The University of St Andrews has added a number of interactive 360 degree virtual tours (view these at http://www.st- andrews.ac.uk/visiting/Virtualtours/) throughout the website. The tours give visitors to the website the opportunity to explore different parts of the University from the comfort of their PC. There are four types of tours that have been taken:

- Outside locations e.g. St Salvator’s Quad
- Internal locations that are used for graduation, conferences and weddings e.g. Younger Hall, St Salvator’s Chapel, Lower College Hall
- Rooms within halls of residence
- Locations within Schools e.g. a clean room with the School of Physics and Astronomy

The tours give a unique insight into locations that are normally restricted to the general public so this help visitors, such as prospective students, decide whether to book a venue or rent accommodation. Parents have particularly appreciated the ability to see the venues for graduation.

The high quality tours were taken by FullVisual, a company based in Edinburgh. Their very reasonable cost has enabled us to commission tours of bedrooms and kitchens from each of the University halls of residence. Compared to conventionally commissioned 2D photography, the virtual tours are very cost effective, especially when you consider that each tour is comprised of over 100 photos!

The tours on the University website are currently in Quicktime movie format. The website will be updated in the near future with tours in Flash, which is more universally supported by web browsers and provides a better user experience e.g. controls are overlaid on the screen to allow the user to zoom in and out of the tour.

So, if you want to give visitors to your website a unique view of your university, I would highly recommend the friendly staff at FullVisual!

It was a great pleasure to work with St Andrews University. Over the next few months more virtual tours will appear on the University website. We will keep you posted on any updates.

FullVisual

The Assembly Rooms, on George Street Edinburgh, commissioned us to produced virtual tours across two of their venues, Assembly Rooms and Church Hill Theatre. They also commissioned as to show of their venue during the 2009 Forth One Awards in November. This allowed us to capture the venue's unique atmosphere during a live event. Our live virtual tour of the drinks reception required patience but was well worth it:

The virtual tours have been a great selling tool for the Assembly Rooms. Below is a quick interview, with Shona Clelland, General Manager at the Assembly Rooms, which explains the impact the virtual tours have had:

What was the impact on your online audience?
We have had very constructive feedback from clients about the virtual tour, overall the ability to see a room and virtually walk round it assists clients to make a more informed decision about whether or not they want to book it.

How did you promote the virtual tours once they went live on your website?
We ensured that all staff had the virtual tour address on their email signature, this had an immediate impact with colleagues and clients. We promote the virtual tour through our website and to everyone who contacts us personally about hiring space or staging an event with us. It is particularly useful for us when promoting the venue to international clients that cannot visit the venue.

How will you continue to use the virtual tours?
We are putting together a Facebook profile for the Assembly Rooms and a key element of this will be promotion of the virtual tour.

Click here to see some our other art venue virtual tours.

FullVisual

Edinburgh's Lyceum Theatre commissioned us to produced fifteen virtual tours across their auditorium, backsatge areas and venue hire rooms. Once the virtual tours went live on the Lyceum's website this wasn't the end. The Lyceum's web team continued to promote the virtual tours through news stories, monthly newsletters and social media. This strategy was allowed them to make the most of their virtual tours and has increased their overall exposure.

Below is a quick interview, with Michael Thomas, Marketing and Communications Officer at Edinburgh's Lyceum Theatre, which explains how the theatre promote their virtual tours:

How did you promote the virtual tours once they went live on your website?
When we launched our virtual tours, we made a point of featuring them on our home page and news pages, and mentioning them in our bimonthly eNewsletter. We also promoted them in the programmes for each of our shows as part of a more general promotion of our website and online presence. Further to that, whenever an enquiry comes in by email regarding room hire or similar, we try to make sure to mention the VTs to give our potential customers a better idea of what our spaces look like and what they have to offer.

What was there impact on your online audience?
We've had a great deal of positive feedback from people who thought the VTs looked great and added to their enjoyment of using our website. They're also a great hook for getting people to visit the site in the first place and thus they improve the potential for converting those with a casual interest into customers.

How will you continue to use the virtual tours?
As our social media presence increases (we're now on Twitter and Facebook among others) we'll continue to alert our fans to the existence and quality of the tours. We'll also make use of them whenever there's a circumstance where it would be useful to let people see the rooms - one recent example would be this news story where we are advertising for an artist to exhibit in our main bar next month - this story aimed links to the virtual tour for that room, to give potential exhibitors a better idea of the space.

Click here to see some our other theatre virtual tours.

FullVisual

"I can definitely say that having the virtual tours have helped me in my job in the past 12 months. We often get enquiries for weddings from overseas, and it’s made such a huge difference in that we’re able to give people a clear picture of what the rooms look like. It’s been the case that this is the only time they’ve seen the venue ahead of arriving for the wedding itself! Events Manager - Leila

Royal Scots Club Virtual Tours

We are ecstatic the virtual tours have had a big impact. Virtual tours are now essential for any venue wishing to show off their establishment online, as potential customers can experience their offerings from the comfort of their home. Thanks to the Royal Scots Club for sharing their experiences and we look forward to working with them again.

FullVisual