Global consumer products maker Procter & Gamble was the first to take advantage of this new service.
THE CHALLENGE
The management of Procter & Gamble (P&G) had already experienced the benefits of product presentations in virtual reality at the Virtuplex, whose developers prepared 5 different virtual worlds to match the products they were presenting. Users could thus walk along a frozen Arctic landscape, an alpine setting, or a tropical rainforest. They encountered the specific product in each environment that it was meant to evoke. Using our wireless backpacks, they were able to freely move about a 600m2 virtual reality space, adding an extra dimension to the presentation and improving communication between P&G and its partners.
P&G then decided it wanted to facilitate this experience to its partners in Slovakia without the need to travel to Prague’s Horní Počernice neighbourhood, the location of the Virtuplex. We employed the innovative Virtuplex OS app that allows for remote access to the virtual environment from anywhere in the world as the basis of the presentation.
THE SOLUTION
Virtuplex developed an entirely new use of the Virtuplex OS cloud platform that allowed P&G’s partners in Slovakia to have the same experience without the need to travel to Prague.
STEP 1
Virtuplex developers began work on a way to transport the entire virtual scene to a meeting room in a hotel in the High Tatra Mountains where P&G gathered its partners to provide them with the virtual reality experience. The room measured 14m x 4m, and thus the virtual world had to be modelled to fit the space while including the key elements for each world to maximize the VR experience.
STEP 2
The next step was to create and define the visual maps that are crucial for the headset to correctly display them. This function allows the user to freely move about the space without running into walls and seeing the other individuals in the virtual space. Our developers used banners and tape on the floor as visual anchors, segmenting the space and setting the boundaries for safe movement. In the end, 4 people were able to move about the scene at one time.
STEP 3
Finally, we had to assure a stable internet connection at the site and completely manage the
space from the initial set-up, the use of the backpacks and headsets, to the final clean-up.
“This project for Procter & Gamble launched an entirely new service that we can now offer our clients. We are now able to present a project that was only possible in our space in where, in any space (10m x 10m is recommended). This space is ideal for those that want to show a key project to investors in a remote location that cannot travel to our space,” Virtuplex’s Lenka Kriššáková said.
CLIENT FEEDBACK
“The effectiveness of the solution was not diminished by the product presentation taking place in a smaller space. The ability to take a few steps in the virtual world is incomparable with mere teleportation from one point to another. Our partners were extremely impressed. Over 2 days, we were able to present to more than 50 people. We see immense potential for this in preparing product presentations in other countries as well,” P&G Marketing Director Barbora Líška Kratochvílová said.
