Archive for the ‘Architecture and Interior Design’ Category

Warner Grand Theatre and the MSO

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and their architect, Kahler Slater, had a challenge: The MSO’s dream of converting the magnificent art deco Warner Grand Theatre into their new home was finally coming together. They wanted to show off the space to the public, and new or potential funders, but decades of being vacant meant the theater wasn’t safe for the general public.

The surest way to show funders the potential would be to have them experience the space for themselves. But getting them to make the time and effort, plus jumping through the safety and legal hoops to visit in person was difficult. Photos and video helped but had a fraction of the impact of being there.

Then Kahler Slater had an idea. What if people could visit virtually? And not just a 360 virtual tour on a computer, but an immersive VR headset experience? That is where Tour de Force 360VR came in!

Shooting the space was a challenge. Much of the lighting and electrical system no longer functioned. A team from Kahler Slater, led by project architect Chris Ludwig, and Tour de Force 360VR brought in lighting and hundreds of feet of extension cord to bring the massive interior to life and accent some of its best architectural elements. After applying our High Dynamic Range imaging methods, you could actually see more detail through our images than in person with your naked eye.

The VR experience premiered during Night Market, a festival/street market where Wisconsin Avenue is shut to traffic, and thousands of people enjoy an evening of events, food, and shopping. Kahler Slater set up an event space outside the theater’s entrance where people could learn about the MSO’s plans and explore the interior virtually. “Oh wow. I’ve never seen anything like this,” was a common reaction. Experience that in the 360 video at left.

But perhaps the biggest impact came with bringing current and potential funders and other interested parties to the theater…virtually, in their offices or homes, no matter the time or where they were.

If you can, check out the tour using a web browser in a VR headset — anything from a simple Google Cardboard, Daydream, or Gear VR player using a phone to more advanced headsets from Oculus, HTC, and others. Or, using a phone or tablet, click the gyro button turning your device into a virtual window. Move it around to look anywhere.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin – A Guided 360 VR Virtual Tour

Sunday, May 15th, 2011

Formal Living Room at Frank Lloyd Wrights Taliesin

Formal Living Room at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin

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 led 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.

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Milwaukee Public Market — A 360° Virtual Visit

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

Milwaukee Public Market

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.

Hotel 360° Virtual Tour

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

A basic hotel virtual tour

A basic hotel virtual tour

Virtually Visit This Hotel

Housed in the renovated, historic Marshall Fields building, this hotel in downtown Milwaukee 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.

This virtual tour represents our most basic production level. Still the highest quality HDR images but with a minimal interface: windowed plus full screen options with simple thumbnail navigation. 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 2016 study by Google found that when hotels offered  a 360 virtual tour it doubled web visitors’ interest in booking a room there. If you want the best results we would be thrilled to help. 414.345.9660