Radical Galaxy Announces the Release of Ground Control

Radical Galaxy Announces the Release of Ground Control

Today, Radical Galaxy Studio, a real estate technology firm, announced the release of “Ground Control,” a cutting-edge content management system (CMS) intended to dramatically improve the real estate sales center experience.

Ground Control gives brokers the ability to navigate seamlessly between all the marketing content while remotely controlling the display. The user will have the ability to manage floor plans, unit information, exterior and interior renderings, virtual reality tours, drone photography, maps, videos and more from one easy-to-use application. One of the main features of the app is the ability to remotely control the camera view during a virtual reality tour.

“We are excited to announce the release of Ground Control,” said Matthew Shaffer, Managing Partner at Radical Galaxy Studio. “Today’s consumer expects a seamless, content rich presentation when visiting a sales or leasing center. We gathered and acted upon feedback from our clients and the real estate community to develop the new features and tools that became Ground Control.”

About Radical Galaxy:

Radical Galaxy Studio, LLC is a real estate technology firm with offices in Seattle and NYC that is pushing the boundaries of what can be done within the sales leasing processes.  Radical Galaxy has worked with industry leaders including Oxford Properties, Marriott, Cushman Wakefield and Hyatt Hotels.

 

Institutional Real Estate Inc. Video Series Featuring Bradley Snyder

Institutional Real Estate Inc. Video Series Featuring Bradley Snyder

Recently, Institutional Real Estate Inc. featured Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Radical Galaxy Studio, Bradley Snyder, in a video series highlighting advancements in PropTech and CREtech within the real estate industry. This video series is featured on Institutional Real Estate’s video podcast series called “In Focus”, located on their website and Facebook page.

In part one, Snyder gave insights into how the industry is evolving, particularly on the technology side. He related this to his own experience being on the owners’ side at Apollo Global Management along working at Eastdil Secured, where he saw the value of these emerging technologies first hand.

In part two, Snyder explained the how virtual and augmented reality can be implemented in various aspects of a new development. He discussed how virtual reality in particular can be used during the design, construction, and city council approval process because you have the ability to virtually walk through a property before it is even built. This saves time on making design and construction decisions, and money by preventing change orders as well as further unnecessary construction costs. Snyder went into detail about how virtual reality can help with raising capital for a development and can be used to pre-lease and sell space before it is even built.

If you want to see these videos, go on Institutional Real Estate’s website, click on video and podcasts, and click on the In Focus series featuring Bradley Snyder or use the following links Part 1 Part 2

PropTech firm Radical Galaxy wins VR/AR Award

PropTech firm Radical Galaxy wins VR/AR Award

Radical Galaxy Studio, a leading real estate technology firm with a focus on pushing the boundaries within real estate planning, pre-selling, design and leasing, was chosen as the first place winner for the 2018 TecHome Brilliance Award in Phoenix. The award recognizes the most innovative and cutting-edge companies that have played an integral role in advancing tech in the real estate industry.

Radical Galaxy was selected due to its ability to transform the design-build process for home building industry by eliminating painful, manual processes. Instead, home-builders and clients alike can walk through and even interact with the home even before it’s built, allowing better communications and decision making on everything from layouts to finishes.  Furthermore, Radical Galaxy’s virtual reality offerings can give users an interactive, game-like experience.  Beyond moving in, out, and around buildings, VR tools allow users to see how the light might change from day to night given the current window placements, review different floor plans and design options by swapping through options, and achieve the best living configurations by moving furniture around at the touch of a button.

Radical Galaxy was awarded on stage in front of industry professionals attending the TecHome Builders awards. The awards were open to any technology company servicing the home builder industry.

“We are honored to have been recognized as the best VR/AR firm within the real estate complex,” said Matthew Shaffer, Managing Partner and Co-founder at Radical Galaxy. “Radical Galaxy has a history of working with our clients to create solutions that address real challenges and improve their ROI.”

Virtual and Augmented Reality is Revolutionizing the Art Scene

Virtual and Augmented Reality is Revolutionizing the Art Scene

“The best use of digital is to not make you aware of the technology, but to make you aware of the art.” – Jane Alexander, chief information officer, Cleveland Museum

Art has been heavily ingrained in various cultures since the beginning of time. Humans have used different art forms to tell stories, express their thoughts and feelings and passed down historical and familial information to future generations. The art world has evolved greatly, since its early, primitive forms of cave drawings to the Renaissance Age and later, Modernism.

While the techniques and paintings themselves have changed, the way we view and showcase art hasn’t drastically progressed –until now. Art enthusiasts around the globe are starting to adopt virtual and augmented reality technology to reach wider audiences and as a tool to engage art lovers in a new and exciting way.

The art industry is worth a whopping $63.7 billion and its stakeholders are constantly thinking of creative ways to grow and advance it. Many experts within the art world feel that virtual and augmented reality are the next big thing in continuing to engage audiences and further grow this ever-developing industry. This blog will highlight several venues and artists who have embraced this technology into the way they’re approaching their exhibits, foreshadowing a new way to interact with art.

Examples of Virtual and Augmented Reality in Art

Jacob Koo of VRt Ventures partnered with the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) last year to bring the highly acclaimed Kerry James Marshall’s Mastry exhibition to life.

They created a VR experience using Samsung Gear headsets, enabling audiences to be transported into the exhibit. Users could walk through galleries at their own control and view every painting from any desired angle, at their own pace. The technology captured the lighting on the paintings and placement of those paintings, which are crucial elements of the artist’s vision. A feature showcased within the engaging experience was the inclusion of narrations of the artist’s inspiration of each piece and the backstory that surrounds it. Users could also download the experience to their PC or Mac to view without a headset.

The project was highly successful and garnered attention, enticing Koo to partner with another artist, Shepard Fairey, to bring his DAMAGED exhibition to the masses.

VRt created a VR and AR mobile app that allowed users to walk through the space from any location. The app also featured 100 minutes of narration from the artist himself. The experience is also available on VR headsets.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art experimented with AR in their museum by handing out iPhones to museum goers with AR technology to view surrealist painter Rene Magritte’s work. For those not familiar with this artist’s work, Magritte is famous for his paintings of rocks in clouds and of men sporting bowler hats.

The AR technology featured an interactive gallery that was filled with digital puzzles inspired by Magritte’s famous works of art. Guests were intrigued with the ability to, in a way, get inside the mind of the artist’s peculiar world by creating apples, bowler hats and pipes for other guests to find as they went through the museum. The museum is using this as a test run to explore more ways to make art relevant and modern. SFMOMA has stated they are looking to implement this technology in other ways, in the future.

Recently, the Moco Museum based in Amsterdam, Netherlands announced a new AR app they are releasing called ‘Moco Play.’ The free app, which is available for iOS and Android, has interactive digital content that overlays over a selection of the museum’s featured modern artworks. Visitors simply point their mobile devices at the artworks and it comes to life on their screen. Artist works that are featured on this app are Icy & Sot, Andy Warhol, Yayoi Kusama and Keith Haring, a modern artist known to push the envelope in the art world. This app launch comes after the museum recently celebrated its millionth visitor and presents a leap forward into innovation within the museum.

NeuroDigital, a company specializing on haptic sense in VR has collaborated with  Leontinka Foundation and the National Gallery of Prague on an exhibition called Touching Masterpieces. This exhibition aims to enable blind and visually impaired visitors “see” the objects on display despite not being able to actually view them with their own eyes. For this, three world famous sculptures – The Head of Nefertiti, Venus de Milo and David by Michelangelo –  have been recreated in the virtual world to allow those who wish to “see” the famous sculptures. With haptic gloves, they are able to “touch” the sculptures without damaging the real ones. The gloves have the ability to replicate how different materials can be touched, which makes users feel as though they are touching the real deal. Touching Masterpieces is “the first VR experience for the blind and visually impaired – not with a headset, but with a pair of gloves.”

A true masterpiece, at that.

Conclusion

Personal preferences aside, the value of art as an integral and omnipresent segment of society through the ages, cannot be denied. Art is celebrated across different cultures as a form of expression and a way to interpret and understand the past. By integrating modern technology with art, we are allowing a younger generation to get excited by and discover historically celebrated works that have been seen around over hundreds, if not thousands of years.

While reporting on attendance ratings in museums, Kelly Song, a correspondent from CNBC stated that “Museums are looking at the best attendance they’ve ever had, thanks to the way technology is revolutionizing the consumption of art. It’s allowing visitors to experience art in a new way, while bringing exhibits to others that may have never even set foot in the institution at all.”

This growing technology also has the potential to reach audiences that perhaps cannot travel to museums and educate them on the presented art pieces. The possibilities are endless and exhilarating. We’ll be sure to continue following this exciting new trend.

VR Technology in Tourism

VR Technology in Tourism

Tourism counts as a substantial moneymaker, when it comes to countries’ overall GDP. In fact, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, this industry directly accounts for 3.2% of the global economy as a whole.

Some countries, including Mexico, Jamaica, Greece and Croatia, are heavily reliant on the travel industry, as it is one of the most valuable chunk of their GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The Maldives, for instance, tourism is a whopping 39.6% of their total GDP. The British Virgin Islands are not that far, with 35.4% and Malta is the leading European country of the bunch, with 14.2% of GDP relying on tourism.

According to Statista, the tourism industry is predicted to contribute more than 2.6 trillion dollars by 2027 in the United States alone. The Department of Commerce has stated that international travel to the US should grow by 2.7%, per year, through 2022.

With these numbers are clearly painting a picture of a industry with a high, global impact, Virtual and Augmented Reality are stepping in to help create even more growth. Let’s examine the possibilities.

Virtual and Augmented Reality used for Planning a Dream Vacation 

In a true “try before you buy” fashion, Virtual Reality offers potential travelers a guided tour of a destination of interest, via immersive, 360 degree views. They feel like they’re “already there” and can make a decision on flight and hotel booking much faster, thus increasing sales in a shorter time frame. This is very good news for the travel industry, propelling VR as a cost effective marketing tool. Property Week stated that places with VR tours are ten times more likely to be clicked on those that do not provide them. They create more interest and traction to the users. In addition, an astounding statistic from Aardvark says that 92% of internet users say the ability to see a 360 degree panorama while searching the internet is essential when browsing online.

Consumers enjoy being able to see what they are buying, making it essential for travel agencies and hotels to provide this to their future clientele. This is backed by a Pew Internet Life Study that concluded “a site with a 360 virtual tour and interactive media will receive 40% more views than a competitor’s site that is lacking media.” This type of technology can also help bring traffic to less known travel destinations or bring in new travelers to some of the most beloved travel spots in the world. Some countries and cities who are already adopting this technology are London, Prague, Japan, New York, Paris and Singapore, to name a few.

It’s safe to say that the applications within the travel industry are endless with VR. And the payoff is considerable.

VR tours used by Travel Agencies

Proficient travel agents are utilizing VR as a way to build trust and simultaneously guarantee the best experience for their client. A good example of a travel agency doing this successfully is a partnership between Thomas Cook with Visualise, to bring VR experiences to ten of its stores, giving travelers a chance to win a trip to destinations like Greece and New York City. Using a Samsung Gear VR headset, users could tour various destinations from Thomas Cook stores.

This endeavor brought in £12 million in revenue with flight and hotel bookings. That garnered a 40% return on their investment.

On top of that bewildering return, they gained a 180% uptick on conversions from their New York visualization experience. Expedia has also revealed VR tours of their own after they found millennials are more risk averse than older generations and less likely to travel alone. They wanted to market to a younger generation while easing the minds of young travelers by offering VR tours of potential destinations.

Using VR for hotel bookings

Booking hotels is another aspect of the tourism industry where VR is used commonly. Hotels can offer immersive tours of their hotel rooms and amenities to allow potential clients an easier alternative of choosing a hotel rather than reading descriptions and scrolling through pictures, which can often be misleading.

A few examples of this are Dubai’s Atlantis Hotel, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts and Nobu Hotel in Las Vegas. These VR tours can be viewed via their web sites or through videos posted on social media outlets such as Instagram or Facebook. By posting on multiple social media outlets, they strive to increase their traffic and become viral. Within a competitive space such as the hotel industry, offering consumers VR or 360 degree tours can differentiate them from their competitors and lead to a better consumer experience. It is no surprise hotels are adopting VR technology into their marketing and sales strategies with undeniable statistics associated with using VR tours for their web site, marketing and sales efforts.

VR creates trust between customers and tour operators

Another trend that is gaining traction is using VR for sightseeing tours. When traveling, people are interested in seeing popular sights. Today, consumers want to get the best out of their travel experience by booking the right tours. VR can help by showing the consumer exactly what they are buying. Examples such as VR videos of diving in the Red Sea, snorkeling through the Great Barrier Reef and walking the historic Great Wall of China are just a few examples of how you can “try before you buy.” With customers going into the tour with expectations already in place, it will create a sense of trust when booking their tour with a specific company or person.

Conclusion

The use of VR is the realm of tourism is vast and varied. From travel agencies, to hotels and sightseeing tour operators, this revolutionary technology offers the ability to communicate with consumers in ways that words and pictures simply cannot. A number of experts within the travel industry say that VR will reach the status of a norm when it comes to booking and travelling across the globe. Research has shown that many companies are already adopting this technology to entice and excite potential clients and become more competitive.

With the statistics to back up the usefulness of this technology, VR may just become fully integrated in the business of travel and propel the industry to a more exciting and effective tomorrow.