Picsolve ignites innovation with Panora.me purchase

Picsolve, the world’s number one photo and video capture partner for world-class visitor destinations, today announces the purchase of Belgium-based start-up Panora.me to fuel future innovation.

The collaboration, which marks the creation of Picsolve’s first innovation and creativity hub, Picsolve Lab will bring together world-leading market expertise to drive the continued development of cutting-edge capture innovations.

The acquisition marks a year since the exclusive strategic partnership with Panora.me was announced. In this time, the two companies have jointly delivered capture innovations for customers including the Epic Selfie, which has just been installed at the Coca-Cola London Eye, and the Super Selfie, which is benefiting partners including Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida and LEGOLAND® Florida Resort.

Introducing Picsolve Lab

With the creation of Picsolve Lab innovation Centre, a dedicated team of visionaries will be responsible for researching and developing new capture innovations that will revolutionise visitor experience. A key differentiator within the marketplace, the Centre will ensure Picsolve remains a world-leader in photo and video capture and can continue to deliver the best solutions for its partners.

David Hockley, CEO at Picsolve, said: “We are excited for Panora.me to become the heart of capture innovation at Picsolve. The acquisition will superpower our research and development capability ensuring we continue to exceed visitor expectations. In the creation of Picsolve Lab, a bespoke initiative that is unique in the marketplace, we demonstrate our commitment to global growth through continued innovation. I’m excited to see what new technologies our dedicated experts within the newly formed Picsolve Lab team will deliver.”

Raphaël de Borman, Founder at Panora.me and head of Picsolve Lab: “In the year since we started working with Picsolve, we’ve been able to deliver capture innovations including Epic Selfie and Super Selfie which have proved extremely successful for our partners. Our alignment of vision and drive to innovate within the market makes Picsolve a great fit for us. We will help fuel Picsolve’s expansion into new markets, and further strengthen our position as a force to be reckoned with in photo and video capture.”

All new product innovations created by the Picsolve Lab team will be integrated within Picsolve’s new digital platform. Picsolve’s digital platform has already been deployed at 20 destinations across the globe.

Panora.me’s successful events business - which saw the company provide its Super Selfie technology to support partners with over 50 brand activations at events and within city locations across 16 countries - will also continue to be managed under the Picsolve Lab team.

First Epic Selfie installation at Coca-Cola London Eye

At the first destination to go live with the latest technology developed by Panora.me, visitors of the Coca-Cola London Eye will be able to capture an Epic Selfie prior to boarding the iconic London landmark. This new feature captures guests as they queue for the popular attraction against a green screen and creates a high-quality, shareable video that zooms out from the capsule to show the spectacular London Eye and surrounding landscape. Guests will then board one of the famous London Eye capsules and take flight 135m over the city skyline, providing even more chances to capture epic moments of their experience.

Capture innovations delivered through Panora.me partnership

Since partnering with Picsolve last summer, Panora.me has helped deliver two new capture technologies to the marketplace. The Epic Selfie, announced at IAAPA Asia Expo, is an evolution of the Super Selfie, allowing attractions to capture visitors and transport them into a world beyond the realms of possibility.

The Super Selfie is a panoramic, supercharged take on the ‘Selfie’, which takes a stunning backdrop of any destination and combines it with a selfie of the visitors. The result is a video that starts with a close-up of the visitors and dramatically zooms out to reveal the panoramic scenery behind them. Since the international rollout of Super Selfie, several brands have realised the benefits of providing this unique content to visitors, with latest installations of the technology now at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and LEGOLAND® Florida Resort.

The Picsolve Lab team in Brussels are continuing with this momentum as they develop the next piece of capture innovation.

Year in review 2018

What an amazing year!

Great team, fantastic clients and still the same passion for innovation in capture technology.

The end of the year provides the perfect opportunity to look back over the last 12 months…

We were lucky to install our panoramic selfie capture solution at prime events across the globe - helping brands to amplify their visibility on social media. From the hot Australian Goldcoast (Commonwealth Games) to the cold, snowy peaks of Jasnà in the Czech Republic (Coca-Cola Olympic Village), we've travelled the world.

On our home soil, we successfully launched two permanent installations in Brussels during the summer. Tourists took more than 35.000 panoramic selfies at Grand Place and The Atomium - promoting the city among their friends and family.

But the highlight of this year is undoubtedly the strategic partnership agreed in August with Picsolve - the leading digital content capture partner for world-class visitor destinations. Our collaboration had started earlier in April with a first permanent installation at Studio City Macau but working now closely with their team is very inspiring. We can't wait for 2019. The best is yet to come.

Happy New Year!

Panora.me signs a technological partnership with Picsolve

The strategic partnership agreed with Picsolve not only focuses on the panoramic selfie technology, but also on the development of other content capture innovations.

After two years of existence, the Belgian startup announced today the signature of an exclusive strategic agreement with Picsolve. With 500 facilities around the world, Picsolve is the leading digital content capture partner for world-class visitor destinations.

For Picsolve, this agreement includes a worldwide exclusivity on the panoramic selfie technology developed by the startup financed by Leansquare (Meusinvest). Successfully launched in summer 2016 on the Grand-Place in Brussels and in the Atomium, panoramic selfie allows tourists to trigger a photo device from a high viewpoint. They then receive their panoramic selfie through email: a short video which starts with a close framing, then zooms out spectacularly, to reveal the location’s panorama in its entirety.

Since then, Panora.me has installed the solution at several events, like the Earth Hour Challenge in Dubai, the Commonwealth Games in Australia, or even the Life is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. Last week, the Panora.me teams were ready to get down to the job during National Day and on Tomorrowland. They are actively preparing the next Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix, which will take place at the end of the month in Spa-Francorchamps. A few months ago, Panora.me also installed their device permanently in Studio City Macau, on behalf of Picsolve already.

Picsolve is backed by Eight Roads, the propriety investment arm of Fidelity International Limited (FIL). Apparently, the British group appreciated the work quality provided by the Belgian startup, as the partnership also foresees R&D collaboration on new products to come.

Raphaël de Borman, CEO of Panora.me: “We are very proud of the progress made by our company from its beginnings almost two years ago. But, to develop on a global marketplace where growth is clearly located in the US, in Asia and in the Emirates, it was essential for Panora.me to be involved with a major actor like Picsolve. Thanks to them, we now have access to the best tourist and recreational sites around the globe, while benefiting from their 25-year experience in the industry. Being appointed to work on new products is also very exciting for us. It’s a huge challenge we are eager to embrace.”

Destinations and Selfies – A Perfect Union!

The selfie has become a new form of art and expressionism over the last decade and is cultural phoneme that is arguably here to stay. Theme parks, attractions and other tourist destinations are exceptionally popular locations for taking and sharing selfies. The smartphone, accessibility to Wi-Fi and popularity of social media have combined to create a utopia for tourist destinations as the visitor becomes a promoter of the destination which is amplified to their family and friends. For the destination, this is a win-win as most consumers today are more trusting of social recommendations and word of mouth when planning their next activity.

These destination-promoting selfies act as endorsements of where to go in your free time, where to book a holiday, or what theme park or museum to visit next. Destinations even promote selfie taking with iconic symbols for their cities and or the use of hashtags so once posted and shared there is no doubt where the selfie was taken. 

Destinations can improve and recruit more of their visitors to act as promoters to drive more visitors to their destination. With a better-quality selfie or User Generated Content such as a Panora.me selfie, destinations can further broaden their reach to attract even more visitors.

At Panora.me, we empower iconic attractions, destinations and sponsors around the globe to get the big picture. Our innovative panoramic selfie technology provides an immersive and engaging iconic selfie taking-point. Once the guests spot the remote cameras located 150 meters away, the selfie is triggered. The guests can then purchase their panoramic selfie in the form of a ‘digital postcard video’ that is first an up-close zoom of the guests; then it pans out to show the iconic area in its full panoramic view.  The visitor can then post their selfie promoting the destination with the most amazing selfie.

Photography and theme parks provide excellent opportunities to purchase a photo with our favourite characters, in front of iconic castles or while testing our limits on roller coasters. The Panora.me selfie gives new life to attraction photo concessionaires with much-needed innovation with the panoramic selfie at a time where print photo purchase are on the decline and selfie-taking is on the rise. Panora.me unlocks missed opportunities and helps destinations and photography operators ‘get the big picture.’

Panora.me appoints Deborah Eicher as International Business Development Consultant

Panora.me, the worlds’ first provider of panoramic selfie technology for the global leisure and entertainment industry has appointed Deborah Eicher as International Business Development Consultant.

Eicher brings over 18 years of commercial and marketing experience in the leisure and entertainments industry, has an MBA, ICAE and is on the Board of Directors of the IAAPA Foundation. Eicher, who operates as London based Eicher Leisure Consultants, has provided business development consulting to companies such as HB Leisure, Scruffy Dog, RWS Entertainments and Local Measure. Eicher specialises in global strategic business development having worked in the US, Europe, Middle East and Asian markets.

Eicher has an extensive background in photography operations in the leisure sector as former Picsolve President, Head of Market & Industry Relations and Business Development Head in US, Asia and the Middle East. Eicher will harness her knowledge of the global leisure photography market and introduce and integrate the Panora.me selfie technology across the globe.

‘The leisure consumers have changed the way they take, buy and share photos and the selfie is here to stay. The Panora.me selfie opens up a whole new level of capturing memories. It gives consumers access to the kind of content they can’t produce with their smartphones. The panoramic selfie is a video postcard that captures the unique location in the whole view. Guests want to share where they are and what they are doing, they want to be immersed and part of the photo taking process. The Panora.me technology is truly unique and provides guests with an amazing selfie that they love and want to share. Additionally, guests are becoming the venues’ promoters as they post their video instantly and share with family and friends.’ Says Eicher.

CEO and co-founder of Panora.me Raphael de Borman says ‘I am very excited that Deborah has joined our team to lead our growth in new markets. Deborah has valuable experience and key connections in the industry to help us identify photo partners for our panoramic selfie technology.’

Panora.me currently partners with Dakota Photo and provides the panoramic selfie technology to the Real Madrid Football Club Stadium Tour & Museum. Panora.me is also partnering with major concession photography companies to run pilot programs at iconic sites. In the meantime, the Belgian startup continues to operate temporary installations in tourist cities and at prime events across the globe, helping destinations and brands to amplify their visibility on social media through guest-generated content with the panoramic selfie.

Visit their website at www.panora.me for more information or get in touch.