Mark Gipson founder of Virtual Tour App (VTA) completes phase one production of the HD/HDR 360x360 interactive virtual tour of the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum. The concept of the tour is to feature vivid verbal descriptions of the garden and sculptures for low-vision and blind users. The Umlauf has the largest collection of touchable bronze sculptures in the state.
Virtual Tour App (VTA) completes production of the HD/HDR 360x360 interactive virtual tour of the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum. The concept of the tour is to feature vivid verbal descriptions of the garden and sculptures for low-vision and blind users. The Umlauf has the largest collection of touchable bronze sculptures in the state.
"We appreciate Google's efforts to legitimize the industry we specialize in but Virtual Tour App takes users beyond Google street view," said VTA’s founder & CEO Mark Gipson
The Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum represents so much that is quintessentially Austin: superb art casually set in a shady garden of native Texas plants, a natural oasis near Barton Springs and only blocks from the heart of an urban capitol city.
Originally containing small ponds used by soldiers to practice fly casting during the late 1930s and 1940s, these four acres were then forgotten for the next four decades, lost under dewberry vines and illicit dumping.
In 1991, the property was transformed into a sculpture garden for the dozens of bronze and stone pieces given to the city of Austin by noted 20th century American sculptor Charles Umlauf. There art and nature meet in serene harmony. The xeriscape garden, with its waterfall and streams muffling the sounds of traffic, gives visitors a peaceful place in which to contemplate the sculptures or their own thoughts. As the seasons change, so do the natural environment and light around each sculpture. The garden is welcoming and accessible in many different ways: visitors in wheelchairs and parents with strollers use the gravel path laid out as a giant peace symbol; children explore the grounds with Sculpture Safaris in hand, lightly touching the gleaming bronzes waxed for the visually impaired; friends talk on the secluded benches; the occasional dance or music performance is even more magical among the trees.
Eventually, the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum will also include the sculptor’s personal sculpture garden located on two adjoining acres up the hill, overlooking the Museum grounds. Angeline Umlauf began creating this unique space in the early 1950s, planting native flowering shrubs around the sculptures that Umlauf moved out of his studio as he finished them. Their six children dug paths and edged them with stones they took out of the flower beds. It was the pleasure that their many guests experienced in their private garden that inspired Charles and Angeline Umlauf to give it, along with their home, his studio and 168 pieces of sculpture to the City they loved.
Note: The bronze sculptures in the garden have been waxed so visitors who are blind or visually impaired and others can touch the sculptures. The wax protects the bronze from being damaged by the salts and oils in exploring fingers.
Austin, Texas based Virtual Tour App (VTA) founded by Mark Gipson is using the latest software, production equipment, advanced photography techniques and embedded multimedia to create state of the art virtual reality applications that are rapidly defining the future of this new industry.
"We appreciate Google's efforts to legitimize the industry we specialize in but Virtual Tour App takes users beyond Google street view," says VTA’s founder & CEO Mark Gipson
Austin, Texas based Virtual Tour App (VTA) is using the latest software, production equipment, advanced photography techniques and embedded multimedia to create state of the art virtual reality applications that are rapidly defining the future of this new industry.
Each tour VTA produces is designed to meet the needs and goals of specific clients. Our tours are tools for sales, marketing, public relations and branding. VTA likes creative challenges such as voice guided narratives, ADA compliance features, private password protected areas, tours themed for different audiences and in multiple languages.
VTA hosts tours on high speed, secure, managed cloud servers to allow VTA clients to add nodes, enhance and edit the multi-media within their tours over time. We can integrate the client's website, social media and their promotions into the tours.
Virtual Tour App works on PC, MAC, laptops, tablets, smart phones, Android, iPhone and iPads without requiring any downloads or additional software. Users can navigate the tours by mouse, by touch screen or utilizing the gyroscopes in the iPhone and iPad.
Virtual Tour App offers clients the ability to embed maps, website links, menus, HD video and HDR photographs, pop-up text, voice narration, music, e-commerce and other forms of multimedia into their virtual tours. We have the capability of editing and adding nodes to our virtual tours over time, and can create private password-protected tours for corporate training and other large-scale industry initiatives.
VTA offers enhanced ADA compliance features like voice-narration for blind and low vision individuals, and embedded American Sign Language (ASL) for deaf and low hearing individuals. Our tours also can be themed in multiple languages for businesses that cater to international clients.
Virtual Tour App now has production teams in Austin, Dallas, Houston, LA, Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, Honolulu, NYC, Miami and Northern California. We have traveling production teams available worldwide for international projects, and business development teams in Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, India, Mid East and Asia-Pacific.
Virtual Tour App (VTA) is primarily focusing on new projects from the following target industries: high-end commercial real estate, architecture, construction, interior design, nightclubs, resorts, hotels, grocery, restaurants, coffee shops, music venues, spa, fitness, retail, advertising and marketing companies, public relations, event planners, theme parks, private schools, golf courses, race tracks, marinas, auto dealerships, movie theaters, performing arts, conference, convention and event centers, airports, museums and sports stadiums as well as non-profit projects like our VTA tours of the Austin Ronald McDonald House, Texas School for the Deaf and Dell Children’s Medical Center.
VTA helps clients sell more by showing more. Contact VTA today and step into the future.
