Avatour is a cloud-based remote meeting and collaboration platform supporting live and recorded 360° and 2D video. It is one of the only solutions in the world offering live 360° video conferencing where each remote participant can independently look around and interact with people on site — as if they were there in person. In addition, Avatour offers a rich suite of collaboration tools including in-video notes, AI-generated meeting summaries, AI-populated checklist reports, and Workspaces for 24/7 access to all shared assets (videos, images, presentations, reports, and more).
Watch our How-It-Works video (2 min.) to see the full experience for both on-site operators and remote participants. In short: an operator on site sets up a 360° camera and starts an Avatour meeting. Remote participants join from any web browser and can independently look around in the 360° environment, take notes, and collaborate in real time. The Features page (avatour.com/features) gives a full overview of all collaboration tools and workspace capabilities.
Up to 20 interactive participants can join an Avatour meeting simultaneously. In addition, up to 10 Spectators can join in a listen/view-only mode (no webcam, microphone, or playback controls — chat interaction only), bringing the total capacity to 30 per meeting. For larger audiences or high-volume use cases, please contact us — additional capacity can be arranged.
There is no limit on simultaneous viewers in a Workspace. Workspaces support role-based access control so administrators can precisely manage who can view, comment on, or edit shared assets.
No. Avatour is a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that runs in any modern web browser — no software installation is required for meeting participants or workspace viewers. The only app you need for live 360° video meetings is the Avatour Camera App, which comes pre-installed on the 360° cameras in the Avatour Turnkey Kit. Two optional additional apps are available: (1) an Avatour VR headset app for an immersive viewing experience, and (2) an Avatour mobile app for iOS and Android for on-the-go access and offline recording.
No. You can use Avatour as a standard video conferencing tool, share your device's camera (e.g. a smartphone) as a live 2D stream, or review pre-recorded 360° content — all with the full suite of Avatour collaboration features available. A live 360° stream is only required when you want to give remote participants the immersive experience of looking around the physical location in real time.
No. Each remote participant has full, independent control of their own view within the 360° environment. Different participants can be evaluating different parts of the scene at the same time. The meeting host can optionally use the Lock Focus feature to bring everyone's view to the same angle when needed.
Not at all. Only one 360° camera is needed — positioned on site by the operator. All remote participants join via a web browser on any device (computer, tablet, smartphone) or optionally via a VR headset. No camera hardware is required on the remote side.
The core difference is the 360° field of view. With standard video conferencing or smart glasses, remote participants are limited to roughly 70° of view — they see only what the on-site person points the camera at. With Avatour, each remote participant independently controls their own 360° view, deciding where to look just as they would if they were physically on site. Beyond the 360° experience, Avatour adds purpose-built collaboration tools for site-centric work: in-video notes and annotations anchored to specific moments and viewpoints, AI-generated transcriptions, meeting summaries, and automatically populated inspection/audit checklists. These capabilities go well beyond what general-purpose video conferencing tools offer.
Digital twins are designed to create a static or periodically updated 3D model of a physical location — they are excellent for spatial planning and asset documentation. What they don't capture is people, live processes, or real-time conversation. Avatour is designed for live and recorded interaction with what is happening at a location — not just what the location looks like. The two technologies complement each other well.
Yes. Avatour is one of the simplest ways to run both pre-recorded and live 360° virtual tours. Unlike photosphere-based tour tools, Avatour supports full video (not just static images) with narration, live interaction, and collaboration tools. A pre-recorded tour can be created in two clicks using QuickCapture; a live tour is as simple as sending a calendar invitation. Learn more at avatour.com/usecases/virtual-tours.
Yes. You can join or share live 2D video from any device camera alongside the 360° experience, with access to all of Avatour's collaboration tools: notes, snapshots, AI-generated summaries, and workspace storage. Avatour works as a fully-featured video conferencing platform even when no 360° camera is in use.
Avatour includes a focused set of AI capabilities designed to make inspections, audits, and reviews more efficient:
All AI features are disabled by default and must be explicitly enabled. AI outputs are assistive only — they are presented as drafts for human review, editing, and approval. Avatour does not use AI to make decisions of any kind.
Avatour is purpose-built for site-centric activities that traditionally require physical presence. The most common use cases are:
Avatour is used across industries including manufacturing, logistics and supply chain, chemicals, energy, construction and real estate, home and furniture retail, and insurance.
Avatour creates value on three levels. First, it delivers direct, measurable cost savings by eliminating or reducing travel — fewer flights, less time lost, lower CO2 emissions. The Avatour Analytics dashboard tracks these savings automatically per session (travel cost, travel time, CO2 avoided). Second, it enables more frequent and flexible oversight: because a visit no longer requires a flight, teams can check in more often, respond faster, and catch issues earlier. Third, it improves decision quality by giving remote stakeholders genuine situational awareness — the 360° view and collaboration tools mean they can see, ask, and act on the same information as if they were on site.
Yes. Avatour supports three main usage modes: (1) Live 360° meetings, where a camera operator streams in real time to remote participants; (2) Recorded session review, where 360° videos are uploaded and reviewed asynchronously or together in a meeting; and (3) Hybrid sessions, combining live streaming with simultaneous review of previously recorded assets. Workspaces provide a 24/7 library of all assets for on-demand, self-serve access.
Yes. The Avatour Camera App supports fully offline recording — the operator records the session locally on the device with no internet connection required. Once connectivity is restored, the recording uploads automatically to the Avatour platform. AI features (transcription, topics, summary, checklist report) can then be applied to the uploaded recording. This makes Avatour practical for industrial sites, remote facilities, and field locations where connectivity is limited or unreliable.
For meeting participants and workspace viewers: no specific hardware is needed. Any device with a modern web browser works — desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. A VR headset is optional and provides a more immersive experience for viewing 360° content. For operators who want to conduct live 360° meetings or record 360° video for later review, a compatible 360° camera is required. See avatour.com/hardware-kit for the full list of supported cameras.
The Avatour Turnkey Kit contains everything needed to start conducting live 360° meetings and recording sessions out of the box, including a supported 360° camera, an extendable camera pole/stick, a tripod base, a Bluetooth audio headset, an extended battery pack, and the Avatour Camera App pre-installed. The kit is designed to be portable and ready to use from day one, with no technical configuration required.
No. All hardware offered by Avatour is off-the-shelf third-party equipment, selected and assembled into Turnkey Kits for the convenience of our customers. We do not manufacture any proprietary hardware.
Yes, with one distinction. You can use any 360° camera to record video and upload it to the Avatour platform for review and collaboration. However, for live 360° video meetings (real-time streaming), you need a 360° camera that supports the Avatour Camera App. See avatour.com/hardware-kit for the current list of compatible cameras.
Yes. Unlike fixed conference-room cameras or CCTV systems, the Avatour camera setup is designed to move freely throughout a site. The 360° cameras are lightweight, battery-powered, and can be carried on the extendable pole throughout any facility. Battery life is approximately 45 minutes on the built-in battery, or over 4 hours with the recommended external battery pack — and batteries can be swapped during a session for even longer coverage. Audio is provided via a Bluetooth headset worn by the operator.
Yes. In addition to purchasing the Avatour Turnkey Kit outright, we offer a Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) option where the hardware is leased as part of your overall Avatour service subscription. This reduces upfront capital expenditure and ensures hardware remains current. HaaS is available alongside our standard Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) licensing. Contact us for details.
Yes. A VR headset provides the most immersive experience for viewing 360° content — participants turn their head to look around naturally. VR headsets are optional; participants can also join from any web browser by clicking and dragging to navigate the 360° view. See support.avatour.com for the current list of compatible VR headsets and setup instructions.
Yes. We ship the Avatour Turnkey Kit globally, ready to use out of the box. Deliveries within the US and EU purchased from our webshop include free shipping and typically arrive within 2-3 business days. International deliveries outside the US and EU generally take 2-3 weeks. Import duties, local taxes, and customs regulations may apply for certain destinations — we recommend contacting us before ordering for locations outside the US and EU so we can advise on delivery options and costs.
The requirements differ for the on-site operator and remote participants. For the operator (the person running the 360° camera), uplink bandwidth is most important. Avatour delivers a good experience at 2 Mbps uplink and maximum quality at 10 Mbps. The system automatically manages lower bandwidth by reducing frame rate while preserving visual quality. For remote participants, a downlink of at least double the operator's uplink rate is recommended, though the platform dynamically transcodes the stream to accommodate connections as low as 2 Mbps. 1 Mbps uplink is sufficient for participants sharing their own camera feed.
No. WiFi is not required on site. Several connectivity options work well with Avatour:
For a full connectivity guide and our free network compatibility check tool, visit support.avatour.com.
Yes. Avatour is designed to work with corporate network environments. All connections use standard web protocols (HTTPS/TLS on port 443), which are open on virtually all corporate networks. UDP ports are used for optimised media delivery but the system falls back to TCP if UDP is blocked. Our Knowledge Base article 'What are the ports, protocols, and IP addresses used by Avatour?' provides the full technical specification for IT and firewall configuration.
Yes. Avatour treats information security as a core operational priority. Key security measures include:
For full technical detail, see our Information Security White Paper, or contact us at info@avatour.live.
Yes. Avatour manages personal data in accordance with GDPR and CCPA requirements. Personal data collected is limited to first name, last name, and work email address for licensed users, plus meeting and session metadata (meeting IDs, timestamps, participant identifiers). EU customer data is stored on AWS infrastructure in Frankfurt, Germany; US customer data is stored in Virginia, USA. Customers and users can request deletion of their personal data at any time. For full details, see our Privacy Policy at avatour.com/legal/privacy-policy, or our GDPR knowledge base article at support.avatour.com.
Avatour uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its primary cloud infrastructure provider. EU-based customer data is stored in AWS Frankfurt (Germany); US-based customer data is stored in AWS Virginia (United States). Data residency is assigned based on the customer's organisational headquarters location. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is used for specific processing workloads. All storage is encrypted at rest.
Yes. Avatour supports Single Sign-On via SAML 2.0, compatible with all major identity providers including Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD), Okta, and others. When SSO is enabled, your organisation's identity provider becomes the authoritative source for user identities, roles, and group memberships. Avatour does not store or manage employee passwords. MFA enforcement and password policies are fully controlled by your identity provider. SSO is available on Business and Enterprise licences. For setup details, see our SSO/SAML knowledge base article at support.avatour.com.
Yes. Avatour includes built-in face blur for both live and recorded 360° and 2D video. Face blur can be applied to individual assets or enforced as an organisation-wide policy by administrators, ensuring all stored media automatically has faces obscured. This feature is widely used by enterprise customers as part of their GDPR and privacy compliance programmes.
Avatour provides several controls to protect commercially sensitive or confidential information:
For sessions involving third parties where intellectual property is a concern, we recommend having an NDA in place and using the angle restriction or no-record options as appropriate.
All recordings and assets are stored in Workspaces, which are organisation-specific environments with granular access controls. Access is restricted to the asset owner and authorised collaborators within the associated Workspace. External sharing uses time-bound signed URLs that can be revoked at any time. Administrators can disable public sharing entirely across the organisation. Role-based permissions (Viewer and Editor) allow fine-grained control over who can view, annotate, or edit content. All access and sharing activity is recorded in a full audit log.
Yes. Avatour performs vulnerability scanning at least monthly and conducts annual penetration testing against its platform. Static code analysis (Snyk) is run on every code change, and dynamic application security testing (DAST using OWASP tools) is performed on major releases. All findings are tracked and remediated through a formal security review process.
Avatour collects the minimum data necessary to operate the platform. For licensed users: first name, last name, and work email address. For all sessions: meeting metadata (meeting ID, title, start/end times), participant metadata (join/leave timestamps, user identifier), and technical diagnostic data (video quality metrics, network performance indicators). Location data is derived from IP address and used solely for ROI metrics such as estimated travel saved — it is not used for tracking or surveillance purposes. Post-meeting feedback ratings are optional. Avatour does not collect unnecessary personally identifiable information and supports the use of pseudonyms or aliases where appropriate.
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