There are now several types of Visual Showcase, and several service providers. And of course, they’re not all offering the same quality, service, performance or results. There are several things to consider when selecting which tour is best suited for your application.

Image Quality
If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well - don't accept poor quality images! There are wide variations in the quality of Visual Showcase images. The quality of what you see on the screen is determined by 2 factors - how well the photograph is captured to begin with, and how well the display technology works.

Image Capture - different methods
Originally called PhotoBubble, IPIX images are created by stitching together two hemispherical shots taken through a fish-eye lens. The result is a spherical panoramic image. One shot takes a complete hemisphere. You take 2 hemispherical shots and the IPIX software stitches the 2 hemispheres together to make a complete sphere.

The RemoteReality method uses a camera fitted with a hemispherical mirror which points either upwards or downwards. Unlike the IPIX method, where you 'cut the tennis ball' in half vertically, then stick the 2 sides together, this method means you 'cut the tennis ball' in half horizontally - and then you only get either the top half or the bottom half. To shoot inside a room, you therefore either have to place the camera very near the ceiling, looking down, and have a 'bird's eye view', or place it very near the floor looking up, and have a 'worm's eye view'.

The Apartment Matching method uses a high specification digital camera, which takes a variety of standard and wider-angle lenses. Unlike IPIX and Remote Reality , the Apartment Matching system takes 20-30 individual images which are then stitched together to make the final result. Why is this better? - because the level of light and color varies continuously around a 360⁰ view, and shooting it with so many images allows you to get the exposure right throughout the resulting panorama, whereas if you capture the whole thing in 1 or 2 shots, it may be quicker and easier for the cameraman, but the result is always a poor compromise. Lens choice is also important - unlike IPIX and RemoteReality (one size fits all), the Apartment Matching system selects the appropriate lens for each panorama.

Display Technology
All Visual Showcase have one thing in common - they use a single still picture, which is made to move on screen using software [compared to a video, which is a moving picture in the classical sense].

Most Visual Showcase play on the screen by using the software language Java. To run a Visual Showcase using Java requires two mini-programs. A 'mini-program' called a Java Applet is loaded by the webpage, and provides the motion and all the related functionality of the Visual Showcase. Also required is a download of the ‘Java Runtime Environment’ (JRE). In the past JRE was installed as standard on all PCs and Mac's. Microsoft in response to its legal activities has removed this bundled software and it now must be downloaded, affecting performance, to view Java based video tours.

There are some other formats of Visual Showcase display which do not use Java, and also require a special software download. Notably, IPIX offers a 'better quality' tour which plays using a plug-in. And Quicktime (the oldest established tour format, developed by Apple) also requires a large software download and installation. Given that almost nobody has these programs installed as standard (except Quicktime on a Mac), it follows that almost everyone wanting to view a tour needs to download the software first – which for many will be a big disincentive.

Java Applets There (THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE) are 2 considerations here - the size of it, and what it does. The bigger the applet, the longer it takes to download on the web, and thus the longer your clients will wait. To a degree, the amount of functionality included within the applet affects the size of it, but the quality of software writing is also important here. Not many people will want to tell you the size of their applet, so it’s worth checking for yourself by looking for it in your Temporary Internet Files folder. On a recent visit to 2 sites displaying the IPIX and RemoteReality applets, they were respectively 69kb and 43kb. The Apartment Matching standard applet is 28kb.

Background Loading
Unlike any other applet we know, the Apartment Matching applet uses 'background loading'. This means that after the first image has downloaded, and while it is playing, the 2nd and subsequent images download in the background - so that you can then see them without any additional waiting, and click back and forth between all the images with no further delay. This substantially reduces waiting times for your clients.

Perspective Correction
A Visual Showcase image is, like all photography, a representation of 3 dimensions in 2 dimensions. This means inevitable compromises. In particular, images at short focal length (ie small rooms), can become distorted, with 'straight' lines becoming 'bowed'. If you attempt to capture the entire 3D image (ie a complete sphere), the distortion at the limit is extreme. The IPIX and the RemoteReality systems use a method called 'Dynamic Perspective Correction' to address this phenomenon. As the image is being presented on the screen, it is being adjusted continuously to 'correct' the perspective seen by the viewer, and remove the distortion. The Apartment Matching system, by contrast, makes no attempt to adjust the perspective, preferring to present the 'unadulterated' image to the viewer. Which of these methods you prefer is largely a question of taste, however after careful comparison, we at Apartment Matching opted to offer the 'non-adjusted' image, because it gives a crisper, clearer picture, without the flicker which is the inevitable feature of dynamic perspective correction. Does this result in curvy straight lines ? - yes to a degree, but this is minimized through use of different lenses. You can see many examples of tours on the rest of our website (www.ApartmentMatching.com) - judge for yourself !

The Full Spherical Image?
IPIX would have you believe that the ability to see the entire spherical image (ie up to the middle of the ceiling and down to the middle of the floor) is a big advantage. Well, if you want to shoot the inside of St. Paul's Cathedral, with the fantastic Cupola, then yes we agree. But in 99% of residential and commercial properties, this is not really a benefit .... especially given the disadvantages which this system has;
The disadvantages are
(a) you have to capture the image with the IPIX system (as described above) which gives poorer quality,
(b) you have to use dynamic perspective correction to view it and
(c) the images are much bigger (generally twice the size), and thus much slower to download.

Download Speed
The biggest complaint about the internet is that it can be SLOOOOOW. If you are to retain customers on your site, keeping it fast is absolutely critical. When a web page with a Visual Showcase starts loading, it first downloads the Java Applet - whilst this is happening you will see a grey box on screen. The grey box turning to a 'loader image' (which typically displays a logo and asks you to wait) signals that the applet has arrived and you are then waiting for the first image to load. So the smaller the Java Applet, the better - although image size is even more important since the applet only downloads once at the beginning of a browser session, but each tour means new images to download.

Image Size
Size does matter and various widely amongst tour providers. Some (eg IPIX) are bound to be bigger because if you're showing the whole 360⁰ image including the floor and ceiling there is more data. Others are just less good at making the best combination of high quality yet small file size. This is one of Apartment Matching's key strengths. Our average file size is 45kb, lower than anyone else we know. But don't take our word for it – look at a few other tours and then check the size of the files in your cache.

Web
On your own website, or your marketing partners websites, you will want the Visual Showcase playing with the relevant property listing. You may also find it helpful to have a direct link from your home page to a 'Visual Showcase demonstration' page on which you list all the properties with tours. You may also want to consider a Visual Showcase icon appearing against properties with tours at the shortlist stage - this means a lot more traffic to properties with tours (and helps show the quality of your site). Finally, ApartmentMatching.com can provide the same, high quality images to all of your authorized marketing partners. www.ApartmentMatching.com can host and provide these important extra services.

Emailable Version
The fast-paced world of today’s internet shopper requires an immediate response. The availability of an emailable brochure, featuring an informative Visual Showcase can mean the difference between a lease, or not!
Statistics have shown that an emailed, Visual Showcase is viewed, an average of 2.5 times.

The Apartment Matching emailable Visual Showcase can be customized to include: mouse-overs of featured amenities, a floor plan, your logo, an audio greeting, a location map, textual comments, and your logo.

Service
'Nationwide service' is easy to say, but harder to deliver consistently. We make this promise - and have the track record of having delivered it for hundreds of clients, making thousands of tours, from the top to the bottom of the country. Apartment Matching uses our own network of cameramen (all of them qualified, trained photographers).

We also use a custom developed database which tracks every order in real time through every stage of the process to ensure quality and timeliness.

Additional Features
If you are looking for an integrated supplier of Visual Showcase, floor plans, digital stills and brochures - Apartment Matching can do that too.

Client-base
Of the US's top multi-family properties using Visual Showcase, Apartment Matching is the appointed supplier to a vast majority. Our website (www.ApartmentMatching.com) lists many of our clients.

A fully interactive 360° view of a property allows the user to get a feel for the character of a home and its surroundings. Rooms can be photographed to allow the user to feel as if they are actually walking through a home and visiting each room. Contact us to schedule a photo shoot for your listing.

Utilizing Apartment Matching’s new technology can set your property’s presentation apart by providing:

• Crisp and Glossy Images, not warped or fish-eyed
• Highest Quality tours in the industry
• Tours that run on every operating system without a Plug-in
• Perfect Window Shots without glare or washout
• Fast Turnaround Time!
• Larger Viewer Window with rapid download time
• 700 x 400 pixels (AMC’s Advanced Visual Showcase)
• 388 x 216 for the existing IPIX tours
• Still Images, Snapshots, and floor plans can be integrated into our system
• Customizable Hot-Spots with text descriptions to navigate through the tour
• Professionally Voiced Audio available on every tour in
• Advertisers may be placed on your tours to lower costs and increase profit
• Custom banners, photos, and logos can appear on your tour
• E-mail Tour button to easily distribute links to tours
• Free support hotline
• Hosting of your Visual Showcase to personal Website
• Easy to use tour management site to upgrade or make changes to your tours
• Hosting services to allow for distribution of tours to your authorized marketing partners

If you'd like more information about Apartment Matching Visual Showcase, please contact us Tel: 214.224.9906 or sales@ApartmentMatching.com