TIDMVRE
RNS Number : 3110K
VR Education Holdings PLC
13 December 2018
For immediate release 13 December 2018
VR Education Holdings plc
('VR Education' or the 'Group')
Full commercial release of ENGAGE
Initial partnerships with Nokia Corporation and Shenandoah
University
VR Education (AIM: VRE; ESM: 6VR), a leading virtual reality
('VR') technology company focused on the education space, is
pleased to announce the full commercial release of ENGAGE, its
online virtual learning and corporate training platform. At the
time of its IPO in March 2018, the Group raised GBP6 million gross
to, amongst other activities, fund the further development of its
proprietary VR education platform, "ENGAGE". The URL for ENGAGE is
www.engagevr.io.
ENGAGE version 1.0 is now available on all industry leading VR
devices including HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality
devices. Development of ENGAGE mobile is now complete and will be
made available early next year on devices such as the Oculus Go,
Vive Focus and selected Google DayDream devices. The content that
the Group has already created following its partnerships with the
BBC, the University of Bristol, the University of Oxford and the
University of New Haven will immediately be available on the
platform. Other immersive content will also be available to view
within the platform via ENGAGE's 360 video playback streaming
system on launch.
Highlights include:
-- Full commercial release of ENGAGE including ENGAGE Education and ENGAGE Enterprise
-- Emphasises the Group's clear focus on the education and corporate training markets
-- Various content already produced and now immediately available
-- Initial partnerships with Nokia Corporation and Shenandoah University
-- Intel currently promoting ENGAGE throughout the US as part of
the Tech Learning Lab initiative which will be touring Europe and
the UK in due course
Purpose and capabilities
The ENGAGE platform, which has been in development since 2015,
has been designed to overcome certain limitations of currently
available online courses, known as MOOCs (massive open online
courses), and traditional learning methods by allowing for virtual
face-to-face education and training in a variety of environments
regardless of the geographical location of the user. The Directors
believe ENGAGE is the first platform globally consisting of
networked features for live VR classes or tutorials where educators
are themselves able to create VR content using the unique ENGAGE
recording feature where user movements and audio are recorded and
replayed within virtual environments giving the user the ability to
record their presence for playback and publication for others.
Released today, ENGAGE version 1.0 provides a platform for
creating, sharing and delivering proprietary and third-party VR
content for educational and corporate training purposes. ENGAGE
version 1.0 follows comprehensive testing of ENGAGE Alpha during
2017 and 2018, which included multiple virtual locations, screen
sharing capabilities, interactive lessons, virtual whiteboards and
multiuser live 360 video playback via YouTube. A key feature of
ENGAGE is the ability for educators and trainers to use the
software to create their own VR lessons and presentations on ENGAGE
using VR tools provided by the Group or third parties without the
need for programming or animation skills.
The ENGAGE version 1.0 platform is downloadable software, which
acts as a social education and presentation platform. It allows its
users to hold and attend sessions (meetings, classes, private
lessons and presentations) together with multiple other users from
around the world in a safe virtual environment, and seeks to offer
improvements in how people share ideas and knowledge globally by
utilising VR technologies. Not only is ENGAGE a powerful
communications tool, it can also be used to provide full simulated
training as utilised by Oxford University and the LIFE project,
which taught students medical training remotely using ENGAGE.
ENGAGE has been created to enable users to benefit from the
immersive nature of VR and the ability to create and deliver
multi-user, content-rich VR experiences in a cost effective and
safe environment. Specifically, the Group believes that there is a
significant opportunity for widespread adoption of VR in the
education and corporate training space and believes that the ENGAGE
platform is well suited to overcome certain current challenges and
limitations, including:
-- Limited student places at physical schools/universities/training centres;
-- Limited interaction between teacher/student via traditional online education methods;
-- Low completion rates of online educational courses;
-- Teacher/trainer time resource;
-- Geographical limitations of students/employees; and
-- Students being priced out of education due to rising costs.
The Group has designed ENGAGE with a view to addressing these
limitations in the corporate training and education sectors, and to
utilise VR capabilities in order to:
-- Improve quality of learning by providing immersive interactive experiences;
-- Replicate dangerous or seldom experienced events in a safe, interactive environment; and
-- Provide equal opportunities irrespective of geographical location.
Commercial model
ENGAGE has full payment capabilities. While there is a free
version of the platform to download and use, the Group has
identified a range of revenue-generating opportunities and will
adopt both a subscription and a revenue share model with educators
and corporates who wish to use the ENGAGE platform to provide
content to the general public. In order to target these two main
groups of users, the platform will be marketed as ENGAGE Enterprise
and ENGAGE Education.
ENGAGE Education - Revenue Model
ENGAGE Education is aimed at the education sectors such as MOOC,
distance learning, universities and schools. The Directors intend
that ENGAGE Education educators will provide a mixture of both paid
and free content via ENGAGE. For example, educators may provide
sample classes in a course for free and charge for the remaining
classes in a course.
Potential revenue streams identified by the Group in relation to
ENGAGE Education include:
-- Subscription Revenue - Content browsing is free on the ENGAGE
platform, however if users want full unlimited access to all the
features available within ENGAGE they will need to pay a monthly
subscription fee.
-- Revenue share with educators - the Group will receive a share
of the revenue from educators charging for their courses via the
ENGAGE platform.
-- Revenue share with content creators - 3D assets built by
third party content creators will be made available on the platform
for purchase by educators for use within educational
lessons/presentations. The Group will receive a percentage of the
selling price.
-- Revenue for hosting private content - for
institutions/educators not wishing to provide the general public
access to their content, the Group will make private, closed
virtual rooms available for a room hire charge and charge hosting
costs for content saved on ENGAGE servers.
-- One-off charges for creation of specialised content - the
Group's development team can work in collaboration with corporate
entities to design and create bespoke VR content for the purposes
of training where required.
ENGAGE Enterprise - Revenue Model
ENGAGE Enterprise will be aimed at corporate institutions,
businesses, medical institutes and private sector training. The
Directors believe that ENGAGE Enterprise addresses some of the
shortfalls of current corporate training and communications such as
geographical limitations, low levels of trainee engagement, trainer
time resource and increasing costs.
Revenue streams identified by the Group in relation to ENGAGE
Enterprise include:
-- Subscription packages for virtual meetings - made for
corporate entities to host a number of users in one of the virtual
environments available on the ENGAGE Enterprise platform. These
packages will be similar to alternatives such as GoToMeeting.
-- Revenue for hosting virtual content/training materials - for
corporate clients not wishing to provide the general public access
to their content, the Group intends to provide a private hosting
subscription service where only permitted users will be allowed
access to ENGAGE content.
-- One-off charges for creation of specialised content - the
Group's development team can work in collaboration with corporate
entities to design and create bespoke VR content for the purposes
of training.
-- Revenue share with content creators - 3D assets built by
third party content creators will be made available on the platform
for purchase by educators and corporate trainers for use within
educational lessons/presentations. The Group will receive a
percentage of the selling price.
The Group also intends to explore other potential revenue
opportunities such as opening up the ENGAGE platform to third-party
developers to provide development services to educational
institutes on a licence fee basis, or providing services for
institutions who wish to white-label the platform for use within
their corporation or among their clients.
Initial partnerships with Nokia Corporation and Shenandoah
University
Both Nokia Corporation, the multinational telecommunications,
information technology, and consumer electronics company, and
Shenandoah University, the private liberal arts university located
in Winchester, Virginia in the United States, have tested the
pre-release versions of the ENGAGE platform and have now signed up
commercial agreements to use the ENGAGE platform for training and
education purposes respectively on a paid-trial basis with a view
to extending the scope of the contract in due course depending on
demand for additional functionality and/or user seats.
Commenting on the full commercial release of ENGAGE and initial
partnerships with Nokia Corporation and Shenandoah University,
David Whelan, CEO of VR Education, said: "The full release of
ENGAGE is a transformational moment in our corporate history and is
the result of many years of hard work, cutting edge research and
innovation.
"Although significant revenues are not expected to be generated
from the ENGAGE platform until general adoption of VR and AR
increases over the next two to three years, I am nonetheless
delighted that both Nokia and Shenandoah University have signed
commercial agreements. Being aligned to global leaders like these
institutions demonstrates the potential and need for the
platform.
"People today all over the world say let's SKYPE when talking
about online communications and meetings. In the future we want
people to say let's ENGAGE and enter VR to communicate in a more
natural way.
"We are also continuing to work with leading professors from
Oxford University to provide content on the ENGAGE platform and
Intel are currently promoting ENGAGE throughout the US as part of
their Tech Learning Lab initiative which will be touring Europe and
the UK in the coming months.
"We will immediately start to ramp up the marketing of ENGAGE,
including participating at the Bett Show in January 2019 in London
and GESS Dubai in February 2019. I look forward to updating
shareholders on progress in due course."
- Ends -
For further information, please contact:
VR Education Holdings plc Tel: +353 87 665 6708
David Whelan, CEO contact@vreducationholdings.com
Sandra Whelan, COO
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nominated Tel: +44 (0) 20 7213 0880
Adviser)
James Caithie / Liam Murray / Richard
Nash
Stockdale Securities Limited (Joint Tel: +44 (0) 20 7601 6100
Broker)
Andy Crossley / Ed Thomas
Davy (Joint Broker & ESM Adviser) Tel: +353 1 679 7788
Fergal Meegan / Ronan Veale / Barry
Murphy
Buchanan (UK Financial PR) Tel: +44 (0)20 7466 5000
Henry Harrison-Topham / Chris Lane VRE@buchanan.uk.com
/ Tilly Abraham
Fuller Marketing (Irish Corporate Tel: +353 87 981 3176
PR) ruth@fullermarketing.ie
Ruth Fuller / Sheila Kelleher
Notes to Editors
VR Education, together with its wholly owned subsidiary, is an
early stage VR software and technology group based in Waterford,
Ireland, dedicated to transforming the delivery methods of
education and corporate training by utilising VR technologies to
deliver fully immersive virtual learning experiences. The Group's
core focus is the development and commercialisation of its online
virtual social learning and presentation platform called ENGAGE,
which provides a platform for creating, sharing and delivering
proprietary and third-party VR content for educational and
corporate training purposes.
In addition to the ongoing development of the ENGAGE platform,
the Group has also built two downloadable showcase VR experiences,
being the award-winning Apollo 11 VR experience and an early access
version of the Group's Titanic VR experience.
On 12 March 2018, VR Education listed on the AIM market of the
London Stock Exchange and on the Enterprise Securities Market, a
market regulated by Euronext Dublin.
For further information, please visit
www.vreducationholdings.com.
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
END
MSCUUVNRWKAUAAA
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 13, 2018 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)
Vr Education (LSE:VRE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Vr Education (LSE:VRE)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024