Rondo

Powerful AR sales tool for Rondo’s cutting-edge Heat Battery

Visualization tool makes battery interior visible and drives prospect education

Services:

Consulting: Concept creation

Delivery: Multi-level game mechanics

Tech: Web AR, 3D modeling

Industry: Entertainment

Key contributors:

Preston Platt

Basak Akman

Alexandre Branitsky

Daniel Fernandes

Anna Kite

Chris Merchant

About the project

In the heart of California’s innovative energy sector, Rondo is on a mission to enable energy-intensive industries to achieve carbon neutrality. The Rondo Heat Battery is a zero-emission energy source that can produce clean power at scale, but getting prospects to understand the technology is a big challenge.

“Traditionally, site visitors would encounter just a large, metal box, leaving the core of our technology hidden and misunderstood.”
Conner Gordon
Head of Marketing, Rondo Energy

Working with engineering blueprints, Rondo’s CTO and the latest AR technologies, we built a visualization tool that allowed stakeholders to do the impossible: see inside the battery. The sophisticated solution enabled sales teams to educate clients, prospects and press at events, training sessions and more.

The challenge

Timelines for the project were tight as the tool needed to be ready for use at an important trade show just over a month away. Within just a few weeks, our skilled 3D team needed to build accurate models of the internal components, to demonstrate how the systems worked and showcase the technology in a simple but impactful way.

The Solution

Our Design teams started by working directly with Rondo’s CEO, Chief of Product and CTO, using workshop sessions to get a thorough understanding of how the battery functions. Having this close contact with the engineers was vital, as it enabled us to storyboard the informative animations that we would integrate into the experience.

Next we built a simulation using a combination of Maya, Unity, AR Foundation and Substance. We used image target markers, custom particle effects and shaders to create a realistic depiction of what was happening inside the box, from the direction of airflow to the permeation of heat within the machine. Our Design teams worked directly with CAD engineering blueprints to make the simulation as accurate as possible, and added callouts to communicate important information. Thanks to our click-and-play approach, users could simply point a tablet at the battery and launch the experience.

THE RESULTS

The AR sales tool enabled Rondo’s prospects, clients and other stakeholders to explore the Rondo Heat Battery with x-ray style visibility. The demo made an otherwise inaccessible space accessible in a frictionless way, and helped Rondo to dissolve the barriers to customer education it had been struggling to overcome.

“Working with RPR on this tool has been transformative for Rondo. We’ve repurposed the AR experience for use at various in-person meetings and events, enabling our representatives to walk attendees through our system as if it were physically present.”
Conner Gordon
Head of Marketing, Rondo Energy

Besides its success at the trade show, the AR tool has also become one of Rondo’s most powerful marketing tools. Since its creation, it has played a pivotal role in developing new public-facing collateral including video content and sales materials. This has had an enormous impact, helping Rondo to drive demand and move forward in its mission to make carbon neutrality feasible for high-energy industries.

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14 April 2022