Immersive Interview with Sami Hamid
So, I know that you are VR & AR producer, project manager and co-founder of Glitch Studios. What else I missed?
Nope this is pretty much on the button!
How did you get into VR/AR field?
Alternative realities have always been a bit of a fascination for me. I spent most of my youth lost in one fantasy universe or another either in film, books or video games. Around 2014 while at a crossroads in my career, on one path lay a fantastic job offer with the world’s second biggest entertainment company, on the other was the embryonic idea of venturing into the uncharted world of technology entrepreneurship while I fumbled with an Oculus DKII that had recently arrived at my house. I ended up choosing the latter option and after a rocky road (well, it’s still pretty rocky) we are here today with Glitch.
Can you let me know a little bit more about Glitch Studios?
Glitch is an immersive marketing agency. That means we deliver immersive marketing experiences for clients within the heavy industry (telecoms, data centres, marine & offshore) as well as create creative pieces of museums who want to engage with their attendees through immersive technology.
We focus mainly on virtual reality but also explore augmented reality in its current rudimentary mobile and headset form.
What are you responsibilities there?
Anyone who has run a company knows your responsibilities are pretty much everything from making coffee & taking out the trash to managing the financial forecasts & hiring staff. But officially I am the producer, meaning my focus sits in pulling together the production team of 3D artists, animators, developers designers & sound specialists that make the magic happen in producing a VR experience for our clients. The role is sometimes a bit like herding cats towards a common goal and project managing our super talent in doing what they do best.
What do you need to work, on a daily basis? What kind of tools, services, and hardware are you using?
Not me directly, but the production team will be working across a number of development tools from Unity3D, Unreal Engine, Maya, Cinema 4D, 3D Studio Max, Blender, Audacity and countless third party plugins that help get the job done.
Are there a lot of other studios like yours? Is this area overcrowded already?
It’s a great question with a tricky answer. From one side there has been a surge of VR & AR companies that are covering various industries or applications of the technology which is exciting and in many ways are direct or indirect competitors (and pioneers!), but from another side the slow market growth and far lower than expected consumer adoption has meant we are in a real dry period for VR & AR companies & startups trying to survive. A lot of very talented studios and companies have closed down due to lack of funding or market opportunities, so my advice to anyone looking to jump in is plan carefully to survive over the next 2–5 years while the market picks up.
Some time ago we had a fascinating discussion about how people from different countries see and understand VR and AR. Do you have some new insights to share?
Cultural & social influence play a critical factor in how a people adopt and interact with any given technology if it is a mobile phone, a personal computer or a virtual reality headset. In a way VR & AR are more intimate forms of technology as not only do they physically attach themselves to your face but they also envelop the user, which means a degree of trust is required to use them.
Bearing this in mind in this early stage of VR & AR adoption we can see certain cultural traits affect how the technology is perceived and embraced. For example societies with which are hierarchical and place a high degree of emphasis on social status such as Asia & the Middle East you will find a higher degree of rejection to the technology while in places like Scandinavia & Northern Europe in general a higher degree of acceptance by societies that are both less self conscious and more embracing of new ideas.
With whom from VR/AR field (or not) would you like to have a beer, and why?
Jaron Lanier. I recently finished his book “Dawn of a New Everything” and really enjoyed his influence on the technology and the cultural movements surrounding it at the time. He was touched by the great minds of his day including Timothy Leary who dabbled with the idea of new realms of reality. VR for me is a door in the wall carved by technology to a similar realm he was searching for. Id love to chat to Jaron on the subject.
What definition is right from your point of view?
a. AR/VR
b. MR
c. XR
d. Other
I try to avoid the terminology argument as much as possible. What acronym sticks today and is gone tomorrow is a bit of a futile debate. The technology is evolving and changing, its applications are emerging in such new and interesting ways im sure in the next few years a completely new acronym will emerge.
What are your plans for future?
I’m about to get married so my relationship with VR & AR is going to need to play nice with my family. I hope in the future to continue to build out interesting VR & AR projects as well as push the boundaries as to what can be created with this new medium
My congratulations!
What advice would you offer to those starting out in your field?
As the lab director at VRFirst from when it started in 2016 I used to advise the indie developers and students to think outside of the box. The doors of what can be done in VR and AR are still wide open and it is through experimentation that we find what works and what doesn’t. Throw mud at the wall and see what sticks — if nothing, throw some more!
This story is part of series Immersive Interviews. If you are also VR/AR designer, and you have what to say (I’m sure that you have) drop me a line on email or Twitter. Check out the previous interview from this series:
