Listen to this articleV-Nova is a global deep tech company that is making waves in the entertainment world. Co-founder and CEO Guido Meardi speaks with TechCompanyNews about his company, its groundbreaking tech and plans to conquer Hollywood.
Q: Before we get into the tech side of your business, can you tell us something more about V-Nova?
A: V-Nova is a pioneering deep-tech company specializing in hierarchical and parallel data processing, with the mission to unlock higher-quality AI and digital experiences at scale. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in London with satellites in San Francisco, Brussels, Sao Paulo, Bangalore and, now, Los Angeles, the company leverages innovative use of artificial intelligence and parallel processing to improve data compression for video, imaging, and point-cloud data. This advancement enables the delivery of images, videos, and volumetric data at higher quality with lower costs and reduced energy consumption, making V-Nova a key driver of sustainability and decarbonization in the digital sector.
Q: Can you share with us current V-Nova collaborations?
A: V-Nova is working with over 50 leading companies across various sectors, integrating our technologies into solutions for TV, media, entertainment, social networks, e-commerce, ad-tech, security, aerospace, defense, automotive, and gaming. Notable clients and partners include tech giants such as NVIDIA, Meta, Comcast, which is also a minority shareholder of V-Nova’s, Globo, the world’s second largest broadcaster, global TV manufacturer HiSense, among others. By collaborating with these industry leaders, V-Nova’s technologies are being incorporated into mainstream applications, enhancing digital experiences for a global audience. Our high-profile partnerships have enabled V-Nova to extend the company’s reach and impact, and to solidify our position as a key innovator in the tech industry. To date, V-Nova has amassed over 1,200 international patents in AI, data compression, and XR technologies, showcasing the company’s commitment to innovation and technological leadership.
Q: Let’s get deeper into the company’s proprietary tech, and what brings V-Nova to Hollywood.
A: After our headline-making achievements in the development and Standardization of MPEG-5 Part 2 LCEVC (Low-Complexity Enhancement Video Coding), V-Nova has created V-Nova PresenZ, a revolutionary Six Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) volumetric format that allows viewers to move inside photorealistic scenes in real-time while maintaining the cinematic quality of Hollywood’s offline ray tracing computer graphics (CG). Essentially, it’s no longer merely a video – viewers can look and move around within an actual movie, including peeking behind objects and characters, as in real life. No one saw it coming, because industry experts thought it would be impossible with current technology to achieve similar levels of resolution and realism in immersive 6DoF. For reference, without V-Nova’s innovations an uncompressed point cloud at the qualities reached by V-Nova PresenZ would require over a Terabit/s of data to manage in real time, while PresenZ can run on a laptop, or on standard cloud gaming infrastructure, and can be streamed to stand-alone headsets like Meta Quest 3/3S or Apple Vision Pro at bitrates comparable to normal UHD video (25 Mbps).
Q: So, it’s V-Nova PresenZ that is behind your company’s Hollywood expansion?
A: Correct. We established V-Nova Studios to work directly with major Hollywood studio theatrical feature brands. In a brief period, we have generated test-development deals for V-Nova PresenZ with several of the majors and will be announcing them shortly. Dreamworks Animation has already wowed audiences at trade shows with excerpts of some of their classics, like How To Train Your Dragon and Abominable, remastered in V-Nova PresenZ format. Users will be able to try the format for themselves with the launch of ImmersiX (from “immersive” and “Six Degrees of Freedom”), an app that will debut on Stream VR for Christmas to introduce the V-Nova PresenZ Six Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) format to the public. The ImmersiX app will later be made available also to stand-alone headsets over the first half of 2025.
Q: What are the key factors driving Hollywood’s embracing the V-Nova PresenZ format?
A: V-Nova PresenZ is having impact on the studio community because for the first time the format enables major entertainment brands to port their existing content IP assets into an XR product that will attract the masses of non-gamers. Everyone watches movies, enjoys music, and likes shows. Now – through V-Nova PresenZ – they can be immersed into one.
The other relevant element of the equation is production costs, which V-Nova PresenZ makes extremely manageable. Producing content is like producing any typical CG video. Also, with costs in line with remastering for high-end cinema formats like IMAX 3D or SCREENX, it is possible to cost-effectively remaster to V-Nova PresenZ existing animations or CG-rich movies, including both new productions and archives, breathing new monetization opportunities into content libraries. For music, this opens new opportunities for famous music talent, including artists that got a little old (but CG can easily rejuvenate, see what happened to Abba), or even died. The format’s Six Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) technology allows users to move freely and naturally within a virtual environment, experiencing motion along all three spatial axes (up/down, left/right, forward/backward) and rotational movement around those axes (pitch, yaw, roll). This means users can not only look around but also move towards objects and characters, peer behind them, and experience a true sense of immersion and presence in the virtual world. What excites production executives is that V-Nova PresenZ just works. You don’t need to be a techie to appreciate it, and importantly, you don’t feel motion sickness. When you can forget about the technology behind it, it means that we did our job right. You just enjoy being transported into a hyper-realistic story, happening all around you.
Q: Let’s get into the tech behind V-Nova PresenZ…
A: The tech behind 6DoF in V-Nova’s PresenZ format is groundbreaking and overcomes many limitations that have historically hindered immersive experiences V-Nova PresenZ utilizes a unique hybrid rendering approach that combines pre-rendered, offline ray-traced volumetric scenes with real-time user interaction. This allows for photorealistic graphics—think Hollywood-level CGI quality like in Avatar 2 or superhero movies —while enabling users to move within the scene in real-time. Users can explore complex environments with realistic lighting, shadows, reflections, and other visual effects that are typically too computationally intensive for real-time rendering. Millions of times more computationally intensive than real-time rendering, to give a sense of the scale of the improvement. The pre-calculated volumetric data required for cinematic 6DoF experiences is immense.
V-Nova’s advanced point-cloud compression technology significantly reduces the data size without compromising quality, and makes it possible to decode, process and deliver it in real-time. This makes it feasible to deliver high-resolution, immersive content over existing network infrastructures. By leveraging ultra-low-latency streaming techniques, V-Nova ensures that the immersive experiences can be delivered also to stand-alone XR devices. The use of V-Nova’s MPEG-5 LCEVC reduces bandwidth requirements to less than 25 Mbit/s, making mass-market adoption attainable.
In essence, V-Nova’s 6DoF technology enables a new medium of immersive storytelling, leveraging on existing CG production skills and assets. It allows users to step inside cinematic-quality virtual worlds, moving freely within the environment as if they were physically present. By overcoming previous technological hurdles in data size, rendering complexity, and streaming capabilities, V-Nova PresenZ delivers unprecedented levels of immersion and realism, setting the stage for the next evolution in entertainment and digital experiences. We highly recommend readers to try it and judge for themselves.
