yondr academy podcasts

When you go to a film festival, it is almost impossible not to bump into this man. Jimmy Cheng focuses on the acquisition and licensing of immersive/interactive XR content as Director of Content / Business Operations at Iconic Engine. Currently, he represents 140 studios, including GoPro, Atlas V, Secret Location, and supporting six telecoms for finding content. In this episode of the VRTL podcast, Jimmy talks to Pieter about the recent trends in demand for the type of XR content and how he sees the XR licensing business evolving. A sneak peek at the panel that Jimmy will be part of at Cannes XR Virtual next week.

I think it must have been about a year since René and I last met each other in real life. That must have been during Cannes XR if I remember correctly. In the meantime, a lot has happened with Kaleidoscope and the pandemic has certainly accelerated the implementation of the new business model. René Pinnell is Founder and CEO of Kaleidoscope and has a clear mission and vision where he wants to go with the platform. Just like last year, Kaleidoscope and Cannes XR are teaming up and René gives us insights on what we can expect from this collaboration. Listen to his podcast how vision with action can change the world for XR artists.

This week on our VRTL podcast we welcome Sean Rodrigo. Sean's a London-based, Virtual Reality Artist / Technologist working with innovative XR technology such as virtual reality as a core creative tool to achieve engaging, insightful and meaningful experiences.

Over the last 13 years, Sean has worked in film, television and advertising with extensive experience in technical and creative campaigns. His current work ranges from installation artwork to designing prototype products in super fast timeframes – sometimes mixing technology with traditional tools such as theatre, design and animation.

In this episode Pieter and Sean discuss the necessary skillset to start designing in virtual reality, the uncharted territory of spatial creation within the industry and insights on the available tools in the market. 

Nina is an award-winning filmmaker and XR Creative, Producer & Consultant. She has worked in the XR space since 2015. She is one of the co-founders of the Women in VR meet up group, an XR journalist for two and half years, and has worked on creating, developing, and using immersive technologies for various companies and brands. She is currently working on bringing VR into UK prisons, executing UK immersive events, and working on her own VR film. Nina Salomons talks about her career path and her mission to make the XR community more diverse. She has a clear view on how to build a bridge to the other side of the widening skills gap, to unlock the full potential of XR.

Rosh is Managing Director at UNIT9 a global Innovation Studio. A seasoned leader, passionate about the creative application of technologies for brands, and has been involved in the agency, production and start-up worlds running successful businesses and executing innovative and award winning work for some of the worlds biggest brands. Previous to UNIT9 he ran a record label, sold a business to WPP, started an embedded creative agency at WPP and founded a start-up incubator launching a new visual holographic medium, eco-friendly street furniture and a VR motion platform to the UK. Rosh Singh responds to how he got into immersive, the hype about VR/AR and about how an A-list production agency works with customers.

Marta Ordeig is a filmmaker and entrepreneur traveling between Silicon Valley and Barcelona. In 2016 she founded Garage Stories, a content lab where she gathers creatives minds from various background to co-create and explore the possibilities that emerging technologies are bringing into the table and take an active part in shaping the future of entertainment. In this episode Pieter and Marta talk about how her idea generation methodology makes sense for XR projects and about her collaboration with prominent film festivals.

Rafael Pavon is an award-winning Creative Director and Producer at AtlasV, the production studio behind Spheres, Gloomy Eyes, Battlescar, and Vestige. Rafael started as Director and Creative Director for virtual reality in 2015 at VR studio Future Lighthouse, where he worked on 30+ VR productions from idea to delivery, creating award-winning original content from scratch, like Melita and Ray, and also working with partners like Sony, Oculus and HTC on projects like Campfire Creepers. After Future Lighthouse, Rafael Pavon joined the Disney-backed company Jaunt in London as Creative Director and worked as a freelance immersive director for projects such as the World Monuments Fund.

François Fripiat has been a sound engineer for over 12 years. He worked in many different fields such as sound design, audio mix, and he's been a sound supervisor for many different animation films, feature films, documentaries, etc... Passionate about spatial sound for a decade, François Fripiat founded the company Demute, a creative sound studio dedicated to new media (XR / Video Games / Immersive experiences). Demute is focusing on tech by developing new technological tools to improve immersion through sound. Our VRTL podcast host Pieter Van Leugenhagen will dig deeper to learn the different aspects within spatial sound and how it contributes to the storytelling of a cinematic VR experience.

Bob Cooney is widely considered the world’s leading authority on the location-based virtual reality (LBVR) business. As an innovator in immersive entertainment for nearly 30 years, he is a frequent keynote speaker at VR and amusement industry conferences and is a renowned and skilled moderator. Next to being a mentor and speaker, Bob is the author of the new book “Real Money from Virtual Reality”, a guide for entrepreneurs entering the LBVR space. While Bob has a tight schedule, he managed to squeeze in a spot for our VRTL Podcasts. Our VRTL host Pieter talked with Bob Cooney about the opportunities and struggles for LBE business models and the future of this growing industry.

Dominic Eskofier co-founded the largest unofficial community for VR (reddit.com/r/oculus), started the VR Germany meetup group and is co-founder of EUVR.org – a non-profit organization pushing the European XR industry. After co-founding the VR startup realities.io at Boost VC, an accelerator in Silicon Valley, he gathered international corporate experience at Nvidia as their Head of Virtual Reality (EMEAI). Now, as Head of Eden Europe, he develops the European business for Eden, a startup from South Africa on the convergence of XR and emerging tech. Eskofier joined us for a podcast and talked about his past in VR and the very first duct-taped Oculus Rift prototype. He does not take a doom and gloom approach to XR, but believes it’s time to move up a gear for our industry.