RMG Networks Says Reality Is They’re Not Going Virtual

January 23, 2014 by Dave Haynes

So I’m sitting at the bait shop counter going through Twitter this afternoon, and up pops a Tweet that says “RMG Networks to Launch ‘RMG 3D-VR” at ISE 2014.”

The linked story goes on to somewhat breathlessly say RMG will be showing a new solution with a “headset containing a screen, optics and sensors which allow the user to see, look and move around inside an immersive 3D environment.”

I blink for about 10 seconds, and utter a slow WTF???

RMG has been doing a lot of stuff, and hiring a lot of people, since it got a forklift or two of operating capital by going public last year. But I didn’t really see a company that’s a blend of digital out of home advertising and business-centric digital signage offers getting into the whiz-bang, that-looks-really-weird world of virtual reality.

Turns out they’re not.

I contacted RMG marketing exec Chuck Strottman, who also went into rapid eye-blink mode when he saw the story. He dug into it, and it seems a group of bright young students at the University of Bedfordshire in England got a wee bit overzealous about a demo they’ll be doing WITH RMG in the RMG booth next week in Amsterdam, at the ISE trade show. They put out a press released and rAVe, no fault of theirs, put it up.

“It’s definitely not a product or something we’re getting into anytime soon,” said Strottman,  saying he found out through RMG UK ties that there will be a proof concept at the booth. It’s booth bait that will allow people to slap[ on the gear and see ads very  differently.

That’s it. Kinda funny.