what’s new – Circlescapes Virtual Tours

Client Q&A — St. John’s-Kilmarnock School

Circlescapes Team — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 18:19:38 +0000

Why did you choose add a virtual tour to your marketing mix?

We wanted to develop an impactful virtual tour that could be accessed by prospective families from account the globe, that would allow them to feel immersed in our campus and experience our school spaces.

How was your experience working with Circlescapes?

The Circlescapes team are quick to respond, knowledgeable, professional and provided wonderful guidance as we worked through the process. They helped us to understand next steps, showed us examples of possible options to help us design our plan, responded quickly to all questions and moved things forward so that we had a completed tour fairly quickly.

The photographer was wonderful to work with, and the photos are beautiful. Our watercolour campus map is a school treasure that beautifully captures the essence of our campus.

In addition to hosting the tour on your website, are you using the school tour or your watercolor map in any creative ways?

We send the link to the school tour in our email outreach to prospective families who live out of province/internationally. We use our watercolour map in other publications and displays.

What are some of the cool features in your tour?

Our tour includes a beautiful watercolor campus map, a custom interface and multiple panoramas that immerse the viewer in a campus experience.

It has been a pleasure to work with the Circlespaces team and I highly recommend their services.

Britt Leeking
Director of Enrollment
St. John’s-Kilmarnock School
Ontario Canada

Click here to view the SJK virtual tour

How to offer virtual campus tours during covid-19

Circlescapes Team — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 18:51:00 +0000

For the last year, schools have been asking us for tips on how to showcase their campus environments “virtually” during the global COVID-19 crisis.

In the short-term, schools have been asking for a way to quickly create an online tour to replace their in-person tours. And for the long-term, they’re requesting quotes for a more comprehensive virtual tour solution.

In response to these requests, we’ve created an inexpensive, fast way to help you:

Organize, and present your school’s existing videos, photos, maps and other content in one centralized virtual campus experience, and
Create the framework for a more complete virtual tour in the future (when your campus is open again, and at a time when your team is comfortable having us on campus to photograph it)

So how does it work?

Step 1: Collect any content that showcases the points of interest on your campus

Video clips & Photos — search your existing content library. Or, if your campus is still accessible, go shoot new photos and videos of key locations on campus that you would normally take people on an in-person visit.
Campus maps — This could be a campus rendering, illustrated map or aerial photo. Preferably, one that does not have markings (numbers, text, etc.) on it. If you don’t have one, we can help create a rudimentary one for you.

Step 2: Organize the content

Name each point of interest as you would normally refer to it
Identify and mark the locations of each point of interest on the map
Create a digital folder for each point of interest
Save all the photos into the appropriate folder
Upload the video clips to YouTube or Vimeo

Step 3: Send your content and branding materials to Circlescapes

Logo (in EPS, SVG or Adobe Illustrator format, of possible)
Colors (send up to 3 colors you’d like to use)
Fonts
All photos, maps and video clip links
Pick a page on your website that you’d like people to link to when the click on a “learn more” button

Step 4: Circlescapes creates your virtual campus experience.

Click the image below to view a sample of the template.

Step 5: Promote your virtual campus experience

Add links to your main landing page, pop-up alerts, and drop-down menus
Schedule online webinars each week (i.e. – Mondays and Wednesdays at 3pm) for your admissions team to guide potential students through the virtual campus experience online.
Promote the webinars and virtual campus experience on social media and on school search websites

How long does it take?

5-7 days. Once we have all your content, logos, maps, colors and fonts, we can create and deliver your virtual campus experience quickly. It’s all housed on your web servers, so there’s no ongoing hosting costs or hassles.

What does it cost?

Without a future virtual tour

$2000 — Virtual campus experience with up to 10 map locations

Optional items

$100 each — Additional map locations
$1500 — 2D/Flat campus map rendering

With a future virtual tour

$1500 — Virtual campus experience with up to 10 map locations

Optional items

$50 each — Additional map locations
$1000 — 2D/Flat campus map rendering

We will send you an authorization for a complete 10-spin premium virtual tour to get the ball rolling. The project cost indicated will be $8,000 + travel expenses to be determined in the future. The $8,000 equates to:

$1500 — temporary tour
$3,000 — 10 spins at $300 each
$3,500 — Premium design package

When the time comes to shoot your future virtual tour, we will work with you to revise the project estimate to reflect the actual work and deliverables. 25% deposit will be due upon contract execution.

Featured Client: Inspired Living (13 virtual tours)

Circlescapes Team — Fri, 18 Jan 2019 02:33:35 +0000

Circlescapes worked with Inspired Living to bring 13 of their senior living communities to life online in 360°. The communities are located in Florida, Texas, Georgia and Louisiana. Each community chose different locations to feature in their virtual tour, but all of the tours have the same custom-branded interface design. Click the image below to take a look!

Featured Client: KU Athletics Jayhawks360

Circlescapes Team — Sat, 10 Sep 2016 01:52:02 +0000

The University of Kansas asked Circlescapes to help them bring their athletics facilities to life online in 360 degrees. The result? http://jayhawks360.kuathletics.com/

This was the largest single tour we’ve ever worked on. 12 sports. 75 panoramas.

In addition to giving KU fans a behind the scenes look at the athletics program they love, it also gives coaches a tool to use in recruiting. Now, the coaches can sit down with prospective athletes and give them a first-hand look at the campus, dorms, training rooms, team rooms, and venues – from anywhere in the world.

Awesome VR Experiences

Circlescapes Team — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 20:18:11 +0000

Can a low cost, folded up piece of cardboard make your campus shine in VR?

Absolutely, with Google Cardboard! Google Cardboard is a virtual reality (VR) platform that allows the user to look through a headset reminiscent of the ViewMaster (remember that from your childhood?) and navigate through immersive images with a tilt of the head. A smartphone is inserted into the headset and surrounds the student with panoramas from your campus.

The headsets are relatively inexpensive, and can easily be purchased online. Fancier ones are made out of plastic and include a strap that goes around your head.

You can even custom-print a headset with your branding to send to prospective clients. The pack and ship flat, then the user unfolds and assembles the headset. We created these for Chadwick International.

So how does it work?

The content on your phone is split into two screens- one for the left eye and one for the right. The term is stereoscopic imaging. The two screens are synchronized, so when you rotate your head, both images spin up down and all the way around. The Cardboard viewers allow you to transport potential students to your campus from anywhere in the world and immerse them in your surroundings.

Here’s what it looks like on your phone.

So picture this, you are at a recruiting event and at your table the potential students and families can put on one of your custom-branded Google Cardboard viewers and take a 360° tour of your campus. Or, you may have a family in another country who can’t make the trip to see your campus in person, so you just pop a Google Cardboard viewer in the mail to them with the URL they can visit to take your tour in virtual reality. Now that is memorable!

Ready to check it out on your phone?

Use these QR codes to download our VR Experience app on your iPhone (left) and Android phont (right). Then get yourself a pair of Google Cardboard VR Goggles and start exploring!

If you need help setting up your 360° tour so that it is viewable on a Google Cardboard headset, or if you need a 360° virtual campus tour, drop us a line!

Featured Client: Austin Convention Center

Circlescapes Team — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 18:47:27 +0000

The Austin Convention Center Department operates two facilities in Austin, Texas — The Austin Convention Center and the Palmer Events Center. Recently, we helped them launch virtual tours for each venue. The tours feature 3D floor plans, room specs, slideshows, and alternate interfaces designed for various device sizes. Click the images below to see each of them

Featured Client: New York State Parks and DEC Campgrounds

Circlescapes Team — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 23:47:57 +0000

We are super psyched to share the latest virtual tours of 56 more New York State Parks and DEC Campgrounds. Last year, we shot and produced tours for 41 parks, and this past summer, we worked with them again to create tours for 52 more beautiful parks.

Our strategy was to divide and conquer, with Jared taking the Adirondacks, the Saratoga Region and some of the Hudson Valley and NYC parks. I (Lisa) worked my way from Hudson Valley westward to the Central Region then to the Finger Lakes and the Western NY Region.

All of the parks are unique and beautiful, but some of our favorites were Watkins Glen, Bear Mountain, Ausable Point, Wellesley Island and Little Pond. Also, take a tour of Riverbank, which is right in the heart of Manhattan and was inspired by urban rooftop designs in Japan. All the tours feature 360 degree spins, photo slideshows, text descriptions and park info.

Let us know which are your favorites!

http://www.nystateparkstours.com/