Makers of The Metaverse: Nick Rivero Of MEPTIK On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Create a network — Follow different studios on social media or on their websites to see what they are up to. See if they’re attending or hosting events or meet-up with people in the industry. Dig for the studios and people behind them and let them know you’re interested in connecting with them.
The Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality Industries are so exciting. What is coming around the corner? How will these improve our lives? What are the concerns we should keep an eye out for? Aside from entertainment, how can VR or AR help work or other parts of life? To address this, we had the pleasure of interviewing Nick Rivero.
Nick Rivero, Chief Technologist & Co-Founder, MEPTIK.
With a background in technology and system design for multi-camera & live production, Nick has worked with concert artists ranging from Taylor Swift to Lady Antebellum.
Nick now leads a team of designers and technicians focused on innovating extended reality & ICVFX. With years of experience in content design and realtime workflows and systems, MEPTIK has worked with Fortune 100 companies, musical artists, films, and broadcast to create work that captures the imagination and creates new experiences.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?
I sort of stumbled into it all really. I went to college to be a classical music major, jumped into studying film, ended up with a degree in sports television, then spent 10 years in the concert & touring industry. I never expected to be doing anything of the sort, but what I realized is that there was a thread through it all — I was passionate about video technology and innovation. I really followed that throughout my career, which brought me to today, working at the bleeding edge of video, technology, and innovation.
Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I remember two in particular. The first was the movie A Requiem for a Dream. Darren Aronofsky’s work always fascinated me in how he told such deeply — often times, dark — stories in such a powerful way. He used filmmaking in such a creative manner that it really made me realize just how powerful a visual experience could be. This was furthered along by my reading of the book In The Blink of an Eye, by Walter Murch. He’s a storied film editor, director, writer and sound designer who gives a deep perceptive on the subconscious side of film editing — really the psychology behind how editing in film works. It made me realize there was a deeper side to how much went into something that was perceived as effortless; film editing.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.
The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve looked back at my career and tried to find the core of what makes me tick, and I’ve realized that it’s always been about innovation, video technology, and experiences and xR is really the culmination of that: It’s about combining lots of pieces together to form something entirely new. I feel that innovation is never about these big hurdles in front of us, but rather about putting together all the small pieces behind us to equal something entirely new.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
Oh boy, this is always a tough one. Having spent a decade of my life having toured with musicians around the world, you get to see some fun things. I think the highlights for me were standing onstage with Mumford & Sons at the iconic Red Rock venue in Denver, CO, playing multiple nights with Taylor Swift at the O2 in London, or playing Radio City Music hall with Lady Antebelleum.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
There’s honestly so many mistakes I’ve made that it’s hard to point to a single one! What I always say to my team is this: every day you need to be learning something new, and sometimes those things we learn are good and sometimes they are bad, but at the end of the day they both push us forward. Innovation, in particular, is found at exactly this point — continually learning. Do you think Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb on his first try? Of course not! But what he did do was learn and improve until he did.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I had a teacher in college, at Florida State, named Jim Shaw. He not only taught me so much but he gave me incredible opportunities to really learn. He really believed in you learning through doing, which was something that always resonated with me. He also taught me one of my favorite quotes that I’ve always lived by: “When the show goes well, it’s thanks to the team, but when the show goes poorly, it’s the director’s (or person in charge) fault”. I always took that to heart in our company — that we are the success of our team, but when it goes off the rails, it’s my job to take responsibility.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Too many to mention! Overall, xR is about combining the digital and physical worlds to create entirely new experiences. I feel that’s the core of what we’re doing: helping our clients build things that were never before possible and helping at-home audiences experience visuals in an entirely new way.
We recently shot the NBA 2K22 League draft at OPTIK Studios, our studio in Atlanta that we operate with our partners Creative Technology. We created an entire virtual elite league basketball court around the hosts using extended reality and superimposed the NBA 2K22 League Logo on the physical desk via augmented reality. The event was produced & directed by Defacto Entertainment from Vancouver, the control room was in Toronto, there was a simultaneous live event in New York City, and the live-stream happened from Atlanta. It was an incredible experience to see it all come together in one livestream, which got more than 400,000 accumulated views on Youtube & Twitch.
Since people and businesses are increasingly interconnecting on a global scale, how we communicate with each other and visualize stories is key. I think extended reality will play a huge role. Extended Reality enables filmmakers, broadcasters and presenters to take storytelling to new heights. Without physical boundaries, they can tell stories in a way never seen before — and the viewers will take note.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The VR, AR and MR industries seem so exciting right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? Can you explain or give an example?
1. Being on the bleeding edge of a new industry is incredible. There are not many times in your career that you get to write a new chapter of the story, and this is it for an entire industry.
2. The Metaverse, to me, is really about this core idea of exploring how the digital and physical worlds will intersect themselves. It’s about realizing what our digital future in a physical world truly looks like.
3. We’re only at the tip of the iceberg. Just like any great invention or technology in time — the internet for example — its full effect isn’t realized until much later down the road. I feel that with these new technologies, we’re a long ways out from seeing the full effects on an entire generation.
What are the 3 things that concern you about the VR, AR and MR industries? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?
1. There is still a lot to learn. We have a long way to go in really exploring what is possible, but also what the psychological impact will be on humans moving forward. It will be hard to tell and only time and experience will be able to teach us the true force of it’s impact.
2. There are a lot of negative impacts this can have on us too. I think we need to be cognizant of the darker sides of technology as we move forward. Just in the last few years, humanity has brought more attention to the fact that technology isn’t always friendly. Corporations exploiting user data and privacy becoming nill, for example, have left us realizing that we need to be aware that there are multiple roads these technologies can take us down.
3. Accessibility — in order for everyone to participate in these technological advancements, high-performance equipment is needed that not every person has access to. This barrier to entry might lead to inequality in access to information and social structures. These things will only be resolved with time as equipment becomes more accessible and affordable with a higher adoption rate.
I think the entertainment aspects of VR, AR and MR are apparent. Can you share with our readers how these industries can help us at work?
Entertainment is really core to the future of digital experiences. I think there’s so much to explore about how people connect and find enjoyment in these virtual paradigms. Games like Fortnite have really done a great job at exploring these possibilities and giving us a glimpse of what we might be seeing more of in the future.
Another application for this technology outside of the entertainment industry is the use of xR in virtual events and corporate communication. Extended reality is changing the way businesses communicate with their clients, potential customers, and employees globally. The technology allows businesses to illustrate their services and solutions from any place — the client’s factory, warehouse, manufacturing facility — any physical place can be recreated virtually. It allows them to reach their customers wherever they are, whenever they are available in a unique, and highly customized way. This also applies to products — products can be recreated virtually and be taken apart to showcase features and applications in detail, without ever having to physically disassemble them. This is a great way to educate both employees and external stakeholders on the products and services a company is trying to sell. We created a Virtual Capital Market Day for Ford’s investors last year, in which the speaker was placed inside a replicated manufacturing facility, and he was able to go from showcasing what their new cars look like from the outside to explaining and showing in detail how the technology works inside the vehicles in seconds.
Without interrupting business as usual, businesses can use this technology to interact with and educate their internal and external stakeholders in an entirely new, dynamic way.
Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
We call it the “Three R’s of Virtual”. The first is VR, which is about immersing ourselves in the digital world, the second is AR, which is about overlaying the digital onto the physical world, and the third is XR, which is about placing people into an immersive digital experience. They all serve varying purposes, but at the core, by interweaving the digital and physical, we’re able to do things like provide more information, tell more enriching stories and connect people in entirely new ways.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?
The primary myth is that filming with xR is extraordinarily expensive. In fact, xR technology can save money on productions, especially when they require multiple locations. For us, changing a location can be done with a press of a button instead of having the whole crew travel across the globe. It significantly reduces production time. Plus, we can pull up that exact same location with the exact same look a year from now.
The second myth is that you have to fully understand the technology in order to use it for your production and that might scare people from using it in the first place. As a full-service virtual & xR production company, MEPTIK allows Creative Directors to come in with a vision, and we take care of the rest. We create the content, integrate the content with the LED Volume and provide full service production capabilities, so all they have to worry about is the actors’ performance. Virtual production makes it easy for directors to work with, it enables them to see exactly what the location looks like before they even step a foot on set. Time of day, placement of objects — everything can be predetermined and adjusted the day-of within minutes. Thanks to in-camera VFX, they can see the final shot on set instead of waiting for post-production to be completed.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”
- Curiosity & Flexibility — the desire to always learn and try new skills and approaches is a must. You always need to be looking outside of your bubble to find things that inspire you and get you out of your comfort zone. VR, AR and xR technologies are constantly changing, so always being understanding, accommodating, and flexible with new technology is key. Have the desire to want to figure things out. You don’t have to have all the answers right away, but as long as you have an attitude of, “Yes, I can” or, “how can I help?” and you’re always willing to figure things out, you’ll be successful.
- 3D skillsets — Anything in the 3D design space is key to understanding the future. Understanding 3D design concepts along with tools like Blender, Maya and Cinema 4D is crucial. We’ve found that visual effects and game design backgrounds have a lot of understanding as to the foundational building blocks for these technologies.
- Create a network — Follow different studios on social media or on their websites to see what they are up to. See if they’re attending or hosting events or meet-up with people in the industry. Dig for the studios and people behind them and let them know you’re interested in connecting with them.
- Design or Code — both skills are useful depending on what side you want to go into: if you like the creative side — study more art and design, but if you like more technically minded things — study things like coding basics. It never hurts to know a bit of both either! As kids, we were all taught to explore other verbal languages, and in the future, code is going to be one of those. As we speak, my daughter learns the core foundations of coding as a toddler because it’s going to be one the core languages of the future.
- Understand the medium — Whether you build in AR, VR, or MR, you’ll want to deploy and test at scale. Whatever medium you’re working in, deploy it and understand how it works. Get friends and colleagues to give you their opinions — you’ll learn a lot. Understand how the 6 Degrees of Freedom applies to each platform.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Always jump in and say, “How can I help?” I was around 30 years old when I realized the best approach in life is to ask how I can help those around me. Oftentimes this thought is more subconscious than vocalized, but it underpins how I think about the things I do. How can we help each other? How can we do things that would help others around us?
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I’ve always been a fan of Roger Waters from Pink Floyd. The concepts and artistry which he brought to their music and their shows has always inspired me since I was a kid; my dad got to see them live in the 60’s and we’ve since seen Roger Waters solo in recent years. It’s really pretty incredible how much of a narrative he weaves into the work they do. From Dark Side of the Moon, to The Wall and beyond, there’s just so many iconic moments they’ve orchestrated.
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!
Makers of The Metaverse: Nick Rivero Of MEPTIK On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
