The following is a series of posts I made over on the Yahoo MVIS Club board:
So busy listening that I forgot to take detailed notes!
Anyway, here are some of the things that I noticed/though would interest people.
1) High performance displays
Medical Display: Regardless of previous postings it was SVGA (not VGA) and full color. Beautiful! The lens/glasses were connected to a test stand (it wasn't mobile) and was rather bulky at this stage. The engineer there (I forget the name) explained that since its still in development they have alot of adjusting controls that make it look much bigger than it would be normally. Additionally, the laser redirecting lens was canted at a 45 degree angle rather than the 10-15 degrees (or less) they hope to achieve. The prototype has the capability of increasing or decreasing the focal range of the image. (Some applications require the image at an arms length focal distance while for other applications it may be better to set the focal length nearer or farther away so as not to interfere with exactly what it being worked on.) Contrast was very good (ie much better than the test display screen showing the same images) which is evidently a key requirement of the medical market according to Steve Willey. (CRT and LCD technology aren't good enough for what surgeons demand for MRI, catscans, and xray photos.) The display was full see through and current electronics to drive it was suitcase sized. Steve said that production electronics could be much smaller.
Army Development VRD: The cutting edge of the technology currently. Army paid MVIS to push the envelope and they are essentially almost at HDTV quality on resolution and full color. Contrast was superb making the CRT image look very dull. The image blurred around the edges as the video drivers (software) need alot of work. The engineer explained that the beam moves much slower as it approaches the edge and turns around. (Better drivers will solve this issue.) Currently, company doesn't have an application lined up for this type of display yet as it is so much of a leap above current displays that no one has a product in mind for it yet (as far as MVIS knows). They are certain that once the capability is known that other will find an application for it. Really neat but not even close to creating non-R&D revenue for the company.
Part 2 Demo comments:
BTW The high performance displays were NOT shown at the annual shareholders meeting.
2) Mobile displays:
I won't go into too much detail on these displays as some are described in previous posts (around the time of the shareholders meeting). Shown were the Navy fast-boat display, the Leica display, the opto-?? retinal disease diagnostic device, the original prototype of the VCOP display, the original test pattern display unit, and a new MEMS-driven display.
The Leica display was similar in look to the non-working unit shown at the shareholders meeting. It is monochrome red and VGA resolution.
The MEMs-driven display was very raw looking and had a very simple driver of 128x128 resolution. The MEMs expert present said that the resolution was driven by the current lack of memory in the developmental drive unit. Higher resolution is achievable with several of their less mobile units.
The MEMs chip itself is about .75 cm x .75 cm in size but gets much bulkier when the interface connector prongs are connected to create a MEMs unit. The unit itself wasn't much smaller than the mech-based part it replaced but that it would be a factor improvement in cost to make due to its silicon basis.
One of the more interesting parts of the mobile area was the laser demo. The company had a blue and green laser which they claimed were the most compact of their type (pumped, double-??, gas) and which only MVIS had outside of the company that made them. They wouldn't reveal who the company was and when Cree and Nichia were mentioned Rick said that their lasers were primarily LEDs, not what-ever-this was type of laser.
Part 3 Demo comments:
3. Lunchroom discussions
Most of my conversations were with Andrew Lee, VP of Sales. He was constantly barraged with a wide variety of questions. (The only questions no one asked were concerning the patent portfolio and efforts in that area.) He would NOT answer directly questions about when commercial products would start shipping. He seemed to be comfortable when I stated that currently accepted guidance in the market has product shipments occuring in 3Q or 4Q of next year. I then brought up the fact that due to the production capacity constraints that MVIS is currently under, it would take several months to produce systems so if they are thinking of shipping product in the 3Q2000 then we might be expecting a sales order announcement in 1Q or 2Q. Upon hearing this, he started smiling like a cheshire cat and said that is a plausible scenario.
The current facility is designed to hold 180 people and I think I heard that currently they have only 100. (Company has an option on a similar building next door when growth starts ramping up.) They are heavily focused on hiring electronics engineers (if you know any looking a job, call the company!) as the booming economy has made them scarce. Andrew admited that the company didn't put as much effort into the electronics manning as the company actually ended up needing.
The Gary (??) Peterson hiring IS a big plus as he has great firsthand knowledge of the defense acquisition process. He was not involved in any program directly associated with VRD, but knows everyone who is. The company says he approached the company out of the blue and created his own position due to his knowledge of the process and key contacts in defense industry. Rick mentioned that he had just gotten back from his first trip to DC with Gary and was amazed by his moves and access.
The company has identified many more uses of the VRD system than the actual products they are working on. Art Minich has been successful in keeping the company focused on just two or three products rather than the many that the company was envisioning as of last year. The projection system is on hold since the blue laser required to get to a full color system has not yet become cost-effective. Since the VRD module can work with any type of light, other identified niches for which products could be developed in the future (IR, fiber optic transmission equipment, etc.).
As Jubal mentioned, the Company is looking for a full-time investor relations professional and is very interested in getting its name out. Rick mentioned that a total of 28 articles are scheduled to be published concerning MVIS in various journals, magazines, and trade papers in the next four (??) months.
Rick spent some time discussing who the company sees as competitors currently. Rick says there aren't any yet. Kopin was mentioned but Rick explained that the specifications demanded in the medical and industrial fields cannot be met by Kopin's displays. Daylight readability is a huge factor in the medical field since most of the systems are for use in the operting room, an area of intense lighting. See-through visability appears to be the big issue in the industrial arena as safety issues come into play. Rick sees Kopin as helping develop a market in the consumer arena which Rick expects MVIS will be able to exploit at a later time.
I specifically asked Andrew if this quarter the company is seeing any issues like last quarter that would delay revenues. He said no.
Part 4 - Demo comments:
Officials would not give out the name of the medical products company that was mentioned in a press release last month. They did reveal that the product for which VRD system is being evaluated for concerns orthoscopic surgery and that if successful would probably be extended to other products by the same company. (Anyone know who the leaders are in orthoscopic surgery equipment? GE Medical Systems maybe? I really don't know.)
Analyst coverage was discussed. Peter Jacob's analysis of MVIS capturing $100M in revenues in 5 years was considered to be VERY conservative by Andrew Lee. Company officials will be VERY!! disappointed if revenues are not significantly higher than that. Company again reiterated that getting analyst coverage is difficult as there are almost no US-based display manufacturers so no analyst has sole responsibility for coverage of this industry at the big firms (the ones that matter the most).
That's about it for what I remember now (if I remeber something significant leter, I'll post it). Let me say that it was great to see so many faces to put with the names here. Thanks again to the organizers and the company for allowing this opportunity. I look forward to it again.
Obewon / Valuation Guy
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