards of the services they
provide. They strive to help their clients help local communities and
be profitable. The team at My Basic LLC understands that each
client has unique needs, and is managed as such. The company finds
its strength in being a resource to people who need its expertise and
creative ability. VR can help businesses achieve their learning,
business, and training goals in VR/AR. My Basic LLC says it
understands that its clients can benefit from a platform that allows
them to work and communicate effectively.
My Basic LLC is a
minority-owned
tech business
with experience
in VR, App
Development,
digital marketing,
and web design.
“
September 2020

My
Basic
LLC
Minority-Owned Business
Strives to Help Businesses Grow
With VR and Digital Marketing
Steward D. Clinton
39
|

Steward says his team is creative, versatile, and unique. He
says that the company is not the most expensive nor the
cheapest but gives a solid return on a client's investment.
They are always thinking about the infused relationship
between VR/AR, marketing, and user experience. It is
independent; it has a David complexion. This means the
company has its own ideas, beliefs, and ways to solve a
problem. Because it is a minority-owned business, there is
always room to improve its digital technology footprint.
About Steward
"When VR came out, Steward invested in the tech to
experience firsthand what VR could do. Once he saw the
potential for VR in business, education, and healthcare, he
desired to venture into the space and find opportunities to
grow. Steward aspires to influence the industry with the
launch of a new VR headset."
A Glimpse into the Future/Embracing Technology
"VR/AR is empowering people to view entertainment in
ways our predecessors could only dream about. Experiences
are becoming more memorable/ interactive, and this is
where the power of VR/AR is. Stories can now be shared in
ways never before experienced," says Steward. "One of the
technologies that are allowing us to be more resourceful in
hardware development is 3d printing.”
He emphasizes that the company wants to create its own
VR headset independent of a desktop and laptop. He
believes that once the team finishes its prototype, it will
greatly benefit its customers. Their goal is to make a quality
and affordable headset that helps clients connect online.
Top 10 Companies Leading the ARVR Revolutions, 2020
September 2020

September 2020

43
|

How Snap Inc. is
CARVING
New York Times in 2017 said that
Snapchat with a total of 1,900
employees, had “already
changed the face of Venice.” And that
they did with just the snap of fingers!
Great products, a great name (plus a
name change), and acquisitions later,
Snap is what it is today, one of the
greatest and most prolific of AR/ VR
product makers - be it to chat, click
images, form videos and communicate in
the best way!
It started off as Snapchat which, as is
obvious from the name, was a social
media platform with one central defining
feature: picture messages available to its
recipients only for a short time before
they became inaccessible. The app which
originally focussed only on person-to-
person photo sharing, today has its users’
stories in a 24-hour chronological
content plus a “Discover,” feature where
brands can position advertisements in a
short-form content. In addition, the app
also allows users to store photos in “eyes
only” password-protected formats.
All these, aided by VR and AR, came
about due to both inorganic and organic
September 2020
The New Reality

Gits Name in the
XR SPACE
45
|

growth which included lapping up
companies like Addlive in May 2014,
Vergence Labs (developers of
Epiphany Eyewear) and its mobile
app called Scan in December 2014,
Looksery for the latter’s lenses based
on facial-recognition AI-based
software for its mobile app, Vurb an
eponymous mobile search engine in
August 2016, Israel-based AR start-
up Cimagine Media in December
2016, location sharing app Zenly in
May 2017.
Numerous offers for a buyout by
everyone from Facebook to Google
and everyone in between followed
right from their inception to as late as
2016. Today Snap has three products:
Snapchat, Spectacles, and Bitmoji.
Originally called Snapchat Inc., it
was rebranded as Snap Inc in
September 2016 to include the
Spectacles product under a single
company.
Where Snap differs significantly
from the others is in its being a
mobile app for social media that
places significant emphasis on users
interacting with virtual stickers and
augmented reality objects. As of
March 2020, its subscriber base was
close to 230 million active users
daily with more than four billion
Snaps being sent each day. Given its
USPs, Snapchat is known for its
popularity among the younger
generation, particularly those below
16 with an inadvertent concern being
that of privacy.
Increasingly, Snap is turning into an
AR company. This can be seen by the
kind of additions that we see in its
product portfolio. As late as 2019, it
added AI in a big way by bringing in
a new feature that was called Scan.
The latter uses the AI to record,
observe and analyse whatever the
camera views. Next, it uses its inbuilt
AR capabilities to overlay objects
and situations that go with what the
camera views.
If for instance, you intend to snap
images of a mountainous scene or
any place with wide open spaces and
then big objects at a distance, the
built-in features of Scan shall suggest
the right lenses to complement the
final output. What the user then
needs to do is select the option of the
lenses that Snap suggest and scan the
scene in front to get the perfect
image with all the features that they
intend. This feature of Snap is in fact
in use by 70% of its active users on a
day-to-day basis.
Snap’s other feature Spectacles
which came to it with its acquisition
of Vergence Labs (developers of
Epiphany Eyewear) too is unique and
shall see extensive use of AR and VR
in times to come. These feature
spectacles with built-in cameras on
the frame which records videos as an
addition to Snapchat’s existing
platform. Its uniqueness is in the fact
that the cameras can record short
videos and while syncing the same
with the smartphone camera, upload
it to one’s online Snapchat account.
The smart lenses were initially
handed out through Snap’s own
Snapbot, a proprietary vending pop-
up machine.
With rising demand, these went for
online distribution in February 2017.
In time these were upgraded with
increased storage space for videos
and even limited resistance to water
where the user wore the same while
swimming or recording in the
nd
presence of water. The 2 generation
saw response in 17 countries when
released in April 2018. More changes
were in the offing and in September
2018, two new versions closely
resembling typical sunglasses called
Nico and Veronica were released.
More was in store. August 2019 saw
Spec 3 being released with
minimalist frames and two cameras
that give stereoscopic vision. It is
only a question of time before AR &
VR invade this space and Snap slips
them into creating entire scenarios
using its camera and its resultant
digital videos.
Snap has another feature from its
2016 acquisition of Bitstrips, makers
of Bitmoji that is visible everywhere
these days. That, and World Lenses, a
feature that uses AR to apply emojis
to every situation around us, sees the
extensive use of 3D Bitmoji with the
simplest means of tapping the rear-
facing camera when in use. These
animations can be directed by simply
moving around with the phone!
With its sustained integration and
development of filters and lenses,
these features including the Bitmojis
that extensively use AR and VR,
stand to become the most effective
and efficient way to communicate as
also enhance its value while keeping
the whole atmosphere light, fun
though quite objective.
September 2020

350+ full-time team members. It is helping Fortune 500
companies, Start-ups and first-time founders to attain their
business goalsby:
Ÿ Creatingtheirtechnologyproductroadmap
Ÿ Improving product experience by delivering outstanding
customerexperience
Ÿ Building strategy to raise capital, launch product, and
acquireusers
AResilientLeader
Priven drives strategy and execution for Kagiso and its clients.
He sees every client project as an opportunity not just to
deliver a great app but also to help clients implement game-
changing mobile strategies. Internally, he works on nurturing
the high-energy and collaborative work culture that Kagiso is
known for.
Privens’ approach to end-to-end mobile excellence has
positioned his teams to receive many industry accolades,
including Best Web Design Agency 2015, Best Mobile App
Agencies 2016, and MTN MobileApp of theYear. He strongly
believes that attention to detail makes a world of difference
and that it can turn something that is just good into something
trulyamazing.
GetBetterGetAhead
Team Kagiso quotes “Always improving and pushing
forward”. As the software industry keeps reaching new
heights, it is important for the company to keep updated with
emergingtechnologiesinordertodeliverfreshresultstoits
Kagiso
Interactive RSA
Improving Business Practices by Using AR/VR
Priven
CEO
Kagiso Interactive RSA
The VR engages all five senses like taste, smell, sight,
hearing, and touch. Gaming industry is the most
popular user of VR. By the immersive reality
experience, the gamer can feel the realistic practical
experience of gaming, enabled by specific headsets. This
approach provides humans with an opportunity to gain new
experiencesataspecificmomentoftime.
Guaranteeing the highest level of involvement and immersion,
Kagiso Interactive RSA creates exceptional VR solutions
that help engage and interact with any audience. Starting from
ideation and consulting to design, operation, delivery, and
management of XR solutions for customers or enterprises,
Kagiso Interactive RSA helps in the areas of sales, marketing,
products, services, information visualization and virtual
conferencing.
AStoryofHardwork and Success
In 2006, Privenesh Christie Reddy, CEO of Kagiso,
launched Kagiso Interactive. Led by an executive team that
has combined technology experience of more than 12 years,
Kagiso has maintained an excellent Customer Experience for
last 10 years. With 400+ high-quality solutions in mobile and
web platforms, the company is also into IoT, AR/VR,
Blockchain, and Chatbot development. It bagged more than
300+ happy clients that include multiple Fortune 500, Billion
dollar companies. It has enormous experience in six popular
industries like transport, education, health care, IOT and
wearable,ande-commerceandfinance.
Today, Kagiso is an award-winning technology company with
September 2020

clients. This means being capable of adapting to things that are
about to come, keeping in mind that what seems modern right
now can be outdated with passing years, especiallyin this tech-
fuelledworld.
RevolutionizingHealthcareIndustry
Healthcare is also an industry that faces constant pressure to
become more cost and time-efficient and hence is embracing
virtual reality to provide cheaper and more time-efficient
training for surgeons. Kagiso does provide training to
doctors/nurses on how to use VR in COVID-19. Virtual reality
is a more effective way of teaching students to perform
surgeries as it eliminated the bottleneck of having to view
procedures performed on live patients. The advanced software
being used can also provide individualized feedback and a
student’s performancecanberecordedandrepeatedeasily.
With the help VR, doctors can record video and audio while
examining a patient. It also enables surgeons to get interactive
augmented reality assistance during surgery, assists in vein
visualization and streams ultrasound and allows for interactive
printing and demos of how various drugs and devices affect the
humanbody
Virtual reality adds value to enhance doctors’ performance,
whereas augmented reality’s potential offers vast
opportunitiesfor doctors to be ableto work more efficiently. Its
applications range from increasing surgery success rates to
simplifying complex surgical operations, help patients
recover,andmuchmore.
Kagiso is developing an AR-powered video support platform
that allows for a more detailed interaction between two
specialists. This solution is used during medical procedures as
well as to train new staff. It is working to develop a device that
allows to quickly find veins on a patient’s body, easing the
injectionprocess.
The team at Kagiso is developing a solution that allows
doctors to spend less time on clerical work through
outsourcing it to a transcriber by recording patient
examinationswithanAR headset.
Getting Advanced with High Tech
Kagiso is firmly planted at the intersection of user-focused
design, mobile app development, digital strategy, and
emerging technologies. It is passionate about leveraging
mobile technology including iOS, Android,
augmented/virtual reality, artificial intelligence, blockchain,
and the Internet of Things (IoT) to help businesses disrupt
entire industries and reach their loftiest goals.
VisioningtoBecometheLeadingOne
Kagiso’s goal is to become one of the world’s leading
companies by improving how organizations work and interact
with consumers through technology innovations. “To solve
real-life challenges, we harness our passion for technology
and work closely with our clients and partners delivering
globalproductsandservice,”says thecompany.
Kagiso’s strategyis to:
Ÿ Understand Clients'Needs
Kagiso carefully studies each customer case to understand the
client’s needs and objectives and delivers a reliable and
efficient solution. It analyses all available options and provides
competent advice to guide clients to informed business
decisions.
Ÿ DeliverMaximumValue
At Kagiso, the team is committed to delivering maximum
value to the clients to help them succeed in a constantly
changing and challenging business world. The company’s
fundamental corporate values stem from understanding that its
success is tiedtothesuccessofitsclients.
Ÿ Partnerwith Clients
The company goes an extra mile to become its clients' long-
term, trusted partner. It believes that the priority is not only
providing professional services and solutions, but also
becoming a true technology partner, dedicated to meeting
client needs today and supporting clients' growing business
needstomorrow.
We empower our
clients with
technology: Insight,
tips, and advice
from industry
experts
49
|

September 2020

51
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Top 10 Companies Leading the AR/VR Revolutions, 2020 September 2020

Top 10 Companies Leading the AR/VR Revolutions, 2020 September 2020

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