– Once again, the Cutting Edge festival showed that VR is on the rise, and with 1500 visitors to Forskningsparken, I hope that the guests got some more insight into the technology, Ali Zareiee says.
Zareiee is the CEO of VR Oslo and Adapa360º, and just joined the Norwegian Media Cluster. He is responsible for the VR Expo part of the Cutting Edge festival, and invited the cluster to exhibit together with a number of companies from the VR Oslo arena, including IVRPA (International Virtual Reality Photographers Association), Visualiz, Symfoni Next Generation and NRK.
Rune Smistad (NCE Media) and Ali Zareiee (Adapa360 / VR Oslo)
– People are intrigued and ask lots of questions at these events, and sometimes this ends up in leads and concrete projects. After my pitch at the launch stage, I was put in contact with an author who was interested in turning her animated children’s book into VR format. We had our first meeting just days after the event, Zareiee continues.
Cutting Edge technology
Using top of the line VR technology, the exhibitors showcased a range of impressive solutions and concepts.
– Several companies from VR Oslo exhibited at the Cutting Edge Festival this year, and their demos held high quality throughout. Visualiz’ solution, a wind farm VR demo, is a magnificent example of visualizing big data in a user-friendly way. The solution was recently covered by Teknisk Ukeblad, another frequent exhibitor at VR Oslo's events. Our companies usually get a lot of leads after these events, and it will be exciting to see what opportunities arise after this year’s festival, Zareiee says.
Visualiz is combining VR with big data. Here, their tool is demoed for use on a wind farm.
You can see the Visualiz demo in use here (YouTube), and read the article in Teknisk Ukeblad (here)
One of Adapa's impressive 360 cameras
Cutting Edge had plenty of VR exhibitions by companies in VR Oslo.
Collaboration between VR Oslo and the Norwegian Media Cluster
VR Oslo is a business cluster for all things VR/AR, MR and 360 imaging, and its aim is to provide knowledge from the experts in Norway and internationally in the global and local markets.
Now, the Oslo based initiative and the media cluster will explore the opportunities for a closer collaboration, where VR creators will come in to standardise the new tech and techniques to the media industries.
– For ADAPA 360 and the VR Oslo project, it is a strategic step to collaborate with the Norwegian Media Cluster. Through dissemination of knowledge when it comes to VR, AR, MR and 360 imaging, we can draw Oslo and Bergen closer together. Synergies are possible across markets and sectors when it comes to this technology, and VR Oslo aims to standardize the use of it in daily life. Before we get to that point, we want to show every single company in the media cluster what VR is and what opportunities lie in the technology. This value creation is alfa omega, Zareiee says.
Ali Zareiee doing a live pitch at the Cutting Edge launch stage.
– Tools of the future
Rune Smistad, project manager in NCE Media, reckons a close collaboration with the VR community in Oslo will enhance the media lab and cluster innovation projects.
– We will explore the opportunities to establish a systematic and targeted collaboration, where we will share competence, learn and innovate together. VR and AR technology will be important parts in the innovation and research work being done in the media lab, and Adapa’s tech and competence will be key elements towards this. Coupled with a 360 pop up dome, our cluster members will get their hands on the tools of the future, Smistad commented.
Rune Smistad presenting the Norwegian Media Cluster, and telling about the collaboration with VR Oslo.
More photos: 
Rune Smistad and Michael Greiner (GeoConsult Vision)
The Norwegian Media Cluster exhibited with companies from VR Oslo.
Michael Greiner testing the Hololens.
Keith Mellingen (Symfoni Next Generation)
Attendee testing NRK's Oculus glasses.
Michael Greiner demoing GeoConsult Vision, a product that offers unique, real-time visualization when planning structural engineering, tunnelling and geotechnics, amongst other disciplines.
Ali Zareiee and a Cutting Edge attendee experiencing mixed reality using the Microsoft Hololens.
The Makerspace group from Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences exhibited several Minecraft related VR experiences.
The Makerspace group from Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences also exhibited an artificial robot controlled by detecting electrical signals from your muscles.
Rune Smistad testing Visualiz's demo with the HTC Vive.