Virtual reality (VR) is going to be a big hit and will be embraced by the business and other sectors, as well.
“I think VR is an exciting space. VR is still not fully mainstream in terms of a full adoption, but because of YouTube and Facebook, a lot of people know about it. A lot of people are looking at it and they’re like, ‘Hey, that’s pretty cool. I want to try that out,’” G5 CEO George Royeca said in recent interview at the sidelines of the recently concluded Digital Conference DX 2017 held at the Philippine International Convention Center.
Royeca said the current usage of VR in the Philippines can be classified into different stages ranging from the big circle and the consumer follow, casual users all the way to the hardcore. He expects that the country will see a lot more implementations of VR in telling a story. “Whether it’s an advertising angle or education angle or industrial angle, you know, there’s going to be a lot more stuff that’s happening,” he said.
Merriam-Webster defines VR as an “artificial environment which is experienced through sensory stimuli [such as sights and sounds] provided by a computer and in which one’s actions partially determine what happens in the environment.”
Paolo Mercado, senior vice president and director of communication and marketing services of Nestlé, said the business sector will always look for cutting-edge technology to help them drive their growth and operations. Being pragmatic people, he added businessmen will wait if the technology becomes very useful before using it. He cited the real-estate industry where only few players are using it to promote their products. “That one thing they’re trying to do—which is actually more expensive—is they’re trying to do these animated walk-throughs where they recreate the whole apartment in animation [for prospective buyers],” he said.
Royeca said developing content will still be an important part of VR. In the production process, he said it will need directors, production people and other skilled personnel who can develop good content around this new technology.
“It’s really not that easy, especially in a room—a hotel room, for example, where lighting conditions matter. You don’t need to see the space properly; you need to be able to compose the shot smack in the middle to view properly where the coffee is, where the bedroom is, and give you that awe factor and feeling,” he said.
He stressed the Philippines has a great potential in VR production and it needs a lot of people who are involved in this space to be able to do things that are really commercial grade.
Meanwhile, Ibba Rasul-Bernardo, CEO of Sari Software Solutions, said the education and property sectors are maximizing the advantages of VR and augmented reality (AR), as well.
“Education is huge and there’s a lot of immersive learning, and in real estate. That’s where it is working because it’s proven, like you can see success stories,” Bernardo said, adding that documentary filmmaking is also utilizing VR and AR to attract more people and have proven in some instances to be “an effective marketing tool.”
Nevertheless, Bernardo said advocates, users and supporters want to develop a critical mass of users. “We want bring it out to more people beyond that space, and that’s where we want to run experiments which DigiCon and people like Paolo are doing. The fact that they’re taking this risk on these crazy people doing VR and putting us center stage on the plenary and giving us this whole VR alley to show off these crazy experiments that we’re doing—for me, that is huge,” he pointed out.
He commended the disruptors who inspired the formation of DigiCon. “These guys were startups and now they’re the status quo and they’re going to invest in whatever it is that’s going to happen,” he said.