Emerging media and tech in a traditional company

ABSTRACT

Do you think that a company in the construction industry that manufactures aluminum doors and facades would have an internal animation, emerging-media, and tech R&D group? Well, here we are: the Virtual Construction Lab (VCL) of Schüco. In the span of six years, we have created diverse media in the fields of engineering visualizations, highly-technical assembly processes, training and marketing materials, amongst others; establishing ourselves as a creative and technologically innovative force inside a very traditional industry. Thanks to finding and understanding our own advantages and specific targets we managed to carve our own space inside the company, a position we leveraged to expand into more and more ambitious projects by carefully constructing captivating functional prototypes that address new needs and issues within the industry. This path has not been an easy one, but it is one we want to share in hopes others can learn from it and use it to establish their own teams.

We will go in depth into not only how VCL was formed, but most importantly, how we have managed to carve a space for ourselves and planted the seeds to develop increasingly ambitious projects. Starting with simple -but highly technical- renders to Virtual Reality interactive showrooms and presentations enhanced with the Unreal Engine Live Production pipeline, this exciting journey has taught us much about fabricating our own opportunities to realize our creative ambitions, and carving out a niche as an innovative force within the global company.

Thanks to a highly driven multidisciplinary and collaborative team, we have been able to address specific needs within the company with prototypes born out of our interests, expertise, and curiosity. Ultimately, we want to show that both successes and failures have helped us reassess our approaches, and constantly turn those small MVPs into bigger ongoing efforts.