North Cadbury Court is a jaw-droppingly stunning 16th-century stately home; an exclusive-use venue for events such as weddings and special celebrations.
Anyone who enters the grounds can’t help but fall in love with the space. But not everyone has the means or time to initially look around and get a feel for the venue. This was particularly apparent during lockdown, where the site has been closed to the public.
If only there was a way to experience an environment or space, without needing to physically be there…*scratches head*
Enter 3D Virtual Solutions! North Cadbury Court wanted to utilise our all-in-one reality capture system that also provides floor plans, tag points, overviews, video and VR capability.
A tour at their fingertips
Soon-to-be-wed couples are now able to get a solid understanding of the size and feel of North Cadbury Court’s event spaces from the comfort of their sofa, before deciding whether the venue is suitable and making the journey to come and visit ‘in the flesh’.
Katherine O’Brien, who heads up at Sales & Marketing for the venue, told us: “Having this tour available during lockdown has felt really worthwhile and it was exactly the right time to do it, but it will also be beneficial going forward as people find it hard to make the time to drive to see us in Somerset when they’re often based 2-3 hours away.”
Flexibility, in terms of the virtual tours being available 24/7, is also a clear advantage: “We can normally only do show rounds midweek or late afternoon on Sunday due to our house already being booked up by guests at weekends so this gives us flexibility for people to do a first viewing whenever they choose and from their own homes”, says Katherine.
Overseas bookings
The venue has received numerous enquiries recently from groups who live outside of the UK – they even took a booking from over the pond in the US from a bride who has never seen the venue in person, but using the tour and then a video call, was able to get a really good feel for the layout of the property.
How does it work?
So, how exactly do the tours work? What goes on behind the scenes? Is it a lengthy project to get to the final product?
In reality, it’s a super quick, easy and pain-free process for our clients! With North Cadbury Court, we arrived on site at 10am having never visited before, which is usual for us. We had many calls in the run up to filming to try and build up a picture of the spaces, but it’s hard to tell how the rooms join up when there’s no floor plan available (which is one of the reasons why venues need a tour in the first place).
After meeting up with Georgia, who runs the weddings and events at the venue, we walked through the house, highlighting areas to focus on and propping doors open along the way. Then we started filming throughout the main house’s event spaces, bedrooms on the first floor and even the casino and disco in the cellars. We added in some beautiful images of the grounds from terraces, patios, pool and even the roof.
We were away by 5pm and back to the office to edit, trim, upload and process. Within 48 hours the tour was ready and as soon as the walkthrough was created and signed off and tag points added, the tour could be used.
And we didn’t finish there! We’ve made sure the client has a video format to push out on other promotional platforms, sending over many high-res images as well as 360° shots which look great on social media.
But don’t just take it from us!
Georgia, Booking & Events Manager at North Cadbury Court, was delighted with the final result: “The tour will be a real time saver for both us and the groups making bookings. The filming was remarkably easy. The quality of the filming is extraordinary, I was even able to use it for a potential art exhibition where they could zoom into the walls and see where the picture hooks are!”
Interested? Get in touch for a no-obligation chat and see how we could bring your venue to life with one of our affordable 3D virtual tours.