April 5, 2019 – (APD, TDN News) Santa Monica, CA – It was announced today that Rockwell Scharer, inventor of the DropKey® App and the inflatable Studio in a Bag® has won the Edison Award for Best Digital Product Innovation (2019), named after Thomas Edison, the famous inventor. The following is an except from the interview with the CEO of DropKey and MediaBook®, Rockwell Scharer.
Q: What is the invention?
A: DropKey® Studio in a Bag® is the state of the art green screen tech on smartphones. I solved a difficult physics problem in light and invented a pop-up, inflatable studio with bright lights and portability to make push-button perfect ‘live’ HD background replacement on smart devices with no post-production required.
Q: How is your solution different from the other Chroma key apps out there?
A: There are currently apps out there that do background replacement, but without perfect monochromatic lighting they don’t work. Kits are available on Amazon but free-standing lights are dangerous for kids tp handle and proper placement requires a professional’s experience. The DropKey App and the Studio in a Bag solves all those problems so kids and pros don’t have to make them.
Q: How did you create the Concept?
A: With the invention of the smart device, I saw opportunities and one in particular stuck with me: There are three things missing from an iPhone for a person to become a television station or television studio; Professional lights, sound, and push-button perfect live HD background replacement. Once I solved for X, I knew that with the DropKey® Studio in a Bag® I had created the Mobile Content Capture (MCC) market, and that would create jobs, markets for b-roll, and general innovation to help kids and pros create better social media, advertising, and better general video content with an easier way to make it.
Q: What Value is there to this Innovation?
A: Most every professional content creator uses background replacement, which requires highly complex decisions and equipment. To bring that process to the Consumer and create new markets and jobs was evident; With DropKey® Studio in a Bag® the hardware and software make all the decisions, removing cost, time and complexity to creating content. Now kids can develop their craft at home and learn how to make content without expensive editing machines and lighting kits. Pros can eliminate much of their work with lighting and in many cases won’t have to do any post-production at all because DropKey is also a cloud-based server with automated post-production for every User that chooses to use the service.
Q: How is your invention delivered to the world?
A: My team and I quickly knew that professionals in Hollywood were only .001 % of our market. Amateurs, kids—gamers and social media influencers—they will all be attracted to this “solution” because of Twitch, Instagram and Facebook, where content is constantly re-imagined, as are personal profiles. Kids can re-invent themselves with real Hollywood movie-making tools. We learned a lot from Facebook’s success, and their purchase of Instagram, as well as the clear new eSports market that is now happening around the world where kids are now flocking to Gaming Influencers, watching these events in droves. The Gaming community, Instagram, Snapchat and just plain kids that like toys will all love to use the DropKey® App and the Studio in a Bag® technology.
Q: What Impact do you think your innovation will have, globally?
A: Social Media has exploded in the past few years. Billionaires are made by thought experiments that gain traction through social media. The DropKey App and the Studio in a Bag technology will enable social media influencers and consumers to re-define themselves, to re-create themselves on command, to be able to create network-quality content at home or on the road and get their ideas out into the world. The innovation here is that non-professionals can now make social media content that can compete with professionals where this was not possible before. The democratization of social media content creation will have an impact into the future.
Q: Thanks for your time and I’m sure lot of millennials and social media influencers will enjoy using the DropKey Studio.
A: I hope so. The guy that runs YouTube said it couldn’t be done, so we are getting a kick out of proving them all wrong.
The DropKey App and Studio in a Bag will be available in early 2019.
