It only came to Faro a few days ago, but you should not leave. THE startup Brazilian Motion Sphere, owner of the sensory and interactive virtual reality device, associated with a movement platform, which these days can be tried out at the Forum Algarve shopping centre, will create a factory in the Algarve, to produce these equipments, and make the capital of the Algarve as its base for an expansion into Europe.
Beto Facci, Executive Director of Motion Sphere, was yesterday, March 28, in Faro, to sign protocols with the University of Algarve and the Chamber of Faro, in what is the first step for the installation of an equipment assembly area in this municipality.
Motion Sphere is a multifaceted technological platform, with a sphere format, which can be used as an entertainment unit, for games, or for virtual reality experiences, with associated physical sensations, and even as support for research, in areas such as psychology.
The creation of the industrial area to build these spheres, technology patented by the Brazilian company, will motivate, according to the Brazilian manager, «an investment of around 3 million euros. The unit will have a dimension of 1250 square meters and capacity to produce 20 to 30 pieces of equipment per year». It will employ “15 to 20 highly skilled people”.
The Motion Spheres that are assembled here, similarly to what happens with those that are already produced in a similar unit in Brazil – in this case, the production capacity is 15 to 20 per year – will, for now, remain within the company itself.
«Our business model, at the moment, is based on the rental of spheres», revealed Beto Facci. The equipment is temporarily installed, by Motion Sphere, in a certain location, within the scope of initiatives or agreements with local partners. It was, moreover, in this register that this technology was presented – and continues to be available – in Faro.
However, "there is increasing interest from companies specializing in entertainment to acquire equipment". According to the Executive Director of Motion Sphere, a large chain of entertainment centers "with 86 stores" has already shown itself willing to acquire spheres, "five for every space it manages".
This is equipment with unique characteristics on the market, as explained by Beto Facci. «The sphere we brought here to faro is a motion platform that can simulate acceleration forces up to 7G. For the general public, we never got to that level. Depending on the driving, we reach 2 or 3G».
In Motion Sphere, «you can create any kind of experience: sports car, motorcycle, plane and spacecraft simulator».
The sphere that will be installed at Forum Algarve, in Faro, until the 8th of April simulates a Formula 1 car, from the McLaren team, «with a 900 horsepower engine». “Inside the sphere is mounted a real cockpit of an F1 car, with steering wheel, pedals and everything else. We also have a 140-inch curved screen and cinema audio. All of this allows to provide an experience very close to reality», said the Executive Director of Motion Sphere.
The Brazilian startup has also already tested the platform in other records. Beto Facci gives the example of a partnership he made with Volkswagen, in which a program was created that took people to ride inside a car engine.
“The sphere had four places and people wore virtual reality glasses. They were received by a robot, which announced that it was going to miniaturize them. They saw things getting bigger, as if they had shrunk, and they flew into the engine, where they walked. All this with associated sensations, such as heat, cold, wind and sounds», he described.
For now, Brazilian businessmen intend to focus on their own business model, although they do not close the door on selling equipment to third parties. And this is where it comes in Faro.
According to Harold Sato, Motion Sphere's business director, this startup was born in 2014, in Brazil, founded by Beto Facci and his partner, Jeferson Mazutti, who created this technology as the final work of a university course.
Since then, the company has been growing and arrived in the United States of America in 2016, where it also has a business hub. In 2017, expansion plans to Europe began and, for various reasons, Faro and the Algarve were identified by those responsible for the startup as the ideal place to build the base of the European operation.
«The fault was Miguel [Fernandes, from the Dengun company]», says, laughing, Beto Facci. «I met Haroldo in 2015, in Orlando, where we have facilities, and we started working together. But last year he had to move to Portugal with his wife. At the time, it was agreed that, when the expansion began, he would return to the US», said the company's executive director.
«I didn't know the Algarve and had never come to Portugal. But, as soon as I got here, it was love at first sight», described Haroldo Sato.
«There's a beach, sun, fish and wine. There's a lifestyle, deep down. The Algarve is an international hub and has nothing to do with Florida, where I used to live in the United States. Everything is connected, everything is very close. It's a paradise,” he said.
More than a good place to live, the Algarve region was identified by Haroldo Sato as a good place for technological development. «I started to probe the business ecosystem and met Miguel Fernandes and the Algarve Tech Hub project. After some time, I asked Beto's permission to tell him about Motion Sphere and the process began», he described.
This happened several months ago, when the University of Algarve, through CRIA – UAlg's Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer Division, became involved in the process, at the invitation of the founder of Dengun.
“We signed a memorandum of understanding between UAlg and Motion Sphere, as well as with the new company they have already created here in Portugal. This agreement covers the area of technology transfer, internships, business dynamization and other components," he explained to Sul Informação Hugo Barros, director of CRIA.
This moment began to be prepared «about six months ago» within the scope of the Algarve Tech Hub project, which brings together the university, several Algarve companies and the Chamber of Faro. Motion Sphere will create a development and research unit, which will be at the Technological Pole that UAlg will install within its campuses, as our newspaper announced at first-hand.
As Hugo Barros explained, the presence of the patent holders of this technology opens several doors to developers in the region, bearing in mind that «the sphere, in addition to being itself an object of research and development in the areas of mechanical and electronic engineering, is a platform open, which can support different computer applications'. That is, it accepts software developed by third parties.
It was, on the one hand, because they identified the growth of a dynamic business ecosystem, in the area of Research, Development and Technology (ID&T), linked to the UAlg Technological Pole, that the Brazilian company decided to settle in Faro.
Also decisive was the ease of exporting to other European countries, as well as «the attitude of those who want to do Dengun, the university and the Chamber of Faro». «We are bringing a seed and we are sure that it fell on very fertile soil», believes Beto Facci.
The municipality of Faro did not remain silent and developed contacts with the company, to convince those responsible to install an assembly unit in the municipality.
«Today we signed an agreement here, in which the City Council undertakes to support the creation of an industry for the creation of these spheres in Faro», summarized the president of the Chamber of Faro Rogério Bacalhau, moments after signing the agreement with Beto Facci and Haroldo Sato, in a session that took place this Wednesday at Paços do Concelho.
On the way, the Chamber took advantage of the project that Motion Sphere has, to create arenas for gaming, to profile itself as a candidate to host the first space “in the world”, equipped with a set of connected spheres.
The Brazilian company already had the intention of installing these spaces «in a large city in the United States of America, England, Dubai, Japan and China», but is willing to start in Faro, the same place where the first Made in Portugal spheres are expected to appear soon.
“We are analyzing together with the university the possibility of accessing funding [from European Union Funds]. In an optimistic perspective, we plan to start building the unit within 3 to 6 months». The place where this industry will be born is not yet known, but promoters are already on the ground looking for it.
Photos: Hugo Rodrigues e Pedro Lemos| Sul Informação
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