Back in 2017 as then-CFO for Legendary Entertainment, Marlin Prager could not have known that in just a few years he and a handful of industry veterans and technologists would come together to help accelerate the growth of spatial computing and usher in the next generation of streaming content.

We recently got a few minutes to sit down with Marlin, our co-founder and CEO, to pick his brain about AI, spatial computing, streaming, and of course, Miris.
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Marlin, thanks so much for taking the time. To begin with, could you tell us about Miris and what you’re enabling that people can’t get in words, pictures, or even streaming video?

Miris is building an infrastructure for the delivery of 3D spatial content. Many of the same problems were solved for traditional 2D video: file size, immediate accessibility to content, moving from one piece of content to the next without waiting for cumbersome downloads, etc. There is a reason they call the streamers the ‘streamers’ and not the ‘downloaders.’

With many seeing this as a compelling space, especially device makers, what does Miris allow you to do that you haven’t been able to do before?

I like to say we are both content agnostic and device agnostic. We allow immediate accessibility of 3D content across different devices in real time. Again, similar to your traditional 2D experience. For example, you can watch Netflix on an iPhone, Android, smart TV, etc. We are creating that same experience. Further, we are making it easy for the content creators and developers to deliver their valuable IP across platforms and not have to make tradeoffs from one device to the next. The more accessible the content, the more eyeballs, and hence the reduced risk to invest in and create 3D spatial content. The notion of building it once to deliver to many is paramount.

Thinking about other big trends in technology, it would make sense that AI is accelerating content creation. What are you seeing with the wave of Generative AI and advancements in computer graphics that have you excited?

We are super excited. That increasing flow of content only exacerbates challenges, and if there is any chance for quality content to cut through, it has to make it to a device quickly. With more content, people want to explore, moving seamlessly from one piece of content to the next. Think of TikTok, YouTube, or Netflix and your ability to move and explore. These advances will only accelerate the amount of 3D content. With an increasing amount of content out there, Miris helps keep pace and deliver content to devices as quickly as possible.

Additionally, the sizes of these files are much larger than traditional 2D video, so the notion of downloading to view simply makes no sense. Content providers want end consumers to view that content, and as the amount of content grows, these providers are going to demand that the content gets to consumers in a friendly and accessible user experience. That is what Miris empowers.

Immediately streamed 3D spatial content gets consumers really excited, but who is Miris’ actual core audience or customer?

If we do our job right, the end consumer will never know who we are. Do you know the names of the companies that are part of the delivery of anything from TikTok to Hulu? All the end consumer wants is the content. Ultimately, it is the channel owner or content developer that is the customer in terms of leveraging and paying for our service.

What opportunity does Miris hope to bring to its audience? How will it change and accelerate the world of 3D content and streaming?

At the risk of using the “3 legs of the stool” metaphor, we believe it is applicable here. You have hardware, e.g. AR-capable mobile devices, Meta Quest, Vision Pro, etc, content and infrastructure. The big tech companies are making the investment in hardware, then there are the content providers. The hardware manufacturers are helping start the flywheel in terms of supporting content creation, but ultimately it has to scale like 2D video. This entails anything from the major studios to user-generated content. Miris will increase the scale at which content is made as creators can now feel comfortable that users will have a compelling user experience and have the opportunity to quickly discover new content. As long as they don’t have to wait and have the ability to toggle from one piece of content to the next, users will increasingly gravitate from traditional 2D video to spatial, which includes everything from Mobile AR, Web, and AR/VR/MR experiences in current and emerging spatial computing headsets. In a short time, as capture commoditizes, even more content such as immersive concerts, sporting events, etc. will further increase demand and Miris is positioned to serve as the backbone.

We’re seeing a lot of interesting research in computer graphics, particularly with new techniques such as gaussian splatting and advances in the broader radiance field space. How is Miris setting itself apart given how fast things are moving?

We are focused on delivering 3D content at scale quickly and efficiently. We are experts in innovating, leveraging graphics technology, and applying AI/ML to that end, but that is all in service to solving real-world customer problems. Gaussian Splats are currently the radiance field de jour. Next year it may be something else. Our differentiation is having deep knowledge of the domain, techniques, architectural choices, trade secrets, and patented technologies.

Well over four years ago Miris set itself apart by acknowledging the limitations of traditional 3D graphics. At the time it was blasphemous to criticize the “polygon” paradigm. Fast forward to today and the larger graphics community has realized that polygons have limitations, and splats or radiance fields advances are partially an acknowledgment of this.

We are fortunate that we have assembled a team of engineers that have backgrounds in 3D graphics and building cloud systems to scale. There is so much to consider and integrate to build a functioning system that not only works, but also deals with the real world realities of GPU availability and pricing models of content creators. Simply saying “we stream” or we “rely on splats or radiance fields” trivializes the nature of the holistic problem. We will always follow advances and adapt accordingly, but more importantly we will always focus on the problem and maintain a viable solution that customers need to address their existing workflows.

This sounds amazing, but hard. Why is Miris the company to achieve your goals? What makes you unique and gives you the advantage?

We are an infrastructure company at the end of the day. We provide the picks and shovels for content providers to deliver at-scale. There are amazing companies doing great things in this space, but sometimes the base infrastructure needs are overlooked. We started this journey several years ago and believe we have a head start. We have strong Media & Entertainment backgrounds, and a sensibility as to what creates a compelling user experience. There are key considerations for streaming high-quality content, such as visual fidelity, low latency, ability to quickly access content; and we believe this applies more broadly to other areas such as e-commerce, digital twins, and a variety of other use cases. We are very focused on meeting the users where they are with how they build their content today. To assume consumers will adapt to you versus the other way around is almost always a big mistake.

Further, we’ve been fortunate enough to attract a variety of talented 3D graphics engineers, cloud engineers, and gaming leaders to Miris. In order to pull this off, you need this overlap of skill sets. We are not talking about dozens of streams. We are talking hundreds of millions of simultaneous streams across large distances, with no latency, and to users demanding a fluid experience. This is not an R&D experiment, this is happening.

It definitely is. Marlin, again, thank you for setting the stage for us. The ability to stream true spatial content across platforms is a significant opportunity that will change and enhance digital experiences across the spectrum.