CITE 360 is the company that has developed the technology to complete bespoke 3D virtual models to allow for interactive and engaging multimedia products.
Sarah Seddon, founder and director of CITE 360, was in Rochester a week ago to photograph and record at six different locations in the town.
She was a judge with the Victorian Tourism Industry Council’s awards program and “fell in love’’ with Rochester when she was one of the judges used to assess the town during the recent titles.
“That was when I made the decision I wanted to offer the town something. Rochester will be the first town to be virtualised using the 360-degree experience,” Ms Seddon said.
It was the Melbourne-based tourism expert that reached out to Rochester tourism operators to offer her services, free of charge, for the full-day project.
Ms Seddon and her chief technology officer Marc Fernando visited Rochester Historical Society, Iddles Lane, the silo art project, mural trail and art carvings to prepare material for the interactive online promotion.
A former chair of marketing organisation Destination Melbourne, Ms Seddon has judged the Victorian tourism awards for six years and found a date in her diary to offer her services to Rochester.
“I contacted Megan (Keating) and made a no-strings attached offer to prepare an embedded 360-degree immersive experience,” she said.
Accompanying the company director and tech expert to Rochester was the real star of the show, the unique contraption which captured the images — aptly named Theia.
Theia was a Greek mythological female Titan known as the Goddess of Sight.
The 8k resolution and 360-degree capability of the tripod and drone-mounted camera certainly qualifies as godlike.
Ms Seddon said the use of the equipment, along with her and Marc’s time was her way of showing her appreciation of Rochester’s efforts to make an impact in the Victorian tourism space.
“The concept is to replicate, online, someone walking though the building or alongside the particular attraction,” she said.
“They’ll be able to see everything up close, even read plaques or gain a detailed understanding of the attraction.
“By embedding multimedia into the 3D model it helps the story come to life.
“But it is not designed to replace a physical visit. We encourage people to come here for themselves.”
CITE 360 has been used to complete projects at the MCG, for a Canberra tourism promotion and to promote Prosecco Road in the King Valley.
“We normally do very big projects, so Rochester is our first regional Australian town,” Ms Seddon said.
But the job is only half done as the pair will return to Rochester to complete a night-time virtual tour.
“We are planning that now. It will mean an overnight stay, maybe a couple of nights,’’ she said.
Ms Seddon said she would be providing the completed product for individual use and it would therefore appear on several different platforms.
Once the footage is compiled it is put through artificial intelligence and the final product has aerial drone footage added.
“This will be probably mean I am disqualified from judging Rochester next year,’’ she said.
Ms Seddon said the new promotional tool would promote online reviews, which was one of the major areas of the tourism awards that affected the Rochester result.
People interested in taking the virtual tour will be able to do so in the coming weeks on one of the Rochester tourism site’s online platforms.
Ms Seddon said the product would also allow a voice-over to be added to the virtual tour.