How Virtual Tours Could Benefit Your Business

Do you have a retail store, hotel, B&B, property development company or any other business, and are looking to stand apart from your competitors and rank high on Google Search (SERP)? Have you considered how much more likely your business would be chosen as the preferred brand, if potential customers actually knew about the quality of your service and got to experience it (see it, feel it, and enjoy it) before they committed to visiting your establishment in person. Thanks to virtual reality technology, it is now possible.

Increase Interest in Your Business Using Virtual Tours

A Google study revealed that, of those who are considering a tour (particularly in the age group, 18-34), prospects are a 130% more likely to book if they view a listing with a virtual tour. Prospects are twice as likely to have interest in booking a reservation if they view a listing with a virtual tour, reports Google.

Virtual tours offer the perfect solution to communicate physical spaces. They are able to capture entire environments in a way that was previously impossible using tradition photography. This means that we can now deliver the experience of a space to anyone with a computer screen.

The value and uniqueness of 360° video and photography is its interactivity quality. Whereas still photographs or video offer an experience that is passive, a 360° Virtual Tour transports the audience to the centre of any chosen location and allows them to explore the scene (at their own discretion and pace) in its entirety and in detail.

Get Noticed on Google Search

There is an abundance of information that resides on the web and there are many listings. It can be difficult for users to decipher which information and content they can trust and audiences often demand to be convinced of the value of a service and product, before they actually get to physically experience it. Using Google Street View Trusted tours, you allow web users to explore your business premises and get a feel of your service offering before they actually experience it. This could help your business stand apart from your competitors and improve your ranking on the most popular search engine.

Authorized Google Trusted Photographers produce Street View Trusted tours, expertly photographing, editing and then integrating a virtual showcase of your business into Google. These immersive 360° virtual tours give your brand a competitive edge and potential consumers get to have a visual and experiential idea of what your business is about and what it could offer them.

Street View Trusted tours are embedded within Google Knowledge Graphs. You may have not heard the term, “Google Knowledge Graph” before but you have certainly come across it when searching for a local business. In May 2012, Google updated its search algorithm. Since then, a box has been displayed on the right of search results to communicate local business information. If one searches for your business (using the brand name), they are presented with relevant business information such as location, contact details and photographs. If your business uses Street View Trusted, web users will get the “see inside” added option.

With the added option to enhance your Google Knowledge Graph (and your free local business listing within Google Search) using Street View Trusted, you are extending your brand reach by letting potential cliental experience your service and have 24/7 access to the value your business could deliver them. Humans tend to be visually inclined, which means that you have an increased chance of converting prospects into clients if you offer them visual access to the value of your business and service offering.

How Much Will a Virtual Tour Cost You and Your Business?

The production of virtual tours is relatively inexpensive and the value they could mean for your business is considerable. The cost of virtual tours can vary from business to business, they are based on factors such as, the size of your business and the areas you wish to include in the virtual tour. You pay a one-time fee for the photoshoot and publishing of your 360° virtual tour and there are no further additional charges related to the tour.

Compatible with Google Cardboard

The Google Cardboard VR platforms offers an immersive experience for users. Street View Trusted tours are compatible with Google Cardboard and allow you to showcase your business premises in virtual reality through smartphones, using either Google Maps or Google Street View apps, which are available for both Android or iOS devices.

Users of the technology are able to explore the surroundings by simply moving their heads and they can use their own smartphone devices’ Near Field Communication to physically explore a space by walking around. Google Cardboard offers a simple and inexpensive way to experience virtual reality and it is the next best thing to being there.

How Virtual Tours Could Benefit Your Business

Virtual Reality Headsets for Hire for events

 

The Virtual Reality company is South Africa’s number one virtual reality headsets hire company. We are the South African specialist providers of virtual reality equipment and virtual reality headsets for corporate events, trade shows, product launches and virtual reality parties. Our Virtual Reality headset stock currently includes Samsung Gear VR Headsets, the VR Case and VR Box virtual reality headsets. The all-in-one Android virtual reality headset. Currently we do not have the Oculus Rift and HTC virtual reality headsets but are planning to include these soon.

We also have earphones and virtual reality controllers for hire. We are not just a leading virtual reality equipment hire company but can also offer Virtual Reality 360° video solutions, driving simulators, virtual reality software development & bespoke virtual reality event solutions. If you need a company from where you can not only rent virtual reality headsets and cameras but also looking for the technical expertise to assist with the Virtual Reality Headsets rental.

Virtual Reality Headsets for Hire for events

360 Video Producers South Africa

360 Video Producers South Africa

Live 360° Video and Virtual Reality Events

Add Value to Live Events Using Virtual Reality

The resolute growth and increasing popularity of virtual reality is geared to have a trans-formative impact on the events industry. It offers a unique experience that goes beyond attending a live concert, show or sports game – virtual reality technology provides an incomparable alternative for live entertainment enthusiasts everywhere.

Impact of Virtual Reality on Events Industry

Virtual reality media has a considerable upper-hand over tradition media that we have grown accustomed to. The type of experience offered by virtual reality is an essential component of exceptional events, and because the technology is still new (to the mainstream) and a novelty, which a lot of people are curious and excited to experience, it has holds the potential of galvanizing the events industry. Creating a 360°perspective – capturing an event from many angles – translates to an exceptional experience, eliciting different responses and emotions as the audience gets to experience an event from new angles. Streaming 360° also presents an opportunity for staging products and brands.

How Event Organizers Can Benefit from VR Technology

As one would expect. virtual reality means an incredible space advantage for organisers. Using VR, you can make a space appear much larger than it actually is. A single meter squared could appear as an entire arena. This is a significant consideration especially for trade fairs and road shows. Virtual reality is highly publicised in media presently, making it very popular with audiences in many market segments, which means it can be very effective in PR and viral campaigns.

The Best Seat in the House

Virtual reality doesn’t physically transport you to an event, but suspends your perception of reality – convincing you that you are part of the event experience. There are only so many front row seats available for a particular sporting event or concert, and when one also takes in to account the increasing prices of tickets, virtual reality offers is a welcome alternative. Using virtual reality, more fans get to enjoy the front row experience. The 360° technology offers an experience and view, which being physically in the audience could never buy. Cameras are placed in locations beyond a front row experience (i.e. behind the goal post, on stage, etc.), which translates to a unique experience for the viewer that cannot be compared to anything but reality itself.

VR Used for Concerts

In 2014 NextVR released a Coldplay concert in VR that could be viewed using the Samsung Gear VR headset, proving the value of virtual reality in other areas besides just gaming.

NextVR worked with Coldplay in London to develop the VR concert concept as a cutting edge experience for both fans who were at the event and wanted to experience it again and those who were not able to make it to the concert

The Laguna Beach, California based technology company shot the entire concert in VR and a clip of the first song, A Sky Full of Stars, was made available via the NextVR app, which was accessed in conjunction with the release of Samsung Gear VR headsets. Fans of the band, and all those who are curious about virtual reality movement, were able to playback the concert as a virtual reality experience. In this way, fans had a hyper-reality experience that was intended to be better than being in the audience. Through the use of VR, audience were put right in the middle of the action, as if they were on the stage with the band members.

According to NextVR the concert film was the first ever broadcast quality VR experience. The trend of broadcast virtual reality experience has not slowed down since. VR has grown to become even more popular, and its uses and possible application are pushing boundaries and placing the technology in a position in which it could completely revolutionise a number of industries and how we experience live events.

https://youtu.be/VIsKpx4XkzI

VR Used for Sporting Events

Virtual reality technology has also been used in sporting events to improve the audience’s experience. There are available systems that allow sports spectators to walk around a stadium or other sporting location. This helps them when purchasing a ticket to an event.

You also get virtual reality games that have a sports theme which allow for players to be actively involved in competitions. For instance, you get an interactive football game that projects a match (that a players are competing in) onto a real world surface.

The Future Use of VR in Events Planning

In the next few years, we could see virtual reality being firmly established in the events industry. As the technology continues to improve and virtual reality content becomes readily available to the audiences, virtual reality will continue to redefine how content is consumed. Virtual reality technology also presents an opportunity to attract new audience attention as there are relatively simple and affordable options that deliver the virtual experience, such as the Google Cardboard.  Virtual reality will mean that fans have the opportunity to make their dreams come to true. For those who are unable to make it to an event, for whatever reason, they will still get to experience the festivity.

Live 360° Video and Virtual Reality Events

Virtual Reality games is going to change gaming forever

Today I was browsing the internet and I stumbled across a video “TOP Realistic Graphics Next Gen Most Anticipated Games 2016”. At the time the video received more than 2.4 million views on YouTube and I thought it must be good.

I watched the video and was amazed at how awesome the games are going to be that will likely be released in the last part of 2016. Computer games have come a long way from games like Packman, Tank, Asteroids, Command and Conquer, Quake and Tomb Raider 1.

The graphics in games are becoming increasingly real, and watching it on a flat screen is almost unbelievably real.

The Best Games coming in 2016

Watch the video and tell me it is not awesome, and that you are not looking forward to these games.

https://youtu.be/2ya4d9kaW6I

Virtual Reality and Games

The above “Best Games coming in 2016” is making me really excited especially when I think of these games combined with Virtual Reality. Roughly in 1995 I got my first phone and the phone was huge and pretty much all the phone could do was call. Then some phones I think Nokia came out with a game “Snake” on the mobile phone, and it was awesome. Fast-forwarding to 2016 and the phone was crap compared to the phones that you get today.

The Smartphone have made so many advances in the past 21 years it is just amazing to look back at the smartphones of 1995 and comparing it with the smartphones of today. I earlier this year saw a presentation on technologies, gadgets and traditional devices that smartphones made absolute.

https://youtu.be/HCowytZ0qV4

The best part of the presentation for me on technologies and gadgets replaced by smartphones was the capture at the end of the presentation which said “This is only the beginning”.

This got me thinking, about Virtual Reality Games and where the Best Games of today is going to be in 21 years from now, if VR have the same development curve as smartphones had. Unlike the past when virtual reality failed simply because VR was expensive, and the technology of the time did not allow us to view Virtual Reality at ultra-resolutions like HD, 4K and 8K. Fir the first time in our history we have the opportunity to experience computer generated content so real that when you are immersed into the Virtual Reality world, your brain would not be able to distinguish between what is real, and what is computer generated.

Some people might think that it is just a dream, to create VR Content so real that it would be hard to believe that it is not real. Again, think about where the technology is going to be in a 100 years from now, maybe 200 years, maybe 300 years. Virtual Reality have time on its side, and each year as tech becomes more powerful than before virtual reality is going to become more real than life itself.

The awesomeness about Virtual Reality is that we can immerse ourselves in the blink of an eye, into gaming environments that are not real, but seems real. We can jump from game to game, world to world and place to place like teleportation in old classic TV Series like Star Trek. In the VR world we can be ordinary or we could have super powers like batman or superman. We could experience stuff in VR that one would not be able to experience in a full lifetime.

VR is going to revolutionize everything that we know. In a 100 years from now, technology is going to be so much more advanced than it is today. We all might soon choose to connect to a machine as in the movie Matrix and become fully immersed into VR Environments being kept alive by machines.

Check out this Awesome Realistic Virtual Reality Game RiftCycles Project

https://youtu.be/_gKcNau57jQ

This is a stunning and unique arcade prototype that combines the Oculus Rift with a Light Cycles simulator that I built from scratch. (Someone already build it in 2014 – and more extraordinary someone just like you or me!) – I again stand amazed at how, Google, the internet, smartphones and access to information have changed the world… I can only imagine where we will be in a 100 years from now!

Virtual Reality games is going to change gaming forever

Business Connextion Data Center 360° Video and Virtual Tour

Business Connextion Data Center 360° Video and Virtual Tour

Jaguar Simola Hillclimb 360 Video Knysna South Africa

Jaguar Simola Hillclimb 360 Video Knysna South Africa

Groot FM 90.5 Radio Station 360° Video

Groot FM 90.5 Radio Station 360° Video

Markex 360 Videos - Sandton Convention Center

Markex 360 Videos - Sandton Convention Center

Markex 2016 Sandton Convention Center 360 Video

Markex 2016 draws in the crowds

JOHANNESBURG – July 07, 2015 –Thousands of visitors braved the cold in Sandton, Johannesburg yesterday, ensuring their entrance to the opening day of Markex 2016, the targeted promotional product expo. Markex is running from 6 to 7 July 2016 at the Sandton Convention Centre.

The bustling, colourful hall was a hive of activity, with thousands of resellers and corporate buyers gathering information on the latest innovations within the promotional goods industry. The Markex free-to-attend seminar theatre, which featured topics including “Changes in the marketing mix – what does the merging of technology and marketing mean for marketers?” and “How to run a small business – 10 tips for a strong and lasting start”, was packed to capacity, with eager attendees even sitting on the floor outside to ensure that they didn’t miss out.

Specialised Exhibitions Montgomery also used the 2016 show to launch the newest addition to its expo portfolio, Madex 2017, which will be collocated with next year’s Markex show. Markex 2017 will become a purely promotional, invite-only trade event, while Madex will appeal to the broader marketing field with a strong focus on intelligent, relevant content, featuring the best in South Africa’s advertising, design, digital and social media, direct marketing, public relations, events sectors, amongst others.

Markex 2016, now in its 29th year, features more than 140 exhibitors, showcasing products and services ranging from apparel, mobile technology and notebooks to drinkware and writing instruments. The expo opens today at 9am and runs through until 5pm.

360 Video Markex Sandton Convention Center

We visited the show to see what the show is about and recorded some of it in 360° video. You can watch the 360 videos below or on the Virtual Reality YouTube channel, or using  your virtual reality headset or Google Cardboard device to immerse yourself into the Sandton Convention center and Markex event.

https://youtu.be/mtMItvukU1k

Markex 2016 Sandton Convention Center 360 Video

Google Cardboard Branded for South African Businesses

We have recently sold quite a few Google Cardboard virtual reality headsets to South African Businesses. At the last count we have sold more than 15 000 Google Cardboard VR Headsets. The companies whom have bought the Google Cardboard mostly use it as corporate gifts to clients or as part of their own Virtual Reality and 360° video experiences.

The Business Connextion Virtual Reality Experience

We created the Business Connextion Virtual Reality Experience for the Business Connextion. The virtual tour offers viewers the opportunity to explore the infrastructure behind the business connextion and allow visitors to walk through the datacentre of the Business Connextion.

We also assisted Business Connextion with the activation of their Virtual Reality experience at the Mybroadband Cloud and Hosting event which was held at the Gallager Estate on the 25^th of May 2016.

During the expo Business Connextion handed out several hundred complimentary Google Cardboard headsets to visitors to their stand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbF7YCzjtKg

Custom Branded Google Cardboard Virtual Reality Glasses

 

Google Cardboard Branded for South African Businesses

Experience Rio Olympics 2016 in Virtual Reality with Google Cardboard

The imminent Rio Summer Olympic games are set to kick-off in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this coming August. Despite longing to be in the midst of the leading international sporting event, the reality is that most of us won’t get a chance to experience Rio Olympics 2016 live. However, technology offers a hyper-reality alternative for spectators to get a futuristic experience that promises to be almost indistinguishable from the reality of being a part of the Olympic games this year, through the use Virtual Reality.

The reality of Virtual Reality in sports broadcast

Professional sport has remained at the forefront of virtual reality and augmented reality – demonstrated by the virtual first-down line and the early hockey puck glow. The future of sports is tied with the reality of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. Sports spectators will soon be able to experience the thrill of live sporting events from almost anywhere, making the celebrated High Definition technology of today seem antiquated in comparison. Athletes will also benefit from the advanced analytics and improved training experiences as they will be able to recreate real life situation during practice.

While Caster Semenya will be competing to be the fastest middle-runner and Chad Le Clos will seek to realise his ambition of being the fastest swimmer in the pool, another competition will be taking place outside the Olympics arena. This year’s Olympics will also be a platform for the ultimate test of the viability of Virtual Reality and how effective (and realistic) it is in sports broadcasting in the current day-and-age.

NBC will offer Virtual Reality broadcast of Rio Olympics

This past week, NBC announced that it would be providing a total of 85 hours of broadcast of the Rio Olympic games in Virtual Reality. The broadcast television network has partnered with technology giant, Samsung to make this a reality for sports fans around the world. Users of Samsung Galaxy smartphones and the Samsung Gear Virtual Reality headset will be able to experience both the opening and closing ceremonies and a host of other events, including the finals and semi-final matches of the men’s basketball, gymnastics, beach volleyball, boxing, fencing, track and field, and diving in 360 degrees, with full control over which direction to look as though you were there in the heart of the action.

NBC is set to also release Virtual Reality highlight packages for the listed sporting events. The VR footage will be filmed by the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), a unit conceived by the International Olympics Committee to serve as the Host Broadcaster for all the Olympic games, providing video feeds to international broadcasters. The videos will not be livestreamed however, instead events will be presented on delay. The opening ceremony is set to be available for VR the day after the actual event. Delaying the footage makes sense to ensure that the outcome is up to par high quality standard. Despite this, the Virtual Reality (360 degree) Rio Olympic 2016 events will be a worthwhile once in a lifetime experience.

Be a part of the action in the Virtual Reality Olympics

Samsung is the Worldwide Olympic Partner in the Wireless Communications Equipment category. The partnership with Samsung means that in order to view the Rio Olympics in Virtual Reality, you will need the Samsung Gear VR mobile headset, a compatible smartphone – including, the Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 – and you will be required to download the NBC Sports App.

Despite the collaboration between Samsung and Oculus, there hasn’t been any indication that Oculus Rift users will be offered the same experience.

The Gear Virtual Reality Experience

In 2014, Samsung announced that they were collaborating with Oculus VR (a virtual reality stat-up owned by Facebook) to develop a virtual reality headset that would allow for Virtual Reality interaction for flagship smartphones manufactured by the global leading company. The Samsung Gear VR was unveiled at a press conference in Berlin, Germany. In November 2015, the Samsung Gear VR was officially released, making Samsung one of the first to market with the virtual reality headset and the first to garner mainstream attention.

The headset is able to support below 20ms Motion to Photon (MTP) latency. The Gear VR unit acts as the controller while the (compatible) smartphone device functions as the headset’s display and processor. The Gear VR is equipped with a custom-built inertial measurement unit (IMU) that connects to the mobile device through micro-USB and allows for rotational tracking.

To download content- such as revolutionary games and VR experiences – for the Samsung Gear VR, the main facility is Oculus. The Oculus website also serves as the main line for software distribution on the Gear VR.

The future of sports broadcast in Virtual Reality

The broadcast of the Rio Olympic sporting events in Virtual Reality is an important step in the right direction for the technology which has promised to change the way audiences experience content for some time. Sports and technology enthusiast will finally get a chance to witness the potential effectiveness of VR in live sport broadcast this year.

Experience Rio Olympics 2016 in Virtual Reality with Google Cardboard

PlayStation VR South African Release

Back in 2014, Sony claimed the center of attention in the information superhighway (the internet) when they announced that they had been working on a project known as Project Morpheus for over three years. It was later revealed that Project Morpheus was the code name for what would be known as the PlayStation VR – a Virtual Reality gaming head mounted display. Unlike HTC Vive and Oculus Rift at the time, the PlayStation Virtual Reality didn’t rely on a high-end gaming PC to operate but instead would be powered by the PlayStation 4. Over two years on and South African fans (and the world over) of the popular home video console can start to celebrate. It was officially announced that the PlayStation VR headset would be available for purchase from October 13^th this year. This will make it the very first dedicated gaming VR headset to be available in local retailers.

PlayStation Virtual Reality Design and Hardware _ What to look forward to from the PlayStation VR

The final version of the PlayStation VR headset was showcased at the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) 2016 in San Francisco, California. The PlayStation VR promises to deliver specs that would leave any gamer salivating at the idea of getting their hands on the headset. It has a 14.5 cm 1920×1080 full high definition OLED display, which translated to 960×1080 for each eye. The exceptional display plus a 100-degree field of view and a 18ms response time will mean the users will have an experience that is virtually indistinguishable from reality, promises Sony CEO, Andrew House.

The Virtual Reality headset (by Sony Interactive Entertainment) features a refresh rate of 120Hz, granting it the capability to render games at 120fps, conspicuously surpassing the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive’s offering of 90Hz. According to Sony, the PlayStation VR will deliver incredibly “smooth visuals”. What the techno giant neglected to make apparent however is that the Virtual Reality headset will not be solely powered by the PlayStation 4. Owners of the PS4 who want to add Virtual Reality to their gaming experience will have to clear space for an accompanying box that’ll connect to the PS4, providing additional power for the Virtual Reality headset. The add-on box will also allow your friends, family and anyone around a view of what is going on inside the headset as you play, through a ‘standard’ output that connects to your TV when you are playing a ‘regular’ PS4 game.

PlayStation VR Games

In 2009, Marc Flury (from Drool) and Brand Gibson teamed up to create a rhythm violence game called Thumper. On the 29^th of June this year, it was announced that the game would be launched alongside PlayStation VR in October. Thumper is compatible in both ultra-glossy 2D and fully immersive VR.

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3 2016), Sony announced a bundle of triple A titles that are poised to receive a PlayStation VR treatment. These included, Resident Evil VII: Biohazard, Batman Arkham VR and Star Wars Battlefront: X-Wing Mission. These add to the list of PlayStation VR demos from the TGS (Tokyo Games Show). The list included, Final Fantasy XIV, Hatsune Miku VR: Future Live, Cyber Danganronpa VR: Class Trial and Summer Lesson.

There are over fifty games that set to be released for the PlayStation VR between the launch date in October and the end of the year. Sony did however turn to their in-house design studios to make certain that five games were ready on the launch day for gamers to take home with their brand new PlayStation VR. The games include, PS VR Worlds (a raft of five mini games developed by Sony’s London studio), Rigs from Guerrilla Cambridge, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, Tumble VR, and Super Stardust.

PlayStation VR Accessories

Play Station Move Batons

To interact with the virtual world, you will need to use a DualShock 4 controller, but this isn’t the only gateway to VR interactivity. Sony plans to revive the PlayStation Move Batons, which were accessories from earlier motion-control systems from the glory days of PS3 that had been written off by many. Instead of using conventional button presses, the Batons allow players a more immersive and interactive experience (compared to a DualShock 4 controller) through the motion of gestures to control both the characters and the environments.

PlayStation VR Aim Controller

During the E3 2016 press conference, Sony also unveiled the PlayStation VR Aim Controller. The Aim Controller will allow players to aim and take fire in the immersive world. The accessory will be compatible with the new indie FPS title (and PlayStation VR exclusive) Farpoint. The game promises to be an unsettling space odyssey set on an antagonistic alien world.

Regardless of the simplistic, minimalist design, the PlayStation VR Aim controller possesses the same buttons as a DualShock 4 controller. This includes the X, O, ∆ (triangle) and □ (square) buttons -to provide players the same functionality they would have with a traditional controller – and additionally, two triggers, two analogue sticks, a button that emulates the Touch Pad, a D-pad, two bumpers and the Share and Options buttons.

 

PlayStation VR South African Release