by Donald Wood
Last updated: 11:01 AM ET, Thu August 22, 2019
As part of the $1.5 billion expansion of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Florida, the company teamed up with HTC VIVE virtual reality to save the property hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless hours.
HTC VIVE revealed that its VIVE Pro HMDs and the VIVE VR platform were used in the design and development of the Hard Rock expansion, with construction firm Suffolk-Yates and creative studio Theia Interactive able to resolve 90 percent of the construction details through virtual reality.
"VIVE has been and will be our go-to VR system for projects," Theia Interactive co-founder Stephen Phillips said in a statement. "When doing architectural design review, our customers need to be able to reach up and touch the door frames and look under cabinets with the assurance that every inch is perfect. The benefit of highly accurate spatial tracking and full coverage is invaluable."
The Seminole Hard Rock property in Hollywood, Florida is the brand's flagship destination and is undergoing a major facelift. The planned expansion includes a 450-foot guitar-shaped tower that will hold an additional 630 luxury guest suites, a redesigned 6,500-seat event center and a 10-acre pool complex complete with waterfalls and private villas.
Using VIVE Pro, property executives, architects, designers and other officials have been able to explore and interact with models and designs in virtual reality with scale and accuracy, in the most realistic fashion possible.
"VR helped us get all the details just right, which is especially important for customer-facing spaces," Suffolk-Yates senior manager Kyle Goebel said. "We were able to have rich, dynamic discussions about stone ledges behind the headboards, curtain mechanisms, and even the color of soap in the bathrooms."
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