LEXINGTON PARK, Md. – Changing your perspective changes your experience. For us, that meant seeing the talent in our video production team and channeling it toward something that could alter others’ experiences as well.
Amid the immediate, global shift in remote work and learning, AVIAN’s video production team sought innovative ways to help its customers adapt to the rapidly changing environment while maintaining effective connections with its target audiences, and we did it through the production of virtual tours.
Virtual tours are a curated video experience featuring a combination of walk-through footage, interviews, voiceover, text, and animations that can replace an in-person visit. Virtual tours allow customers to embrace an ongoing digital transformation and find unique and exciting ways to connect with their target audience, despite physical distance.
“COVID created an artificial paralysis that we were determined to break through, said Morgan Hoey, AVIAN’s senior director of Training, Multimedia, and Consulting. “Physical distance protocols and building closures made us think differently about how to accomplish the same tasks without being on-site and how to bring the onsite environment online.”
Tours can be leveraged to connect with prospective employees, educate an audience about a facility, and generate awareness about funding or investment capabilities.
“We combine our ability to create a virtual tour with a deep understanding of the tour subject matter,” said George Franz, AVIAN’s chief operating officer. “We think about how best to present pertinent technical information in an enjoyable and informational online format appropriate for the audience. Virtual tours provide enduring access when being physically onsite is not an option, for whatever reason – they get you as close to being there without being there.”
Since 2020, AVIAN’s video production team has produced tours featuring over 20 labs and facilities and interviewed 50 diverse subject matter experts (SMEs), spanning different disciplines, education paths, and backgrounds.
AVIAN’s video production team created a series of virtual tours for the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Strategic Education Office’s STEM outreach effort, sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The series was designed as a unique solution to continue STEM outreach initiatives in the COVID-19 environment. The video tours take the place of in-person lab tours. They serve a dual purpose: to educate STEM students on STEM-related opportunities within the Department of Defense and inform members of the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR)/NAWCAD Engineer and Scientist Development Program (ESDP) about the various facilities and rotational opportunities on base. Viewers who watched the series said the virtual tours engagingly present complex material and are an excellent way for STEM students to learn about career options.
“One of the most exciting things about virtual tours is the ability to connect people with resources and information about things they might otherwise not have access to,” said Beth Ward, AVIAN’s sector vice president for Training, Multimedia, and Consulting. “There is a big, wide world out there, and Virtual Tours are an exceptional solution to easily overcome economic, geographical, and/or cultural barriers that might otherwise prevent that exchange of knowledge.”
AVIAN’s signature production process ensures collaborative alignment on the desired outcome in pre-production. The video production team aims to make production painless and friction-free by alleviating the workload of its customer throughout all phases of the project.
“Our video production team takes the lead on all planning and coordination,” Hoey said. “We interview SMEs to establish a baseline understanding of the technology and use that information to develop a creative vision and write scripts. It’s our goal to make the process as easy as possible for our customers who will greatly benefit from producing a virtual tour but don’t have time to shoulder the creative burden.”
The team recently completed a new series covering multiple aspects of Webster Outlying Field (WOLF) in St. Inigoes, Md. The series has over three-thousand views in the three months since launch.
Watch the latest virtual tours - https://vimeo.com/showcase/9404696
Learn more about virtual tours- https://www.goavian.com/virtual-tours
About TMC
AVIAN’s Training, Multimedia, and Consulting (TMC) sector encompasses a highly talented cadre of visual, written, and oratory storytellers and sought-after subject matter experts assigned to special projects.
TMC provides curriculum design, courseware development, instruction, eLearning, video and multimedia production, strategic communication support, and more.
About AVIAN LLC
AVIAN (*ae-v-yin*) is an employee-owned government services small business headquartered in Lexington Park, Maryland with annual revenues exceeding $73 million.
We are resourceful, responsive and reachable for our clients in program, financial, and logistics management; engineering and systems engineering; test and evaluation of manned and unmanned aerial, surface, and sub surface systems; workforce development and training; and communication strategy and graphic design.
Our philosophy is simple. We care for our employees. Our employees care for our customers. Our customers care to return. Simply put, we take care of each other.
For more information, visit www.avian.com
