Galactica Supernova

Galactica Super Nova

Delivered in September 2016 for Heesen and Van Berge Henegouwen by 360virtualyachts.com

The Monaco Yacht Show 2016 was coming up and what could be better than providing the visitors an opportunity to experience being on Heesen’s superyacht.

Idea Stage:

“Engage people in the luxurious world of superyachting”, that was the final conclusion of our first meeting with Van Berge Henegouwen. With this thought, VBH (Karin Zwiers) found a well-known yacht builder that was interested in this idea: Heesen.

The Challenge:

Heesen wanted to enable the attendees of the press conference (85+ journalists and other guests) at the Monaco Yacht show to experience the surroundings once on board a yacht.

Solution: a 360 degrees Virtual Experience, from a first person perspective to illustrate Heesen’s message of stellar quality, performance and design. Over 50 Exclusive Heesen VR Goggles compatible with any smartphone for the guests of Heesen’s Press Conference. We used authentic images and no 3D renders, which makes the VR Experience a true reflection of reality and a unique experience that cannot be matched by any 3D model.

Approach:

Together with Karin Zwiers (Marketing Manager VBH) and Sara Gioanola (Head of PR Heesen) we carefully planned everything that needed to be in the Virtual Experience and how we could accomplish this.

To incorporate more of the lifestyle element of owning a boat as well, not just the boat itself, we wanted to surroundings to be astonishing as well. Therefore, we decided to shoot in Tivat, Montenegro. Tivat is one of the hottest yachting spots around the Mediterranean, because of Porto Montenegro – a new modern marina for luxury yachts, with an amazing settlement.

Heesen and Van Berge Henegouwen worked together to create multifunctional spaces that can quickly be reconfigured according to the time of day and planned entertainments. We wanted these multifunctional spaces to play a central role in the experience. We've captured over 1,200 images in High Dynamic Range (HDR) to create 14 panoramas of the yacht, some of which will allow you to switch between day and night mode. In this way the user’s perceptions of reality will be challenged under the stars.

The shoot took place on the 15th and 16th of September and the Press Conference at the Monaco Yacht Show would already be on the 28th of September. This meant we would have to deliver the end product in somewhat more than a week, which was quite the challenge.

Another challenge was enabling the attendees of the press conference (85+ attendees) to experience everything in Virtual Reality. So we delivered custom-made VR Goggles to Heesen for all guests.
Next to that, we wanted everyone to be able to participate in this experience, with no exceptions. The solution was to make the Virtual Experience web-based, so there would be no need to download an App. Therefore, every guest of the press conference had immediate access to the Virtual Experience. The only thing they had to do was to open the Web Browser on their smartphone, enter the specific Web URL, insert their phone into the Heesen VR Goggles and the Virtual Experience could begin right away.

In the Virtual Experience we enabled the user to move around by adding hotspots, at which they could aim and then go to the next panorama. We added the day-to-night feature to create an in-real-life impossible action; an instant switch from day to night. Navigation through the yacht was made possible by adding a separate navigation space, this space was accessible by aiming at the Heesen logo. In this navigation space they could jump from one room to the other.

Result:

The result was that every guest to the Press Conference in the Salle d’Eiffel of the l’Hermitage Hotel was able to walk on the Galactica Super Nova. In the end we delivered a very successful interactive and innovative Press Conference together with Sara Gioanola. It even caught the attention of Super Yacht Times.

http://360virtualyachts.com/