Why Matterport?

Why Matterport? That is a question I have asked myself many times, believe me. Maybe we should just start by

How I came to Matterport

In November 2015, I was probably the first German Matterport customer to import the Pro1 camera from the USA to Berlin.  At the time, my first motivation for purchasing this camera was the possibility of being able to digitize locations highly efficiently in order to obtain image material for virtual reality productions .

Like many others, I was blown away by the first impressions I had with the Oculus VR Development Kit 2  in 2014. I was so enthusiastic and convinced of the market potential that I decided to become an entrepreneur in this area. So I founded MESH IMAGES BERLIN in the summer of 2015 - with the original focus as a VR production studio. At that time, reality-based VR content was not easy to produce and 360-degree cameras did not yet exist.

But according to everything I was able to research on the Internet, with the Matterport Pro1 camera you should be able to download the finished photo panoramas in a decent resolution shortly after taking the photo and even get an image of the scanned room as a 3D file - that sounded promising to me.

After my first test scan with the Matterport Pro1 camera (serial number C620) on November 15, 2015, I was absolutely thrilled.

See for yourself! 

3DTour: The first test scan from November 15, 2015 in our co-working space in Berlin-Neukölln 

 

This capture was made several years ago now and I have to say: from today's perspective, there are completely different factors that excite me about this tour than back then.

And that brings us right to the heart of the matter.  

 

#1 Re-enter memories with Matterport

Sure, at first it feels, to put it bluntly, "totally crazy" to be able to enter this location or this memory again today. Because that's exactly what it looked like back then - pretty messy - and as you can see, the design was way ahead of its time and even then they consistently used sustainable materials.

 

#2 The content machine for all assets from just one shot

Of course, the Matterport camera also fulfilled my original expectations, because I was able to download all the photos after taking the shot and also had immediate access to this  3D file  (from the 3D view) for further VR productions.  

But nobody was interested in the VR productions anymore. All of the people I spoke to were blown away by the fact that, in addition to the great virtual tour, there was also the option to download snapshot images and order a floor plan.

Matterport = tour + photos + floor plan. This equation still applies. 

And today there are many more assets that can be pulled from a Matterport 3D tour (paid), but more on that in a moment.

 

#3 The 3D tour feeling - more than just from photo to photo

The fact that this recording feels so incomparably realistic is of course due to the unique Matterport 3D Tour solution , which combines the 3D scan data with the high-resolution 360° photos; back then only with 32 megapixels, today with high-resolution 134 megapixels per panorama.

And it is also due to the unique 3D view and the dynamic 3D tour player, which gives you a comprehensive understanding of the spatial relationships at first glance  - even years later. No other floor plan or photo collection can achieve this at this speed.

And you know what makes me particularly happy: this first tour from 2015 is now also available as a VR production, which leads us wonderfully into the updates.

 

#4 Automatic Updates - every tour is always up-to-date

This 3D tour has remained largely unchanged since it was recorded. The recording data and my edits are still the same 3D tour as it was many years ago. I haven't changed anything.

But if you look closely, you will notice many new additional features that were not available back then, e.g. 

• the measuring function in the ruler icon ,
• die VR Option,
• the share icon and also
• the magnifying glass at the top left is new. 

Tour movements (transitions) have also become smoother and better today than they were back then.

These updates and other new features  were automatically included in the Matterport hosting. Not a single minute of additional effort was required to install and activate the new features shown here.

And so this 3D tour scan from 2015 still looks totally up-to-date, apart from the lower image resolution. 

It is worth taking a look at the most important Matterport innovations since 2014.

Illustration "The Matterport Timeline" - based on an idea by Hopscotch Interactive

I will go into more detail about the individual events in the Matterport timeline in a later post, but what is important to me in this graphic is the development of Matterport from a  virtual tour company to a  digital twin company .

Because that brings us to the next three points that speak for the Matterport platform.

 

#5 Matterport Hosting - everything is fine

Hosting with Matterport is not cheap. Annual fees often start in the 3-digit range and are quickly in the 4-digit range for some models and then eventually in the 5-digit range. But in return you get automatic updates and a lot more.

It is important to remember that Matterport offers an archiving system that works in a standardized way , meaning that it can continue to be understood regardless of the fate of individual people or institutions and that can be used to continue working at a later date. 

All assets are hosted within these fees and can then be accessed even after years. This guarantees that the Matterport Cloud is always kept in order .

Let’s take a closer look at what this looks like in our example.

Images: Matterport Cloud - Asset Management - Download of the snapshot  from 20.11.2015 with dimensions in inches

 

The  cloud connection and the standardization and, of course, this lock-in,  where you can't just take everything with you, change everything or individualize everything; in my opinion, these characteristics can also be seen as strengths of the system - at least from an institutional point of view.

 

#6 More productivity - communication tools and integrations

A look at the Matterport timeline also reveals another important development. Matterport has long since moved beyond simply capturing locations and making them available as virtual tours. Rather, Matterport is more concerned with the question of how users 

• can manage the data
• how to share data with team members
• how they can work together better with the help of simple  communication tools and
• how they can use the data via plugins and integrations  at the touch of a button in the business applications that create added value for them.

Let’s take a quick look at some of these tools and integrations:

Matterport Tags (Mattertags)

Matterport tags are interactive touchpoints that can be used to point out features and details or to generally add context and story . Tags can contain text, audio, video, web content or even files . These can be linked or hosted directly on Matterport.

Matterport Views and Layers

Matterport Views and Layers are different versions of a Matterport Digital Twin for different user groups (Views) or with thematically grouped  features  (Layers), i.e. in particular with grouped tags, but also other features such as measurements or Matterport Notes.

Matterport Notes 

Matterport Notes are similar to the tags in the views and layers, but can do much more. The functionality is comparable to using a comment function in a forum. Users can address each other in the notes and notify each other by email , reply to each other in these notes and can thus have a consistently documented conversation and complete tasks in the 3D tour. 

Matterport Sharing Options

There are now several sharing options, from simply sharing the 3D tour to sharing a deep link to a specific tour position and direction of view, to sharing a 3D tour with password protection and even securely embedding the tour in company portals without these tours being able to be accessed from outside via the link (Private Model Embed).

Matterport Autodesk Integration

Autodesk is mostly concerned with construction projects and this is also the case here: since July 2023, you can access  Matterport 3D tour scans or the 3D files (Matterpak, E57, BIM file) directly from the Autodesk Construction Cloud . A Revit plugin and an Autodesk BIM 360 integration are also available. In this way, Matterport speeds up the processes surrounding as-built documentation and allows planning and construction teams to work together more efficiently . See the 3D data packages that are already available today here (using our scan from November 15, 2015 as an example)

Figure: Matterport Cloud - 3D data for download

 

Matterport AWS IoT Twinmaker Integration

The AWS IoT TwinMaker platform also has a Matterport integration and allows the Matterport Digital Twins to be imported directly into TwinMaker scenes. Immediately ready for real IoT processes in the 3D tour.

And if you know how quickly even large Matterport scans can be rendered and updated, you can understand how much the processes surrounding real estate projects and plant construction can be accelerated with the help of these tools and integrations.

 

#7 Matterport Digital Twins - Cost efficiency in the real estate lifecycle

The Matterport Digital  Location Twins are  the first simple step towards greater efficiency and effectiveness in your business processes – across all phases of your property’s life cycle. 

Figure: Cost progression in the real estate life cycle 

By using Matterport across all phases of the property life cycle, significant savings in planning, construction and operating costs  can be  achieved. Matterport is quick, easy, understandable and perfectly documented throughout. All information can be accessed in one system on request : photo documentation, virtual tour, 3D scan data, 3D data, correspondence and change requests (notes), info tags, and much more.

I therefore recommend that you consistently use Matterport throughout all phases of your real estate project. 

Maybe not for high-precision 3D scan data, because here you should continue to rely on precision scanners in my opinion, but as a visual reference and as a fall-back position in the event of data loss (which is unfortunately still the norm at the moment), Matterport is a terrific addition and will pay for itself many times over. 

You can learn more about the use of Matterport in the real estate lifecycle in the next blog post. 

And if you don't want to wait that long and want to find out more today, let's just talk  - just make an appointment .