Smartvizx

Immersive Tech is dramatically changing the paradigms of design communication and collaboration – in these times, more so than ever.

The webcast hosted by HP and VR Voice on April 2nd, 2020 brought together some of the world’s leading VR meeting platforms from diverse domains ranging from Healthcare to Entertainment to the Construction.

Trezi was represented by Darren Rizza, our VP –Product based in Chicago. Darren took the digital stage to walk attendees on how Trezi enables seamless design collaboration over HMDs and desktop systems alike and demonstrated our newest BIMObject integration offerings to a global audience of designers, developers, and technology enthusiasts.

The webinar talked about how professionals could be more effective at remote work and distance collaboration.

Special thanks to the organizers of the webinar, Joanna Popper from HP & Bob Price from IVRHA.

Missed the event? Watch it here:

In these challenging times, we want to help you keep your workflows afloat – and so we’re bringing you a whole host of digital content that will offer you tips and information on Remote Collaboration, Communication and Virtual Co-location of your team to keep business running as usual.

Did you find the webcast useful? Then you’ll like the webinar we hosted last week; our blog has some interesting insights on the future of design studios, as well.

There’s a lot more in the pipeline – stay tuned! And stay safe.

The year 2020 has impacted every single individual across industries and geographies. And it has been no different for the AEC industry which has been hit hard by the COVID19-triggered global economic slowdown.

The team behind the Top VR architecture & design software for the AEC industry, Trezi. SmartVizs Private Limited (“SmartVizX”) aims to transform traditional, passive and static design visualization, communication and collaboration methodologies in the building industry.Trezi’s mission is to become the leading immersive design collaboration platform for the building industry that brings together all stakeholders in the design project—from architect, designer and building product manufacturer/supplier to engineering service consultants, developers and owners/tenants.

The year 2020 has impacted building product manufacturers across regions. The AEC industry has especially been hit hard by the pandemic-triggered global economic slowdown.

As we witness a rapid shift towards remote working, the adoption of new technology to facilitate design communication and collaboration is becoming even more critical.

Architects rely on a trusted circle of vendors, consultants, and product manufacturers to curate building materials and solutions for their projects. However, these relations are cultivated via multiple in-person meetings, trial of physical mock-ups, on-site prototyping, and continuous sampling.

The process is time-consuming and prone to subjective bias - leaving a large margin of error for product match, accuracy of specifications, and consistency in quality of products delivered.

In the building industry, there is a need for a solution that allows all stakeholders to experience design in an immersive, interactive, and intuitive manner, thereby improving the design collaboration process, augmenting design communication, and facilitating decision-making, regardless of the stakeholders’ physical location.

In the context of the post-COVID19 world, where travel is restricted while the need for physical mock-ups and demos continues, Building Product Manufacturers also struggle to optimize their sales and marketing efforts.

Current Solutions:

Today’s solutions include:

Online and offline research of product catalogs, white papers, blogs.

Visiting multiple manufacturers’ websites

Create mood boards — physical or digital — using the most up-to-date product specifications and samples.

Digital subscriptions to emailers, blogs, and other sources of professional knowledge for products and materials.

Soliciting physical samples and mock-ups from vendors to ascertain project-product match as well as consistency of product/material quality

The widespread use of physical catalogs has led to:

Cost and wastage in the upkeep of physical catalogs and increased marketing spends

Delays in decision-making

The gap between what clients expect and what they get

Lost revenue over iterative changes to product specifications, due to initial mismatch between expectations, prototypes, and actual product delivered

The time-intensive nature of the process makes it difficult for newer entries to the market to be discovered and recognized

VR as a gamechanger:

Whilst VR as a technology is still evolving and we will overcome these limitations in the near future, VR is already helping by optimizing and saving costs and expenditure in physical samples.

Trezi’s online product library gives you access to different materials, products, and finishes to select from for new projects. Manufacturers can add to their own virtual storefronts within Trezi and offer greater choices to designers and customers.

Using Immersive Technology, Trezi allows all AEC stakeholders - architects/designers, engineering service providers/consultants, owners/tenants, and product manufacturers/vendors - to communicate design effectively and collaborate in an intuitive, interactive, and efficient manner, regardless of physical location.

By reducing the costs associated with physical mock-ups and models, Trezi Showcase offers a real-time, immersive, and interactive design experience that articulates design intent to match client expectations, while delivering significant business impact and improved profitability.

Organizations such as Blue Star, Kyoobik, Schneider Electric, Welspun Flooring and Divinity Lights are already onboard Trezi Showcase and are transitioning to digital catalogs in the post-COVID era!

Here is what Steelcase had to say about Trezi:

“A virtual reality product like Trezi has helped us move towards being sustainable and in controlling costs.”

Praveen Rawal

Managing Director, India, Singapore & SEA, Steelcase

To experience a free 14-day trial using your own SteamVR-compatible Virtual Reality kit, please sign up here.

For architectural firms, COVID-19 has been an opportunity to upskill and transform their design teams to respond to new challenges posed by the pandemic. This blog post takes a look at how firms are transforming their design practices to adapt to the post-COVID-19 era!

Raamesh Singhal Design

About Raamesh Singhal Design

Based out of Siliguri and Kolkata, Raamesh Singhal Design has been focusing on interior designing and architectural projects across North-East India and Bhutan for the past 20 years.

The firm specializes in residential projects -, bungalows, flats - of around 2000-3000 sq. ft. and hospitality projects. In recent years, Raamesh Singhal Design has adopted technology to enhance customer engagement, client satisfaction, reduce the time taken for creating renders, and communicate their designs effectively to their customers.

How has Raamesh  Singhal Design been coping with COVID-19?

As a small design team based out of Siliguri, demonstrating the designs to clients was a challenge due to lack of tools which helped in doing so, there were obvious gaps in design that were emerging due to ineffective communication, specifically due to COVID-19.

To address the growing list of challenges, their team has very effectively used VR to explain design intent and collaborate with clients whilst adhering to the social distancing norms.

Traditional ways of design communication are no longer relevant:

Raamesh explains that “Renders done through V-Ray take a few hours and consume unnecessary time at each stage of the design.” With this shift away from the traditional approach,  the time to create renders has decreased from 1-3 hours to just a few seconds.

360° virtual tours have served an excellent purpose in communicating the space of the project to the client and have improved customer engagement levels. VR also allows their team to make on-the-spot, real-time changes based on client feedback.

Smartworks

Smartworks builds fully serviced workspaces for rent across India. It offers a holistic experience to member companies by offering cost-effective solutions and a technology-driven environment, catering to the changing business dynamics and requirements, whether for an enterprise or an established start-up.

In less than three years, the brand has not only become a market leader in the country focusing on large enterprise clientele - with a bespoke, tech and productivity enabled value proposition but the only homegrown agile workspace provider to become profitable in India.

How their design team has coped with COVID-19?

Distributed across India, Smartworks was quick to cope with COVID-19. Their team used Trezi meetings for internal and external collaboration across geographies. Using Trezi, their design team has been able to reduce Smartworks’ sales cycle by half. Sign-off time is much less since the client is able to make faster decisions.

Team collaborations are also much easier and more efficient. Changes to design can be made and showcased to the client instantly via VR meetings. All members across the globe can enter the space and have design discussions in real-time, virtually. Acceleration in sales was also during COVID-19.

Their team speaks

“We use Trezi for design presentations and collaboration with our internal team. The collaboration that we have done with our sales team has so far been super useful. I am impressed with the tool, mainly with the interaction that has been possible.

Till now, we have been doing design presentations with 3D visuals. With Trezi, we can have a live interaction, we can do a real-time revision. Now we spend much less time explaining it to my client. Most of the clients usually don’t understand the space and Trezi has been useful in explaining it to them. ”

Niroopa Padmanabhan, Head of Design, Smartworks

Conclusion:

In conclusion,

Shifts in work culture will reshape and redefine workstyles – meetings, discussions, and even deliverables – as people move towards remote working, which may well become the default mode.

In fact, the transition from traditional workspaces to remote working should provide significant benefits in the long run –  amongst them the reduction in traffic and even development across the country. It also allows remote employees to thrive and perform effectively while working from home.

Stay tuned for more updates from Trezi!

To experience a free 14-day trial using your own SteamVR-compatible Virtual Reality kit, please sign up here.

Gautam Tewari (Co-creator of Trezi) shared his insights with young designers and architecture students, in an extremely informative lecture on the ‘Emerging Relevance of Virtual Technology in Architecture’.

Here are some of the questions from the session:

     1. There is a notion that VR technology is expensive. Please comment on that. How can smaller firms/young architects plug-in Trezi for their workflows?

Ans: Honestly speaking, VR technology is not expensive anymore. With Trezi, it’s Rs. 10,000 per month and, with the annual subscription, it drops down further to Rs. 8,000. Our data shows that smaller firms are adapting Trezi equally in their workflows, along with larger firms. The platform offers smooth connectivity and visualization, thus enabling flexible usage. Its adaptability is necessary to eliminate cost and time overruns, caused by gaps in communication, fragmented workflows and multiple inefficiencies in how we collaborate, especially in the AEC industry.  

Are there any particular stipulations for the hardware or system specifications for Trezi? Could we add the specific details of the graphic card and GPU required to give a better idea? What software is compatible with it?

Ans: Listed here is the hardware required to run Trezi. Trezi is compatible with software like Revit, SketchUp and even AutoCAD.  

Difference between VR & AR?

Ans: These could be looked at as variants under the umbrella of Immersive Technology. Augmented Reality is when, in a physical space, we augment its experience through a computer-generated image. Imagine sitting in a room where you want to place a model inside it. So, in AR you are essentially using the existing reality and just inserting a virtual object. Whereas, VR is all about creating CGI – computer-aided imagery – that masks the existing reality completely. It doesn’t borrow any structure from the real world and completely creates a new world. It is going to a different geography altogether, irrespective of one’s physical location. So, VR is creating a new reality while AR is just augmenting or adjusting the existing reality.

COVID will be a blessing in disguise for this wonderful product of Virtual Collaboration. Any comments on that?

Ans: Unfortunately, we needed a pandemic of this nature to push the envelope, but it has certainly got many designers and product manufacturers to take to Trezi for design collaborations. If we go by the numbers, our product usage is up 50%, free trials have surged by almost 200% and demos have grown during the pandemic. Our product’s acceptance has increased manifold. People were taking baby steps towards this technology before and they had a lot of doubts; now their trust and reliability has increased. They don’t hesitate to use it anymore especially when it’s the need of the hour.

How far are we from the Matrix-like immersive experience? Is there any app where we can import our models on our phone? Use cheaper software/any other applications to integrate this with the phone?

Ans: It’s not about picking the cheaper software but about gauging the correct value that it adds to the practice and workflows. Please use the free trial to understand its contributions to your designs, and workflows. Trezi is about strengthening our understanding of design, our interactions with customers or clients, and coordinating with other stakeholders. I suggest picking up software based on how they add value to your workflows and your practice. 

Is VR incorporating other senses like hearing, smell, etc, or is it just visual? Scope of improvements/add-ons to the software?

 Ans: Hearing certainly adds value to the whole experience; it activates another sensory function to our benefit. We are working with products that have acoustic considerations. We are exploring sound-based computation and lighting-based computation. Soon, we will be able to resolve issues around sound and lighting. And probably even ‘touch’ in the near future.

Comparing it with the other software, especially VRay, how is it different from 360 VRay renders? Can the VRay renders be viewed in VR Headset?

Ans: VRay does not function in extending an immersive environment. VR products can typically create panorama views, improved 360-degree view renders along with new finishes to work with. The 360-degree viewing offered by V-Ray and some other similar tools is different from a VR immersive experience. In a 360-degree view, one is at a hotspot that allows limited navigation while, in VR, one can walk through space and experience the design seamlessly in an immersive environment that mimics the realistic movement in space.

Be it a cozy studio for a hands-on team, or one of many workspaces for a multi-city firm, a design studio’s atmosphere influences the way its inhabitants feel, think, act, create and collaborate. To keep pace with shifting employee needs as well as emerging trends across the world, design practices must make the changes necessary to synergize the work they do and the workspace they inhabit. After all, the studio space is increasingly becoming synonymous with the designer’s calling card.

It is this vision that we sought to realize at the India Design ID earlier this year, the country’s foremost luxury design week. Collaborating with HP and Intel, we presented our vision of a collaborative and futuristic workspace for architects and designers – an agile, forward-thinking studio for the design practices of tomorrow, as much a space to create as it is a place to inspire.

This, of course, is not a mere blast to the past: as the world reels from the impact of lockdowns and self-imposed quarantines to contain Covid-19,  a pandemic of unprecedented proportions, we are taking this time to look back at what was an exciting technological proposition that has now become a critical need of the hour. Running in tandem with HP’s Office Of The Future campaign, we conceptualized the Studio Of The Future – powered primarily by Immersive Technology. This studio was designed to transport users to 2048 – which, by the way, shares the calendar with 2020 – a time when virtual workspaces would undoubtedly be ubiquitous and immersive visualization of data would be mainstream; indeed, it will be the norm. But even as we foresaw a trend towards cutting-edge tools for design collaboration and communication, we tried keeping step with the organizational structures and setups that have made studios tick for decades – the booth, consequently, comprised an office for the chief architect, and a traditional collaboration space. The real departure was introduced by the zone dedicated to design and experience in VR. 

While HP and Intel exhibited their hardware solutions, Trezi provided the software platform;  primarily on display were Trezi 1.11 software for desktops and HMDs, the HP Reverb VR headset, and the Z-series workstations by HP, among others. In the four days of the exhibition, we had the pleasure of interacting with over 350 visitors from across the country, including the likes of prominent Indian architects like Sanjay Puri (who we also have the privilege to call one of our earliest adopters), Naresh Narsimhan, and Sonali Bhagwati, academicians and design innovators such as Lily Tandon of JS Institute of Design and Sushant Verma (Founder, ratLAB), and stakeholders in leading building manufacturer companies, such as Furdaus Variava (VC, Bharat Floorings), among others. 

Of course, much has changed since then – what we once predicted as being the part and parcel of every project site and architect’s office might as well become a domestic staple, our bridge to a world that is just as connected as it is fragile. Coronavirus has reminded us that so much of what we take for granted – the ability to step into a space, enjoy visual as well as tactile exploration, and ideate, design and explore with unfettered ease – are nowhere near as inviolable as we thought. The times we live in are uncertain but are also eye-opening. We know that work must go on as before, and Virtual Reality – which Ar. Puri described as ‘an amazing tool that physically transports the user to the [project] space’ – can help us parse the distance from the safety of our homes.

We have talked at length about how the building industry needs disruption to break us out of our counter-productive patterns of favouring variable interpretation of data over consistent visualization. But disruption need not be led solely by carefully planned timelines of global tech giants – it is within our reach if we identify the need of the hour and make required efforts to close the gap. For us, this has come in the form of realizing that 2048 is far too distant in the future to think of making the change – the time to go virtual is now.

What does disruption look like to you? Do share your perspective because, together, we will build a new future.

To experience a free 14-day trial using your own SteamVR-compatible Virtual Reality kit, please sign up here.

Or contact us to organize a demo at your office – our sales representative will set up an appointment at your convenience.

The Coronavirus pandemic has upended our ways of working, transforming where and how we operate as professionals. And, today, it is tough to imagine a post-pandemic time post-pandemic. When that time does come, a significant shift in the workplace would have occurred. 

So, what will the new normal look like in the post-COVID-19 world? 

While work from home will certainly carry on, it may become the norm rather than a mere option. Both individuals, as well as companies, have realized that this option is not only safer and more profitable but also boosts productivity. It is crucial, though, to identify tools that enable communication and collaboration as we work from home. While technology facilitates transition in our work styles today, despite the gamut of options available, the adoption of emerging technology remains very low. The Building Industry, in particular, lags behind in the adoption of key technological interventions to facilitate communication and collaboration while working remotely. While online design collaboration tools have become the need of the hour, immersive technology allows people to work remotely without a hitch. One of the key offerings of this technology is its ability to ensure virtual co-location of teams. At a time when people may not meet in person as much, to ensure the transmission of key messages, immersive technology makes it possible to transfer carefully calibrated work cultures into the virtual world while ensuring efficiency. Additionally, Immersive Technologies can aid and enhance the way design and data is visualized – thereby, improving understanding, removing ambiguities, and facilitating decision-making. In some ways, Virtual Reality is the next logical step for visual communication design in construction: from paper drawings to computer drafting to 3D modeling; the next avenue is that of total immersion – stepping inside the design and experiencing each element inside the virtual world.

Considering all the advantages of Virtual Reality, such as improved efficiency, enhanced responsiveness, reduced travel costs, and lower environmental impact, it is surely an enthralling collaboration and communication tool. It is incumbent upon individuals from the Building Industry to incorporate VR in these times and imbibe efficiencies in process to reduce costs. Embracing new technology is not just crucial to progress and to ensuring design delivery, it may well be our only option. 

To experience a free 14-day trial using your own SteamVR-compatible Virtual Reality kit, please sign up here.

Or contact us to organize a demo at your office – our sales representative will set up an appointment at your convenience.

Revamping our working styles, the COVID-19 pandemic has been an opportunity to upskill as we adapt to a new tomorrow of ‘remote working’. Despite social distancing, as designers and architects, we are leveraging technology to enable communication and virtual collaboration routines with peers and stakeholders, mitigating the impact of the situation and keeping our work afloat.

As the lockdown enters its fourth phase and slowly eases out, architecture and design firms are moving towards increasing skill-based productivity. Utilising a gamut of virtual meetings and cloud-based software, they are conducting client meetings, while planning drawings and deliverables and more… through remote working. Challenges and drawbacks of conventional methods of working have been exposed, specifically within the building industry, where two-thirds of all project value remains at risk due to cost and time overruns that are caused by gaps in communication, fragmented workflows and multiple inefficiencies in how we collaborate, especially at the design stage. A significant lesson for the post-lockdown practice has been an increase in productivity as a result of the elimination of unnecessary in-person meetings. 

A paradigm change has been brought forward by the adoption of immersive tech, which allows one to review, modify and experience design in tandem, shorten project timelines considerably, and undertake product selection without having to rely on physical mock-ups, in-person site visits, and frequent travelling. Communication across different geographical locations is now just a click away. It can help reduce inefficiencies, save time and money, and take better decisions – not only during this pandemic, but in the future too. In a recent webinar, Kulin Kapadia, founder of Alcove designs, shared that 70% of the work required for a project’s construction can be managed off-site and be enabled through virtual collaboration, while the remaining 30% is the physical on-site execution, which is enabled after mapping the different stages of a project.

As  Planet Earth finally begins to breathe again, AEC industry practices will start progressing in a more sustainable manner. A bulk of the functions procuring the actual act of building can be undertaken in a way that is remotely executed in a time and cost-efficient manner, while being environmentally responsible. Instead of relying on tools and methods that are significantly less intuitive, a large number of designers, MEP consultants, project managers and even real estate offices are now exploring new tools to find sustainable ways of working. 

While there may not be a permanent switch, there will definitely be a shift. New ways of work culture will reshape workstyles – meetings, discussions and even deliverables – as people move towards remote working being the default mode. In fact, the transition from traditional workspaces to remote working will provide significant benefits in the long run –  amongst them the clear skies that we are seeing today in our cities after years. 

Today, the solitary architect cannot accomplish much when it comes to design exploration and its eventual finalization. Despite the recent economic slowdown halting the gears on real estate and infrastructure development, the scale, scope and eventual impact of an architect’s duties are only increasing. However, getting all the participants of a project in the same place, or even on the same page is not an easy task! Every hour that is spent on coordination between different stakeholders is the time that is taken away from delivering an error-free project and is hence a poor investment of a project’s resources. 

This chaos in communication and time that is lost in finding an effective collaboration process has led to the need for technology-based intervention. Immersive technology is a definite solution and a step in the right direction and Trezi has a lot to offer here. It is a product that enables architects, designers, building product manufacturers and other stakeholders in the building industry to experience and visualize the project data and collaborate on it with clients and other stakeholders, in an immersive virtual environment, at full scale, irrespective of their geographical locations.

The problem virtual reality solves is through eliminating the need to congregate in person or take numerous trips to the site in order to streamline design intent for all stakeholders involved. VR can make architectural collaboration a walk in the park by offering an immersive experience.

A VR-based building design software, Trezi drastically reduces communication gaps between the client brief and design execution, while improving productivity, increasing efficiency and removing ambiguities of imagination and risks due to individualized interpretation. In its most recent avatar, Trezi 1.11 allows the audio feature that enables collaborators to talk inside the virtual space and have discussions about the project, or discuss changes that need to be incorporated. Now, one can review, modify and explore iterations in real-time, down to the specific model of furniture that is used in a design. Once the meeting ends, Trezi sends meeting notes to all attendees. Those who have suffered on these counts, which is practically 90% of the industry, will truly understand the value of these offerings.

The Covid-19 pandemic is dramatically changing the way we work and collaborate remotely. While web conferencing tools are now commonplace, we, at Trezi, know that the AEC industry requires a far more advanced solution. 

Trezi 1.12 is already popular with leading architects around the world because it allows them – along with their teams, clients, and vendors – to effectively meet in a VR-enabled environment and conduct their design presentations and reviews productively.

To ensure that no one misses out on the opportunity offered by the Trezi platform and to help you leverage its capabilities even better, we are hosting a webinar:

#WorkFromHome with Trezi

Co-Hosts:

Darren Rizza, VP-Product & Praveen Malik, Head-Product Support

Join us and #WorkFromHome

Click here to reserve your place. 

About the host:

Darren is based in the US and has over 25 years of business technology leadership in professional services. His career experience and education place him at the intersection of design thinking, business strategy and operations, digital and information technology, ready to accelerate business leaders and DevOps teams to capture their full potential. At SmartVizX, Darren leads the creation and development of our VR products. He is responsible for driving the product vertical and leading SmartVizX expansion into the US market.

We look forward to seeing you at the webinar. And to your teams working even better.