Small Swindon graphics agency Rendermedia is showcasing its ground-breaking virtual reality (VR) prowess alongside the giants of Silicon Valley at one of the world’s biggest tech industry shows.
Rendermedia founder Mark Miles is at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas where his firm’s VR work for aerospace group Airbus is on display. 
More than 170,000 people from 150 countries are expected to attend CES, which started yesterday and runs over the weekend.
Now in its 50th year, it is widely viewed as the key gathering for the global tech sector and has often been the launchpad for innovations ranging from CDs and DVDs, the personal computer to, more recently, drones, VR and augmented reality (AR).
Mark was invited to attend by Taiwanese consumer electronics HTC, which saw a demonstration of his VR work with Airbus and wanted it featured in its booth at CES to market what it sees as the massive potential of the technology.
Visitors to the booth will be able to immerse themselves in the experience of taking part in a helicopter rescue mission following an earthquake, flying an Airbus A400M close to the ground through the Welsh Valleys, and landing an Airbus A350 – all using VR developed by Rendermedia, which is based at Groundwell.
Rendermedia originally created the VR experience for Airbus Defence and Space in last year, pictured above. It had its international launch at ILA aerospace industry show in Berlin – one of the world’s largest aerospace shows – in April and its UK launch at Farnborough International Airshow in July, where more than 6,000 people tried out the products over four days.
Since then Mark has been invited to speak at a number of major international events on the future potential of VR and AR in the worlds of sales and marketing. A presentation he made at Excel London in October led to him being approached by HTC.
Mark said: “I’ve been talking about this technology for about 15 years but only now it’s time come.
“I could see how effective VR could be in marketing but when I spoke to marketing managers of big brands they didn’t get it. Now I think we’re getting somewhere.
“Being at CES is putting us on the world stage, with the backing and support of one of the world’s biggest consumer brands – which is a massive accolade for our business.
They obviously see us as being a key future player in the sector, and we hope to build on this platform at the show.
“This year has been an amazing story for VR and we have found ourselves right at the cutting edge of the technology, working and engaging with leading brands and hardware manufacturers to create compelling, engaging experiences that really do allow brands to experience their unique selling points.
“This technology is still in its infancy and there are so many ways in which it can develop, but we are perfectly placed to be part of a very exciting future.
“We have forged relationships with academia and universities as well as hardware manufacturers, so we are in a powerful position to really look at the technology from a research and application perspective and then provide businesses with solutions to help market their products, as well as deliver training, in new and exciting ways.”
Mark, who formed Rendermedia five years ago and now employs five staff, has a series of meeting with tech firms at CES, including with US bosses from Intel, having already had meetings at the tech giant’s Swindon base.
Mark will also be a guest speaker at the Virtual Reality Hub at Manchester University in February as part of its Augmented and Virtual Reality Conference, presenting to leading academics from research bodies.
He is also talking at the international conference on VR & AR in April at Excel London, and other leading events around the UK and Europe in 2017.
VR is growing so rapidly that some industry estimates put the annual value of the global sector at around £30bn by 2020.
Click here for a short video of Rendermedia’s VR work with Airbus.
