JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 05 September 2018 – The way we experience the world around us has changed drastically in recent years. We are no longer confined to our physical spaces. For businesses this is a game changer. Virtual reality (VR) has created opportunities to connect with customers in a whole new space. Literally.

The fact is, any technology that allows you to significantly improve the quality of experience for your customers and employees is always going to mean big improvements for a business. It’s time to free our minds from the physical shackles of our body and boldly go where few have been before. The uptake of VR in business is set to surpass its leisure applications in the years to come, for obvious reasons. VR makes business sense. And the applications are seemingly endless.

Samsung introduced Gear VR nearly three years ago. The potential for businesses has already been proven. Today, its rapidly expanding ecosystem features more than 1,000 apps and 10,000 high-quality videos through the premium 360-degree immersive Samsung VR service and noteworthy collaborations with top content creators and media brands.

VR transforms training

VR offers the potential to immerse ourselves in any scenario for training purposes. The traditional workshop in a dull, lifeless room can be easily swapped for the ‘real’ thing. Employees can be tested in environments and situations their brain believes to be true. Want to trial run a salesman’s meeting with a potential customer in another country? No problem. They can be there and back, ready for evaluation in an hour. In healthcare, surgeons can make life and death decisions in simulated training environments. Even teachers can test their nerves against a class of unruly kids in a virtual classroom.

It’s all in the design

Designers and architects have latched onto VR faster than a Millennial onto a hipster trend. Entire building floors can be created, navigated and tested before a single brick has been laid. Architects can stride confidently into a client’s boardroom to present finished concepts. VR has even taken aircraft design to new heights. Boeing and Airbus already use simulated digital spaces to test new features and models.

“VR ignores the limits of past, future, place or person. It can create a realm designed purely for business objectives,” says Justin Hume, Chief Marketing Officer for Samsung South Africa.

Customers love VR

As both marketing and customer service tools, VR opens new possibilities for promoting products and services. We’ll one day talk about physical showrooms the way we talk about landlines – still useful but hardly necessary. Test driving that new car while waiting for the roast to cook will be as commonplace as telling your Smartphone to wake you up in the morning. Real showrooms will still be a part of the marketing landscape for some time to come, but the opportunity to get a feel for a product without leaving the living room will be hard to resist.

VR is the future, the past and the present

The technology will continue to improve, bringing our virtual worlds into our real ones. Businesses that are ahead of the curve will capitalise on a world that doesn’t even exist. That’s a virtual certainty.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 13 July 2018 – The advent of the internet was tantamount to all businesses putting up signs that said ‘open for business’ anywhere in the world. In the beginning, however, the problem was how to effectively show off your products or services to someone who was a million miles away? Technology quickly caught up to the needs of internet users and today there’s almost nothing that can’t be done online.

This brings with it another set of challenges. Now that the world is used to getting any information with a mouse click, customers expect more from companies every day. It’s no longer merely a matter of being present, it’s about being present in a way that effectively wows potential customers, while at the same time giving them all the relevant information they want. Getting clever with information has become a key means to attracting attention – infographics are one way, but its video that’s taken the marketing world by storm, with platforms like YouTube harnessing the power of video marketing and giving rise to YouTube stars, from musicians to clever cats.

But that’s old hat now. What consumers want is a more immersive experience – to almost be there. That’s where 360 video and Virtual Reality (VR) applications really start to apply. With 360 video, viewers shift either left, right, up or down within an enclosed spherical space. With virtual reality, the experience seems limitless as the viewer actually move around in the space, looking and in any direction they please.

Justin Hume, Chief Marketing Officer for Samsung South Africa, says, “The business applications for 360 video and VR are almost endless. Innovation in technology has made headsets and software so affordable that communicating in a virtual world is set to become the norm.”

Almost any activity or process that is done in the physical world can be simulated with VR. This includes customer services, finance, human resources and even production. Many estate agencies, for example, are making use of 360 video to showcase properties online – this is especially useful for international clients who want to have a detailed tour of a property before making the decision to see it in person. When it comes to selling products, VR is able to intricately highlight every aspect of a product’s manufacture and processes.

“The global village means that not only are people buying products and services across nations, there are many people working remotely – now it’s quite normal to have a designer living in Hermanus who collaborates daily with a salesperson in Johannesburg. Communication becomes key in these instances and while emailing or video calls are helpful, VR meetings means that everyone can be in the same room, even though they’re kilometres apart.”

Both these technologies have been put to great use, not only in marketing, but also for activities such as training, conferencing and meetings. Training is something that many companies need to participate in, whether its onboarding new staff members or training retail staff on how to sell specific products on the floor. Both 360 video and VR save millions in travel and venue costs if people are trained where they are. VR allows users to fully experience whatever they need to – with the ability to touch and feel products, pick parts up and really get involved in what they are learning. In fact, VR enables situations to be simulated that wouldn’t be practical in real life – this is something that pilots have been experiencing for some time, with flight simulation used extensively in pilot training.^[i] Similarly, surgeons make use of VR to learn.^[ii]

Professional grade 360 cameras similar to the Samsung 360 Round include full-featured software suites to guide every step of the creative process, from import, to stitching, to live broadcast. The Samsung 360 allows for livestream immersive 3D 360 videos in real-time in 4K resolution, with the ability to broadcast directly to platforms like YouTube, Facebook and other media platforms.

Th concept of a global village isn’t new at all, but the way in which people communicate is becoming far more sophisticated than just a few lines of text or a live video chat. Businesses that utilise technology such as 360 video or VR are able to connect with customers and staff alike in a far more realistic and relevant way.

^{[i] https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality-military/air-force-training.html}

^{[ii] https://elearningindustry.com/surgical-simulation-training-virtual-reality-future-surgical-training}

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 27 February 2018 – To celebrate its eleventh Olympic Games and to honour its 20-year long commitment to The Olympic Partner (TOP) programme, Samsung – Worldwide Olympic Partner in the Wireless Communications Equipment and Computing Equipment category – proudly delivered unique mobile experiences through innovative technologies during the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018. Together with the Olympic Movement, Samsung focused on spreading its shared values of achieving the extraordinary and inspiring others to ‘Do What You Can’t’.

Various VR experience zones powered by the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games Limited Edition featured the exhilaration of winter sports including Winter Ride, Skeleton and Snowboarding, making the Samsung Olympic Showcases a must for all Olympic Games fans. The ‘Mission to Space VR: A Moon for All Mankind’ allowed visitors to experience lunar gravity for the first time through a space mission made possible with innovative 4D VR technology.

“As the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 come to an end, we’re proud to know that Samsung technology powered lifelong memories for Olympic athletes and fans worldwide,” said Younghee Lee, CMO and Executive Vice President, Samsung Electronics. “I’m thrilled that Samsung’s meaningful technological advancements enabled a more enjoyable, exciting and connected experience for all.”

The Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 allowed Samsung’s newest advancements to empower people through state-of-art technology. By the numbers, Samsung’s milestones included the following highlights:

Spreading the Olympic Spirit

• 4,000+ PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games Limited Edition were presented to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to support athletes
• 1,500 torchbearers spread the passion and hope during the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Torch Relay
• 149,353 specially-designed Samsung PyeongChang 2018 pins were distributed to Samsung Olympic Showcase visitors
• 10 lucky pin-collectors won the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games Limited Edition and two grand prize winners won two tickets to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

Creating Meaningful Connections Through Innovative Technology

• 435,878 athletes and fans visited nine Samsung Olympic Showcases for interactive activities powered by 2,157 Samsung products.
• 163,121 fans escaped the real-world to experience the exhilaration of eleven VR attractions such as going down the fresh mountain slopes while snowboarding and careening down the skeleton – all VR was powered by the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games Limited Edition
• 150 calls were made by Olympians at the two Samsung Olympic Showcases @ the Olympic Villages – adding up to 700 minutes
• 1,282,904 downloads of PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games Official Mobile Application which was developed together with POCOG (The PyeongChang Organising Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games) featuring real-time updates, athlete information, medal standings and Olympic Winter Games records.

Samsung Electronics, Worldwide Olympic Partner in the Wireless Communications and Computing Equipment category, is bringing technological innovations to the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 through interactive experiences at the new Samsung Olympic Showcases. Samsung will encourage fans and athletes to “Do What You Can’t” through fun, immersive experiences across multiple Samsung Olympic Showcases.

Throughout the Olympic Winter Games, a total of nine Samsung Olympic Showcases – featuring a mix of cultural, technological and immersive fan experiences – will be in PyeongChang and Gangneung, including Olympic Parks and the Olympic Villages, the Main Press Centre and four at the Incheon International Airport. Samsung Olympic Showcases @ PyeongChang Olympic Plaza and @ Gangneung Olympic Park will provide visitors with engaging experiences incorporating Samsung’s legacy of breakthrough innovation and interactive activities powered by Samsung technology.

Athletes and fans will first experience the Samsung brand history and heritage in engineering, design and craftsmanship and then the partnership history with the Olympic Games. Through interactive experiences, visitors will be able to feel the exhilaration and escape into real-world thrills in winter sports through VR, including snowboarding, as well as participate in alpine and cross-country skiing contests that will challenge fans’ fitness capacity. For the first time, visitors will be able to experience the ‘Mission to Space VR: A Moon for All Mankind’ created by Samsung. Visitors will experience a full space mission including mission briefing, trying on the training suits and helmets and the truly immersive experience in the Moon rig where they will feel lunar gravity with every step.

“For two decades as a Worldwide Olympic Partner, Samsung has connected fans, visitors and athletes from around the world with our latest technological innovations, which have now evolved to also include immersive experiences,” said Younghee Lee, CMO and Executive Vice President, Samsung Electronics. “We’re delighted to share Samsung’s latest mobile technologies and products, so fans and athletes can enjoy new, unique experiences while at the Olympic Winter Games.”

“Over the course of our longstanding partnership, Samsung has brought new experiences and technology advancements to each Olympic Games,” said IOC President Thomas Bach. “Samsung helps to make each and every one an exciting and meaningful experience for all.”

Visitors will experience and engage with Samsung’s products and Galaxy brand through a variety of activities through a comfortable, interactive environment, including:

• Immersive VR Experiences: Unique VR experiences powered by the Galaxy Note8 will allow fans to escape into exhilarating moments on the fresh mountain slopes in snowboarding and skeleton as well as escape to space in Mission to Space VR: A Moon for All Mankind’ – available to consumers to experience for the first time. Other experiences include simulated skiing adventures.
• Playful Experiences: Promoting the playful side of technology, Portrait Pool allows visitors to turn their “selfies” into painted characters for social sharing, S Pen Gallery to create own portraits with Galaxy Note8 and S pen as a paint brush, Infinity Moment to create user generated content with the Galaxy Note8.
• Kids Lounge: A dedicated kids lounge in a hands-on zone, where kids can play, learn and explore Samsung products and expand their creativity through hands-on experience.
• Smart Home (IoT): Multi Device and futuristic demos powered by mobile technology that showcase the IoT, helping visitors to imagine the future lifestyle.
• Unbox Samsung: The journey of ‘Unbox Samsung’ where visitors can experience the Living History of Samsung since 1988 when the first mobile phone was launched.
• Purchase and Customer Service: Visitors will also be able receive customer service and make purchases of the mobile products and its accessories.
• Interact and Relax: Within lounges and in the Cultural Community where various lifestyle programs will take place as well as in the Café where food and beverages will be available for purchase using Buddy Points acquired during the interactive experiences.
• Special Events: A series of events will take place at the Samsung Olympic Showcase to enhance the Olympic Winter Games experience including athlete visits and celebrating holiday moments.