Update: April 9, 2019 – Scharer received the Edison Award for his invention of the pop-up inflatable DropKey® Studio in a Bag®.
October 5, 2018 – (APD, TDN News) Santa Monica, CA – It was announced today that Rockwell Scharer, inventor of the DropKey® App and inflatable Studio in a Bag® was nominated for 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 to 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 those decisions.
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; a) Professional lights, b) sound, and c) 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 likely create jobs, markets for b-roll used as backgrounds, and general innovation to help kids and pros create better social media content, better 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. The Facebook Live App currently has 2.1 billion daily active users, so a 1% adoption of DropKey by consumers means 2.1 million pop-up studios sold. Kids will drive growth—also Telemedicine providers, Lawyers, gamers and social media influencers—will all be attracted to this “solution” because it’s the next step in quality, like when 1080p blew out 720p on televisions. The growth in Twitch, Instagram and Facebook is because content is constantly re-imagined, as are personal profiles. Kids can re-invent themselves, and we learned a lot from Facebook’s purchase of Instagram, as well as the clear growth in the eSports market that is now happening around the world. Kids are now flocking to eSports events to see Gaming Influencers, attending these events in droves. The Gaming community, Instagram, Snapchat and toy companies like Mattel who want to make the Barbie app will love to use the pop-up 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 kids 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’re getting a kick out of proving them wrong.
The DropKey App and Studio in a Bag will be available in early 2020.
