Forth Dimension Displays

Forth Dimension Displays

In January 2011, it was acquired by Kopin Corporation, which has put substantial extra investment into the operation.

TalentScotland spoke to Greg Truman, CEO of Forth Dimension Displays.

Tell me about your products

We design and manufacture high-end near-to-eye displays; miniature displays with a very high resolution, intended for viewing close to the eye. They have many applications, but are commonly used in professional cinematography cameras and ‘virtual reality’ training systems – simulators for pilots, and so on.

Where do you see your growth coming from in the next few years?

The markets we’re in currently are quite mature and we have a strong presence, so we’re now looking to areas where we can really grow.

For example, we’re moving into using some of the same technology for automated metrology and monitoring systems on production lines, where it would be one component within a real-time 3D imaging system.

We're also starting to look at more mass market applications, like high-end gaming, business and education. We launched that concept at [electronic entertainment exhibition] E3. We don't have a gamer product or build headsets and we don't want to - we're really targeting the people who would buy our displays and put them into headsets. The response has been very positive.

One surprise has been the amount of interest in the small business market, which simply couldn't afford to put down £20,000 on a display. But as more affordable technologies become available, industries like architecture and real estate are already using it; not to design, but to sell their concepts to client. It’s a much more powerful, immersive experience than showing someone a 2D plan.

You’re serving a truly global market. What made you choose Scotland over anywhere else?

We had to make a choice about where to locate, having previously been based in West London. We chose Fife for a whole host of reasons and we'd make the same decision again. There's great access to quality staff, good quality of life, not the same traffic problems that you get in London and it's a relatively cheap place to live. Also, support from the government up here is great; in that respect it’s probably the best place in the UK to be.

You mentioned access to skills. What skills and personal attributes do you look for when recruiting?

Although we already have a large team – 37 in Scotland – it has to cover a very wide range of disciplines, both technical and commercial. So people really need to take ownership of their role within the company, because it is very unlikely there are many other people around who know much about that specialist area. So they need the expertise – that’s a given – but they also need the drive to make that bit of the business really work.

Particularly as a lot of these skills are quite scarce, we regularly look to bring people in from abroad and use the TalentScotland website.