McKinstry and Visual Vocal Partner to Explore AR/VR Applications
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Strategic partnership delivers immersive augmented reality and virtual reality environments to streamline building design, engineering, construction and operations.
SEATTLE—(Aug. 15, 2018)—McKinstry and Visual Vocal partnered to explore potential applications for the Visual Vocal augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) platform within the construction and facility service markets.
The Visual Vocal platform utilizes the AR and VR capabilities of modern smartphones to enable an efficient new category of facilities communication. Teams can capture 3D environments using their phone or other 3D hardware, then mark-up and vocally annotate work performed across building design, engineering, construction and operations. Visual Vocal AR/VR environments can also be integrated within training, workforce development and jobsite safety programs.
“Immersive computing technologies like AR and VR are dramatically transforming the ways that building professionals communicate with owners, stakeholders and the community. Visual Vocal leverages these emerging technologies to give users new superpowers, such as the ability to teleport to a jobsite or peer behind the walls using a previous 3D capture,” said John SanGiovanni, CEO and cofounder of Visual Vocal. “McKinstry’s strong track record with deploying new technologies, along with their depth and fluency across every stage of the built environment make the company an ideal partner as we seek out real use cases and customers to test and deploy real-world applications for AR and VR.”
Since Visual Vocal works on iOS and Android mobile devices, the platform can be deployed universally across project teams using existing equipment. Real-world 3D imagery is brought into the system easily using any mainstream smartphone. Higher-quality capture devices such as Google’s VR180 hardware, are also supported. Project teams can easily create and share AR/VR presentations while in the field, on the jobsite or meeting with clients and partners.
“Strategic partnerships allow McKinstry to evolve and innovate for the benefit of our clients, our industry and our planet,” said Ash Awad, chief market officer at McKinstry. “The Visual Vocal platform is one potential avenue for our industry to embrace new technology and move past two-dimensional construction and engineering documents in favor of three-dimensional and interactive AR/VR environments.”
McKinstry continues to push technology innovation through strategic partnerships and collaboration. Visual Vocal follows the company’s recent partnership with Optio3 to unlock building system data to better serve building owners, managers and occupants through artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics and automation.
About McKinstry
McKinstry is a national full-service, design-build-operate-and-maintain (DBOM) firm specializing in consulting, construction, energy and facility services. The firm’s innovative, integrated delivery methodology provides clients with a single point of accountability that drives waste and redundancy out of the design/build process. McKinstry advocates collaborative, sustainable solutions designed to ensure occupant comfort, improve systems efficiency, reduce facility operational costs, and optimize profitability “For The Life of Your Building.”
