Video Tours—A Tale from the Field

Video Tours—A Tale from the Field

A Real Tour Vision virtual tour provider recently contacted me and said that he was contacted by a real estate advertiser/magazine publisher. They were looking for virtual tours and wanted him to start shooting for the magazine. The virtual tour photographer went on to tell me that as the publisher started describing what he meant by “virtual tour” it became apparent to him that what the publisher was actually talking about was a video tour. He had seen this technology somewhere and thought it was a virtual tour.

Our virtual tour provider began to correct him by saying the Real Tour Vision virtual tour solution uses a format which utilizes still images taken from left to right which looked like a video when watching it from your computer, but is not actually video. The publisher instantly was turned off and insisted that he was not interested because still images were not a virtual tour and video tours must be the wave of the future. He then asked why Real Tour Vision did not support video tours and asked when we would support such technology.

Our virtual tour provider instantly jumped in and assured the gentleman that our system did indeed support video clips from within our virtual tours but also noted that the technology was not the best way to showcase a property. He encouraged the publisher to take a brief moment and compare the technologies and assured him that his definition of a virtual tour would be changed for life and therefore redefined.

Upon showing him a side by side comparison of a virtual tour and a video tour he began pointing out the similarities as well as the indisputable differences in virtual tour technologies.

“See, the video tour does not allow you to move around or control the image like a virtual tour does. You can not stop, zoom in, and skip to your favorite room at the push of a mouse like you can with a virtual tour. And, in my personal opinion, the most important aspect of having a virtual tour photographer come to your home is the fact that all of the images taken at the home are printable. So actually you are not only getting a virtual tour photographer out of the deal you are also hiring a listing photographer. It’s two for the price of one!”

“You’re right, I do see a big difference in the technology and you can really notice a difference in the window shots. They are all overexposed in the video tour but not in the virtual tour.” said the publisher.

While the above dialogue is a depiction of the conversation that took place, the end result was the same. The publisher was reeducated on virtual tours and his definition of a virtual tour was redefined by reviewing the facts. In the end our virtual tour provider won the account and now provides the publisher with virtual tours filled with beautiful images, music and voice overs, and of course top notch Real Tour Vision Service.

Thanks for your story Grant

SHARE THIS STORY