Matterport

My main use case for Matterport is with real estate agencies on the Andalusian coast, primarily to create virtual tours for remote sales or at least remote lead generation for foreign clients.

In a recent real estate transaction, as well as in others, luxury real estate agencies normally ask for a photographic report and drone work, because these houses usually have very interesting exteriors. They also ask for a virtual tour with Matterport, which is used basically for virtual tours, although sometimes it is used later to download floor plans.

Matterport's valuable features are basically the ability to know where it is, the ability to do a very large stitch, and also the possibility of creating more plans and multiple levels of a multilevel building.

Matterport has been a technology that has allowed me to offer one more service and even sometimes to attract clients who directly asked for Matterport service, with the brand being very well known, even among people who are not in the audiovisual sector. It has also allowed me to work with large luxury property sales platforms that directly ask for a Matterport link to embed on their website. Matterport is basically an international standard that allows, in and of itself, to make contact with customers, create new customers and retain them, and offer cutting-edge technology.

Work efficiency is key with Matterport because the report done with Matterport is done at the same time as the photos and drone work, since the home staging is done only once for everything. Then, I notice that I am delivering a product that I charge the same as I charged for the photographic report, but in reality, Matterport does all the work autonomously and there is no more field work than those few minutes needed to do the field captures. In terms of lead generation, I cannot give a disaggregated metric, but aggregated with the professional images plus the virtual tour, we are basically talking about, according to what my clients tell me, tripling visits.

I think Matterport could be improved with better integration with CAD systems. The quality of the output files of Matterport could have higher quality and better integration with platforms used by design professionals, such as architects and engineers, so that they can use it in a very reliable way. For example, they could use it to do as-built surveys, to do building pathology analysis, and to detect movements. This, of course, requires integration and communication between Matterport and other companies in the sector.

I think that the automatic removal of the camera's reflections would be an addition that could be implemented directly in an automatic way or the possibility of manual corrections.

In my current field, I have been working for basically 30 years, with artificial intelligence for the last approximately four years.

I consider Matterport to be absolutely stable; it has never given me any problem.

I have not had any relevant experience regarding the scalability of Matterport because of the size of my business, but I can say that the device is shareable. The equipment can be rented out to trusted people, it can be used by several people and it can be used with several platforms. This can indeed be a way to scale, but it has not been the core of my business.

My experience with Matterport's customer support has been generally positive, as they respond quickly and know the product perfectly, providing very quick solutions. I remember that at the beginning I had doubts when I had to configure, but normally it has not been necessary. However, I do remember that at the beginning they were very efficient.

I have used GigaPan before Matterport. GigaPan is a tool that lets you take high-resolution photos, that is, photos made by stitching different frames together. Obviously, GigaPan is called that because they sell the idea that you can, for example, take a telephoto lens and shoot a landscape with so many small telephoto images and then stitch them to create an image of virtually infinite resolution.

The use case that was used indoors or in architecture was more the spherical photography, that is, 360 x 180, and the work is very manual, involving several programs, specifically KRpano and a stitching program, which also has its cost. But above all, it is manual work and subject to stitching errors when the photos are not taken properly. If the photos are not taken properly, many times it is not possible to retake them. Meanwhile, with Matterport, I feel reassured because the device and the online ecosystem ensure that everything goes well from the field capture to the final product.

I notice a return on investment using Matterport, with time saving being significant. When I worked with GigaPan, I had to do the image stitching and professionals, when they stitch images that were not taken by them and if there are parallax problems, problems always arise. Thus, you always consider the option of doing it yourself or at least having the person who does the capture also do the stitching. The metric for Matterport is obviously a time saving, because the stitching is done automatically.

The recurring costs for Matterport are reasonable, with the costs of acquiring the device, especially the latest one, the Matterport Pro2, being more than €5,000. Obviously, one always hopes that the device can become cheaper. However, the monthly expenses are amortized with client payments.

Before choosing Matterport, I actually considered using Matterport platform with a Ricoh camera, the Theta, and other types of cameras, but in the end, since I came from GigaPan, which at least had high quality, I did not want to lower the quality. I decided to buy the device and pay for the platform to have everything done with high-quality captures from the beginning.

I would mainly advise other professionals to buy the latest equipment available and to wait maybe until offers come out. Sometimes offers with discounts appear, and you can even find something second-hand, but always go for the latest device because Matterport is a product that will last many years, so it is worth making an investment with all the functions up to date.

I think it should also be said that the design of Matterport has become very nice lately, as they have improved the quality of the lenses and also the size, with increased quality and reduced size of the equipment, which is always appreciated in field work. I would rate this product nine out of ten.

My main use case for Matterport is importing spherical images and renders. I render full spherical 360 images and then import them into Matterport to create a space that I share with clients. The resolution I work with is 16K. Regarding my main use case with Matterport, it has become expensive lately, which is the only issue I face.

The best features Matterport offers are that it was the first in the field at the market and that its name is massively used for virtual tours.

Matterport being the first in the field and its recognition for virtual tours has helped me because I didn't have to explain too much about what it was. People already knew what I was talking about, and I was able to apply my knowledge to an already existing culture.

Matterport has impacted my organization positively because we don't have to all go to the construction sites. Sometimes we just send one person who creates a space in Matterport, and then we all can see it and have everything on our computers in our office.

This change has had a measurable impact in saving time and reducing costs for my team. Instead of going through a thousand pictures of a site, we directly go to the place we need on the site and look for the details we need for designing or better understanding. Matterport is really crucial in that field.

Matterport can be improved with automation. Right now, we have only plans in CAD. If we had sections as well, it would be very useful. I think someone would purchase those as well next to plans in CAD and DWG.

I would add that if Matterport introduced tokens as a paying structure instead of the number of active spaces we have to maintain, that would be better. Additionally, if we could see all inactive spaces and archived spaces, that would be very helpful. This would allow us to view spaces for ourselves without sharing with anyone. These are the things that bother me the most.

I have been using Matterport for five years.

Matterport is pretty stable.

Regarding Matterport's scalability, I find it very difficult to assess because it is very expensive. I am not in the United States, so it is very difficult for me to keep up with the prices.

I found customer support at Matterport to be very great. I highly recommend it.

I did not previously use any other solution.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing involves seeing billing spaces and pricing increase some years ago. These changes took considerable thought at the top office. Management had to consider cutting Matterport entirely or just cutting some active spaces. In the end, I don't know what decision they made.

I have seen a return on investment, but I don't know if my employer really saw the benefit of it. In the end, they went with the higher priced product.

Before choosing Matterport, I did not evaluate other options.

The features of Matterport are great, particularly its cameras and everything. I don't have anything to add or subtract, but the main issue now is that Matterport has competitors that are less expensive.

Regarding Matterport's AI capabilities, I think its security is top-notch. The AI is really great and useful in creating empty spaces. It's not perfect, but it's very useful in some cases.

Regarding the accuracy and reliability of output from Matterport's AI capabilities, I cannot respond to this since I haven't used the Pro3. I have only used 360 cameras and render imports, so I cannot speak to precision in that field. However, I think it is also very reliable based on everything I have seen online.

My advice for others looking into using Matterport is that you will not regret it if you try it. You will be pretty sure hooked on it quite fast.

I have additional thoughts about Matterport that if it considered the outside US market a bit more differently with different pay grades and pricing structures, that would be beneficial.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Matterport overall as seven because I think it lacks some things that other competitors have.

I primarily use Matterport to capture as-built conditions, so for the projects we work on, we require most of the time to produce an as-built condition of the asset. We capture it using Matterport and we use that now to update our as-builts.

We also sometimes use Matterport for marketing. For example, some Airbnbs capture properties and then post them on their website as a showcase for advertisements for Airbnbs and hotel rooms.

Here in Kenya, in a town called Mombasa, we captured a data center where we captured the entire facility.

One of the best features Matterport offers is the point cloud feature that allows you to link your point clouds to your model. The other feature is clear visuals for advertising; it's very high quality and also quick navigation through the model for easy as-built conditions comparison.

The point cloud feature benefits my workflow by allowing me to trace when doing your models and when updating as-built models, so it's much easier and much quicker. It also helps improve the accuracy when you're placing your items in the model. The clear Matterport captures, especially with the Matterport Pro3, which is able to capture outside conditions, enable you to advertise your property fully, and the client can do a walk-through very clearly and straightforward.

With the as-built capture, we normally don't need to keep going back to the site to verify. Once we do the capture, then everyone who is updating their as-built capture can check in the capture and verify whatever they are doing. This has really reduced the amount of time you need to go back to the site and check on things before you update them. It also helps clients to view properties before they need to even go and actually visit them.

I estimate that we save about 60% of the time that would be spent going back to the site to keep re-measuring and confirming.

One way Matterport can be improved is that capturing using the Matterport camera tends to be quite bulky and slow. If there were a way for Matterport to improve or perhaps have a version of the camera which you can wear and just walk with it to do the captures a bit faster, that would be nice.

I have used Matterport for the past six years.

It depends on the amount of projects requiring as-builts, but as we expand into AI infrastructure with all the data centers and all the coastal solutions, I think it's very scalable since all of these assets will require an as-built asset to be presented at the end of the project.

Customer support is good; I have no complaints.

We have not used any other solution for these as-built captures.

We have seen the return on investment from the client end paying for the as-built capture and the initial cost of setting up and doing the capture. There's been a lot of time saved by all the subcontractors needing to go to the site to verify what they are working on, so there's been a saving of about 30% on transportation cost. There's also been a return on investment from the client hiring us to do the as-built captures.

We normally push the subscription fees to our clients and there's been no complaints. The initial cost for purchasing of the equipment is a bit on the higher side, but otherwise, the subscription is very fair.

We evaluated other options such as OpenSpace, but the point cloud generated from that and drone captures from that wasn't as accurate as we expected it to be.

Advice I would give other people looking to use Matterport is they should get the Pro3 since it captures outside conditions. I've used the Pro2 for a long time, but the Pro3 is really nice, being able to capture even the outside. I also recommend that you always plan your captures; if you're going to capture an as-built asset, plan it before you go there. Planning ahead will enable you to do your captures more efficiently and much faster. I give this product an overall rating of 8.

I was working as a BIM modeler and mechanical engineer, with my main role handling the MEP perspective of the BIM models. While using Matterport, which is very user-friendly, it showed me the real working space in 3D visionary visualization and gave proper visualization data of the site where I could see through pipes, ducts, and all these sorts of assets in the construction buildings. It was a very good experience while using Matterport.

I used Matterport at the Travel America site. I was doing the warehouse and Travel America project, one of their major warehouse projects with different warehouse sites and different MEP ducts, pipes, electrical systems, and sanitation systems as well as washrooms and everything else. It was all displayed through Matterport's user interface, and it was very easy to locate, allocate each asset, and navigate every asset present on the site so that I could model it in Revit for my BIM perspective.

Matterport is basically owned by the company that has its package for Matterport; they don't use any other cloud servers. I haven't chosen any other option.

Matterport is very useful in terms of site documentation and visualization, facility inspection, or site inspection with the ability to get it through. I can also get a walkthrough of the MEP layouts throughout the overall site area or the plant area so that everything can be explained to the higher authorities or the client perspective as well, making it very handy in terms of site visualization.

In terms of inspection, Matterport is helpful for navigating. Since I am using Matterport from the company's account, it enables different features of navigation, and I used different types of scales for measuring the areas. I use different sets of angles in terms of inspection for getting to know things about the ducting, such as what type of ducts are placed within that area above the ceiling and what it looks like below the ceiling, what type of pipe it is—whether it is oval-shaped, rounded, or a different type—and what type of duct, whether it is oval-shaped, circular, or rectangular. Everything was very much easier to navigate while using this platform, which also has very good features for measuring scales and going through different angles for visualization.

Matterport's main purpose was to build a BIM model, so I have to build a proper model of the site through inspecting it using Matterport. My main agenda for using Matterport is basically building this main model, so I have to use it with whatever the conditions are.

I have used Navisworks, which is very useful for navigating clash detection and is useful to go back and forth within the platform. If there is any feature available for MEP perspective, that would be very much helpful because I have seen there is a perspective with an upper edge for the construction or civil site, but for the MEP perspective, it is quite low, as I have to look around for those assets more often. Matterport's MEP perspective should be improved, whatever the conditions are.

Regarding accuracy, Matterport's accuracy is basically good, but not the very best because, as I mentioned earlier, it shows the ducts and everything; it does not show the proper imagery system or the accurate output in results. That is why I think Matterport's MEP perspective should be improved to enhance its overall accuracy.

I have used Matterport for two to three months and it was a very good experience.

Matterport is stable.

Regarding scalability related to project requirements, the bigger the project, the more I can say for small or medium category projects it is pretty much handy, but for large projects it requires a lot of effort, and sometimes for mega projects it lags as well. I have to scrutinize everything on a certain level; for a building or warehouse, I have to scrutinize everything on the floor basis—first floor, second floor, and ground floor—to avoid feeling any lagginess while using Matterport. Since I am using it on the cloud, there can be internet lags or fluctuations that might hinder my work.

For ROI, I cannot comment on that specifically, but a lot of time has been saved because I had projects back and forth, and it was very cost-effective while using Matterport and doing the projects for the client. So it was basically saving a lot of money, but it is a 50-50 situation for Matterport because I cannot comment on it since my main type of work was on Revit; Matterport is just a subsidiary platform for those purposes.

I think everything is fine; I haven't worked a lot on Matterport, but I think it has very good features. It cannot be improved, but right now I don't have any comment on that.

Using Matterport basically saves time, not very specifically, but in general. It saves a lot of time because I am basically not present at the remote area; I am working in a different area, so I have the visualizations of the data that is visualized on the software, which is apparently in another country, but I have everything within my screen, which allows a lot of time to be saved, reduces a lot of errors, and facilitates good collaboration amongst the team. There is good coordination amongst the team as well, between the team lead and team members. If there is any error or anything left out in the model that I am building, a BIM model, it can be reviewed and navigated through Matterport's user interface.

Matterport is a very handy software; it is very user-friendly, and I love using it while working. I would love to work more if I get the opportunity again.

Matterport's security is very good because it uses a company's account, so it cannot be shared with others. Every individual has their own account, so the security is good.

I use Matterport on-premises; I think it is on-premises at the office. It can be used as a private cloud as well because it is private to my firm.

Matterport has a different agenda; I have seen it used for construction, but I have used Navisworks for offshore plants in the oil and gas perspective, which has a different navigation style and different features. Matterport has a different navigating style, and everything has its own features, so I think it is pretty much good where they are.

Matterport is a very good software that will be very much helpful while gaining experience and navigating good projects like Travel America, Burlingtons, or whatever the sites are, such as Levi's Mall or any shopping mall. It can be very much helpful for the navigation perspective and for site inspection as well. I would rate this product an 8 out of 10.