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to-bottom 360-degree environment through JC - It was like VR Buzz V1.0. So many companies
a simple USB connector, began with a basic were fghting to earn market share. I remember
requirement: the need for a sales tool, then to iPix, the leader in virtual tour solutions, achieved
a fascination and on to a pioneering role in the a $2B market capitalization at its peak before
development of actual, live VR - virtual reality. dying off rapidly. It was an exciting time, but
what killed the market was the complexity
JC, as he’s come to be known in the industry, and price of the solutions available along with
introduced Terpon and “the frst fully integrated underwhelming quality, and business models
and affordable plug-and-play 4K 3D-VR camera” that required pay-per-use fees. Terpon has the
to adult in September, 2016, at the Amsterdam advantage of having been through that earlier era
Webmaster Access show. and our business benefts a lot from seeing the
past errors made by earlier brands.
He appeared on several seminars at that
convention, from the economics of doing business
in Western Europe to, of course, an examination PM - As someone coming into adult recently,
of VR in the market, and in a remarkably short what has your experience been like?
time JC and Terpon have engaged the industry
on its own terms, with ease, from sponsorships JC - I have been involved in mainstream tech
to branded bling (think the Terpon Ferrari at at CES and other events aimed at pushing VR
the recent XBiz in LA) to establishing strategic camera technology forward for many years, but
partnerships with major cam platforms, top cam this past January was my frst time attending any
models and paysite owners. of the adult industry shows. Before attending I
was told by some in the mainstream sectors
An inventor with commercial savvy who holds that adult companies were less savvy or less
thirteen patents, JC took time from his intense professional, which very quickly proved to
schedule doing interviews with some very be completely untrue. What I have found is
familiar mainstream publications to talk with that there really is no such thing as the “adult
Payout Magazine for one of our Innerviews: industry” in an isolated sense. The people and
companies that are successful in adult have
plenty of interests in other markets as well. Some
PAYOUT - In one article, it’s mentioned of the smartest professionals I have ever met are
your ideas for the current VR 360 technology people I recently added to my business network
you’ve developed grew from your real estate via the adult industry events. I am excited by the
background. level of enthusiasm and the intense focus on
business that I see from top companies in this
JEAN-CLAUDE ARTONNE - Where there is vertical, and I am aware that I can learn quite a
a need, there is also an opportunity. In the bit from strategic partnerships with companies
late 90s, I was running a proftable real estate that will also simultaneously beneft from my
business searching for ways to improve it. That technical expertise. It has been a tremendously
was around the time virtual property tours were valuable year of relationship-building for Terpon,
frst being developed. I saw a real beneft for my commercially and for myself personally.
clients to save time by being virtually teleported
into a house tour online instead of needing to
go through the long and exhausting on-site PM - Tell us a bit more about Terpon and its
visit process that had been traditionally used for launch a year ago?
many years. I had the chance to test and develop
applications for the frst consumer VR headsets JC - My wife Valerie and I founded Terpon
(VFX1), and to test all kinds of acquisition devices from scratch about a year ago. The genesis of
from multi-camera rigs to fsheyes and mirror the brand came from a discussion I had with
systems. It quickly became obvious to me that someone involved in the industry that proposed
VR itself would soon be a big business and I have the idea of developing a leading-edge VR camera
been helping to pioneer its development ever for the adult movie industry. At frst glance, I
since that time. didn’t see a real opportunity for a company to
do all the R&D necessary, just to sell a few very
expensive cameras for the pre-recorded content,
PM - Since you got into VR so early, can you tell but when I started looking at the numbers more
us what it was like at the start? deeply, particularly in the live cam industry, I

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