This article originally appeared in the June 2016 issue of AVN magazine. Click here to see a digital edition of the magazine.
Fabian Grey admits building his virtual reality adult webcam service turned out to be more challenging than he first imagined.
“To be honest we started out a bit naive,” Grey recalls of the early development stages of AliceX. “We thought, yeah that’s a cool product we can do this. We just ventured out into the blue. We already thought it’s going to be a big project. But we underestimated a bit how much goes into it.”
But once Grey’s team realized what kind of effort it would take to bring the platform to life, it responded to the challenge, doing its due diligence to create an innovative package that is nearing completion.
“We are very happy with how it came out,” the Switzerland-based CEO told AVN in an interview from Hamburg, Germany, as AliceX navigated its third month of beta testing. “I think we can now push this very far.”
AliceX, more than a year in the making, is a web-based VR live cam product that allows users to customize their experience.
The models on AliceX’s platform are filmed against a green screen which allows the user to change the background. Users take in HD, 3D experiences with a latency that is below 400 milliseconds. The idea is for users to feel like they are in the room with the model.
A user needs only an Android smartphone and a VR headset; soon the service will be available on the iPhone once its iOS technology is updated to support AliceX. A free cardboard VR headset will be provided by AliceX, or users may choose to buy a higher end headset.
AliceX is currently compatible with Android users with high-end phones like Samsung S6 Edge, Nexus 5, and LG 4. Future devices will include the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets.
Grey said a key advantage of AliceX’s technology is users do not need to bother with installing an app or extra software, as the service is available via AliceX.com through a web browser, like Chrome.
The name AliceX was strategic, according to Affiliate Manager Lee Bond.
”Well, it’s a live cams product and by their nature cams products are much more about the connection with the client, so we wanted to use a female name, one that would be very easy to connect with, and the most common ‘A’ names we had were Alex and Alice,” Bond said. “And we decided that Alice sounded a bit more classy or lady-like, because if you’re AlexX, that could be either sex, so AlexX may be the gay version later.”
Grey at press time said his developers were working with the South America-based AJ Studios to build three additional cam rooms for models, giving AliceX five 24/7 live streams.
“We already have two rooms but we want to ramp this up because we know users want more choice,” he explained. “They want more streams and more models online and this is a big part of being a cam site.”
AJ Studios is a live content production company widely regarded as the most established supplier of cam models in Latin America. With multiple offices, AJ Studios has more than 300 models working seven days a week. The company is also the founding partner of LALEXPO, which is the first adult B2B event in Latin America.
AliceX already works with Romanian models.
“The model side is certainly very important. That’s why we’re also investing a lot of resources into making the whole tech side more accessible and cheaper, so that in the near future independent models can work with our site,” Grey said.
Grey said the new cam rooms should be set up by mid-June; the improved AliceX infrastructure should be done by then as well; and the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets should follow shortly after. The timeframe for iPhone integration is less clear, he added.
A seven-year adult industry veteran, Grey said his team of developers is 12 deep, while he’s in the process of assembling a robust marketing division.
“This is something that hopefully will be ready in the next couple of weeks, that we have a good marketing team that does not only the media buys and the affiliate side, but also PR, SEO and social media,” Grey revealed.
He said the customizable backgrounds help with immersion and that ultimately those backgrounds will come alive.
“I think at a certain point we should be able to have animated backgrounds,” Grey forecasted. “So let’s say for the beach scene we could have the waves coming ashore. Or with the moon scene that we have we could have a rocket ship landing. This will take some time and it’s also depending a bit on the processing power of the phone.”
He continued, “I think the much more important features of AliceX are the very high-quality 3D stream, the low latency, the voice-to-voice connection with the model and especially that it is browser-based. So you don’t need to download anything, it works right out of the gate with high-end Android phones, and soon Oculus Rift, Vive and later on iPhone.”
Grey said he is excited about being part of advancing the industry’s technological imprint.
“I think with the emerging market of VR and the VR industry in general, I think it is very much about technology and about products, how to guide the user. How to educate the user. How to make it very simple for the user to use it, because it is a new device, a new platform, new technology. Which is already a bit confusing, so it’s even more important to guide the user, to show him the way,” the CEO said.
“And I think this is where our expertise comes in. We have always focused on product and this is now our advantage. We have a very good tech team. We know how to set up a very good product, how to make it sustainable on the tech side so it doesn’t break down with the next iteration of the new cycle.
“I think this is what makes it quite unique for the user as well. And we firmly believe in the future of VR, that it will become a sizable niche market in two, three years and then afterwards it will become part of mainstream in terms of entertainment and this is where we will focus on.”
Pictured above, AliceX cam model Beryl
