I kept checking the Steorn forums from time to time on Friday. Around noon the news came out, Steorn is calling off its show of the Orbo at the Kinetica Museum.
Further to Steorn’s announcement yesterday (5th July) regarding the technical difficulties experienced during the installation of its “Orbo” technology at the Kinentica Museum in London, Steorn has decided to postpone the demonstration until further notice.
Sean McCarthy CEO stated that “technical problems arose during the installation of the demonstration unit in the display case on Wednesday evening. These problems were primarily due to excessive heat from the lighting in the main display area. Attempts to replace those parts affected by the heat led to further failures and as a result we have to postpone the public demonstration until a future date.”
He continued that “we apologise for the inconvenience caused to all the people who had made arrangements to visit the demonstration or were planning on viewing the demonstration online.”
Over the next few weeks the company will explore alternative dates for the public demonstration.
This is disappointing, baffling and interesting all at the same time. On one hand, this is starting to look like familiar fraud scenarios, where ‘technical problems’ are always used as excuses to delay an real world showing of the promised stuff. On the other hand it is amazing how Steorn did not even have a ‘backup’ strategy. They looked pretty incompetent. It is hard to believe a company with all this attention focused on it would handle a pubic demo so badly!!
On the other hand, they got the large sections of the net buzzing. Even New Scientist blogged the story this time. Is it another publicity stunt by Steorn?
The mood among the ‘Steorn believers’ can be probably summed up in tow words: confusion and disillusion, although some are still saying “hey, sh*t happens. Steorn will still come through with the goods.”
The skeptics are having the biggest field day ever.
Comments
2 responses to “Steorn cancels show: huge disappointment or another stunt?”
whatever it is, if it can’t stand “heat from the lighting” it seems a long way off from being able to power cellphones, cars, etc.
Even worse “Attempts to replace those parts affected by the heat led to further failures …” Is the Orbo technology using spider web!!