Hot on the heels of assimilating London-based virtual reality developer Kairos-VR, Glasgow digital creativity leaders The Soluis Group has now looked closer to home for its strategic growth – announcing the acquisition of Scottish digital immersion specialists Pixogram.
The move will see Soluis integrate Pixogram’s recent innovation in ‘fulldome’ installations with both their existing range of interactive solutions and well established resources in Computer Generated Imagery, motion graphics and interactive App development. 
Pixogram’s expertise in ‘fulldome’ environments will also provide an exciting additional delivery platform for Soluis’s various media production capabilities, and is considered a natural companion to the group’s recent innovation in commercial virtual and augmented reality.
Soluis will merge Pixogram’s technology, IP & client base in entertainment, events & tourism sectors with their own significant presence in design, engineering & infrastructure – where Pixogram’s capabilities are expected to have a number of exciting potential applications. The acquisition brings together two leading edge digital creative studios producing some of the world’s most compelling work in this space, and a number of exciting new developments are expected to be announced as a result of the tie-up.
Soluis Group Founder and CEO Martin McDonnell welcomed the acquisition, saying: ‘We are on an exciting growth journey at Soluis, and have been tracking Pixogram’s work in immersive user experiences for a number of months.
It soon became clear that the Pixogram team very much shared our vision for better engagement across a number of sectors and disciplines, and we are therefore delighted to be making their technology a part of the Soluis Group’s offerings to the market. ‘We will of course incorporate Pixogram’s ideas as part of our current innovation in virtual and augmented reality – particularly in the Building Information Modelling (BIM) space – whilst providing a high level of on-going service to Pixogram’s existing clients. ‘We see some exciting developments and further announcements ahead, and look forward to being able to service all of our sectors with memorable visual experiences delivering maximum clarity and impact through this new addition to our business.’ Pixogram founder Jonathan Knox also spoke warmly of the move: ‘We are delighted to be joining forces with The Soluis Group, an exciting company moving ahead of the curve, sharing similar aspirations, enthusiasm and a passion for the future. ‘As we know, the world is round and not flat, yet the digital world is still to catch up. Our work at Pixogram has been to make this happen through fulldome and immersive media. Unlike flat panel displays, fulldome screens place viewers inside digital content to facilitate stronger experiential connections to design intent, brands and narrative within a shared, group experience.
‘We are particularly excited to bring this new medium to Soluis and see a close fit with their current innovation and client base. Our existing clients will also be pleased to hear of our combined and enhanced proposition. ‘We’d like to thank The Soluis Group for their vision and commitment and look forward to bringing the fulldome medium and immersive media to an entirely new marketplace.
Both Soluis and Pixogram are actively encouraging any existing and prospective clients to get in touch about the acquisition, and are keen to explore how Soluis’s expanded IP and skill-sets can address existing needs and proposed methodologies for enhanced stakeholder communications. Any enquiries regarding these developments should be directed to Fergus Bruce at Soluis in the first instance. Contact: Fergus Bruce (fergus@soluis.com (0044) 07799 766802) or Scott Grant (scott@soluis.com) at (0044) 0141 548 8686.
- About The Soluis Group
Over the past 14 years The Soluis Group has developed to incorporate several operating divisions that offer the very best in client presentation and stakeholder engagement. Today, Soluis has earned a reputation for innovation, quality and flexibility in delivering exceptional service that helps their clients to communicate and connect more effectively with their customers and project partners. Clients benefit from the Group’s nuanced understanding of architecture, construction and the medium of computer generated visualisation. As a result clients enjoy real and valuable tools, enabling them to secure contracts, win competitions, achieve planning permission and enhance marketing coverage of their projects. Soluis has also been innovating at the interface of high-end visuals and proprietary software and Apps for several years, and are at the centre of the current wave of BIM adoption in the UK. Soluis focuses on making BIM accessible and understandable to stakeholders of all description, and recent work in virtual reality has created exciting possibilities for user immersion in unbuilt architecture and industrial design.
- About Pixogram
Pixogram are a creative digital studio exploring the intersection between art, design and technology through CGI visualisation, immersive media and interactive experiences. They visualise the ‘yet-to-be-built’ structures and tell stories through film as well as creating meaningful interactive installations with projection mapping, laser scanning and photogrammetry. They also work in immersive fulldome production and have developed ENTERactive, a unique pop-up dome screen for marketing, events and tourism
- About Augmented and Virtual Reality
Augmented Reality is a major growth technology in the digital space. It allows users to view and interact with digital content on hand-held devices like smart phones and tablets, but in real time and associated directly with real-world objects. This could be as simple as pointing a device at a wall and being able to see and interact with overlaid information about the building – such as concealed plumbing and electrics. Or as complex as mapping an entire, photo-realistic model of a new building onto the empty site on which it will one day sit. Virtual reality takes this further by fully immersing the user in a digitally modelled environment – typically by use of a headset with inbuilt cameras (e.g. Oculus VR – recently acquired by Facebook for $2bn). This then allows the user to ‘walk around’ the environment and interact directly with aspects, layouts and services of the building in real time. These technologies have some particularly exciting applications in construction, entertainment and engineering, facilitating both commercial and process/delivery functions with accurate, rich model data, related directly to real world contexts with full interactivity, and allowing engagement with technical or high-profile information at low risk and with the necessary information to make informed and justified decisions based upon it – improving design, avoiding construction errors and saving cost.
- About Fulldome environments
Fulldome, or digital dome, arose from the digitization of the planetarium. Through multi projector blending, a 180 degree x 180 degree screen is achieved offering viewers an experience close to ‘being there’. The medium is seeing significant global growth through both fixed and mobile systems, from hundreds of seats to more intimate, group spaces. Typically content is in the form of pre-rendered film for astronomy, life sciences and education however this is changing and with recent technological and methodological innovations, we are seeing keen interest from diverse areas such as VJing, gaming, interactive film and live performance. The fulldome experience offers a particularly rich proposition to the design and built environment sectors, providing viewers the opportunity to experience and engage with three dimensional space and scale at an unprecedented level through immersive film and interactive media.
