Winsupply Introduces Immersive VR Bath and Kitchen Shopping to Plumbing Showroom Customers
The Libby VR Winsupply Virtual Showroom offers both virtual reality and augmented reality technology that enable bath and kitchen customers to shop in a 3-D environment
DAYTON, Ohio — Winsupply Inc. is bringing three-dimensional virtual bathrooms to its plumbing showrooms, which will allow customers to personalize their remodeling or building experience. The company introduces its Libby VR Winsupply Virtual Showroom, offering both virtual reality and augmented reality technology that enable bath and kitchen customers to shop in a 3-D environment.
With Libby VR (Luxurious Inspiration Built By You), customers can immerse themselves in the bathroom of their dreams. Using the latest in virtual reality technology, they will be able to customize textures, flooring, paint colors, and, most importantly, shower systems, bathtubs, faucets, and vanities.
Winsupply is introducing Libby VR in partnership with American Standard, part of LIXIL, which has developed bath and kitchen products for more than 140 years.
“Whether your home tastes are traditional, transitional, or modern, we have a virtual environment for you to customize and find design inspiration,” said Daryn Cherry, national showroom manager, Winsupply Inc. “You’ll be able to design a master bath, guest bath, or even a powder room. Utilizing Oculus Rift VR goggles, it will look as if you're immersed in the bathroom of your dreams. You’ll be able to move around in the room virtually to see and instantly change each element from the flooring to the shower fixtures to the vanity sinks.”
Mark Terrel, American Standard national accounts manager, sees the Winsupply Virtual Showroom as a “great opportunity for Winsupply in the remodeling, new construction, and showroom market. It’s going to extend the showrooms with their contractors and their remodelers. It’s going to allow them to view the product within their home in the environment it’s going to be staged.”
The Libby AR (augmented reality) will allow customers to bring to life 3-D models of the latest faucets and fixtures in a customer’s own bathroom or kitchen.
“No more guessing games on what that faucet or shower system will look like in your bath or kitchen,” Cherry said.
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Libby AR is an easy-to-use smartphone app. Selecting a fixture to view in 3-D, the customer can place a printed marker at the desired location in their bath or kitchen and a 3-D model scaled to size will appear on the smartphone screen using the phone’s video camera. The phone’s live screen video image lets customers see how the fixture would look installed, even allowing the customer to change vantage points to see it in three dimensions. The Libby AR app is available for download on the App Store and Google Play.
Customers using both the Libby VR station and the AR app can create favorites lists of products to share with a spouse, designer, or contractor while using the VR station or AR app.
Cherry demonstrated the Libby VR Winsupply Virtual Showroom at the recent EVOLVE showroom conference in Savannah, Ga. “I thought the Libby platform would make a splash, but it was even bigger than I expected,” Cherry said. “We had a line of people for four hours straight to see the VR and AR demos.”
Winsupply is rolling out its Virtual Showroom initially to 10 showrooms around the U.S. including locations doing business as Winsupply, Winnelson and Noland. The Winsupply Virtual Showroom will appear in more Winsupply showrooms nationwide in 2018.
For more information, visit www.winsupplyinc.com.
Publication date: 11/02/17
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