3DGo
Up to mid-late 2011 almost all money and resources were devoted to the Hi-Fi-S2D switch and Autodetect,that was going to be not only our bread and butter but also the wine ,the champagne and everything else that good living entails.
But like everything else the future users wanted something else to go with it since what was available was not enough or lasting ,by the look of things.
SIO had an old library of 3D films, but that was almost obsolete and had to rebuilt and revamped.
And so 3DGo was designed to fill that need .
The original plan was to licence movies from the Studios (as many and as big ones as we could) reformat them to the SIO format to match the Hi-Fi and voila.
SIO jumped the gun and since late 2011 and early 2012 started to install-embed chips through SoCs deals on to almost all Major 3DTVs manufactured .
Not an easy task but doable.
When it was all done or so we thought we still had a hard time licencing our format to show the 3DGo movies.
Only VIZIO the American work dog took a chance on both.
Forward to August 2013 and SIO signs a deal with Panasonic to show 3DGo but only to current and future 3DTVs through the Viera Apps Navigator to commence in Dec-2013in the USA and follow early 2014 in Canada..
We were all excited till we realized that there was no mention of Hi-Fi and only a few months later we were told that it would be done via “porting”.
We did not have a clue of what it was but it was an entry none the less,but then the launch date was moved back to the end of the Fiscal year (May 31st) under some lame excuse and with no mention of Canada.
Total time from inking the deal till launched a bit over 8 months, not the walk in the Park we were told it would be.
Forward again to July 8th-2014 when we inked a deal with the King of 3D (LG).
It was great excitement till we realized again that there was no Hi-Fi mentioned and that LG had not settled for the S2D switch like Panasonic-Samsung and 2 days later Sony did.
So what kind of a deal this really was.
The Company called a CC to explain where as much as possible was explained.
The 13 countries mentioned on the PR were not addressed, China was not either and a question by RG about the cost of this new platform where he suggested $200.000, with an answer from Routhier saying that that was close, later RG on his quick Report mentioned $250.000.
We also found out that SIO was footing the whole bill.
As I mentioned before great deal for LG,they got everything for free (tech-3DGo app-all expenses and payment from us for every movie we show on their TVs),the King ruled again.
Routhier mentioned that no other deals will be entertained till the end of the year since we`ll be too busy working out the LG deal.
Does not say much for a Company that has been shouting loud about bringing all Majors on board.
So what`s the cost of 3DGo?.
We`ll never know, creative accounting,shuffling of expenses will take care and hide the real cost.
But we know we paid for all the 100 movies to be reformatted,I don`t see 100 yet but that`s what they use, and at a round $5,000 per movie it`s $500.000.
We are paying the LG porting or whatever they call it at a minimum $250,000 since SIO never uses the lower figures.
We are paying for Neu-Lion and Deluxe on a more intensive form to compensate this new structure..
We are paying the Studios for Royalties prior and for every rental thereafter,worked on a complicated formula.
We have been paying Starz-National Geographic,Big Picture and other smaller ones for over two years.
We have been paying Disney and Universal for 16 months and Paramount coming to one year.
We have no idea of the structure of those deals but they are not cheap when you have nothing.
If we paid for Panasonic porting also, we don`t know because nobody asked, and we take in consideration the resources plus the whole Company involved in this last LG deal for the next few moths,the cost of setting up 3DGo will be huge.
We have to allow cost for setting up a new division but SIO went beyond those costs for lack of leadership and experience.
When we consider that SIO will clear around $1.00 to $1.30 per movies after expenses,it will take us a little while to recoup our investement after these deals get going the way they were designed to.
Things can move faster with the right execution and we do have the King on board,but there`s lots of work and SIO has to learn to say NO to certain demands from the Majors.
Remember that the perfection of almost BlueRay wont be on either Panasonic or LG when it could have been, let`s hope people are also satisfied with that.
Again doable but I still think we need changes or big time help at the top.
Hate to admit after so much faith that the new BOD so far has not demonstrated their value and expectations,it seems like nothing changed at the top and full control still in Routhier`s hands.