Irvine-based software maker EON Reality Inc. hopes to keep its growth up by bringing virtual and augmented reality content to the masses through an aggressive international plan centered on education and awareness.
The strategy is rangy, including a recent expansion to Mauritius, an island nation some 1,200 miles off the African coast, and a state in Mexico with a population of more than 16 million.
The Irvine-based software maker is investing $20 million to establish the Interactive Digital Center in Atizapan in the state of Mexico—which flanks the capital of Mexico City. The Atizapan campus will produce virtual and augmented reality content and aim to train future professionals in the hopes of creating well-paid jobs in a region with one of the lowest literacy rates in the country.
The EON Entrepreneur School at the campus is taking applications.
The center, scheduled to open in September, is backed by Gov. Eruviel Ávila, who wants EON to create simulations tailored to local sectors, such as safety and health.
“Right now we’re still putting it all together,” said Mark Cheben, marketing manager for EON. “It’s a great platform to build virtual reality and augmented reality awareness in Mexico but also to help bring the technology to schools and local governments.”
The facility will resemble EON’s 20,000-square-foot headquarters at Irvine Boulevard and Trabuco Road that’s outfitted with displays of all kinds, including large-scale point-of-view screens, interactive nooks, and giant holograms.
The Mexico center has about 20 workers, roughly half as many as the Irvine operation. EON employs about 250 globally and posts revenue of nearly $100 million annually—a figure that is expected to grow as the market develops.
Menlo Park-based consultancy Digi-Capital forecasts products and services in the augmented and virtual reality segment will hit $150 billion in sales by 2020, augmented reality accounting for the lion’s share.
The training curriculum at the center will include the company’s latest offering, EON Experience AVR, a library of content across a variety of subjects, including anatomy, biology, geography, history, physics and astronomy, accessed through an Android or iOS app.
The curriculum, steeped in experiential learning rich in 3-D objects and environments, relies on a learn-by-doing approach through building, dissecting, assembly, and quizzes and games, compared to traditional classroom methods of memorization.
EON Creator AVR’s drag-and-drop functions allow users to quickly add interactions, behaviors and physics to more than 8,000 virtual and augmented reality building blocks pulled from EON’s library—one of the largest inventories anywhere—that are helping workers across the world tackle problems.
“It lets someone with no coding experience create virtual reality,” Cheben said. “We see this as being a gateway to empowering people.”
The company in August established a similar center in Tshwane, the capital city of South Africa and third largest city in the world in land mass, in its first expansion in mainland Africa. The facility is creating virtual reality applications to improve education, vocational skills and entrepreneurism.
A month later it partnered with Orange S.A., formerly France Télécom S.A., and its majority-owned subsidiary, Mauritius Telecom, the largest telecom in the island nation, to establish subsidiary EON Reality Mauritius.
Orange, which posted revenue of $43.7 billion last year and has some 240 million customers, invested in the newly established EON unit to create mobile applications for education, entertainment and social media, including sports, concerts, travel and events content.
Mobile phones, in many cases, are the only means of accessing the internet in Africa.
The latest developments underscore EON’s ongoing diversification.
The company partnered with Miami-based Ceek VR Inc. and Universal Music Group in Santa Monica to release “Megadeth Dystopia VR Experience” in January for Android and Apple mobile devices. The content, which support’s the heavy metal band’s 15th album and is part of a bundled package at Best Buy, includes five performances in 360-degree video, band interviews, a produced 360-degree music video, and a virtual reality environment that allows fans to interact with each other.
“This is our first big entertainment play” and “first visible retail experience,” Cheben said.
EON has partnered with other technology companies and organizations to produce virtual reality tours of the landmark Magi Chapel in Florence, awareness campaigns for the preservation of whales and dolphins, and a baseball training simulation to hone strike zone awareness and pitch recognition, among other projects.
