​Here are our top tips for hosting your Virtual Reality Training sessions. 

There are two different types of training that can be used to train your crew, In Store or Centralized training. As with all training preparation is key to your success. 

In Store Training

1. A week before being in store, call ahead, communicate to the manager that you'll be hosting a Virtual Reality Training day. 
2. Pre charge your VR headsets, pack antibacterial cleaning wipes and spare controller batteries
3. Split your day into sessions, 9am - 11am and 2pm - 4pm  (avoid the rush hours) 
4. Set up at a table where you and two or three staff can sit without disturbing the rest of the restaurant 
5. Connect the VR headset to the store public wifi and confirm your live connection
6. Pull 2 - 3 crew out of rotation allow for 25 minutes for each person
7. Discuss with the crew what you will be covering, put context around the value of the training and what they will take away from it
8. Run the VR Training application 12-15 minutes. 
9. Recap after the training he key points and discuss with the crew. 
10. Clean the headsets between uses and repeat.

VR training is consistent, allows for multiple people to be trained without disrupting the regular shift pattern, gives you a digital record and can be completed almost anywhere. VR is an excellent solution and when paired with an experience trainer the messages will last forever. ​

1. Lighting. Lighting is probably the single most challenging element of shooting VR if shooting anywhere other than the great outdoors.  Car interiors, inside homes and inside businesses can present lighting issues.  Make sure to light up subjects’ faces by hiding lights out of sight of the camera.​
2. Lens. This one is kind of a no-brainer, but clean the lenses often.  Because 360 cameras have lenses that bulge out, the lenses aren’t protected as well as a traditional camera lens.  And because there are lenses on all sides, the odds of smudging a lens increases exponentially.
3. Measure. If shooting multiple scenes that need to seamlessly cut together, make sure to measure a couple of things…height of the camera off the ground and the distance of the camera to the subject.
4. Seams. Be aware of how the 360 video will stitch together. Be cognizant of people falling on a stitch line and avoid it when possible.
5. Proximity. While this goes along the lines of measure, the proximity of a subject will drastically change how an audience engages with the 360 video.  Too close, it’s intrusive and could be seen as poor production.  Too far and the focus might shift from the subject to the environment.  So be aware of what is being shot, why and where the subjects are placed.
6. Look around. Starbucks on Game of Thrones. It is so easy to leave something in view of the camera when shooting 360.  Look around and then look around again to make sure that scripts are out of sight, people are hidden and Starbucks hasn’t been left on a medieval table in plain sight.
7. Audio. Don’t rely solely on the on-board camera audio. Sometimes it’s sufficient, but oftentimes, it’s just not good enough.  Mic the actors. Hide Zoom recorders where possible.  Capture audio in multiple ways so there is a backup for the backup.

Hopefully this list helps avoid some of the pitfalls of shooting in 360.  Tantrum Lab has developed proprietary lighting systems and standard procedures to avoid these mistakes.  And remember, there’s a difference between Virtual Reality and 360.  To learn more, check out the article on the differences between Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and 360.
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​With a $1,000 budget for improvements, should a business or restaurant paint the storefront or invest in staff?
 
It’s an interesting dilemma many business owners face when limited by budgets: keep a business looking professional, clean, inviting and on-brand or invest in the staff?
 
Remember when people used to sit in restaurants! – a favorite restaurant for a Friday date may not have been the one with the most expensive chairs or the finest linens but it certainly wasn’t the place that got the order wrong or the staff was rude.
 
Looking at restaurants specifically, every business owner knows great staff are the best way to keep customers coming back.

So why invest in training staff:

1. REVIEWS- This is the number one reason people buy, don’t buy, visit or don’t visit a business.  Investing in a restaurant's staff with proper training will ensure a great experience for customers, generate 5-star reviews, keep them coming back and encourage new visitors that are looking at Yelp or Google Reviews for insight into a place to eat.
2. CONSISTENCY – This sounds like a no-brainer but a consistent, on-brand experience that is predictable means a restaurant or business is always performing at it’s peak.
3. STAFF RETENTION – There are two things here; hiring staff is labor intensive, time consuming and just a general pain. The second is when staff is retained, those individuals grow into better staff and train more staff! It’s a win – win.
4. EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE – If a staff have been given clear, consistent goals and shown how to achieve those goals they can hit target goals.
5. INCREASED REVENUE – This is the best part, when staff perform better there’s less wastage, less down time and fast turned tops so the restaurant can serve more customers and drive return business.

 
Like everything it’s a balance, a restaurant needs to be kept clean and welcoming but the first thing to do that will bring results may well be to support the staff with deeper training. Virtual Reality is an excellent tool, one that helps keep focus and drive true information retention. Visit TANTRUM Lab for more details.  

The Oculus Go was discontinued a few weeks ago, but we're really not that bothered! (Shh) there's a better option already and we've been building for it! 

You're thinking about using VR in your company but how do you know which headset is right for you? This quick video will start to give you some ideas. 

Three types of headsets: 

Oculus Go: 

• Three degrees of movement
• Very simple set up 
• Single controller
• Fully self contained
• Has been discontinued, BUT! There's a  new solution (we'll talk about in our next video)

Oculus Quest: 

• Six degrees of movement - (ability to walk, bend, jump in an environment)
• Two controllers
• Ability to run more complicated training
• Is the main Oculus platform going forward 

Oculus Rift S:

• Six degrees of movement 
• Requires a PC to run the headset wired connection
• Ability to run very complicated training
• Can connect third party hardware (joysticks, wheels, peddles Etc.) 

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