Award for Lübeck company MSM. digital

Lübeck. Immerse yourself in another world comfortably in an airplane seat, watch movies in 3D, play chess or go on a sightseeing tour with travel journalists: This is now possible for Lufthansa passengers – thanks to the software from the Lübeck company MSM.digital. The airline has been offering a new form of entertainment program for passengers since October. On the flights from Munich to Shanghai and San Francisco, business class passengers receive Meta Quest 3, a pair of glasses with which they can experience films, games or concerts in virtual reality (VR) or mixed reality (MR). With mixed reality, the viewer can still see the real environment at the edge of his field of vision.

MSM.digital had been working on this completely new in-flight entertainment together with Lufthansa and the Meta Group for two years. They won the prestigious innovation award at the world's largest leading trade fair, Future Travel Experience, organized by the industry association APEX (Airline Passenger Experience Association) and the IFSA (International Flight Services Association) in Long Beach, California.

“We want to create digital experiences. For us as a Lübeck company, this award is a great thing. “It enables us to gain additional partners in the aviation and automotive industries,” says MSM.digital manager Lennart Scheel. It is a great confirmation of the joint development to make mixed reality tangible for as many people as possible.

Lufthansa will probably soon offer the new form of in-flight entertainment in first class and on other flights, says Markus Oeller, founder and one of the two managing directors of MSM.digital. “We are in discussions with many other well-known airlines. They have a strong interest in offering this technology to their passengers as well.” They are very proud to be so successful worldwide with a product developed in Germany.

“We are now working on a platform with additional content, a kind of Netflix for the airline industry,” explains Oeller. One thinks of films or concerts, but also of sporting events such as basketball or football games. “Mixed reality allows you to watch what’s happening up close – right on the sidelines.” This can be compared to 3D experiences in an Imax cinema. At the Consumer Electronics trade fair in Las Vegas in January, MSM.digital will also be able to present its innovations and make further contacts.

Before the inflight entertainment project, MSM.digital, Lufthansa and Meta had already worked together on the visualization of the new interior design of Lufthansa aircraft. Using VR glasses, the seats and controls could be made clear and tangible for passengers and also flight attendants.

MSM.digital works under the umbrella of the 1SP group of companies, which also has its headquarters in Lübeck and which now includes six agencies. “We have grown significantly; we have just acquired the New Fluent agency with a total of 55 employees in Vienna,” says Oeller. In the early days, MSM.digital focused primarily on gaming and the development of games, so they knew the needs of the users and also understood the technology that was needed.

“We want to become Europe’s super agency for consumer electronics and gaming,” says Oeller. 1SP has already achieved its goal of achieving annual sales of 100 million euros by 2026 this year. The group now has a total of 760 employees, of which 360 are core employees and 400 are on the customer side.

LN