East Sussex Business Guide & Directory
25
music industry publication
MusicAlly
who named their
Don’t Be Scared
album as one
of the top music apps of the year.
Immersive is a creative technology
platform that allows and measures
engaging experiences across a
multitude of media devices.
Our vision is to allow and
encourage anyone with a
message or story to create
new ways to engage and build
relationships with audiences;
to create immersive, enriching
interactions and to integrate
with relevant and valuable
commercial opportunities,
says Chris Cragg.
We’re passionate about the
value of deep engagement and
interaction, and believe we can
democratise the creation of
amazing content, but it hasn’t
all been easy going, getting
the investment required was
not an easy job; it’s a big and
technically challenging idea in
a tough industry
said Ben Dawson.
We were fortunate enough to
hear about the East Sussex
County Council's ESI grants and
loans to business through our
local MP, Amber Rudd, and after
applying were very pleased to be
the awarded £48,000 to spend
on the equipment required to
create jobs in the area. It’s been an
incredibly rewarding experience
taking on graduates straight
from their degree courses in
computing, games development
and music technology at the
University of Brighton’s Hastings
campus; the ideas and the skills
they’ve brought with them have
been hugely beneficial to us and
we’re very grateful to the university
and Council for their support.
Releasing their web based
Immersive Studio software in late
summer and now working with
some of the biggest artists in the
world, things are getting pretty
serious for the ambitious start-up.
To help steer this growing ship
they’ve been joined by executive
head of innovation at EBay, Ian
Jordan, executive project manager
at Confused.com Tim Tuohy,
senior developers Fred Scefi
and Conor McCarthy, executive
Creative Director at Microsoft,
Google Campus mentor and
senior manager at Electronic Arts,
Jeff Zie, executive Director at PPL
and advisor to the government
on the Creative Industries,
Dominic McGonigal, and founder
of PlayJam, Stuart Walsh. It’s
going to be a busy year ahead.
For more information, please visit
Chris Cragg and Ben Dawson
took desks in the shared office
space at the Creative Media
Centre in Hastings upon moving
to the area in 2012. Enthused by
the sea air and long chats about
opportunities in the digital age,
they decided to set up a business
together and teamed up with
Alistair Clarkson, a software
developer, and Michael Fenna, a
music producer. Combining their
passions and skills, the concept
they devised was a digital product
that allowed music artists to
present their material in a highly
interactive and engaging package.
They built several prototypes
before arranging to see people
from the music industry, including
a chairman of EMI and Michael
Jackson’s manager, for their
feedback. From those first reactions
(some including expletives), they
knew they were onto something.
They called it Immersive, and
Immersive Album Ltd. was
formed in the summer of 2012.
Although creating music albums
as apps had been done before
by artists, the cost had been
significant – Bjork had spent over
£350,000 producing
Biophilia
,
and Immersive wanted these
technologies to be available to
all, so concentrated their efforts
on creating software that would
allow the artist to produce an
Immersive Album by themselves.
Their first product, collaboration
with DJ Vadim, was released last
summer and picked up by
The
Guardian
and the influential
Success for ambitious
start-up enterprise
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Ben Dawson Immersive Album Ltd and
Vera Gajic, East Sussex County Council
