After a year and a half of development, we’re finally ready to bring the AVATOUR Remote Presence platform to the world. This first blog post is a short introduction to our team and the new communication technology we’ve created – along with a brief explanation of why it might matter to you.

What is AVATOUR?

AVATOUR is the world’s first multiparty remote presence platform. Using real-time 360° capture and virtual reality, AVATOUR makes it possible to be immersed in a place without actually being there. Unlike other reality capture solutions, AVATOUR is fundamentally a communication platform, not only a live streaming or spatial capture solution. So with AVATOUR, not only can you be immersed in a real place, you can communicate with the people there in real time. It’s the first real substitute for travel.

Um…huh?

It can be a bit hard to explain, especially if you’re new to immersive technology. Check out our definition of remote presence, our “how it works” page, or some of our demo videos for more about AVATOUR.

Who is Imeve?

Imeve is the team behind AVATOUR. Veterans of the groundbreaking Nokia OZO virtual reality camera program, we are recognized leaders in live VR broadcasting, with a long track record of innovation. Our technology has been behind some of the highest-profile VR broadcasts to date, including the UEFA Champions League playoffs, the Coachella music festival, and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

I’m Devon Copley, CEO and co-founder of Imeve. I was formerly the Head of Product for the OZO platform and have 20 years of experience in online media technologies. I’m old enough to remember the “first wave” of VR back in the 90’s; my senior project in Computer Science was a hack of a Nintendo Powerglove, and I goofed around with a VFX-1 headset at my first startup. Those tools weren’t good for much then – clunky and heavy with poor performance. But we’ve come a long way in 20 years. Now a 4K 360° camera costs $400 and a VR headset only $200. The advances in the core technologies of capture, control, transmission and display are what have made AVATOUR possible.

You’ll meet the rest of our distributed team of about 10 in the coming weeks and months, but suffice to say: we’re a band of believers. We believe that immersive technology is going to change the world, and we intend to help make that happen.

What can AVATOUR do for me?

We believe remote presence technology has an enormous variety of applications across both business and consumer use cases. Our initial focus is on business applications, specifically around the property industries – real estate, construction, property management, insurance, et cetera.

If you work in these industries, one of your biggest problems is getting the right people to the right place. Maybe you travel way too much because you need to supervise renovations on dozens of retail properties. Maybe you sell properties to overseas buyers. Maybe you need to schedule juggle multiple schedules and constraints in order to stage a safe client walkthrough of a construction site.  Whatever the specifics, you put up with the hassle because you know that any conversation about a place is most effective if it happens at the place. There’s no substitute for being there.

Until now. AVATOUR is the first real substitute for travel.

What can that do for you?

Well, it can save you money and time; it can help you close deals faster; it can reduce waste and errors; and most importantly, it can allow you to spend less time in planes and more time on the things that really matter.

Check out more information on use cases for real estate, construction, property management, hospitality, and learning and training.

The 4-1-1

If this sounds interesting, let’s talk. Our Beta program is open now, and you can read more about it here. We’re accepting only a limited number of customers in this initial phase, working closely in partnership to make sure we’re developing a product that meets their needs. If you’re interested, please fill out our intake survey.

And if you’ve got other ideas for how you might want to use AVATOUR, we’re all ears. We’re discovering new use cases on a weekly basis, and we’d love to hear from you.

This launch isn’t the first step for us – but it is a milestone in what we expect and hope to be a long journey. I hope we can share our vision, and our journey, with you.

Thanks for reading, and please subscribe to our mailing list so we can keep in touch!