Anyone doing Mobile Setups?

thenexusvr

Hey guys! Me and my partners are thinking about doing mobile VR services for events and such. I am interested to know how successful that has been for others. If any of you are willing to share photos of your mobile setups that would be awesome! We have been doing brick and mortar for a year now and are really skeptical about the viability of a mobile branch. I am kind of looking for someone to prove me wrong! Haha!

vrroom

Hi Jeremey,

Bruce here from VRROOM Australia, we are thinking of the exact same thing. Just purchased additional hardware etc and waiting for it to come in. I would be keen to keep in contact and share thought, ideas etc.

rwilliams

Hello, Rachel with Lucid VR here. We have done a few mobile events so far. They have definitely helped us get the word out and we have seen customers come in from these events as well. The way we look at (mind you we've only been open for 6 months now) is it's part event for extra cash flow but it's also marketing. So far we've done a few school fairs for their field trip fundraising, After Prom, a "Do Good Date Night" with our local Food Bank, and a movie night at the local Air Force Base. The one big down side to them, is these events were pretty much all over the weekends, times where you are already going to be busy.

We also use TapMango for customer tracking. One of the things they have is smart key-cards (almost exactly like a Kroger keychain card) which I can load stuff on and give them a name. This way I can track much easier how many people are coming back from a specific event that we run. I can also, thank god, bulk load them to make things much much easier for large events.

Our basic setup is, a computer, a Vive Pro, two light house poles (link to what we use at the bottom), power extension cords for the lighthouses so the cords don't drape (though I just saw someone who had a battery pack attached to the lighthouse pole, think I'm going to switch to that), and then other basic stuff.

One thing that we are thinking for our new market though, is that they will make our other marketing more powerfull as we will be bypassing the problem of "What's VR?" as now I've exposed people to VR, and put them in a nice headset.

Light Poles https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L4YR0BS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Swivel tops for light poles https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012FTXOW4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Lighthouse Extension Cords (for if you don't battery pack them) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076D32CF5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Mini keyboard/mouse combo https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KF9IVKC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also, grab a wireless internet adapter for the computer.

vrgamingpv

Go 4 it, have brought 2 VR pcs to many places. Setup will take time 2 get right but can b done. Great 2 expose folks 2 VR.

I use 2 base stations up high and 2 VR pcs. Good luck.

VirtualOdysseys

I actually started out as a mobile offering and will be opening my first brick and mortar in a few months.

I can’t say the mobile has been all that profitable, but then I haven’t pushed for a lot of business since my long-term goal has been a full arcade all along.

That being said, I can do up to 8 stations fairly easily, using Global Truss 6’ towers and setup/break-down is about 2 hours for all 8 if I have enough help.

Here is a pic of a 4-station setup:

As others have said, it’s a great way to give people a ‘taste’ of VR and I plan on continuing mobile setups for marketing purposes, if nothing else. :slight_smile:

vrcorner

VirtualOdysseys

@VirtualOdysseys looks good. With your set up I would recommend keep it to 2 stations. As you are pretty much using one sensor on one side, the other sensor would be blocked from the other side. I've done 4 mobile stations before but I would put it at 4 corners of the square.

VirtualOdysseys

vrcorner

Thanks!

Actually, the above worked fine. While we did have a few momentary tracking issues, it was nothing major. Next time I’ll put the towers a bit closer, though, to improve coverage.

deichernc

Much like @VirtualOdysseys, I've started up portable/mobile for events/parties/office groups, with brick-and-mortar in the works. I went with a "self-contained" laptop-based setup with OG Vive and tripods for the lighthouses. Link box is velcro-mounted under the platform. I usually have a 6'x6' yoga mat that I use to define a minimum floor space (and help with knowing your boundaries). I've also found that for the most part, putting both lighthouses on the same side of the mat and using the sync cable actually works very well in tighter spaces. Normal setup for one station takes 20 minutes tops.

Looks like this (tripods not shown, power strip with 2 USB slots for the controllers is behind on the floor.)

seth

I've got a pretty slick mobile setup and no brick and mortar location.

There are many additional complications when going mobile, especially for multiplayer.

Edit: I have a big event over Memorial Day weekend. I'll post a few pictures of the setup afterwards.

deichernc

seth

That's a very good point, @seth - I don't do any multistation/multiplayer mobile. I'll also add - you REALLY have to know your space in advance! Today I had a demo set up in a business networking event, and even though I expected and configured for standing only, it still ended up being a little tight for arm movement (there were a LOT more people standing around than I anticipated). Luckily this particular audience was amazed enough with just looking around... :D

VR-ARRIVAL

That's a very interesting point that is brought up about the multiplayer modes - with the assumption that the complications are mainly due to internet speeds for mobile set-ups (unless there are other factors???). This maybe should be part of another topic, but does anyone have any numbers on what sort of download/upload speeds are required for different popular multiplayer games as that could allow a more informed decision on what games could potentially work with a Wifi Hotspot scenario on a mobile set-up? Obviously this would change depending on the number of stations but if we consider many of the groups would use at least 2 stations.

seth

VR-ARRIVAL

Educating staff and users on how to get into and out of multiplayer games is quite tricky as well.

It sounds like SpringboardVR's new CDS might be a step towards making that type of work flow uniform.

Spectrum_Waylon

This was our most recent setup...

We just got this in, haven't had a chance to put it up because of rain...

Mobile is the best form of advertising in my opinion, we will see how profitable it is itself. Our plan is to find a spot we are at every weekend (currently we are working with a sports complex that already has golf simulators and is full every weekend). The idea is if we don't have a big event planned at a convention center or something of the sorts then we will always have it running at the sports complex. An employee can run it alone, so hopefully it is just additional revenue for us.

VirtualOdysseys

Spectrum_Waylon

Wow, @Spectrum_Waylon, that tent is awesome! Where did you get it? Do you have a link?

CCVR

Jason here - from Central Coast Virtual Reality in Australia - we have done a few mobile setups and they are a bit of work but we get regular customers who come in afterwards saying they tried it here or there. So the return isn’t on the day - but in the time purchased in the Studio. Always get a good crowd .. this is one we did 2 weeks ago at the ComicCon

seth

Here are two amusing shots from over the weekend of my mobile setup. Outdoors and in the rain. Also artist guest of honor at Miscon: Jeff Fennel working with Tilt Brush for the first time.

thedomain

Hi All,

I started mobile and now slowly moving into arcade mode. I found that the mobile option is way more labour intensive to pack in and out...But certainly take the "mountain to the masses" so to speak.

I have build 4 of these mobile rigs for easy deployment at our facility and external:

Here is a picture of a local exhibition I hired to...this was a 40 min set up and very easy.

I think it is worth it to try what you can to build the cashflow...its slow going at first but word of mouth soon gets around.

Good luck to all.

Spectrum_Waylon

VirtualOdysseys

@VirtualOdysseys Sorry for the slow reply. Did not see you tagged me. We ordered the tent from https://www.instantpromotion.com/. I absolutely love the tent and we should be putting it up at a science center in our city in September.

Spectrum_Waylon

VirtualOdysseys

Here are pictures of it up

Spectrum_Waylon

VR-ARRIVAL

Spectrum_Waylon

I like the flexible rods you have for the cable management in the background - nice idea Waylon!