What Imersifi does
Jack Bengeyfield and Joe Charman, Imersifi co-founders, honed their graphics skills while working on flight simulators during their graduate studies. They were part of the first cohort for an innovative Virtual Reality MSc program at the University of Swansea in Wales.
Since then, they have leveraged their knack for creating realistic environments to bring immersive experiences to life. Together, they founded Imersifi where they develop custom VR solutions that transform complex information into interactive experiences across industries like aerospace, healthcare, engineering, and more.
Educating Customers on Virtual Reality
When customers come to Imersifi, they aren’t always experienced with VR. The Imersifi team educates customers on when VR is most effective and develops content around the goals they wish to achieve. “We walk through the technology benefits of certain headsets, types of approaches, [and] types of VR interactions,” says Jack.
Virtual reality is especially useful when used in place of expensive or impractical experiences, such as identifying safety hazards in a manufacturing environment or visiting the bottom of the ocean. Learning in VR can also be more engaging and effective than traditional learning methods, making it a powerful educational tool in the classroom.
Closing the Skills Gap with Immersive Experiences
One particularly powerful use case for VR is educational outreach, especially for industries in need of skilled labor like the semiconductor industry. Though the industry is expected to grow by over 80% to more than a trillion dollars by 2030, the number of skilled workers is not growing at the rate needed to support that growth. Part of that issue is the lack of exposure to newer generations of STEM students. “There’s a huge skills gap [in the semiconductor industry], especially within Wales. Globally, it’s a huge issue,” says Jack.
In partnership with Swansea University, Imersifi has developed a series of custom VR apps to introduce the younger generation to the semiconductor manufacturing processes. Once a headset is on, students enter training environments and are guided through an in-depth look at how semiconductors are made from sand to chips.
“We’ve curated VR content…to put people through processes that wouldn’t be able to experience otherwise,” says Jack.
Logistically, this project posed some unique challenges. The devices used are on loan and in a classroom environment. Imersifi needed to be able to monitor and secure the devices while being able to troubleshoot any issues remotely.
Additionally, Imersifi would deliver content over a period of time, not all at once. Due to past experience, they knew that side-loading was a cumbersome task, especially for multiple devices. “For deployments with no MDM at all, we would either side load content or app lab content. You see the frustrations of doing things that way if content needed to be updated,” says Jack. The demand of having to go on-site for any update or new content addition would be a painful and inefficient use of time.
Using ManageXR, Imersifi experienced how MDM makes their deployments more efficient and never looked back.
How ManageXR makes it happen
Release Channels
Sharing apps has never been easier for Imersifi. Before ManageXR, they spent time side-loading their content to customers’ devices which became an ongoing obstacle whenever content had to be updated. Release Channels simplify and centralize app versions for developers like Imersifi and enable them to manage multiple versions of an app (development, QA, production, etc.) in a single place. To easily and securely distribute their content, Imersifi generates a share code that customers redeem to add new apps directly to their devices.
“If we wanted to change something for an event, we could do that remotely and provision new apps as they were getting built, which is great,” says Jack.
For customers receiving content over time, Imersifi adds new content to their customers’ devices remotely and instantly. Custom device limits and expiration dates add another level of control, empowering developers like Imersifi to explore options like trial periods and subscription-based models while using ManageXR.
ManageXR Home Screen
Imersifi uses the ManageXR home screen to deliver their custom VR experiences. “As much as we can control the experience in our app, we also want it to be a really smooth and nice experience,” says Joe. “That was a key thing. Being able to give someone a headset and not have it be a painful experience.”
The Custom Home Screen simplifies the user experience, with no need to navigate the native device menus. Users directly enter Imersifi’s content without distractions. With access to unlimited configurations, Imersifi can design tailored experiences for their customers.
Device Management
The ManageXR dashboard provides Imersifi with the ability to monitor their fleet of devices. With oversight of their entire fleet, they can remotely track device location, battery health, wifi connections, and more. Instead of performing on-site troubleshooting, they can quickly identify and resolve errors.
Why Developers Choose ManageXR
ManageXR’s experience as an ISV gives us insight into the unique problems developers face when scaling their business. Our platform empowers developers to easily and quickly distribute their content while delivering customers a custom, user-friendly experience.
“Without MDM, it can be a real pain to manage headsets. When it comes to content, there was no question in our decision to use ManageXR for the headsets,” says Joe.