Though he didn’t make a living at his chosen profession of filmmaking, San Francisco-based entrepreneur Mitch Braff has created a company that sells windows that look like something out of “Total Recall.”
Braff, 56 is disrupting the luxury real estate market with his innovative interior design company LiquidView, which creates large, life-like digital windows that display 8K videos synchronized with the local time, providing a natural light feeling and a sense of time and place, the San Francisco Business Journal reported.
After producing films, he started a corporate communications firm and later founded Liquid Canvas in 2015, which produced high-end bespoke video art installations for clients. The idea for LiquidView came to him three years ago when a client with a beautiful mansion in Pacific Heights had an unfortunate view of their neighbor’s house. Braff decided to put a “window” in the wall, which led to the development of LiquidView.
The digital windows are recessed into the wall and use an 8K video, which changes based on the time of day to match the outside lighting conditions. Braff and his team shoot the 24-hour videos on location using high-end cameras and lenses, adjusting for changes in natural lighting.
The videos are stored in small computers with large internal drives, ensuring smooth playback without streaming from the internet.
“We want this to feel like you are there,” he told the outlet. “If you’ve ever been in a situation where you’re in a room without windows, or you come out of a movie theater and all of a sudden it’s nighttime, it’s like, how did this happen? So we want our windows to emulate the same quality of light as real windows.”
LiquidView’s video library includes locations like Central Park in New York and Lands End in San Francisco, with plans to shoot new locations every month. The company is funded by Bay Area angel investors, and Braff is considering approaching venture capitalists for additional funding.
Beyond luxury real estate, LiquidView has broader potential applications. Architects and designers see the technology as beneficial for converting office spaces into residential units with limited natural light.
“This is exactly the kind of technology that could benefit and make more viable that kind of conversion,” Eric Ibsen, chief design officer for architecture firm Forge SF, told the outlet. “This is not the burning Yule log on the TV during Christmas — you’re looking at something at the level where it can make daylight views believable.”
Additionally, the display’s impact on mental health is being explored in a study at Stanford University, examining how realistic digital views can affect people’s well-being in built environments.
— Ted Glanzer