Cosm’s Visionary Approach to Evolving Entertainment Through Immersive Experiences

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. This is a conversation I've been looking forward to having for quite some time. If you're not familiar, Dallas just got its own Cosm Theater. There are other theaters. I believe the other one currently is in LA, and there are more coming. But I had the opportunity to get to experience firsthand, really and I even hate to be hyperbole about this, but the next generation of immersive experience and entertainment. I think to simplify it, it's it's a spherical dome where you're able to watch things like sporting events and, pre produced theater and all sorts of different things. And and I left the venue saying, I absolutely have to have a conversation with these folks because what they're doing is less focused on speeds and feeds and LED walls, and they're more focused on the experience, and they're focused on really building value and creating emotion from the users. And I'm gonna stop bloviating about it. I'll tell you. I've gotta introduce my next guest because we're we're gonna get into some really good questions and learn a little bit more about what's happening at Cosm. So I wanted to bring in my guest. That's Rachel Stockham, VP of sales and strategic partnerships at Cosm. Rachel, thanks so much for coming on the show today. Of course. It's my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me, Ben. I I think I might be the one person who likes to talk about Causm more than you do, so this is gonna be a good conversation. Well, considering I've told I've told probably at least a hundred and fifty people about Causm, I would hope so because you get paid to do it. I don't. But, that's hey. That's the real benefit of of having fans, fans, right, and being able to have people that share that experience. I wanna ask, though. Right? I I probably have done a poor job explaining what CaSM is to, some of my friends and family and things like that. It's far more, like I mentioned, than sort of just this spherical video wall. Right? There's a hospitality element. It's there's there's a communal element to it. So I wanna ask you just off the top, how would you define Qasem as a whole? In one tenth sentence, I would say that Qasem powers experience. It's something that we've been doing for a long time. Actually, Cosm was born of acquisition in twenty twenty but our technology pedigree spans back seventy five years. We hail from the planetarium space believe it or not but that's the first immersive theater you know take you to space so I think that's fair. Now we can take you pitch side courtside behind home plate but we started taking people to space literally in nineteen forty seven and we've been iterating on this technology first, of course, up until two twenty twenty. But from twenty twenty on, looking at this immersive technology and working on really kind of redefining the way that the world experiences content and democratizing access to the most powerful moments of fandom around the globe and then bringing that to people everywhere through Cosm venues. So you're right. Cosm does have an LED dome component. There's also a big hall, we call it, with a big hundred and fifty by fifteen foot wrap around LED display that's also powered by our software technology, the CX engine. And, both of these spaces are co programmed in concert to bring content in, to wrap you in content, and to really kind of transport you, to wherever we've decided the destination is for the day. Well, look. I could tell you firsthand, it's incredible to see. Because I I look. Obviously, for a lot of people, they think Cosm, they think the Dome, which is unbelievable in its own right. But there are elements, whether it's Mhmm. There's rooftop activities happening. There's entire separate sections where there's interactive LED things happening. And I think it's important to note that there's really been an intentional embrace of, hey. There are different elements of this visit. Right? And I think it's true. We'll dig into the the the the dome side of things here in just a second. But it's important to have those sort of isolated but cohesive experiences where you you allow people to to kinda participate in the way that they see fit. Exactly. And our venues are set up that way. We have the dome that we talked about, the the hall that we talked about, the deck that you mentioned, and spaces in between. There are VIP sections. There are these beautiful banquettes where you can gather and have a conversation while you're still experiencing content. And I don't know about you, but sitting still for any length of time is a tremendous challenge for me. And I think a lot of people are like that. Like, they like to get up and move, and we call these moments shared reality moments at Cosm. We love to have the background and the space and provide the ambiance, the food and beverage, and all of that kind of up leveled elevated experience that is the backdrop for shared reality moments. And that's where you can come and celebrate fandom, whatever you're a fan of, and that's why our content calendar is very diverse. We have, you know, the the theater events like Cirque du Soleil. We have the incredible O Show that our team produced. You can come see that at Cosum, and we have a huge array of sports, everything from NFL, MLB, NHL, UFC, NBA, you name it. We've got all the three letter leagues in the house, which is super exciting along with Premier League and college football and and all the rest of it. And then we have some other incredible art pieces that our team, Cosm Studios, has produced, and you can see those from the Liquidverse, which is, produced by Ricardo Romanero. He is a Juilliard trained composer and produced a beautiful visual piece to go along with that. Orbital, is a piece about the overview effect looking back at Earth, an art piece. So diversity of content, huge crazy opportunity for immersive experience and really powering those shared reality moments. Well, Rachel, I wanna stick on on what you talked about for a second is that world of content. Right? And I think the first time people hear about the dome, they may try and equate it to the sphere in Vegas, which is, I would say, in a lot of ways, a very wholly different experience. Right? Because the sphere, the LED is is or the the the visuals are typically what I would call texture. Right? They're kind of the eye candy. They're the sweetener to happen what's happening or to to support what's happening on stage. One of the things that I've really loved about Cosmo, and I had the chance to see the o show that you mentioned in the dome, is that it's built to be primary content. It's built to be experienced, right, and watch football and watch, things that are happening in real time, whether it be sports, whether it be theater, whether it be these these, artistic pieces. It's designed for primary content. One of the challenges with that is that you have to start worrying about things like eye lines and production capabilities and where am I gonna put cameras on goalposts and things like that. So I think one of the unsung parts actually about Cosm as a whole is is sort of that content development and even that acquisition process. Right? You guys have an entire team that's dedicated to the actual production and execution of of the content that comes on the screen. Am I right? We do. We have an entire team dedicated to that. Our company is built kind of like a three legged stool. We have our own little ecosystem, the Cosm ecosystem. We have Cosm Technologies. That's where I sit in the company. That's where the technology itself is built from the domes to the software. We have Cosm Venues, which is our very own best expression of our tech. We also power b to b experiences around the world, including seven hundred plus planetariums and science museums, etcetera. And then we have CosimMedia, and that's a proper media house. That's where our rights live with the broadcasters, with the teams, with the leagues, and we have a team that negotiates all those rights. We have an incredible portfolio of rights. We also have live immersive production teams. Our company was born of acquisition. Two of the companies that we acquired to become CaSM really, really lend to that production prowess. They're incredible producers. They cut their teeth producing for VR headset, and that that view translates perfectly to a dome as you can imagine. And we've really up leveled that, to pioneer these live immersive eight k plus feeds that we bring into our dome. And you're right. There's there is the art of production that our team is exquisite at, and that's cutting at the right moment, catching the right shot, and doing that all live. And, you know, we try to make it look easy, because we just want it to be an incredible experience with the suspension of disbelief and you feel like you're there in the moment. But the truth is it's very difficult, and we have an incredibly competent team behind the scenes. Well and and and it's and it's challenging too. I've gotta shout out the team again because as someone who comes from the world of broadcast and technology and AV, it's it's just hard. Right? It's hard enough to produce a TV broadcast, but then imagine having to produce a TV broadcast for, you know, all sorts of different footballs flying around and pucks and basketballs and all sorts of different entertainment. It's it's challenging, and that's one of the things that I love most sort of about the experience. But, you know, what I would say too as somebody who who, I think, typically tries to have their finger on the pulse of where the industry is going, you guys did a really nice job of sort of skating to where the puck was going in terms of entertainment. Right? Because, you know, if you would have asked me probably six years ago, I don't know that I would have said, hey. There's gonna be a whole lot of appetite for immersive content and things like that in in a physical venue. Right? I probably actually would have leaned more towards the AR and VR side of things. But you guys were able to say, hey. This is where the audience is predicting that that that that they're gonna consume content in all these different ways. You know, what sorts of demographics are are the folks who are consuming this content? Is it primarily, you know, millennials, Gen z, Gen x, or are you seeing a really wide spectrum of folks? Great question. A couple of things. First of all, I think, you know, sometimes the stars line up in your favor. And we're a planetarium company at heart, so I can say that the stars line up in our favor. That is punny. It's a mom joke. The truth is the wheels were in motion before COVID for everything that we're doing here at KaSM because the teams that came from the production side, they were all already producing. They had already cut their teeth in VR. Our leadership team on the Cosm side was already hard at work in the sports world laying the foundation for all of those rights deals that we had to pull into place. On the technology side, the real time rendering engine that drives our system has been in development since nineteen eighty one. On the LED production and LED dome side, we've been working on an LED solution for nearly twelve years before Qasim was even formed. So a lot of things came together in a magical moment that became Qasim, and we've really, really tried to take that opportunity and capitalize on it and bring Cosm forth in the way that we have for those shared reality moments. And to get to your question about demographics, this is one of the coolest things in my opinion about what we're doing in our technology. Because at the touch of a, you know, the the click of a mouse or the touch of a button, you can change the content entirely from orbital to o to UFC. You can change the demographic you appeal to. And depending on what content we're playing, we we draw a completely different audience. And so the reach is is has been very broad and very wide and very deep and multidimensional when you look at generations, when you look at, you know, socioeconomic snapshot of who comes into the venue and the approachability factor of the different ticket prices. So it's been a very broad swath, and we wanna keep it that way. We wanna be the venue of now, never the venue of the future, always the venue of now for everyone that's that that that is a fan. And then we wanna bring in different types of content with our day part programming to appeal to all of those different groups. We do the same thing on the on the b two b side of the business. I know you're in Dallas. Are you familiar with Fort Worth Science Center? You better believe it. That was that was one of my questions that was coming up. Oh, I love that. Okay. So I don't wanna jump again. So we can save that if you want to. Or I can talk about that. No. Go ahead. Kick it off. Okay. Yay. So Fort Worth Science Center has just redone their Omnimax theater with Cosm Technology. So the same technology that powers our venue experience is powering their dome theater. That's really exciting. So they open the very beginning of December. They'll open up with a huge slate of content, some pieces that have been played at our venue as well. So we have this great synergy and this wonderful ecosystem where you have multiple opportunities to experience this technology. And, you know, we work with them to do the same thing. We are helping them extend their reach into the community and be woven even more deeply into the fabric of that community using different types of content to appeal to deeper and broader audiences. Well, I love that example that you mentioned. Right? Because we obviously talked about sort of the physical manifestation of a lot of the Cosm technology being the venues, one being in in Dallas, I think, the other one right now in LA. But one of the things that that really is is interesting is at a macro level, there is this larger appetite for immersive entertainment. And you see this in places like theme parks. You look at, you know, Universal's Epic Universe, which is gonna have Super Nintendo World and all these Harry Potter World, all these different things. You see that that manifest itself in different ways and folks like Netflix opening up their own immersive, installations and things like that. You know, this really is the realization for for places maybe that that have been historically difficult to bring, to the screen. Right? Mhmm. If you can't go to a stadium, that that's already an immersive experience itself. But now you have the opportunity to do that. Or maybe you're a Stars fan like me and you man, you wish sometimes that drive to the stadium was an hour wasn't an hour. Hey. Now you can experience that in a whole new way. It really allows people to or really it brings, I would say, in my opinion, things that may not have been built for immersive experiences. So it allows you actually to be part of that. And would you say that's part of maybe the larger strategy is maybe making some of those things that were previously inaccessible, maybe space being one of those things Yeah. But bringing it and making it accessible to the larger population? That's part of that democratizing access. Right? Making sure that people have access to the experience. And, you know, it's not just space, but but it's the natural part or the the the natural wonders of the world, Petra, or it's the Grand Canyon or Zion National Park. All these places and, you know, the virtual tourism aspect in in the in the science and education space, if you look at Fort Worth Science Museum, using that as a teaching tool and the field trips and the learning that can happen and then attaching that to other physical exhibits inside the museum, you can see there's, you know, a very powerful case for that. And and we will open cause and venues first across the US and around the world. We have incredible global scale aspirations, but the ability to sell through this same technology in the b to b sector and power experiences for our partners and help them, you know, widen and deepen and expand the universe of immersive experience through their IP, through their ideas as well, to me is how this really starts to touch everyone everywhere. And that's how immersive experience becomes the wave of the future and the way that we seek experience and those shared reality moments. Well, I I love that you've mentioned sort of the world of b two b multiple times. I wanna ask too. You talk about scale and you talk about the future. How do you see that specifically that side specifically growing? Is it you know, are we talking about immersive experiences in workplaces? Are we talking about, portability for for different sorts of immersive experiences? What what well, you don't have to give away too much. But out of curiosity, I mean, what what does that look like for the future of the b two b side? That's a great question, and I'm so glad you opened this up to chat about for a minute because I think it's so compelling and so exciting, and it just allows so many more people access to this technology. One exciting market in sector, in my opinion, is universities. So imagine this just for a minute. So there is a university and say they have an intercollegiate broadcast team and they have a venue on campus, say it's their basketball arena, for example. And that intercollegiate broadcast team is part of a communications department. And that communications department, you know, they, they get our camera technology. They work with us to provide camera technology to these students. These students can then learn this immersive capture technique, produce all the jumbotron feeds. This university can build a dome on campus that can be a multidisciplinary space that the communication students can use. They can use this, you know, to bring in the feeds that they've produced on their own campus, their their production college, or the production students who are doing, you know, filmmaking can use this to produce films for. The architecture students can build models in Unreal and drive through those in this dome. The computer science students can use this space for, data visualization for, you know, building programs, building virtual worlds. The the arts and fine arts can use this space as a backdrop for a live production or event, whether it's a modern dance event or a musical event. The athletics department can use this as a recruiting tool and build this incredible background to bring students in and give them an idea what it might feel like to be on their stadium or or on their field. So universities to me are really exciting because then this this, the our software can be integrated into the curriculum. We've done this at Keele University in Germany for many years. And and and then the students are graduating with a very, very unique skill set in this immersive space. So I think universities are really exciting. I think cruise ships are exciting. Space is at a premium on a cruise ship. If you can build a multidisciplinary space that can be used for multiple different types of experiences changing at the click of a button, that's exciting. I think there's, you know, room in the theme parks and attractions world. Of course, we've worked there on the dome side for a long time. If you look at family entertainment districts and just putting in, say, the new town the new town square, if you will, this multidisciplinary space for people to gather. Science and education, of course, planetariums, science museums. I could go on. You have to stop. Stadium adjacent I'm telling you, the beautiful thing about everything that you just said is one of the challenges that I would say historically the AV industry has had. We're really good, like I said, at designing, specking, building, installing technology, but we don't always get to see the end of the line conversation. We don't always get to think about workforce development and educational experiences. Though that is part of what the technology enables, I'm so glad to hear that that you guys are having those conversations about, hey, that end user experience, that education side, finding ways to provide value to people outside of just technology for technology's sake. And I and if I was a betting man, which sometimes I am, I don't live in Vegas, so we can't bet here in Texas. But I would bet big money on the success long term of the model because, you've invested so much not only in the great content and the development side Mhmm. But that audience as well. And I'll tell you, I've gotta commend you as somebody who's been in the industry for a long time. There are very few technologies that make ripples quite like you have. And you you have my full commendation and appreciation because I absolutely love to see the success that Cosm has had and the impact it's already had in our community. So thank you for that. Oh, thank you. It's a pleasure to work here. I always joke. I say, I think I've finally figured out what I wanna do when I grow up. And if I can just speak for one moment about the people that we work with, you know Absolutely. Yeah. We spent a lot of time, in the foundational businesses in the science and education space. And then we have the incredible enthusiasm and fire of sports. And when you bring that together, you have this combination of humans that are the salt of the earth as good as it gets, brilliant, brilliant, humble. We we spend a lot of time with our heads in space looking back at earth. And when you realize that this pale blue dot is the only place we can exist in this vast universe that you know about And then you and and that's kind of the the relativity with which you carry on as a company. And then you have the enthusiasm of Jeb Terry who's our CEO and our leadership staff on the sports side and you put that together. I'm telling you, I call it cosmic magic. And I think that's our superpower as our people. We are so passionate about, you know, experience, about shared reality, about fandom, about education, about the end user. We've been in this b to b space for so long and making sure that we make a positive impact in the communities in which we play, and we say play because we like to have fun. And and that people remember us not just for, oh my gosh, that that game winning moment, but for the fact that this is a place where they could gather and they could come together. You know, our free time is our most precious commodity. Neither you or I are gonna get any more of it. And and and if you spend just a fraction of that with us at Cosm either in one of our partner venues or in one of our venues, that's an honor and a privilege, and we do not take that lightly. We take it very seriously. And, I don't think I'm alone in in the way that I think about this. And so I don't know. Cosm is a pretty incredible company. I'm very proud of what we're doing, and, oh my gosh, it's so much fun. Look. I I absolutely love the energy, and and it's reciprocated back because look. I I'm I'm not lying when I said that there are very few things that get me fired up in the industry anymore and being able to sit with my wife literally, I I promise you, we have we have been to Vegas ten times, and every time we've been, oh, has been dark for the last five years. We finally had the chance to sit together and watch oh in our backyard. I love that. Essentially. And and the access that you're bringing people, the the experience that you're bringing people, the connection that you're bringing people goes far beyond technological capability. And, again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for that, and thank you for being a technology company who really cares about that conversation. And and, look, I don't I don't know. I could sit here probably for another hour and and thank you for all that. But but, you know, I I don't wanna bore you too too much with that. But with that being said, you know, Rachel, one last question. You know, you talk about the next five, ten, fifteen years of Causm. You know, what's next? I love that. So I think the sky's the limit for us, honestly. We have a big appetite to scale, as I said, here in the US in major markets. We're just about to announce our fourth venue, this week, so stay tuned. And yeah. I know. Very exciting. And then we have many more in the works, not just in the US, but around the world. We truly have global aspirations. We are a global company already. We have projects in fifty countries around the world at the moment. That's the beauty of having been at it for a few years. And, we'll scale globally in that regard. On the b two b side of the business, we have such incredible traction already globally everywhere from, you know, Japan to Germany, all over Europe, India, we have projects online or coming online in multiple places. In the next few months, you can look for our LED solutions at Fort Worth Science Museum, Arizona Science Center, and Prague Planetarium, which will be the first LED dome in Europe. And then there are more to come. Those are just the ones I can announce. We have first our first one in the university market. That announcement should come in the next few weeks. And, you know, I just think look for a cause in near you. Well, look. I think that's a great way to land the plane, Rachel. I I'll tell you what. I really genuinely appreciate you having the conversation with me today. And allow me to fanboy a little bit because it's technology that I love. But I think for our audience, there's there's so much value in understanding a little bit more sort of the vision, mission, and and application of the Cosm universe because look. It it's a it's it's it's meeting people where they are. It's it's about creating that immersive experience and leveraging technology to do so. You guys are doing such a great job. So, Rachel, thank you again for coming on the show. Thank you. I hope I run into you at Cosm soon, Ben. I'm sure you will, and thank you all for tuning in as well. Be sure look. I'll give you a shameless plug. Be sure to go check out a Cosm flight of one. It's worth it. Thanks so much for tuning in. Be sure to like and subscribe. Check us out next time on ProAV Today.