It began with motorcycle grips, then goggles, sunglasses and a camera that’s since launched Irvine-based Red.com Inc. into space.
The high-tech camera maker, which operates as Red Digital Cinema Camera Co. and counts deep and growing ties to Hollywood, kicked off 2020 with another Space Act Agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Red President Jarred Land, reached by email last week, declined to discuss the specifics of the contract citing a confidentiality agreement, other than to say it was “very exciting.”
“What an awesome way to begin 2020,” Land told his Instagram followers. “Of all the things we do … this one really is special to me.”
A Space Act Agreement allows NASA to partner with third-parties and tap technologies developed outside the government agency.
2014 Redux?
It’s unclear what the agreement entails, but a clip of the contract Land posted to his social media account indicates use of a camera, which had his followers speculating about Red’s Komodo or Dragon cameras going up into space.
It’s not the first time Red has worked with NASA—a similar agreement was struck in 2014, and pertained to work on the International Space Station— but underscores just how far the company has come from when it first appeared on the scene a little over a decade ago when its initial camera, the Red One, was met with skepticism.
Critics at the time called the 4K camera vaporware as founder Jim Jannard sought to not only provide a viable, if not better, alternative to shooting on film but also upend the consumer experience by offering users a piece of equipment touting technology that didn’t become obsolete in a couple of years.
The brain behind Foothill Ranch-based Oakley Inc., the sunglasses firm that sold to Milan-based Luxottica Group SpA in 2007 for $2.1 billion, could see well into the future when he first started his eyewear business, followed by the camera maker that also owns Red Studios in Hollywood.
That is, optics are everything.
Red previously struck an agreement with NASA and the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center for three of its Epic Dragon cameras to be used on board the International Space Station, along with supplying all hardware, data and maintenance. None of the parties were paid either to use the cameras or have the cameras be used, according to the contract.
The 2014 agreement was seen as significant. While Red and NASA had worked together since the camera maker’s inception, the company’s equipment had primarily been used to shoot rocket and shuttle launches in 4K. Dragon represented an opportunity for astronauts to shoot in 6K in space. A Red Helium camera sent to the Space Station last year allowed for 8K footage to be shot.
“Red has always pushed the boundaries at every level of our company,” Land said at the time of the 2014 contract. “Our cameras have been to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, to the top of frigid Mount Everest all the way to the Marum volcano. But going to outer space takes things to a whole new level.”
October Retirement
The latest deal is another notch in the cap of Jannard, who cited health issues when he announced his retirement in October, capping 45 years of building what he called “inventions wrapped in art.”
The retirement brought an end to the Hydrogen smartphone project, a holographic phone still in its nascent stage and the third major enterprise by Jannard following Oakley and Red Digital.
