LEST WE FORGET –  Milwaukee’s Music Scene Memorial, Turner Hall Ballroom, Milwaukee, WI

(IPad / iPhone version available.)

A concert is an event to be experienced. If it weren’t wouldn’t everyone just watch a convenient video or listen to a recording? Still photos can capture select moments and views. Video can show every moment and movement of a performance in its entirety. But to convey the look and feel of actually being there? 360VR does that best. It allows viewers to take control of the experience looking where they want when they want for as long as they want — just as if they were there in person, putting it all into context. All three media combined give the best of all worlds, of course, drawing on the strength of each.

If the experience of some place or event is a big part of its draw 360VR can be your best, most persuasive tool to convey that.

What about 360 video, you may wonder. That is just getting started and offers some exciting possibilities. We look forward to offering it in the future. The downside is bandwidth and computer power. In real world terms the viewer is limited to a significantly smaller, lower resolution experience than is possible with still 360VR. Of course, that trade-off will diminish over time as internet speeds and computer power increase.

The post Lest We Forget — a 360VR Virtual Concert Experience appeared first on Tour de Force 360 Blog.

Experience the mass protest rallies in Madison heard around the world.

(IPad / iPhone version available.)

If you ever wondered about the power of 360VR to convey the experience of a place or event, check out this Tour de Force of the protest rallies in Madison, Wisconsin that took place in February and March of 2011.

• Immerse yourself in this historic event through 360VR.
• See how these panoramas could be used in print and compare that to traditional still photography.

Still photos and video of the rallies where everywhere. They showed what was happening (mass protests against a bill from Governor Scott Walker and the Republican led legislature that would strip public unions of collective bargaining rights). But viewers remained outside observers. There was little sense of what it was like to actually be there. The experience and passion that participants shared ends up being a critical part of the story. It is simply missing in other media. 360VR lets viewers step into the image and experience the events for themselves.

Try viewing with and without sound. Notice the dramatic difference that makes.

These interactive panoramas added important context for viewers. For instance, the first image opens with a view looking down from the balcony level showing the capitol filled with protesters — the same shot shown time and again in all the news media. In the 360VR you pan from that overall view to come face to face with those around you. The impersonal mass becomes personal. The viewer is in control, free to look anywhere at will. With no question that something may be hidden “outside the frame” the 360VR gains stronger credibility than other media.

The primary goal was to document the experience of an important historical event. The secondary goal was to test publication in online news media. Self publication was never envisioned. Yet the demo site leaked out and with no promotion well over 100,000 people have viewed it, many coming back multiple times. Nearly 23 thousand have shared it on various social media.

Don’t miss how these 360 panoramas unwrap be used in print and compare that to traditional still photography.

The post Ground Zero — Madison, Wisconsin. appeared first on Tour de Force 360 Blog.

Formal Living Room at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin

(IPad / iPhone version available.)

The guided tour is a company’s highest value form of marketing, the one they are willing to spend the most per person because the results justify it. But by its very nature the number of people that can be reached is limited, by cost, by time, by capacity, by distance… until now. With our unique guided virtual tour you can reach prospective and current customers 24/7/365 anywhere on the globe. The results speak for themselves. (See below.)

Experience a guided 360VR Tour of Taliesin East

The center of Frank Lloyd Wright’s world was Taliesin East near Spring Green, Wisconsin. It was his home, workshop, architectural laboratory and inspiration for nearly all his life. Our international award winning Tour de Force, allows visitors from around the world to experience this place in ways only a personal visit could provide before. The response has been dramatic.

A Guided Tour where you are in control: This virtual visit introduces our powerful guided tour capability which is unique in the industry. If they want, visitors can sit back and be lead on the tour by a guide directing their attention to various aspects of a location, even augmenting the presentation with still images (or any media) to illustrate points. This is much like a physical tour or narrative video. Unlike either visitors are in control. They can move around to locations and topics of interest to them in any order they want. They can always drop out of the guided tour to explore on their own and “rejoin” the tour at any point. This becomes highly interactive and engaging and is proving quite intuitive. Try it out.

Move inside: A still photo may show a view of Wright’s design studio but you remain an outside observer without a sense of context. An immersive 360 image puts you inside the image, the space and to a degree inside Wright’s head. Experience what he saw daily, surrounded by Asian art, expansive views of Wisconsin’s rolling hills, his own courtyard gardens and a space to relax before a fire watched over by a portrait of his mother. See the actual drafting tables where Wright designed his most famous buildings while immersed in all this and you begin to feel how it reflected and influenced his design.

All the while staff historian Keiran Murphy shares the history, the personal stories and points out special objects in the room. Nothing surpasses the total experience short of being there in person. In some ways it is even better since you can easily return to any location seeing it in the light of what you saw since, each time noticing or understanding a little more.

See what physical visitors can’t: This tour includes a couple viewpoints not available to the general public. For instance, the Blue Loggia can’t be entered because foot traffic would damage the irreplaceable Chinese rug. Physical visitors never get inside, never gain that perspective, never see the balcony above. The virtual visitor has no limitation.

Purpose: Taliesin Preservation maintains the property and conducts tours there. For them this virtual tour is a teaser, showing some locations from each tour and sharing some of the background, insight and fascinating stories you experience while there. It makes Taliesin real in ways stills, video and print can’t. If viewers are at all interested their curiosity is piqued. For those who can visit in person that becomes more likely. The billions who could never visit can at least get some of that experience virtually and perhaps purchase books, videos or other items from the online store to take it further. In depth virtual tours could also be offered for a fee.

Effective: A MSN blog for realtors did an article about Taliesin’s centennial and accidentally linked to our version of the tour instead of Taliesin’s. The results proved fascinating. In the first 24 hours the tour drew over 13,000 unique visitors. More importantly the average stay was over eight minutes with a bounce rate of just 5%. That kind of “stickiness” to a web site is huge, more so considering these were actively engaged visitors. That is the power of 360VR done right.

Applications: Any time that taking someone on a personal guided tour would be advantageous our virtual guided tours are truly the next best thing. It can even be better than the “real thing” by allowing visitors access to places that few if any could go in person. Instead of a relatively few who can visit in person, the entire globe’s population can visit virtually whenever they want. And it lets visitors design and take a version of the tour or greatest interest to them.

For more specific examples check The 360VR Advantage.

Visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin.

The post Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin – A Guided 360 VR Virtual Tour appeared first on Tour de Force 360 Blog.

Experience Milwaukee’s July 3rd Lakefront Fireworks

(IPad / iPhone version now available.)

Immersive images are all about experiencing a place, and a fireworks display is definitely an experience! A Tour de Force brings it to life virtually. Bursts in front and behind you. Reflections in the water and windows. Bursts light up the crowd below. And don’t forget the sound. (Turn up your speakers.)

Still images can capture beautiful moments. Video can show events over time. But both are passive and singularly focused. The viewer remains an outsider. To experience an event or place–to get a sense of actually being there–you need to be in control, looking where and when you wish, seeing everything in context. Animating action and adding sound heighten the realism significantly.

A Tour de Force 360VR is unique in its ability to bring it all together, to actively engage the viewer. It is the next best thing to being there. You get the “best seat in the house” without battling massive crowds or worrying about the weather or parking. And of course that experience is available 24/7 worldwide.

Now ask yourself, does viewing this make you want to experience it in person more or less? Almost nobody will say less. Tour de Force 360VR is a very effective way to market as well as share.

Warning: With all the surrounding action this Tour de Force will really challenge some computers. If you are unsure try the SD (standard definition) version first. It could also take some seconds for the fireworks to appear. Fast computers with fast internet connections should have no problem, including in full screen.

Experience the Lakefront Fireworks.

The post Lakefront Fireworks, Milwaukee, a 360VR Experience appeared first on Tour de Force 360 Blog.

A basic facility tour, loads of people

Explore the Milwaukee Public Market

This is a basic facility tour of the Milwaukee Public Market. It demonstrates:

• How Scott Witte can shoot 360VR in situations filled with people.
• Multi-level floor plan with field of view “radar”.
• Ability to place elements such as maps, text, menus etc. outside the panorama image, giving a cleaner view of the image. In this case the map is moved back over the image in full screen mode but could easily have been left in a separate section off the image.

The post Milwaukee Public Market — A 360° Virtual Visit appeared first on Tour de Force 360 Blog.

A basic 360VR tour of the Residence Inn Milwaukee Downtown

Virtually Visit the Residence Inn Milwaukee

Housed in the renovated, historic Marshall Fields building, the Marriott Residence Inn Milwaukee Downtown blends old-world splendor with modern amenities. The all-suite rooms offer uniquely high ceilings and huge windows with spectacular vistas of the streets and river downtown.

These 360VR views represent our most basic production level. Still the highest quality HDR images but in just one size with no interface. These were simply plugged into Marriott’s standard hotel web site photo tour.

The tour as shown here has about the most basic interface we recommend: windowed plus full screen options with simple thumbnail navigation. Compare this with the standard hotel tour. You will immediately notice the greater impact full screen offers. Greater impact = greater results. Even franchise hotels have the option to produce their own, individual websites. Our full screen 360VR tour modules are easily added to your new or existing site. The interface and features can be set up any way you like.

A 2004 study by Radisson found that their “Hotels with a virtual tour achieved 135% increase in online revenue” resulting an average return on investment of “less than four weeks”. If increased revenue sounds good to you, give us a call. We would be thrilled to help. 414.345.9660

The post Residence Inn Milwaukee Downtown: A 360° Hotel Virtual Tour appeared first on Tour de Force 360 Blog.