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FAQ’s
Q: How do I get started with Ithaca Virtual Tours? A: We recommend visiting our “Services” page to receive a “ball park” idea of the pricing for the category of services you require. Then give us a call or email us to discuss your projects specifications and requirements. We love what we do and we enjoy challenges! We love to see how we may customize our photography and marketing systems to fulfill your advertising needs, making your image “stand out” in the crowd is job one. You will never receive a high pressure sales pitch from us!
Q: What do you mean by “Field of View” A: The Field of View is the viewable area in a given scene measured in degrees from a center point. That center point could be your own eyes, a camera lens, or from a pair of binoculars. When lenses are added to the equation, the Field of View or (FOV) can be manipulated, widened or decreased.
Q: On your services page you refer to “Spins”. Define this term for me please. A: Sure! A “Spin” or “Scene” or “Panorama” are really the same thing and are generally used interchangeably. These are industry buzz words or descriptions of the image that is displayed and navigated in the viewer. A 360 degree “spin” is a complete 360 degree horizontal view of a subject, be it a room in the case of a Real Estate tour or in the middle of a park outside. The effect is as if you stood in the middle of that room while keeping your head still and staring straight ahead, you pivoted on your heals, and as you are pivoting you watch the room scenery reveal itself in your “Field of View.”
Q: I see that you charge by the “Spin” “Full” or “Partial”. What is the definition of a “Partial Spin”? A: This question is asked a lot… hence that’s why it’s in this section. A partial spin is an image that is displayed and navigated that is less then a 360 degree view. To assemble a “Partial Spin” of a scene that is only viewed through a180 degree Field of View for example, may require the seamless stitching of as many as 6 still photographs together to create the “Partial Spin”. This depends on the photographic technique used to acquire the images. We employ several techniques depending on the job’s requirements. Generally a “Partial Spin” would be used when photographing a small space and to shoot a full 360 degree spin from the center of a room would not be practical. Only the four walls would be visible and you would completely miss all the features of the room including that the four poster bed. Now if the camera is moved to one corner of the room and a partial spin is acquired of let’s say 90 to 180 degrees or so, the room be it small can still be viewed in all it’s glory!
Q: What is a spherical panorama? A: A Spherical spin or panorama is one where the effect is from your point of view as if you’re standing inside and at the center of a sphere. Your “Field of View” would be the ability to look 360 degrees horizontally and 180 degrees vertically. Basically you’re able to look from floor to ceiling. In most cases all of the floor and all of the ceiling being viewable is not necessary to create a virtual experience. This photography acquisition method does have its applications though for example: the interior of a car or boat cabin.
Q: What defines a still image? A: A still image is characterized by the fact that it may or may not take up an entire viewer frame and it remains still or static in the viewer. The end user is not able to pan the view left or right. The zoom - in ability is probably still functional in the viewer.
Q: I’m a Real Estate agent. Do you have anything special to offer agents such as my self? A: Yes we do! View the feature full, package pricing that is available to you in “Our Services” “Realtors” section, and down load the .pdf documents you find there. We think you’ll find our pricing in-line with the current market for “full service” Virtual Tour acquisition. We pride ourselves on our photography! It’s what we do. We will NOT negotiate or reduce our prices to compete with the so called “do it yourself” moving stills slideshow with music. We do not and never will consider that a “virtual tour” and it requires absolutely no interaction by the end user. At least our end users have a choice to interact or not in a virtual environment.
Q: Being a Real Estate agent why do I have to register with Ithaca Virtual Tours? A:
The Real Estate side of our business is powered by Real Tour Vision. They
host the tours, provide the viewer, and all the bells and whistles and
information that as an agent you and your clients want available at your
prospects finger tips. So when you register you are actually creating a
user account with them, which enables you to access and manage your
inventory of virtual tours that we create for you. For more details see
the feature list in the “Our Services” “Realtors”
section .pdf documents. Q: I am a seller working with a Realtor how do I order a virtual tour from your company? A: Likely your Realtor is not registered and already working with Ithaca Virtual tours or you wouldn’t be asking this question….you’d be enjoying the benefits already of your own virtual tour. It is actually the Realtor’s responsibility and expense to do everything they can to market and help you sell your property and right now the fastest growing and most appealing technology they could invest in and take advantage of is virtual tour photography. To save money a lot of Realtors today are taking their own pictures and assembling “do it yourself” what they call virtual tours. They are really glorified slide shows (nice for that technology) panning or zooming around a 2d picture to music. There is nothing virtual about the tours because the experience is not immersive or 3D, and they are not interactive. You cannot decide what rooms to look at, or decide to look left or right it is what the creator wants you to see. We feel we have a heck of a full service product out there available at a reasonable, affordable price, and I would employ the logic a realtor would use to persuade you (with good reason) to use their services: we are photographers it’s what we do, they are Realtors its what they do…and we both need to stick with what we do best! That’s what makes us professionals and experts in our respective fields. This is a very long answer
to your question but I am passionate about my craft and along with giving
information a certain amount of education goes along with that. So have
your Realtor visit our website and specifically view the Realtor package,
and we hope and it would be our pleasure to have your authentic
interactive virtual tour up and working for you soon. Q:What is a Virtual Tour and what makes it interactive? A: Our definition of a Virtual Tour is: a 3D 360 ° photographic panoramic representation of whatever it is you want to show people. It might be an apartment, campground, boat, car, RV – anything that you want to present completely to a end user and give them the sensation of immersing themselves into the scene as if virtually being there. These immersive scenes can be linked together into a self- guided navigateable tour. The end user can choose to interact with the tour deciding where to look or what scene they move to next or they can choose not to interact at all. 2D photography Cannot
provide this experience and moving photos within a frame and adding music
and video transitions does not fit our definition of “Virtual” Q:Why should I want or need a Virtual Tour? A: A Cost Efficient and-Effective Marketing Tool *According to Realtor.com, “cients are 38% more likely to view a property listed with a Virtual Tour than those that are not.” * “Nearly three out of four home buyers now use the internet as a tool when searching for a home.” -July 2003, National Association of Realtors *Your clientele are computer savvy, and want to make informed choices. If a virtual tour is available on your web site, then prospective clients can make their decision based on more complete information. Many of their questions (that you used to spend a great deal of time handling) will be answered in the Virtual Tour. This was how our slogan coined “If a picture is worth a thousand words imagine what a virtual tour is worth.” * You Save Time and Money This technology helps to pre-qualify your prospects and reduces repetitious showings, travel costs, and having to answer unending questions on the phone. * Interactive Viewers choose what rooms they want to see and at
their own leisure. Our Tour-to-Go feature allows viewers to
download tours right to the desktop. Tours are available online 24
hours a day, 7 days a week. Q: Why Use Ithaca Virtual Tours? A: To our knowledge at the time of publishing this statement on February, 2007.We are the only full service, locally owned and staffed, virtual tour creation and acquisition company, begun in early 2000, providing these specialized services to the Ithaca and surrounding communities. We hold that we were the fisrt company in the area to realize and utilize the power of this innovative form of marketing. * We are professional The photographers at Ithaca Virtual Tours are experienced professional photographers specializing in virtual tour photography and perfectionists. We INSIST that the photography is top shelf. * Superior Imaging Each 360˚ Image is optimized with special software to maintain superior picture quality. Tours look natural, not warped or distorted. * Intuitive Our viewer takes advantage of the latest Java scripting available. Text descriptions and HotSpots help viewers naturally understand how to walk through a tour. No downloads are needed to view our tours but your Java needs to be installed and enabled. * Online Fast We get your tour online fast, real estate tours within 48hrs. Commercial tours usually within 2 weeks. * Lightweight and Portable Our tours are small enough to send via email or
diskette and are narrow-band friendly. The Tour-To-Go
feature allows viewers to download tours right to the desktop, which can
then be burned to CD, and mailed to your prospects. Q:I’m a home seller without a realtor can I order a virtual tour from you as well? A: Absolutely! We offer
services custom tailored for your needs so see our
For Sale By Owner section on
“Our Services”
page. FYI the fee is more then what we charge a realtor, but the reason
for that is, Realtors receive a price break already built into their
pricing, and this is in anticipation of establishing long –term
relationships and doing volume business with them. I think for the
services we provide and if you compared the cost: for example: just a
paragraph in the newspaper, advertising your property, you would soon
realize how much bang for your buck you would be receiving. Not to mention
the world wide market that the local paper just would not reach Q:When will you do the photography & how does your program work? A: As soon as you download
the information package (see
“Our Services”) that is geared toward your
application, then call us so that we may consult with you to define your
needs or requirements. After we bring into focus what those requirements
are we will then custom tailor our servicec to fit your needs, create an
agreement and schedule the photo shoot. A:The short answer is yes. Let me qualify that answer. In the case of a commercial/retail tour for example the tour can be change, updated and modified or edited as your facility/retail space changes fairly easily, if you remained with our hosting of the files over the long term. We can easily edit and update our file. The same is not true for remote hosted files, you will incur the remote hosting fee of three times the local hosting values. Call us to schedule a re-shoot to update the photography. We’ll document and add the changes to your tour at the a la carte per piece price quoted For commercial/retail there is a $250 minimum fee for additional photography. Realtors consult your a la carte fees. There is a minimum fee of $50.00 to update with additional photography. Make sure to fill out your work sheets at the end of your agreement and additional photography for a listing shouldn’t be necessary
Q. Who owns the tour or the finished product? A: You do! Our services fall under the “work for Hire” category You can do whatever you want with the finished product. We recommend letting us continue to host your tour at the agreed upon annual fee though for reasons described above. If any changes are to be made, we can do it transparently. Your links and buttons on your web page never have to change once the tour is up and published to the internet. This saves both you (money) and your web master (time) to facilitate the changes.
Q: As a home seller what benefits can I expect to gain from using “Virtul Tours” to market my Home? A: *The potential to reach out to a world wide market with your property, available for viewing 24 hours a day, 7days a week, in the pristine show shape condition as the day the photography was acquired for the tour. *With virtual tours reaching more educated internet savvy prospects then any other product be it available online or in print you are` bound to get a more pre-qualified informed prospect interested in actually buying your home and not just looking.
Q: How can virtual tours benefit me the home buyer? A: As the internet is maturing and the technology is constantly improving so are the tools at our disposal. Such tools as Interactive Virtual Tours for example. Tours these days are a complete multi-media event, complete with music, narration, descriptive text and slide shows. There is something for just about everyone. It’s almost as if you were watching television. Let’s face it our society is becoming more mobile and soon gone will be the days of being tied down to a job 9 to 5. Or as a result of that new promotion you have to take a job in another area of the country, but you have limited or no time to shop for that “Holy Grail” of homes. As a virtual tour provider it is almost staggering the amount valuable information I can place directly at your fingertips (no matter where you are) possibly even over three thousand miles away, and through immersive virtual tour technology practically virtually share my corner of the planet with you! The advantage to you would almost be priceless! How about this advantage : being able to share that perfect property with friends, family, via email without ever having to be there yourself! The kids can actually choose their rooms before they move in! Talk about having a pre-qualified buyer for the seller! On second thought maybe it’s not such a good idea to share it with the kids just yet!
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