Unique spherical projection system adopted by Coldplay for world tour.
BY COLIN DONALD, Business Editor
An Edinburgh University spin-out, founded by a 28-year-old former student in the music technology department, has achieved a global showcase by providing giant high-tech video-projection spheres to the rock band Coldplay. The band's Viva La Vida world tour returns to the UK this weekend, including two Glasgow dates, before heading to Japan and Australia.
Pufferfish, which started life as a purely artistic collaboration between the architecture and music departments at Edinburgh, started trading in 2006, after receiving a £50,000 Smart Scotland award, match-funded by the Braveheart Investment Group.
Pufferfish also received a £15,000 Ideasmart award from Lighthouse, a now-dissolved partnership between the Scottish Arts Council, the Scottish Executive, Scottish Screen, Scottish Enterprise and NESTA "to support entrepreneurship and help innovative commercial ideas come to fruition."
Ollie Collier, co-founder of the company, said: "It started out as an interactive art installation but over a couple of years it became clear there was commercial potential.
"We formed the company in 2004, though it was dormant for a couple of years.
"We have one product with lots of different versions. It's a video-sphere or a projection globe, in different sizes ranging from 1.6 metres in diameter to a massive 4m.
"It's an internally projected sphere made of photo-sensitive vinyl. We take military-grade optics and one source of projection. It's much more robust than anything else on the market, and being quite simple there are fewer things that can go wrong."
The company is partnered with software suppliers that enable the innovative all-round projection technology. "We aren't worried about imitators," said Collier, "because we have the patent and we will always be one step ahead."
According to the company's website, Coldplay's lighting designer Paul Normandale asked Pufferfish to supply six PufferSpheres to be suspended above stadium audiences as part of Coldplay's "ongoing mission to make a big room feel as small as possible". The spheres were custom-built to cope with the demands of a world tour.
"They are lightweight, extra-strength units with stealth inflation systems and pressure-sensitive sealed spheres, each unit travelling in two custom flight cases, one for the chassis and another for the inflatable sphere."
Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay is quoted on the company's website saying: "It's like a light show you've never seen before they're the most magic balls since John Lee Hooker had about 50 kids."
Collier, who said that the firm uses no advertising beyond its website and word-of-mouth, said: "Commercialisation has been great, our revenue has doubled in the first six months of this year, and we are well on target.
"Last year we turned over £200,000, next year £400,000 and it's not just the revenue, we have very healthy gross margins, and we will shortly be going for another investment round.
"We have lots of repeat customers and a global clientele. We have worked in the US, the Middle East, and Japan, and worked with lots of corporates including Google and 02. Coldplay is the biggest contract we have had."
Collier, who is from London, said that the company chose Edinburgh for quality of life reasons and because it was a location that potential clients liked to visit.
"Our overheads are lower than they might be in London, and we have a lot of international clients who like to visit here so it's a great place to be - it gives us a nice break from the London malaise.
"Also, in the early days we had a lot of support from the university and the Scottish government, so that had a part to play about being here."
Pufferfish is currently working on developing a PufferBall for educational purposes.
"Kids love them and want to interact with them and they are very touchy-feely objects," said Collier. "We are working on a touch-senstive version."
IN THE ROUND
Pufferfish's inflatable display system, the PufferSphere (slogan: Roll-on, Plug in and Puff-Up ) uses images processed by advanced software to offer "a 360-degree spherical viewing window" for the display of digital content.
Visible at distance, the platform opens new possibilities in the presentation of content and "offers the capacity to engage with audiences in ways never before possible".
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