Five weeks ago, AMPD Ventures (AMPD.C) announced that it is providing consulting services for a massive new next-generation metaverse content production initiative, intended to be the largest in Asia.
With high-performance compute and cloud offerings, AMPD is meeting the low-latency requirements of multiplayer video games and eSports, computer graphics rendering, artificial intelligence, machine learning, mixed reality, big data processing, and future technological developments in the metaverse.
The ‘metaverse’ and ‘web 3.0’ are sometimes used interchangeably. There are areas of intersection, but they are different.
“While Web 3.0 and the metaverse aren’t the same things, they also aren’t competing entities,” confirms Smartvalor, “Both entities will likely use artificial intelligence to create a more seamless experience. We can expect Web 3.0 to use AI for semantic correlations and the metaverse to use AI for 3D construction.
Detractors of metaverse point to the noisy corporate hype. But new waves of technology always attract half-baked ideas. When the 2000 dot.com bubble popped, 99% of the companies failed. But there was nothing wrong with the internet – it was all the flimsy junk attached to it.
AMPD’s project in Bangkok, Thailand will include a public park, a tech village, hotels and restaurants, a multi-function mini theatre, multipurpose halls for events, conferences or concerts, education hubs and eSport ecosystems.
AMPD is consulting on the technical and studio infrastructure requirements to design and build a world-class Creator Studio utilizing the expertise of its subsidiaries AMPD Technologies Inc. and Departure Lounge.
“The computing infrastructure, in combination with Virtual Production and Volumetric Capture stages work synergistically to facilitate the creation of next-generation digital content for film, television, games, and the Metaverse.” stated Anthony Brown, CEO at AMPD. “We are very excited to be involved in a project with such a grand scale.”
A year ago, AMPD completed a deal to acquire Departure Lounge – a Vancouver, BC-based company pursuing technology and content initiatives related to the development of the Metaverse.
“The metaverse has recently begun gaining traction as a hypothesized iteration of the Internet, supporting persistent online 3D virtual environments through conventional personal computing, as well as virtual and augmented reality,” explained Equity Guru’s Kieran Robertson.
“Access points for the metaverse include general-purpose computers and smartphones, in addition to augmented reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR),” added Robertson, “Put simply, the metaverse combines multiple elements of technology, including AR and VR, to create a digital space where users can essentially live.”
At the September, 2022 Metaverse Conference – James Hursthouse, the CEO of AMPD’s sister company Departure Lounge spoke about the macro demand drivers for the Metaverse, going forward.
“Departure Lounge offers a range of tools, technologies and creative services to help people and companies access and build the metaverse,” explained Hursthouse.
According to Hursthouse, financial and tech gurus cite two key reasons to pay attention to the metaverse.
1. The metaverse serves as a functional 3d spatial successor to the web, only this time with even greater reach, time spent and commercial activity, generating an even greater economic upside than the entire current Internet.
2. Every single company with a 2D Internet homepage will have a 3D spatial Metaverse hub by 2030.
“We agree with the recent Time magazine cover, which says that the metaverse is the next digital era that will change everything. And that’s why I think that not only business professionals, but really everybody needs to pay attention to the metaverse,” concluded Hursthouse.
On Equity Guru’s November 15, 2022 Show Me video series, Equity Guru founder, Chris Parry squared up to the camera and tried to demystify AMPD’s business model.
“I want to explain some shit to you here in layman’s terms,” stated Parry about AMPD, “Because a few people don’t really understand what this company does.”
Parry, who has a background in the film industry, as well as journalism, described a sequence of real-world applications for AMPD’s current technology.
“I’ve put a lot of money myself into this company,” stated Parry, “I have spent a lot of hours trying to explain what they do, and what the grand vision is. The terminology can be very ‘inside-baseball’. Sometimes, the news releases are filled with things that to AMPD are understandable. And to everyone else are a bit of a head scratch.”
“The acquisition of Departure Lounge is an extension of the tools and technologies required to create the metaverse,” explained AMPD CEO Anthony Brown, “Volumetric Capture being one of them.”
“Volumetric video refers to a technique that captures a 3D space in real-time. In doing so, the volumetrically captured object, environment, or person can be transferred to various mediums including the web, mobile, or even virtual worlds to be viewed in 3D,” wrote Equity Guru’s Kieran Robertson.
“For example, if we were to use volumetric video to record and upload a soccer match to VR, I could then use a VR headset to enter this scene and run around on the pitch myself,” added Robertson.
“Compared to 360-degree video, volumetric video actually enables the user to control how far in or out they want to explore a scene.”
“AMPD is at an inflection point right now,” concluded Parry in his Show Me video series, “I believe the money is going to start rolling through the door.”
Full Disclosure: Equity Guru founder Chris Parry owns shares in AMPD.