Narrowing the path of Virtual Reality The VR Expert Series with Jasper Steenkamp ( Univate – VR meets Events )

In our Virtual Reality Expert Series we bring you in this seventh episode the expert view by Jasper Steenkamp , Founder of Univate. 

Univate creates visual experiences for brands, events and festivals. It’s their goal to create experiences that last. Wether it’s in public space, for an intimate show or a permanent installation, they implement new media technologies fast and oversee creative potential, to help their clients to tell their story in new immersive ways.

Jasper is working since 1999 as creative producer, full-service media and events oriented entrepreneur.

 The experiences he produces have the power to inspire people to act. The power to excite, grow, lead or follow and to create true believers. You want a motivated, focused audience? Jasper moves the needle for you.

Together with his team is he delivering experiences and telling stories in an immersive way.    Their job is only done when the experience is real

As getting insights from VR experts within specific sector is essential, we asked Jasper for his view on the VR Future, especially in the event domain, and this after the interview with Torsten Hoffman, Co-Founder of the Virtual Reality Content Group, Pieter Van Leugenhagen, Co-Founder of Yondr, Kim Schaefer, Managing partner at Reality Matters Hugo King-Fretts from Tui , Laura Hall from the VR/AR Association and Tim Woensdregt from Relativity VR . All one by one experts in the fast growing VR world.

Marc: Tell us more about your company and how you ended up in VR

Jasper : As a creative studio, Univate is creating visual experiences for brands, events and festivals. Experiences that last and become memorable. For that reason we are always looking for new ways to stimulate the senses and really transcend a story. We design spaces and it can be hard sometimes for our clients to understand where we are heading from a practical point of view.

That’s where VR comes in really nicely for us. We use VR as a design tool for ourselves, to reflect on the path we’re heading, but also as a way to preview shows and installations.

We’ve written an application in which we can implement all of our other design tools in a 3D environment and create immersive previews for our clients. So they experience the event before it’s actually taking place.

Marc : What best VR business cases for brands you saw in the last years ?

Jasper : I’m curious to see what VR will add to communication: people from all over the world can speak to each other in VR as if they are in the same space. It will need a higher resolution of course, to make the avatar more real.

Of course there are a few great games coming out at the moment, but I’m not really a gamer, so this is not really my cup of tea.

Marc : What added value does VR give for brands?

Jasper : The VR previews make our projects tangible. All elements can be included, which makes a great way for functional and useful feedback. VR skips imagination in a way, which definitely helps putting us and our clients on the same page.

But it also adds to the imagination because of that. It happens often that, as a perfectionist, you see all these things that could’ve been better when your actually delivering a project.

The help of a VR preview creates an extra safety margin for you to deliver a truly great experience.

Marc : Many VR applications are only 360° . The future of VR requires interaction while users are wearing their glasses. How do you see this work ?

Jasper : I guess VR glasses have a strong challenge to overtake. The medium itself isn’t functional, so it’s all about finding the right applications to make it useful. More senses need to be excited to overcome it being gimmicky.

Marc : The market is critical that VR could have the same hype as 3D TV , that never really work. Why is VR different and why do you think it will be there to stay ?

Jasper : I don’t think you can compare 3D TV with VR, because they are targeting a completely different market, and eventually I believe 3D TV will become a success as well, but probably in 20 years from now. In the same time both technologies help each other to become bigger.

In the end, the physical glasses make big success hard, you’re simply not going to watch your movies or play your games with glasses on at home. The trick is to use VR without glasses.

VR, 3D, AR, are all here to stay but for specific user experiences, not all the time in everyone’s daily life.

Marc : What VR sector are you focussing on and tell us more on the projects you did ?

Jasper : The spatial design sector if you can call it that. By working on true scale in stead of modelling, we see the impact our designs can have when delivered. This is our main business at the moment.

Who knows what will follow, we are willing to create idea’s to make VR experiences more beautiful!

Marc : How do you see the future of VR distribution ( glasses in stores, at home with app stores … ) ?

Jasper : I wonder how sustainable VR is for the entertainment industry. I definitely think that more and more people will own a pair of glasses in the coming years due to Facebook and Sony’s Playstation. I’m just not sure weather the newly developed apps will keep the medium alive in our homes.

We will probably use it for professional purposes initially. The entertainment is important for imaging, but that market will need a longer time to develop

Marc : What can Univate deliver as VR partner compared to the competition ?

Jasper : Our competition isn’t found within the VR industry, we don’t focus on the medium alone. We focus on making real experiences, in the real world. By using VR as a design tool, we can communicate our ideas strongly and sometimes a VR experience is part of the complete package that our client wants us to make.

Next to that, we know how to make great experiences that look stunning. Ask us for the specials and we are happy to support any customer.

Marc : Thank you for your views on this exciting VR market Jasper. We encourage readers to reach out to Jasper and his team and learn more on how VR brings live events in another dimension .

Or are you interested to learn more about Jasper ?

Contact Jasper Steenkamp on  [email protected]

Marc Van Steyvoort

About

Jasper Steenkamp

VR Entrepreneur

Linkedin : https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/jaspersteenkamp/

eMail : [email protected]

Marc Van Steyvoort

Content and Media entrepreneur and writer

Linkedin : https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/youngdiamonds/

eMail : [email protected]

April 4, 2017, All rights reserved ?