Options for IPIX photographers?
On the IVRPA mail list, there was a query for information about how to help photographers who had been doing IPIX real estate tours transition into some other technology, now that IPIX is out of business. I'm copying this response here for the reference of others, and hopefully to open up further discussion.
I've certainly done my share of IPIX images, although I probably fall short of an "expert" in determining how to get IPIX photographers out of the mess they were left in with the IPIX bankruptcy. I'm not sure I'll be available for the member chat on Sunday, but thought I'd offer the following.
I was interviewed again for a follow up story on the IPIX bankruptcy earlier this week by the Knoxville News Sentinel. They asked me what I knew about parties interested in acquiring the IPIX intellectual property assets. The reporter offered that the following two companies had already expressed interest in bidding on these assets, as they offer similar real estate tour products and services:
RealTour Vision, Traverse City, MI http://www.realtourvision.com/
RealBiz 360, Toronto, Canada http://www.realbiz360.com/
RealBiz 360 offers a monthly subscription license for their authoring tools (plus a setup fee and equipment fees), while RealTour Vision doesn't provide any pricing or licensing information at all on their web site (I guess they want you to call to get their sales pitch in person).
I'm not sure at this point whether either of these offer anyy real value to the VR photographer, as they are both proprietary systems that one has to commit new resources to. Individual photographers will have to make up their own minds. As we've already learned with IPIX, one stands to lose most of one's investment in proprietary technologies when the company(ies) providing them go away for some reason. Furthermore, you're at their mercy once you've invested, because any time they change their technology or pricing structures down the road, you're stuck either following along or writing off most everything you've invested.
There's a lot to be said for the open formats and non-proprietary systems. I'd hate to see VR photographers get burned more than once.
Scott
Scott Highton
Author, Virtual Reality Photography
Web: http://www.vrphotography.com
Re: Options for IPIX photographers?
Hey All,
I have quite a bit of experience with Real Tour Vision as I was the First Dealer in CT starting in 2003. Scott, The Real Tour vision Technologies is not " proprietary" per se.....You could use any rotator and stitching software you like and then simply use thier Tour Management System (TMS) online and thier Tour Builder software to build the Tour window. Their current viewer is Java or Flash with some cool features and supports Cylinder and Partial Cylinder Panos as well as stills and hotspots. They basically charge a fee for each tour "product key" the more you purchase the less it is (I was paying 10.00 per tour)It is worlds better than the IPIX viewer as far as a end user experience goes. If you are not going to build your own viewer and want a decent product for Real Estate Tours with good support I would go with Real Tour Vision.
Dennis M. Carbo
Re: Options for IPIX photographers?
I definitely agree with you here Scott and that is exactly why we do surveys at Real Tour Vision and program our virtual tour software according to what our dealer base wants. Over the years our pricing has continued to come down and we continue to add more and more features sets into the back end. From a professionals standpoint I think Real Tour Vision is a perfect solution for real estate because you can turn and burn the tour. They look great and are feature rich. We also have no messy contracts that prevent you from using other technologies. This way you can pick and choose what technology to use on each project. Of course it is our plan to make our virtual tour software so good that our dealers will use it 100% of the time. As far as price goes the startup is about $1500.00 assuming that you have your own hardware. Happy holidays everyone!
Jason