Musion: An Open Response to Arena 3D

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Holograhic TP

by Ian O’Connell, Director of Musion

Following the publishing of this story, it is with great pleasure, Ian O’Connell, on behalf of Musion and its parent companies, have the opportunity to reply in defence of the truth.

Perhaps the best place to begin is with technical simplification. Arena 3D discusses at length the foils it uses and how Musion is misleading the industry about its own patented foil. This is false for many reasons.

The first step is to imagine polymers, like those that make up DuPont’s product, in line with the term ‘mobile phone’. Foil and polymers are simply a catch-all generic term in the same way mobile phone is the device, but Apple, Samsung and Nokia are brands, or manufacturers of phones.

DuPont manufacture foil, yes. However, so do many other companies. For example, for an effective Pepper’s Ghost effect like Musion’s, you need a bi-axially compounded foil that has undergone specific rolling techniques. This process and foil is propriety to Mitsubishi GBH (formally Hoerst).

These polymer foil extrusions are cited in various global patents awarded to various manufacturers as a means of distinguishing one polymer from another.

However, it is worth tracking back in history to the point when Mr Uwe Maass, Director and Shareholder of Musion IP Limited (Musion’s parent company), discovered the bi-axial foil appropriate for Pepper’s Ghost. Up until this point it had been used for food packaging purposes.

Breaking Secrecy Agreements

By experimenting with various Mitsubishi sample foils supplied to Mr Maass, he identified a particular kind of foil which was able to withstand a great application of tension during the rigging process. This essentially granted him a substantially flatter and smoother rigged foil, so when installed at the necessary 45 degree angle for Pepper’s Ghost, could sustain the necessary forces even with surface areas of 20m2 or more.

Up until this point, materials such as Myler (as quoted by Arena 3D) had been tested and discarded as being unstable and liable to tearing / deformation in sizes greater than 3m x 3m (10ft x 10ft).

The procurement of foil from Mitsubishi was protected by strict conditions of secrecy. This secrecy was maintained until a now ex-employee of Musion, Daniel Augusiak, who is now the Technical Director of Arena 3D, elected to break the conditions of his employee confidentiality agreement and procure foil for a new business.

This business was called Blickfang 3D Vision & Event GmbH, which became the provider of unlicensed foil solutions. Following that, it eventually expanded to partner with Jim Haszinger, current President and Executive Director of none other but Arena 3D.

In 2006 Mr Haszinger contacted Musion to become a reseller in the US. However, following background checks, Musion felt he was not a suitable partner and declined the opportunity. Mr Haszinger took this rejection personally, thus deciding to work solely with Mr Augusiak to create a business supplied by unscrupulous foil providers rather than the trusted providers Musion uses.

2007 Musion R&D

We should now return to Mitsubishi, a company which owns the most amount of patents applicable to flame retardant polymers in the world.

The company still had an integral part to play and in 2007, Musion approached it to supply a flame retardant foil specifically for Pepper’s Ghost - a polymer it did not have at the time. Mitsubishi’s response was although willing to develop a foil; it would only do so with significant financial and technical investment from Musion.

Musion embarked on a five year research and development programme with Mitsubishi in the pursuit of perfecting the manufacturing process of a foil which is both fireproof to European BCB1 standards and optically clear.

By optically clear, I mean a haze of less than 3%. The importance of low haze is so the foil remains invisible to the audience during its show state. Previous flame retardant foils had haze levels in excess of 20%. You can see just what a development meant.

During development Musion retained the services of Michael Abrahams, an independent plastics and engineering consultant with 20 years experience earned at General Electric USA (GE). Working alongside Mitsubishi’s technical team, Mr Abrahams was the main driver of the positive results the three parties experienced.

Musion certainly approached other manufacturers, (DuPoint, SKC and TORAY), all of whom at the time were unable to offer any real solution to Musion’s needs.

Success & Patenting

Having discovered the methods and processes required for the manufacturing of flame retardant foil, Musion filed for patents at the end of 2008. These are expected to be granted in Europe and the US during the course of 2013.

The assertion by Arena 3D that Musion did not invent its foil is completely false and designed to mislead the market into believing its own material is the same as Musion’s.

To the uninitiated, the materials may seem identical, but the differences could be fatal. Tests conducted by independent organisations and Musion on foils supplied by Arena 3D have found the materials to be highly flammable, especially when used in close proximity to powerful heat sources like high powered projectors and stage lighting. This presents a significant safety risk to the public.

Musion intends to continue its active campaign of informing the public of the potential dangers of using polymers originally destined for food packaging, especially in areas prone to fire hazards.

GE

Pepper’s Ghost Confusion

Now, with the necessary technical explanation out of the way, I can move onto Arena 3D’s assertions that Pepper’s Ghost cannot be patented. This is a ludicrous misinformed statement akin to saying ‘the telephone cannot be patented’.

Yes, there are many ways of achieving a Pepper’s Ghost effect, but Musion adamantly believes its patented methods achieve the best results. This is born out of its impressive customer base, all of whom are satisfied. This industry leading position has been built over the past decade without resorting to disingenuous tactics like Arena 3D.

The tensioning system Arena 3D claims is in the public domain is the propriety know-how belonging exclusively to Maass and Musion. Mr Augusiak knows he remains under the confidentiality of Mr Maass’ agreement he previously signed, but in the same way he chooses to blindly ignore Musion’s superior foil materials, he is also extremely dismissive of his duties to the employer that give him the opportunity to build his business in this exciting market.

Musion believes it is only a matter of time until it identifies an installation manufactured by Arena 3D that will be deemed to infringe upon the intellectual property rights belonging to the company and Mr Maass.

The Final Straw

It is worth noting in this response that Musion is currently in litigation with Mr Augusiak in Germany for alleged patent and trademark infringement, as well as web domain misappropriation.

Furthermore, Mr Augusiak has attempted to discount Musion’s patents in legal affairs, but in two years, failed to provide any credible evidence for his supposed afflictions.

In general, Musion’s remarkable development of the Pepper’s Ghost effect has moved far beyond the initial excellent work of Henry Dircks and John Pepper, and since then, Uwe Maass’ initial creation. This has been achieved by Musion’s introduction of its flame retardant foil, ultra-bright projection, lighting effects and production techniques.

Musion has pioneered Pepper’s Ghost into the realms of real-time immersive holographic telepresence, music concerts and most recently, political electioneering. This has resulted in the rebranding of a theatrical effect into one of the most compelling visual forms known to man.

This effect has even usurped Walt Disney’s Haunted Mansion theme park attraction with the award winning ride, Disaster!, at Universal Studios in Orlando Florida featuring Christopher Walken.

The End of an Argument

So, to conclude. It is with great aggravation and sadness that Musion must endure the regular misdirection of Arena 3D. Musion prides itself on the research and development it has driven for the market’s benefit.

Audience safety, client satisfaction and technological brilliance are at the heart of everything Musion creates, supplies and resells. It hopes the market will continue to support its endeavours and avoid such deceptive tactics like Arena 3D.

Arena 3D’s flagrant disregard for conveying the facts is one Musion hopes will never result in a tragedy.

Go Musion