Fectar, developer of VR and AR platform, will open its first VR & AR Experience Center in Den Bosch, the Netherlands, in May 2023, especially for companies and schools to discover the possibilities of the metaverse. The grand opening is scheduled for June 15, 2023. At this high-profile location, close to Central Station, interested parties are introduced to how they can collaborate multi-device, multi-user in VR and AR. During the workshops and walk-in evenings that are organized there, companies and schools get to work with all kinds of different headsets and demos.
“The period we are in now with the metaverse, we have also been there with the internet,” says Eugène Kuipers, founder and CEO of Fectar. ‘That is the period 2000 – 2005 in which there was a lot of negative talk about the internet. But building the real added value of these new applications only started then. And it really starts with the metaverse now. You have to get started now, because once it goes wild, you will be at the back of the queue.”
VR & AR Experience Center to try out the metaverse
The phase we are in now with the metaverse is mainly a phase of experimentation and testing. And that is exactly what Fectar’s VR & AR Experience Center was set up for, says Kuipers. “In the center we organize various workshops, training courses and walk-in evenings for business and education with a lunch or a pizza. Companies and schools can be inspired there, but also get started with the metaverse.”
But what is the metaverse then, according to Kuipers? “It’s all about access, creativity and collaboration. It’s about being able to work with anyone, anywhere. This means that you can work with any device to access the metaverse.” Kuipers always uses an example where an American company has a product produced in China. To collaborate, they use 3D workspaces in the metaverse with 3D digital twins of products.
Multi-device collaboration with multiple users
In concrete terms, this means, for example, that the sales rep in the US uses a Meta Quest 2 to speak to a manager at the factory in China who works with a Pico VR headset. Because they have technical questions, an engineer who is at a conference participates in the same VR session using a smartphone. “That’s the metaverse: everyone can collaborate, platform and device independent. The boundaries between VR and AR will then disappear.”
At Fectar’s VR & AR Experience Center in Den Bosch, companies and schools will soon be able to experience this multi-device, multi-user metaverse for themselves. “The trend around the metaverse is inevitable and it will play an increasingly important role in the world. If you don’t pick it up now, you’ll be the next BlockBuster or V&D. And at our Experience Center you can get started with it easily and concretely.”
