SCN: How long have you been with this company, and what are your responsibilities?
Stephen Patterson: From May 2025, I’ve had the privilege of leading Pufferfish Displays, a tight-knit team of innovators. Like any CEO, I set the vision, secure resources, nurture culture, and keep our investors, partners, and board aligned. But in a company our size, those high-level duties blur into daily activity: I still jump into road maps, review supply chain issues, and help pack when deadlines bite. I also run our sales and marketing, meeting customers and partners, shaping go-to-market strategy, and amplifying the Pufferfish story.
SCN: You were with Biamp EMEA for more than 14 years. What motivated you to make the move to Pufferfish?
SP: Biamp was an extraordinary 14-year journey. I’m deeply grateful to Rashid Skaf—his trust let me stretch, experiment, and help drive EMEA’s growth. But years of weekly flights eventually took its toll; I wanted to be more present at home and channel everything I’d learned into building something of my own. Pufferfish offered that perfect inflection point: a pioneering display technology ready to scale, a nimble team hungry for growth, and a chance for me to shift from regional management to full P&L ownership. Stepping in as CEO lets me pair Biamp’s best practices with a fresh canvas.
SCN: How important are immersive and interactive technologies to today’s museum experience?
SP: In museums, visitor expectation has flipped from passive observation to active participation. Immersive and interactive technologies now underpin engagement, learning, and repeat visits. Studies show that when digital experiences are easy, useful, and entertaining, visitor satisfaction and intention to return rise sharply. Our own data echoes that: Since we added touch-responsive capability to PufferSphere, over 90% of clients specify interactivity, even those who initially asked for a passive display. Immersive tech has moved from “nice to have” to essential infrastructure for storytellers.
SCN: What is it about spherical displays that make them so appealing?
SP: Spherical displays resonate because they line up with how we already understand our world: People instinctively walk around to build a 360-degree mental model—and when touch enabled can literally take the world in their hands. In NOAA classroom trials with Science On a Sphere, students’ Earth science knowledge gains comfortably outpaced flat-screen lessons, with improvements approaching 40%. Field work at the University of Glasgow showed the sphere transformed an everyday walkway into a mini theater, drawing crowds who stayed to watch and interact. Museums report the same magnetism: Visitors linger longer than at comparable flat displays because the format feels novel, social, and aesthetic.
SCN: Beyond its spherical shape, of course, what makes the PufferSphere unique?
SP: Beyond its spherical form, the PufferSphere stands out because of the ecosystem wrapped around it. Every unit ships with PufferOS and PufferBuild, a no-code, drag-and-drop authoring tool that lets teams import images, video, and data, then wire up touch gestures in minutes—no developer required. Our in-house agency, PufferStudio, goes deeper, functioning as a full graphics, motion graphics, and data visualization house that can help bring customer stories to life for any display canvas, often positioning the sphere as the interactive hub that drives those companion screens. Not only can we develop the content, but our software developers help bring that content to interactive life.
SCN: You also offer a half-sphere option, the PufferHemi, so I have to ask: Which model is more popular?
SP: While the full PufferSphere is still the headline act, accounting for roughly two-thirds of the systems we ship in an average year, interest in the PufferHemi is accelerating. The half-sphere inherits our multitouch engine, but because its projection area is halved, it delivers double the pixel density and double the peak luminance of our other models. We developed an interactive travel dashboard/rebooking engine for a global cruise brand using the Hemi in the passenger lounges.
SCN: Your company introduced the PufferLED line of spherical LED displays late last year. How do they differ from your other products?
SP: PufferLED swaps our legacy multi-projector “PufferGrand” approach for modular LED tiles, giving at least 10 times the luminance of projection and eliminating alignment, lamps, and daily calibration. Because the pixel pitch stays constant, resolution remains as diameter grows, something projection can’t match. The spheres ship largely pre-assembled, trimming freight, rigging, and total cost of ownership, and the LEDs are rated for 100,000-hour duty. They’re non-touch, yet they run the same PufferOS engine, so we can add interactivity via companion touchscreens to keep the experience consistent with PufferTouch. Finally, LED brings the impact of the “Puffer Grand” without the grand price tag or for those seeking something similar in a smaller sphere at a lower cost of entry than touch-enabled products.
SCN: Are your spherical solutions used more for temporary or permanent displays?
SP: It’s almost an even split between temporary activations and permanent projects. Museum galleries, university visualization labs, and corporate lobbies can run on an 8-10-year life cycle and generate recurring content-update work. The other half is fueled by rentals for trade shows, product launches, and touring exhibitions/events. This balance keeps cash flow steady while ensuring the technology stays highly visible to new audiences.
Immersive tech has moved from “nice to have” to essential infrastructure for storytellers.
SCN: Considering the unique display landscape, how do you create and manage content in the spherical world?
SP: We treat the sphere as both a canvas and a computer. Because we build the hardware, firmware, and media server stack in house, our creative team can drive every pixel exactly where it needs to be, whether that’s a satellite data layer wrapping a globe or a kinetic brand reveal spinning across an LED floor and a PufferSphere in perfect sync. Whether it’s a globe, LED cylinder, or a hybrid setup, the content lives in one master timeline. Our studio doesn’t just “make it fit the ball.” We design for the curvature, ensuring every project hits the floor running and keeps performing long after the launch day.
SCN: Sustainability remains an important consideration for many projects—are spherical displays energy efficient?
SP: Our laser-phosphor light engines, adaptive brightness control, and high-reflectance coatings mean a 900mm PufferSphere can typically draw less power than a 3x3 LCD wall while delivering twice the impact. We are currently looking to incorporate proximity sensors to reduce idle consumption further. Beyond the electronics, we ship in FSC-certified, carbon-offset crates, use sustainable hardwood pedestals and are auditing every tier-one supplier against ISO 14001. Rental units are refurbished and re-homed to extend life. We’re mapping product footprints under ISO 50001 and are working toward full B Corp Certification, so customers can specify immersive storytelling without enlarging their carbon footprint or budget, whichever metric matters most to you right now.
[Editorial: Digital Signage Continues to Thrive]
SCN: Finally, is Pufferfish expanding its (forgive me) sphere of influence and developing any new display shapes?
SP: Absolutely. While the sphere remains our signature, the underlying PufferOS engine is shape-agnostic, most recently a bell for a client. If you can sketch it, we can simulate it in our sandbox, validate content workflows, and design custom enclosures to bring your ideas to life. That means integrators get one tool chain and one support team no matter the geometry, letting them dream beyond the globe without taking on additional risk. We don’t just work on hardware that we manufacture, our creative teams have real-world experience of developing both software and content for any existing or proposed canvas.
