High Fidelity is an American company headquartered in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, which formerly focused on social

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

. As of 2020, they appear to have pivoted to 3D audio software.

Company

High Fidelity was founded in April 2013 by

Second Life ''Second Life'' is a multiplayer virtual world that allows people to create an Avatar (computing), avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user-created content within a multi-user online environment. Developed for person ...

founder and former CEO Philip Rosedale, Ryan Downe Karpf, and Irena Freidrica Heiberger. The company was formed to create a next-generation

platform featuring low latency, spatialized 3D audio, high-detail environments, realistic avatars, and a working economy built on blockchain. High Fidelity raised $2.4 million in early 2013, led by True Ventures and Google Ventures. In 2015, it raised an additional $11 million from Vulcan Capital, and in December 2016, it raised another $22 million in an investment round let by IDG Capital and Breyer Capital. In June 2018, it raised $35 million. The round was led by blockchain investment firm Galaxy Digital Ventures, which invested $20 million from its Galaxy EOS Ecosystem Fund. Other new investors included Blockchain Capital. Existing investors Breyer Capital, IDG Capital Partners, and Vulcan Capital also participated.

Products

High Fidelity provided a

platform for users to create, deploy, visit, and interact with

virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space or spaces) is a Computer simulation, computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many simultaneous users who can create a personal Avatar (computing), avatar and independently explore th ...

s along with other users. These virtual spaces can host up to 500 people at once. The software is free and

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

. It can be used with most VR headsets or a traditional monitor in desktop mode. To promote commerce and protect content from forgery, digital assets in High Fidelity are certified on High Fidelity's blockchain-based Digital Asset Registry (DAR), which gives each item a unique fingerprint and provides a decentralized, publicly auditable ledger of transactions. Users can buy and sell

virtual goods Virtual goods are non-physical objects and money purchased for use in online communities or online games. Digital goods, on the other hand, may be a broader category including digital books, music, and movies. Virtual goods are intangible by def ...

and services using High Fidelity's stablecoin cryptocurrency, High Fidelity Coin (HFC). On April 27, 2016, High Fidelity entered open beta. In July 2017, High Fidelity ordered six episodes of a VR talk-show titled Glitched: A VR Talk Show from Studio Capon and followed up with a weekly streamed dance party series in VR with DJ Tha Phlash. In 2018, High Fidelity staged a speaker series featuring VR conversations between High Fidelity CEO Philip Rosedale and academics, futurists, and VR experts such as Jeremy Bailenson, Courtney Cogburn, Peter Diamandis, and Jessica Outlaw. In November 2018, High Fidelity hosted FUTVRE LANDS, the first music and entertainment festival hosted completely in VR. The four-hour event brought together 466 avatars from 47 countries and included live entertainment from actors, artists, and musicians across multiple stages in a virtual festival venue. High Fidelity advisor

Thomas Dolby Thomas Morgan Robertson (born 14 October 1958), known by the stage name Thomas Dolby, is an English musician, producer, composer, entrepreneur and teacher. Dolby came to prominence in the 1980s, releasing hit singles including "She Blinded Me ...

performed a live concert set. Other attractions included live art, bingo, trivia, and limited-edition festival merchandise to buy and download from High Fidelity's marketplace. Plans for gatherings on the High Fidelity platform to use

were scrapped by the beginning of 2019, and the platform became audio-only. Users appear as dots in a birds-eye view of a space, and can move their dots around the space to have conversations with individuals or groups. Audio is spatialized, so that users will hear other users at different volumes depending on their relative locations within the space. In March 2019, High Fidelity hosted Multi-Con, a comic con inspired VR event featuring cosplay, fanart, and celebrity panelists. Kari Byron,

Tory Belleci Salvatore Paul Belleci ( ; born October 30, 1970) is an American television personality and model maker, best known for his work on the Discovery Channel television program ''MythBusters''. He has also worked with Industrial Light and Magic on fi ...

, and

Grant Imahara Grant Masaru Imahara (October 23, 1970 – July 13, 2020) was an American electrical engineer, roboticist, and television host. He was best known for his work on the television series ''MythBusters'', on which he designed, built, and opera ...

, the stars of Emmy-nominated

MythBusters ''MythBusters'' is a science entertainment television series created by Peter Rees (producer), Peter Rees and produced by Beyond International in Australia. The series premiered on the Discovery Channel on January 23, 2003. It was broadcast in ...

, hosted a panel and shared stories from MythBusters with the audience. James Arnold Taylor, voice actor of

Fred Flintstone Fred Flintstone is the main character of the animated sitcom '' The Flintstones'', which aired during prime-time on ABC during the original series' run from 1960 to 1966. Fred is the husband of Wilma Flintstone and father of Pebbles Flintst ...

and Obi-Wan, debuted his show “Talking to Myself” in VR at Multi-Con. In May 2019, High Fidelity announced it would focus its efforts on an application for remote and distributed teams. The yet-to-be-named application, accessible through both desktop mode and VR, provides a virtual space where people can collaborate using High Fidelity's spatialized 3D audio and realistic avatars. Interest in High Fidelity's virtual meeting platform ballooned during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In January 2022 High Fidelity announced an investment in Linden Research, Inc. (Linden Lab) to scale Second Life's virtual world further.

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

High Fidelity website

High Fidelity official blog
Virtual reality companies Companies based in San Francisco Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area American companies established in 2013 Software companies established in 2013 2013 establishments in California Software companies of the United States