Implementing Iris VR into a Global Design Company

CALUM REEKIE: Thank you for attending today. Our case study is on implementing Iris VR into a global design company. And the design company is Buro Happold. So to get started, just I have some quick introductions.

My name is Calum Reekie. I'm from Buro Happold, office in Edinburgh. I'm an associate from the structural engineering background. And I've been pushing the use of one click VR technology within the company. And I'll just hand you over to my co-speaker here, Des Kinlough.

DES KINLOUGH: My name is Des Kinlough. I'm based in the Leeds office of Buro Happold. I'm an associate director and I'm also the UK BIM lead. And I supported Calum on the implementation of VR technology into the company.

So a quick introduction to Buro Happold, we're a worldwide engineering company. We have 31 offices with over 3,000 staff. And we pride ourselves on being pioneers in the digital design space. We cover all major engineering disciplines from a consultancy point of view. Our main ones being structural, civil, and MEP. But we have over 31 engineering specialisms.

We also operate in one collaboration space using BIM 360 and ACC.

CALUM REEKIE: So yeah, in today's session, we're going to cover you on our journey of implementing Iris VR into the company. So yeah, we're going to talk over what was our VR problem versus our solution, the pilot, the hardware, and the software investment, and the simple VR strategy, and the challenges, lessons learned, and outcomes achieved. And then we're going to finish with a Q&A.

So what was our VR problem versus our solution?

DES KINLOUGH: So I'm sure all of you are asking the same question. Why do you want to invest in VR? So the reasons we did was it's an emerging technology. We started this process in 2019. We also seen it as an enhanced design visualization capability. It would give us that extra layer for visualization. It would assist in work winning, because we were noticing a lot of bids who were asking for a VR strategy. And we wanted obviously to keep ahead of our competitors, and we obviously do that.

CALUM REEKIE: So what was our VR problem versus our solution? The VR problem we had at the time was basically a lack of VR hardware around the globe. We had a lack of collaborative software for actually delivering projects. And we had no clear global VR strategy. And it was just seen as a bit of a toy. And we had basically a lack of VR skills.

So the Buro Happold VR solution, it was really quite a simple solution. It was to basically invest in additional hardware, a new bit of software which was going to help deliver our VR strategy. Then the next part of the solution was really to implement a simple VR strategy within the company. And our vision was this three platform levels of VR to deliver a project. And a bit later on, we're going to talk about the strategy and these platform levels.

So it's great that we had our solution. But, no, our company in your companies there are not just going to take it on board or buy, go and buy hardware and software. So what we had to do was within the company we had to do a pilot. And basically what we were doing is we're going through our technology board for funding. And this was a four-step approach for getting the technology funding.

And so it originally started in the UK, which was basically the Edinburgh office explored it first. And being honest, we saw Iris VR on-- it was like AEC Magazine back in the day, and really liked it. So we got the trial. And we thought, wow, this is really that software that the company was missing. And we really should have it.

So again, so we shared it with our wider UK office. So Bath and Leeds got involved. We played around with it on projects. And we all had the same conclusion that this was something we were definitely missing, and the company should really buy this.

So what we did was we then introduced it to out global technology leader at the time, Neil. And yeah, again off the bat he agreed. He thought this was a very powerful tool. But again, he wasn't just going to just off the back of that, he really challenged us. He wanted us to basically provide more robust evidence. So the next part was to do a global trial.

So what we did then is we got more people involved, so we did five global live projects at the time. And it basically involved seven of our global offices. So an example was our LA office and Bath office. They were working on a football stadium at the time. So that was one of the projects. And then we also had architects involved in this trial. So it wasn't just Buro Happold's opinion. No, we're trying to get external feedback if we invested in this software.

So what we did was we sent all the teams questions and aims, because we really wanted to gather as much intel as we could. And then at the same time, we reviewed some more industry software that was out there, just to make sure we're going down the right route. And after that, we then basically all sat down, each of the team leaders and the teams, fed back all the information back to the technology leader. And obviously, that gave the technology leader an opportunity to go a wee bit more deeper into all the trials. And ultimately, the trial was a success.

So it basically gave us enough evidence then to say, OK, you've got the green light to put forward a formal proposal to the board. So I'll hand you back over to Des. And he'll talk over you the next part.

DES KINLOUGH: So, yeah. We've done the trials. We convinced the technology leader that it was worth investing in. But we obviously have to put the numbers together. Because we have to get approval from the technology board. So there was the costs involved, which involved hardware, new hardware to buy, software. But also we had to identify potential savings to offset that investment.

So the savings we identified were coordination, work winning, and problem solving, and savings on traveling to meetings because we could use the in-house meeting facility inside Iris software. And then also we had the investment of the VR adoption cost and sponsoring a VR champion per office. So we done all calculations, and it came out positive the return on investment. And we done it over a three-year cycle. And the numbers stacked up.

Our vision was to roll it out to all offices. But we had different scenarios put together. So the technology leader presented it to the technology board. And we got approval for funding for nine offices for licenses and hardware, which was great. It wasn't all the offices, but it was mainly aimed at offices with a lot of staff and a lot of major projects. So we got the funding. And it was ready to go.

So Calum will take you through in a bit more details on the return on investment.

So, like we say, we identified some return on investment wins. So enhanced coordination was one. We looked at, there was 80 projects that were live at the time of doing our ROI. And we identified through our pilots that we could identify class detection issues a lot quicker, a lot faster, and really major issues. So we identified that whole class detection time spent identifying those issues could be reduced by 50%.

Work winning, we identified that we'd win one project per year based on VR because of the brand enhancing it gave us in these bids. And then enhanced problem solving, like we said before, working out issues that you can see in projects, space planning. We identified half of the projects would need that, and they would gain 15 hours. And we also had time saved on meetings. So using the inbuilt facility inside Iris to have immersive meetings rather than go and travel to meetings, we identified time saved with attending those meetings would be 50% on those projects.

CALUM REEKIE: So yeah. So that was great. Now we've got the investment and the funding from the board. So what did we invest in? So basically the new VR hardware investment we purchased was basically we got ourselves new VR spec laptops, HTC Vive headsets, we got ourselves a Meta Quest headsets. And basically what we were trying to do was create a VR Hub per office, the main offices they got the funding, so that was the five UK offices, are Berlin, Warsaw, LA, and New York.

So the VR Hub is like this kind of go-to area where the laptop is set, the HTC Vive is all plugged in. It's all set up. The Quests would be located in the same area. So people could go and pick them up, as and when they pleased, and use them whatever they were required.

And then since we've had the investment from the board, actually Mumbai, our Munich, Rotterdam, and Dubai office have now recently got themselves Quests and kind of started on the VR journey too. And if you think to yourself, well, why did we go for Quests and HTC Vive? It was basically our media team already had a Vive, and also they hadn't rolled it out in such a big scale. But they had played with a Quest before.

So it gave us that guarantee that we shouldn't have too many problems. And so yeah, that's the reason why we went for Quest and HTC Vives. So when we're talking hubs, what we're trying to do was top left, this is our Leeds office. But probably within the company, Leeds and LA are probably the two nicest set up. So this is what we mean by hubs. So you can see the VR and laptop all set up against the black wall in the corner.

So anybody in that office, it's like a go-to place with the clients in it. It's like a nice place to go, again, if you have the Quest, plenty of space. So that is like the dreams kind of set up.

But no, on the right hand side here, this is the Edinburgh office. So every office is different, depending on itself. But you don't need a massive area. But the key to the VR Hub is to basically have a go-to space. So it gives the opportunity to be in the office to go to that machine, make use of that machine. It's not hidden away in a cupboard. It's accessible. So that was the vision.

But the great thing about the hardware we got was like in the bottom left. When we go on our travels, we can take Quests. They're very easy to carry and travel with. But the great thing with the hub itself, the VR Hub, the laptop and the HTC Vive, you can actually just stick that in a suitcase and take it with you. It depends on model, so Buro Happold obviously works on some big-- like we mentioned earlier, football stadium.

So again, you've got a bit of flexibility there. So we think we've got the best of both worlds with Quest and the laptop setup. And so yeah, that was our hardware investment. And basically the software investment was we really were missing this key software. And obviously, we loved we loved Iris, and this is the software we bought.

And it wasn't Autodesk at the time. Obviously now, Iris is part of the Autodesk family. And what did we get? We got ourselves Iris team licenses. So basically the team license sits on the nine office hubs. So that team license basically is on the laptop. And the great thing about the team license, it allows anybody in that office the opportunity to explore this new tool, and so go to that hub and make use of it.

But then when you're at that hub, you can then hook up from hub to hub, from the different offices. Because we do a lot of projects around the world together. But then from that hub, you can then share six digit codes, and then people can join via the Quests. And also the great thing about Iris is you can join via desktop. So yeah, that was the team license. But what we also got ourselves was Iris Pro+ licenses.

And basically they're exactly the same as the team license. But it's an assigned to an individual user. So yeah, so again we think we've got the best of both worlds there. It's quite flexible. So that was our software investment.

And the last part of the investment side of it was an office VR champion. And basically what the idea was there, because we knew from the past that VR was needing a reboot in the company. So with this investment, it basically gave the funding to have a champion in each of the offices. So basically, that champion was then to give it a push within that local office again, to get it going.

And the secret, the secret to it was really to find people in the company that were passionate about VR, or gaming, or technology lovers. Because ultimately, if you don't find that right character, you guys out there, ultimately it will fail.

So basically these VR champions, Iris VR provided some great onboard training and got us all up to speed. We've got, call it a Bible, and it's our go-to guide, everything about Iris, and it's on a central point in our system. But because we created these office champions, what that then allows us as a point of contact for Des and myself. We can reach out to these guys and find out how the VR is going and support them.

But also, by doing that offers champion, that means anybody within that office would then have support with the hardware or the software. They could reach out to that particular person and get going in implementing VR into the project. But the great thing about what we've done by having all these points of contact, now we've actually created a network of support throughout the globe. So all these different offices, we can all share and bounce ideas off what's happening in different regions.

And then the way we try to, the best way to share our communications is that we've got this internal Yammer page. And yeah, that's where we want to share all our communications. And then anybody within the company can also follow that page and keep themselves up to speed on what's going on around the practice. So why Iris VR? You who are sitting there and listening to this video, and you're thinking to yourself, why did you guys go for Iris VR?

Well it was really a game changer. And it was a game changer at the time. It still is a game changer. It was basically it was a fast and simple solution to integrate VR into our workflow at Buro Happold. And you're talking minutes. It's rapid. It's so easy to use. So when we talked about the lack of skills, you don't actually need any skills with Iris. It's that easy.

At the time, it integrated with all our key software at the time. So that was Revit, Rhino, and NavVis. And obviously, NavVis is kind of tailing a little bit away off. You'll find out a little later on that we're more working with BIM 360 all the time now. But at the time, it ticked all the boxes. The real big one was the flexibility. So what Iris allowed us was unlimited projects. So we could push as many projects as you can up to the cloud.

But then with those team licenses, then that allowed us with unlimited users. So anybody in that office, the big offices like Berlin, Warsaw, Bath-- it was a great opportunity for trying to get as many people up to speed with this new way of working. But yeah, a game changer.

Like imagine now you've got a tool that you can measure, you can mark up, you can draw. I mean this at the time it blew us away. And it still does when we meet people. And Iris also, this VR approach, we had it tethered and untethered. Basically, the meaning by that is tethered was great because we could have the VR hubs, and handle big files, big models. So we can do tethered and handle those bigger files. But also you're sometimes restricted with the tethered device. So we liked the idea of the untethered.

So the Quests that freedom to use VR wherever in office was fantastic. So yeah, I think, again, we're the best of both worlds. And the Iris, again game changer this collaborative multi-user meeting. So then internally or externally wherever you are in the globe. You can always make a Zoom call today or a Teams meeting. You can all just be together in that space and it's like a call within the model. It's amazing.

So for us as a company, we see it as it's not to replace BIM 360. It's not to replace NavVis. We just see it as an additional layer to the project. And it's like the workhorse coordination tool. And it's going to help sell and promote the business.

So Iris will for us and for you guys, if you guys are using it or maybe thinking about using it, it transforms the way you want to discuss your 3D information. And it's going to identify issues not flagged by clash detection. We're going to see some of this later on in the outcomes achieved. It de-risks your design and delivery. It supports the next generation of graduates.

Meaning by that, so traditionally graduates are coming from University, and you will go through the drawings or try and get them up to speed on that particular stage of the project. But now that is a game changer. Just stick them in the model. You can talk about the models. You can talk about the structure. You can get them up to speed so much quicker. And the Iris, it's going to increase your confidence in client's decision. So again, we're going to talk about this a little bit later on in the outcomes achieved.

And Iris anticipates issues early, those significant errors, now with VR capability within the company, Iris is going to help with that. And also with you'll easily notice the improve of the BIM model. So ultimately, you can't hide in VR. I think that's why some people are scared to maybe sometimes put the headset on. Because the minute you put the headset on, you [? sometimes ?] [? are going to ?] [INAUDIBLE]. And it could be a dog's dinner. But ultimately that's what we want. You want to find that dog's dinner with let's fix this dog's dinner before you hand over to the client.

So basically what we've done was with the hardware and software in place, we always knew the company that that thing, that people were going to love it or hate it, or were a wee bit unsure of it. But what we're trying to say, the message was that the company was, look, we've bought the hardware. We bought the software. So yeah, just come on. Let's embrace it. Ride this VR wave, and yeah, let's see where this journey goes.

And so before I hand you back over to Des, and he's going to talk you over the VR strategy we've implemented in the company. But you guys, there's so much hardware and software. There was much hardware and software in the world. But ultimately, the key to all this was a simple strategy. So yeah, I'll hand you over now to Des to tell you all about it.

DES KINLOUGH: Thanks, Calum. So I'm sure all of you know how hard it is to implement a new strategy across a company. The hardware and the software is actually, you could argue is the easy bits. Actually getting people to use it is the hard bit. So we've approached it in the way of who, what, where, when, why, and how in our strategy. And we'll go through this in the next few slides.

So on the who, basically it should be everybody within the design team, from director down to graduate. We've seen the benefits. Basically, we know we share models through to all the construction and design stages. It's so easy to use, so accessible, especially on the Quest headsets. And we found that probably even the higher-ups in the company have actually got more out of it sometimes than the graduates. But the answer is we adopted it to everyone in the company.

So what levels? So Calum and myself identified three different platforms and when they should be used. So we all know the design stages that we go through. And we identified where they were most used, we could use these tools. So we were using Enscape already. That was going to be used at platform 1, which is early concept, the schematic design stages where you're working out your actual design itself, and talking things through. It's quite simple and easy to use.

And where we felt that artists really worked is when the design is developing more from the schematic design, design development construction stages, and the benefit was there. Because there's more elements in your model. There's more people involved in the project. You can start immersing yourself in the VR. You can create reports. Yeah, we thought the benefits in those stages were huge.

We also have a platform 3, which is on Unreal game engines. We have a media team that specialize in this for bids and for promotion. And that pretty much goes through all of the stages. So yeah, identifying what platform works for your company is really important.

So where? Like Calum alluded to earlier, we had the nine offices that we got funding for. But since then, another four have joined. So we're up to 13. And we hope to adopt that across all the offices. The Quest headsets will make that very easy to adopt.

And when? And the simple answer, I won't go through this in too much detail. But the simple answer is throughout the project. There's different uses throughout the project. There's different users, like we mentioned before, at different times. But pretty much embedded in your processes that you currently have. It's very quick to use. And it's not a long session. It could be 20, 30 minutes.

So why? So again, we said why invest? Now what do we see and what's the value that we want to promote to our teams? Is that immersive technology extends your view and your ideas on a project. We obviously aspire to innovation. VR is at the center of that.

And we found that this tool created discussions within team meetings, project meetings, client meetings, assisted in communication of ideas, design ideas, and then the understanding of the client of your ideas can cut time down. And that's maybe underestimated. It inspires your staff. It invigorates them. It makes them enjoy the job a bit more.

So this is really important. We've got two images on the right I'll go through. Basically, when you're implementing something into a company, don't create too many new processes. Try and integrate it as much into the processes that always happen. So on all our projects, we have an external kickoff and an internal kickoff. And we put that on the agenda, actually on our actual agenda, on the top right hand corner, we've actually put the question in, and making sure people ask the question as they go through in that kickoff meeting.

Externally, you're talking to your architects. Or you're talking to architects, there's a whole design team. And it's very normally very well received. And then obviously, we have the investment in our VR champion network, and that was really beneficial on promoting in the offices and on the ground.

CALUM REEKIE: So, yeah. So basically. It's great to hear like the easy bit of the investment in the hardware and software and the strategy. But no, there has been challenges. It's been a bit of a roller coaster. And so what has been our biggest challenges?

Well first off, it was really COVID and the rollout of the hardware and software. So we were really lucky. When we initially got that funding, when we came back after Christmas, then COVID came out of nowhere. And as we all know, it hit everybody really hard. So yeah, we could get to the software. It was easy enough. But then yeah, trying to get hardware at that moment in time, it didn't really go to plan to roll out to all the offices. We were only getting headsets every so often.

And then when once we did get headsets, then people were working from home, and rolling them out. We had all these teething issues. So what we've done is, the class handout slides, within those slides we hopefully you'll see what all our issues were and the solutions. But yeah, I suppose with all the teething issues, it has put us in a good place moving forward. Because now as the company moves forward with VR, and our IT side is up to speed, hopefully it's going to be much easier for any future rollout.

And on the other side of it, we've talked about the champion pitch before. That was again, we were a wee bit lucky because that vision of being in the office and giving it a good push. COVID really, with all the stop and start, and people being at home, and the office is in and out. So basically, we lost all our momentum there. Which was a shame. And then as we know now, the whole office dynamics have changed completely around the globe.

So that was our first challenge. But then yeah, our second biggest challenge and probably still is one of our key challenges to date, was we always knew changing mindsets would be hard, so going from 2D to 3D, and the use of computational, and change of mind, that new technology. It's always tricky.

So yeah, if we're being honest, we thought there would be more use. But that was maybe a little bit naive. But on the other side, when you do get it used and implemented onto projects, everybody generally loves it. Everybody's is saying, wow, I can't believe we've got this tool now within the company. So yeah, it's a real positive.

But then what actually you'll find is, and maybe you guys will find this as well. We noticed VR still gets kind of left behind or binned if there's any project pressures, that kind of gets dropped. Because it's still seen as a nice-to-have tool. And if you're sitting there thinking, Calum, what's the what's the solution. Again, we think it's quite an easy solution. But if we're being honest, we're not quite there yet. And again, it's not changing anything different. But we're thinking the next way forward is just to make it part of our formal QA.

And this it's more like we're going to enforce it now. So ultimately, the company, we were happy with spending a bit of money on software. We're spending on this new hardware. Also, the investment in all these champions, so yeah, I think now the next step is we're going to-- we don't like the word enforce. But it's getting to that moment where we really need to make it part of our formal QA procedure. So that was our two biggest challenges to date.

And I'll hand you back to Des. And he's going to talk over some of the lessons, the lessons learned from our experience today.

DES KINLOUGH: Yeah, so it's been a three-year cycle. So yeah, we've got some nice feedback here on some lessons learned that hopefully will help you. Early buy-in is key. Whether it's the architect, clients, introducing it early on in their experience really gets that buy-in early on the use on a project. If you leave it too late, people are resistant to it. So that won't help.

And VR sub-champs, so as we had a champion in each of our offices. But as it progressed, and they spread the message, there was also other champions in the office, so spreading that knowledge, not just relying on just one person really is key to wider office use.

We thought we'd see the big ticket items. But actually, what we saw was a lot smaller issues. It depends on the projects. It can change. But little ones, but a lot of them all add up to a big saving. And then obviously COVID has questioned the VR machine that Calum had talked about earlier, the hybrid working and challenged us. But definitely what we found is the Quests are the way forward.

Obviously, there's restrictions on the size of the files that you can use. But the ability and the accessibility is so good. And we'd really recommend investing in those.

CALUM REEKIE: So now we're going to cover some of our outcomes achieved. And so like the last couple of slides, there's been some ups and downs. But we have successfully rolled out Iris VR for product use within the company, which is fantastic. And on the right here, the video, shows our New York office using Iris VR on Miami waterfront. And there as a company we've got a VR tool. It's available not only to our core disciplines, which is structural and MEP. No, it's available to all our specialist designers within the company, so like our [? race ?] team, our lighting team, and fire team.

So we're really proud to have this innovative VR platform. It doesn't matter where we are within the company, we can collaboratively hook up and in this immersive environment. And yeah, this was always to be a baby step, to welcome our employees this opportunity of a new way of working. And you'll notice that our journey is not over. So we're still wanting to see where this journey goes.

So the key word to take away hopefully today is opportunity. And what we mean by that is these are a few snippets from around the practice. But yeah, we know as a company if you invest in VR and Iris VR, now you've got the opportunity to put VR right at the center of your daily processes. And you've got the opportunity now to explore your buildings like you never could do before.

So yeah, that's what we mean by opportunity. And what we're going to do now is just give you some examples on project use and compared to the original ROI, things we thought we would make money on so. I'll hand you back to Des here.

DES KINLOUGH: Yeah, so some project examples. So this project is a 100-year-old cinema based in Leeds. And it was going through a major refurbishment, really interesting project, but quite challenging from a design point of view. So we introduced the VR, and got the clients and the project team to utilize it at a design team meeting. And you could really see the benefit that it gave on the project.

We solved some space planning issues, and changed the design as a result. And also, just that validation I think from the clients, and that was the quote that came back from the client saying that it validated their design decisions, and gave them the confidence before construction that they could go ahead. So that's quite a powerful message I think.

CALUM REEKIE: Yeah, so this is Morpeth Leisure Center. So this was enhanced coordination. So we mentioned it earlier in the slides, some things that don't get picked up in VR-- or clash detection. So previously we had another project when I first joined Buro Happold and there was a problem with pool seating. But now, because we had the opportunity to use VR on this project, and being a leisure center, again, we thought, well, let's go and have a look at the pool seating again.

And yeah, we couldn't believe it. We were in there. One was the wheelchair seating was, it was a platform. And basically, depending where you were sitting, it was blocking your vision of the lane. So imagine your kids will swimming, racing, and you can't quite see part of the pool.

So we thought all right, it wasn't really our problem. But ultimately, we're all part of the design team. This was stage four. We've all got a responsibility to deliver a good project for the client. So we reached out to the architect. They were based in England. We were up in Scotland. So we didn't have to go to their office. We invited them into the session. They got the software. And yeah, it was great because we could put them in there, show them the problem. We all agreed it was a problem.

This was the solution by moving the wheelchair platform down to the line of the pool. But yeah, ultimately if we didn't have VR within the company to help support the design team, realistically that was never going to get picked up in clash. And also, the only thing you would have probably discovered this was when the pool would have been completed. So yeah, to go back and retro fix all that, you're talking huge money, but around 50 grand. But now you can see on the right now, it's a lovely facility. So luckily, we caught that through the design stage.

DES KINLOUGH: OK. So this was a project that we had an existing client, which they've been building a retail and office development on a site. And we've been working with them quite a while. But on the top right-hand corner, there's a new office building that was being handed over. And we brought the VR along. It was obviously a bit late. It would have been better obviously involved earlier. But it was a great way. Everybody was there. And they were able to utilize the VR software. And as a result, there was some work winning opportunities.

The landscape architect has asked us to develop it for the master planning of the site, so we can start to visualize the whole site, communicate that to the client. And the client themselves wanted us to use it for selling opportunity on future office developments on the site, so they could give the potential clients a view of what they were buying, and what they were buying into.

So yeah, again another quote that helped them. It brought it to life on how they want to use it on their future projects and on the site itself.

CALUM REEKIE: This is Sands Leisure Center. We've done quite a lot of leisure centers of late. But yeah, again, this opportunity and this project was enhanced problem solving. So what we talked earlier on, confidence in the decision making. So again, with the design team, the VR capability now we have within the company, it gave confidence to the architect and the client to reduce the street space.

Or the street spaces in the middle picture was like the main street of the leisure center. But the problem we had was the overall footprint of the building. And there was this large sewer to the left. So the picture on the bottom left with the car, there was basically a big sewer there. And it was going to cost like 20 grand to divert that sewer. So the power of VR was, the design team was thinking, can we not make the streets smaller? So it was reduced by 2 or 3 meters, which was not much. But it was enough to then we didn't have to do that sewer diversion.

And by the power of VR on this project was then, it gave the architect confidence that that space was still how they wanted it, but then also, more importantly, it was the client. They were still getting-- because this was, like I say, the key feature. So they were very happy.

So yeah, and this is the client on the right here with the architect with the headset on. But now again, having this opportunity of VR within the company, we can do this now on the project, and support the design team. And yeah again, that's the pool up in the top right there. And again, it's a lovely facility. And we also checked the pool seating on that one. But this pool was OK.

But then actually off the back of this project, we actually through the same architects, we got another project with them. So again, we feel like VR, that kind of relationship with the architect and client, it really helped.

DES KINLOUGH: OK. We want to show you some examples of how we're also using virtual reality within our company. And we've got an inclusive reality team, an inclusive design team. And we were looking at how we can utilize VR for disability. So we looked at two areas.

One was for helping the design for the eyesight point of view. So on the top left-hand corner, you see a video playing there. And it gives you the ability to view it from the eyesight user, and what they would see. And it helped all the design team understand how the space works for them, and then is the areas correct, and so a really powerful use of VR.

And then on the top right-hand corner, we also utilized it for wheelchair access. So we're able to create the VR where you would sit in a seat, and the motion of being in the wheelchair. And you moved around the building and outside the building. And as a result, because of it, we spotted a lot of restrictions and it wouldn't help users, so wheelchair users. So the design was changed. Doing that before construction saved lots and lots of money.

CALUM REEKIE: So, yeah, this slide here, this isn't a Iris VR. But again, this is more again, just to back VR is not a toy anymore. No, it's getting used to help deliver projects. So obviously, we thought this was a fun one. Because obviously we're over in the States. And you guys all love your American football. And it's quite cool now, because as you know, the American Football comes over to the UK. And in the UK it gets played at the Tottenham Football Stadium.

So yeah, but [INAUDIBLE] [? was VH, ?] and we did the stadium. And yeah, as you can see the top left, the roof was all done with computational. And yeah, it was again, because of the seating, and it was all to do with the atmosphere for the crowd, that the seating was really high. But then when you get really high, then it's that relationship between the seats and the truss for the roof.

So yeah, the power of computational then and also VR delivering a project. So yeah, and just to back up, VR is no longer should be seen as a toy. It's a very powerful tool.

DES KINLOUGH: OK. We thought we'd come back. We talked about return on investments at the start of our presentation. But we thought we'd come back and give you that feedback three years on, what our findings have been.

So we identified enhanced coordination as a return on investment. We achieved 50% on that reducing the number of clashes. Reason being it wasn't more down to the software. It was more down to getting utilized and adopted and utilized for that task. And so that's on us to push that use further.

On the work winning side, that was very positive. We identified one project per year. But in reality, it was two or three per year-- very, very positive. Really the brand enhancing side has been a really positive part of this whole exercise.

And then on the enhanced problem saving, yes, we achieved that. There was 50% of the projects achieved but on reduced number of projects. Yeah so we achieved it on 40 projects, 15 hours, and that's again being a positive. We've spotted so many design issues that we needed to solve that wouldn't have been solved in a traditional manner.

And then finally on reducing time on meetings that we would not have to go to 50% of meetings. That hasn't worked, generally to a mix of COVID, like we mentioned, that happened just pretty much as we started adopting it, and a lack of confidence and skills from our teams to propose it as a solution. But overall, the return on investment was breakeven on the first year. But years 2 and 3 were positive. And we're getting a positive return on investment.

CALUM REEKIE: OK, so this is the final slide. And yeah, it's opportunities. So it's the opportunity now to go and explore, the opportunity go and refine it, and then explore again. So what we're trying to say to the company [INAUDIBLE] Iris, VR is no longer a tool. And you know Iris is a lot of fun. But yeah, it's a bit more than fun now because with all the power of the tools that comes with it.

And yeah, that is us. And yeah, we'd like to just say thank you for listening to us today. And yeah, thank you very much.