InformAR Teaches Customers to Build Immersive 3D Experiences with Matterport Digital Twins
Matterport reseller and virtual reality firm helps customers collaborate remotely, reduce costs and maintenance times, and differentiate themselves in competitive markets
InformAR, a sister company of Dutch IT services provider Vitasys, specializes in virtual and augmented reality. As an official Matterport, Inc. reseller, it not only sells Matterport Pro2 and Leica BLK360 cameras, it also trains its corporate and small business customers on how to use them.
Both cameras capture indoor and outdoor spaces in immersive 3D at 4k resolution, resulting in a digital twin that anyone can navigate on their own using a mobile device, a desktop or laptop computer, or a virtual reality headset. Digital twins can also include embedded Mattertags that surface additional text, photos, audio, or video when clicked.
While many InformAR customers are photographers and real estate agents, the company also works with large enterprises including KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Damen Shipyards.
Providing a Total Solution
“We’re not a store,” says Jasper van der Klooster, Account Manager at InformAR. “We believe in providing a total solution, so we train and consult with our customers to give them the confidence they need to use Matterport’s 3D technology and get the most out of it.”
In that spirit, InformAR also works with Matterport Platform Partners such as Treedis, ViewAR, and Superviz to offer developer services using Matterport SDKs and APIs to create additional capabilities and customized add-ons. “Matterport is extremely valuable on its own,” van der Klooster says, “but it’s even more valuable if you build on it with software from those partners. We also advise clients with construction projects about leveraging Matterport for Matterpaks, schematic floor plans, point cloud files, and BIM files.”
One InformAR customer, Goudzwaard Makelaardij, sells luxury homes that sell for a million euros and up. It uses Matterport to differentiate its luxury real estate marketing strategy in a competitive market and won’t list any houses without including a Matterport virtual tour based on a digital twin so that prospective buyers can see what a house looks like before booking an in-person visit. Van der Klooster trained the realty firm’s in-house team to capture properties themselves so they don’t have to outsource the job to somebody else.
“With Matterport digital twins, shipbuilding teams on opposite ends of Europe can virtually walk through each compartment, examine the layout and the location of each piece of equipment, and request whatever changes are needed. After a design is finalized, they can share the digital twin internally and help crewmembers familiarize themselves with the layout and capabilities in advance.”
—Jasper van der Klooster, Account Manager, InformAR
Reducing Costs and Maintenance Times
InformAR also worked with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and helped the company use Matterport digital twins to reduce its costs, its property maintenance times, and its carbon footprint. The airline captured more than a hundred digital twins of its aircraft inside and out and included them in its fleet asset management documentation. Pilots on the tarmac can collaborate remotely with engineers in the operations center to pinpoint issues, and crews can familiarize themselves with new planes in advance, increasing their efficiency by 30 percent.
“KLM also uses Matterport to improve communication between pilots and people on the ground,” van der Klooster says. “When they talk about sensors, gauges, buttons, and so on, everyone can see exactly what they’re talking about even if they’re thousands of kilometers away from each other.”
Facilitating Remote Communication and Collaboration
Inform AR doesn’t have a retail storefront, but it does have a demo room in the office. Some customers are happy to see remote demos since they cut down on travel time and expenses and are easier to schedule. Others like to come into the office, and some want InformAR to visit their location for hands-on demonstrations in real-world scenarios.
“I visited Damen Shipyards in person because they wanted a more personal approach," van der Klooster says. “I showed them how Matterport cameras work, and together we made a practice digital twin of a ship right there on the spot. When I showed them how to use the editing tools for the digital twin we’d just created, they were sold.”
Damen Shipyards, like InformAR, is based in the Netherlands, but the shipbuilding itself takes place in facilities around the world, including Romania and Turkey. Everything comes together at a later stage, and in the meantime, the company captures progress at each location, facilitating remote communication and collaboration and reducing travel time, travel costs, and CO2 emissions.
“With Matterport digital twins, shipbuilding teams on opposite ends of Europe can virtually walk through each compartment, examine the layout and the location of each piece of equipment, and request whatever changes are needed,” van der Klooster says. “After a design is finalized, they can share the digital twin internally and help crewmembers familiarize themselves with the layout and capabilities in advance.”
A Platform That’s Here to Stay
A lot of companies are finding business value with digital twins and Matterport’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for web-enabled devices. “It adds so much value for presentations, communication, marketing, and remote collaboration when people on opposite sides of the world can have a conversation inside the same 3D space.
Van der Klooster sees the metaverse as the natural evolution from 2D content on the web to 3D content on the web. “In the future, most of the internet will be in 3D, with nearly every company having a 3D showroom of their products and wares on their website,” he says. “I expect that we’ll see digital twins everywhere, both on the 3D web and in the metaverse.”
RESULTS
Offers personalized service to corporate and small business buyers of 3D cameras as an official Matterport reseller
Provides training on best practices for capturing digital twins with 3D cameras
Educates customers on how to use the Matterport platform online, including the use of built-in software features like Mattertags
Advises customers on advanced capabilities possible by working with Matterport Platform Partners that develop add-ons with Matterport SDKs and APIs
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