Recently I had the opportunity to create a Street View virtual tour of Sentry Equipment Corp in Oconomowoc. This forward-thinking manufacturer is not only employee-owned and was awarded a top workplace 7 years running, their beautiful facility is organized, clean, safe and sustainably designed. A perfect subject to show off on Google Street View. By hiring me to create their Street View virtual tour, Sentry Equipment Corp now has the capability to show potential customers a high resolution, interactive walkthrough of their facility, without the need for the customer to travel. Sentry Equipment Corp can even share specific areas of the tour – or highlight a specific piece of equipment – by sending an easily-sharable short link that directs the customer to the exact view that the company wants them to see. In a blog post on the Sentry website, Rick Steinke, Vice President of Operations, explained the benefits that this virtual tour delivers for their operations.
The virtual tour is an exceptional way for out-of-state or overseas customers to see our manufacturing facility and its capabilities. – Rick Steinke, Vice President of Operations
Sentry Equipment Corp also created a dedicated page on their website to present the virtual tour to website visitors. Since Street View works across all platforms, devices and browsers, the company can be sure that their visitors are able to make full use of the virtual tour. I shot the facility on a Friday in October, after the majority of employee-owners had finished work for the week. Photography was completed in about an hour and half, with dozens of High Dynamic Range photos captured to give visitors a full walkthrough of the plant. Working with the Sentry Marketing team, I ensured that the photography captured high-quality views of certain areas, specific machinery, and ready-to-ship products that were critical to highlight. Once the individual RAW images were captured, I stitched them into 360 degree “equirectangular” images using professional panoramic imaging software. Then, using 20+ years of photography and digital imaging experience, I processed the images to deliver the best possible representation of the facility. The final images were then uploaded to Google’s servers and I began the work of building the virtual tour in 3D space on Google Maps. All in all, I was able to complete the tour quickly, delivering the published tour only 4 days later. After nearly 2 years as a Street View | Trusted Photographer, I’ve enjoyed creating extremely useful and highly affordable virtual tours for over 100 forward-thinking Wisconsin businesses. I continue to improve my process and skills to quickly and effectively deliver tours, and help my clients improve their online presence and build their businesses. Contact me soon if you would like to discuss how Street View can increase your visibility online. Take a look at the Sentry Equipment Corp Street View tour below, and CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT STREET VIEW FOR YOUR BUSINESS.