Affordable way to showcase Golf courses & huge outdoor business on Maps

Queensland, Australia

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Quote:

Originally Posted by AerialWayz

When doing a short blue line on foot or in a vehicle (I have a roof mount) and using a Theta Z1 (non-video), at what distance between each click on the Z1 should I do on the device, i.e., every 5-10 feet?

You do not need to click to make a photo. You need to use an interval mode in the SV app to record it as a video. You can basically record all golf course clicking only twice.. 1st to start recording and 2nd time to stop it. That why I call it fast & affordable.

What interval to use depends on what your speed is and what is a minimum number for an interval the SV app allows to use. If the minimum is 1 sec walking at 6km/h should get frames with 360 placed about 1.6m apart. If you can specify interval as a fraction of a second(say 0.5 sec) it can be even less than 1 meter. My guess is for a blue line anything spaced with less than 2m apart can be turned into a blue line by Google no matter how it is submitted.

So if you want a blue line that is not attached to anything(my golf example) all you need to do is to walk/ride/drive through an outdoor space recording in the SV app interval mode. Once it is done submit it from the SV app and it will create a blue line from your interval mode video.

To get it faster may be ask your client to drive you through it in a golf car. Whoever will be driving knows a way from a hole to hole better plus you can just hold your camera focusing on recording and you do not need any mount.

Especially considering that using your own mount you may need to spend a significant time trying to attach your mount to a golf car you have never seen before. There may be no simple way to do it but being driven by somebody's else while you simply hold a camera will eliminate a problem with mounting and get your through the course faster as your driver will know how to get through it the best way.

You can get your own e-bike or e-scooter and use it. That will at least let you use any mount you want as it is yours and you can build the way the mount is attached to your transportation device. That may be helpful in places different to golf courses as usually they have some kind of path to follow. However for a golf course the best will be to engage a golf car and somebody from a client to drive you through the way golf players usually go from one hole to another.

If you want to know a workflow how to make a blue line to be attached to a place(my example with the park) or a GMB to give the place/gmb all views from the line let me know and I will explain it.

The way it is going to be captured is exactly the same as for unattached blue(lets call it no-place-name blue line) line but publishing is different.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AerialWayz

Which would be in your option a good software to apply the blue line tour to GSV?

I use either PilotGo tool for publishing GSV videos.. it is in the app and built in a camera. That's for no-place-name blue lines. In your case with a Z1 you can publish it directly from the SV app after you record it.

You only need a separate publisher and some specific free toolset to extract frames from your interval mode video(in my case it is called GSV video) if you want to create a blue line that belongs to some place or GMB.

You can get the tool set called GSV2JPG from this guy https://www.facebook.com/groups/611098829065834/user/100002400062984/

He is a developer for this toolset and he can let you download it from his cloud drive. He has done an amazing work and even has released recently another toolset to work with GSV videos only.

As for a publishing tool I use Pano2VR Pro but I am sure any other software like 3DVista and online tools that allow you to submit 360 to Google Maps as a tour will work.

The most important part in this workflow is to strip frames from your interval video to turn a video frame into a 360 photo.

That's why you need the GSV2JPG toolset. It has a tool(executable file) that accept a video as input, a folder as output and I believe you need a parameter specified to tell the tool at what interval frames needed to be saved as 360 photos. So if you are recording with 7fps but tell the tool to do 1 per second stripping it will do exactly as told. So with 60 seconds video and 1 fps as a parameter you should get 60 x 360 photos.

The toolset is a console based..do not expect any buttons or any GUI from it. However it comes with clear details on using it in a pdf that it comes with so it is very easy to use for anyone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AerialWayz

Any advice on this type of pricing?

it really depends what customer wants. If they are happy with no-place-name blue line.. loosing all ranking benefits and not even having a direct connection with their GMB I would simply offer it based on time required to get to the customer site, spending time on it recording a video and coming back. Once you are back you only need to press a button to upload it. I would not charge for it.

Also bear in mind if you are going to walk it or hold it while driven. Driving will reduce your time on a site.. even though if somebody is not ready to drive you on your arrival and ready to do it straight away, you have to wait for it to happen account for it too. If it is clear to a customer any delays from their side will give you extra.

I would say always base this type of capture on your time. If you think $100/hour paid by a full hour is more than ok add something for setup & call out which should be fast and easy your call out should factor travel time to a client and back. Say $50 for a setup & callout, $100/hour for time spent recording or even waiting to start.

However if you need to create a line that belong to a client GMB you will have to work more in your office, stripping frames for 360 photos(it is fast but takes time) and more important bringing all this bunch of photos into some publishing tool before you can start working on checking that they location is match with where they have been taken. Then you need to link them in a tour.. Pano2VR has an automated linking with two closest nodes(360 photos) so even if you have 1000s of photos from a long video it just takes a few clicks and seconds to link them. You publishing tool may not have anything that can do it automatically. One thing is to link 5x 360 photos manually and another thing to do the same for 100s and 1000s of them.
You kind of want to charge for all this type of work but what kind of extra to charge for it depends on your publishing tool or what kind of automation it provides for linking nodes.

I would probably charge $100 extra as I am aware of the whole workflow in Pano2VR to do it, just need to check the PDF for the GSV2JPG tool to refresh my memory.

That should include placing a few 360 photos from video frames with no location data recorded. It can bite me in an ass later if most of them have no location data and I will have to work more placing them manually. However it is super rare in open spaces where a lot of satellites visible and most if not all will have location data in them most of the time.
The most likely reason you can get location data missing if it is your mistake with your phone location data sensor turn off before you start recording.

Note that the numbers above are in AUD which is 0.75 of USD and we have a minimum salary of $20 per hour for adults set by a government for casual workers. You'll need to do it in your numbers that you are conformable as income for yourself in your area.

3 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanSmigrod
That's awesome innovation! Thanks for sharing.

sometimes you just screw something up or something happens without your control. You try to fix it because you are tired to do it again and you discover something new. I would never thought that my park tour will turn into a blue line. I was just trying to fix a problem with Google finding some errors in it and refusing to publish. I could not bear to walk it again in freaking Brisbane humidity that can last almost half the year the 3rd time. That's when GSV2JPG tool was announced.
I looked at what it can do and realised that I can get a bunch of 360 photos from GSV video frames and publish it as a tour.

In fact now I am very unhappy that I needed to select some place in Pano2VR to publish it as stripped from the video frames. I did not want the line to belong to anything initially. However you cannot publish a tour that way-you must specify an address or a place/gmb name, I put it under the park name hopping it will be just a tour. At least that won't come as totally wasted time and people can still walk there as a tour.
And that's how I have found a way to attach a blue line to some place meaning you can attach them the same way to GMB and capturing it much easy as GSV videos as long as you cover yourself with a logo an nadir

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanSmigrod

Did they engage you to do the ENTIRE golf course?

It has been done for my partner.. so I have doing only 3D tours there specified by my partner plus a few panos capture for outdoor areas to make a website tour for the club.

The lines created there was an unpaid favor that I offered to do because I finished all specified tasks earlier than it was scheduled and paid for. And of a course a hidden agenda from me is to be promoted:-)

My partner's client more likely do not know my business name, only my personal name. And we have a verbal agreement with my partner that I do not mention it to my partners' clients. I was there before to capture their restaurant and a couple of rooms for venues as a 3D tour. This was the second and the last visit to finish spaces that were under renovation during my first visit.

I was only planning to publish about the lines here on WGAN but I showed it on the Labpano group as an example of a blue line from my Pilot Era, Labpano picked it up and started sharing it publicly. I do not blame them as I did not mention not to share it. I cannot say if the golf club has seen the lines as it usually happens when they are tagged with their name.

I may ask my partner manager if it is ok to show to the club by tagging them.

I just discovered with my other tour for my own client that if you tag an owner/manager who has hired you along with a business you do it for on Linked you got a lot of views.

I recently posted a tour on linked done for my own client and tagged its franchise co-founder who initially asked me to do a 3d tour. Suddenly I got 800 views and 25 likes.

Usually only my connections(I have about 300 with 90% from a different Australian state) give likes and most of the time they are my old friends. Getting from 2 likes and 50-60 views from anywhere in the world to 25 likes and 800 views from local business owners is just fantastic.

It may not work with just a small business but it was a float spa salon franchise which grows opening new locations like crazy. They are even opening one 200 meters from my home.
However a golf club has a lot of members who are business owners so publishing just their blue lines may get a lot of views from them. They may come with some idea what god it the same lines can do for their business or simply want to do them because others have done it.

WGAN Fan Club Member 4.34K Website Queensland, Australia Matterport Service Partner Google Street View Trusted Photographer We Get Around Network Member	4.34K Wingman private msg quote post Address this user	plus 1 plus 1 plus 1 3
	I was actually waiting for my second blue line to appear on Google Maps before I create this post. It was processed by Google a week ago. It shows its blue line for it in their SV app. However only one blue line for another walk on google maps(not the app) done there is shown and the second one seems to appear much later. Anyway this is what I am talking about It took me only 15 minutes to create two street view lines for the Golf Club I was hired to do Matterport tour for by my partner. I did not go through all golf course and captured only areas that was related to my job for Matterport scanning. so just a bit back to that day, I finished all Matterport scans one hour before the scheduled end time so I thought I would give the club more than they asked for. Sorry for my shadow holding a Pilot Era camera but I did not expect I'd have time to do it so it was not even planned. So I did not even have a frame for my backpack to mount my Pilot on the backpack. Otherwise I would do it from the backpack and simply waited for clouds or started it with the Sun at Zenith. Also I have done it in a way that it is just shown on google maps without showing up under the club GMB. However you can place it under a client GMB still recorded as a GSV video but processed in a different way so it takes some work. It provides an opportunity for Street View Trusted to make a big street view tour in minutes and it can be made affordable for their clients. Imagine you can get mapping with 360s of the whole golf course by just asking somebody to drive you through the whole golf course in a golf car while you are recoding a GSV video. Or do huge holiday parks in a short amount of time. And you can charge a bit more for a time making recorded blue line to belong to a client GMB with one simple free tool and any publishing tour. If you are interested in this option more than in the whole idea of doing simple & an unattached to anything blue lines for maps let me know and I will explain it. This is how the blue line below is done. Note it is published under a park name and all 360 appears under its place listing. I discovered this by accident and I was simply driven by desire to publish recorded blue line after Google could not process my video. I actually walked there 3 times with Google finding some errors in videos each time and not publishing it. I was a bit tired to do it again and I decided to work with what have already I must mention that without Pano2VR it could not happen. However it may work with any tour builder provider as long as you can publish tours from them on Google Maps.
	3 years ago	Post 1 • IP flag post

81	81 AerialWayz private msg quote post Address this user	plus 1 plus 1 plus 1 3
	Hi @Wingman, Great info as always. So, you may be able to answer a few quick questions I had on both GSV tour and the blue line. I live on a golf course in Naples, Florida and was looking to map the course (they have 2 courses here) when doing the entire course should I use 360 video for this? We have about 90 18-hole golf courses in greater Naples, FL. When doing a short blue line on foot or in a vehicle (I have a roof mount) and using a Theta Z1 (non-video), at what distance between each click on the Z1 should I do on the device, i.e., every 5-10 feet? Which would be in your option a good software to apply the blue line tour to GSV? Any advice on this type of pricing? Thanks in advance. John @AerialWayz
	3 years ago	Post 2 • IP flag post

WGAN Forum Founder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host 31.19K Website Atlanta, Georgia Linked In Facebook Twitter YouTube TikTok Instragram Matterport Service Partner Google Street View Trusted Photographer Zillow Certified Photographer We Get Around Network Member	31.19K DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user	plus 1 plus 1 plus 1 0
	@Wingman That's awesome innovation! Thanks for sharing. What was the reaction of your client? Did they engage you to do the ENTIRE golf course? @AerialWayz If you use a Ricoh Theta Z1 - rather than a Labpano Pilot One EE - how do you plan to add the GPS data for Google Street View? Best, Dan
	3 years ago	Post 3 • IP flag post

WGAN Fan Club Member 4.34K Website Queensland, Australia Matterport Service Partner Google Street View Trusted Photographer We Get Around Network Member	4.34K Wingman private msg quote post Address this user	plus 1 plus 1 plus 1 0
	Quote: Originally Posted by DanSmigrod If you use a Ricoh Theta Z1 - rather than a Labpano Pilot One EE - how do you plan to add the GPS data for Google Street View? Good point if you are referring to the bug with coarse location data in the Theta app. That's why I am mentioning the SV app only. You can use a Z1 with the Street View app. The SV app does not screw up location data in EXIF like the Theta app does and it has an interval mode which is the one you need for a blue line recording. The location data will be coming from a smartphone location.
	3 years ago	Post 6 • IP flag post

Affordable way to showcase Golf courses & huge outdoor business on Maps14941