About Lake|Flato Architects

Lake|Flato Architects is an award-winning architectural firm renowned for its commitment to innovation, sustainable design, and exceptional client experiences. With a forward-looking technology strategy centered around cloud solutions, the firm consistently seeks ways to enhance the quality and efficiency of client interactions.

The Challenge

Previously, Lake|Flato faced significant inconveniences delivering high-quality VR presentations during client meetings. The firm relied on transporting heavy, costly workstation laptops, capable of running Enscape, and wired VR headsets, creating logistical complexity and high operational costs. These limitations not only burdened the architects but also reduced flexibility and spontaneity during client interactions.

Key pain points included:

• Costly travel and shipping logistics for VR setups.
• Complex on-site preparation, causing delays and reducing efficiency.
• Limited scalability due to high hardware expenses and maintenance.

The QuarkXR & T-Mobile Solution

Lake|Flato implemented QuarkXR’s cloud-based VR streaming platform, leveraging T-Mobile’s 5G Quality on Demand (QoD). This enabled high-quality, real-time streaming of immersive architectural presentations directly from the cloud to standalone VR headsets. QuarkXR also integrated seamlessly with Lake|Flato's existing Enscape workflow, enabling the team to readily stream even their largest and most complex Enscape projects.

Key components of the solution included:

• Cloud Rendering: All VR visuals rendered remotely, eliminating local GPU and workstation requirements.
• Global availability: QuarkXR supports all major Cloud providers in AWS, GCP, and Azure, thus enabling Cloud streaming availability almost anywhere in the world.
• 5G Connectivity with QoD: Guaranteed low latency, high-bandwidth connectivity provided by T-Mobile’s 5G Network APIs, ensuring smooth streaming without on-site IT headaches. T-Mobile designed an XR slice on their 5G network, specifically tailored for workloads like Enscape and QuarkXR.
• Ultra-Portable VR Kit: Lightweight wireless VR headsets (Meta Quest 3) and a 5G mobile router, easily transportable in a small backpack.

Key Benefits & Expected Results

• Dramatically Reduced Costs: Travel expenses, shipping costs, and hardware investments are significantly decreased. The entire VR setup now fits into a small backpack rather than a heavy, expensive Pelican case.
• Efficiency Gains: Setup time is reduced by almost 400%, allowing more presentations and client interactions per week.
• Improved Client Engagement: Immersive, high-quality VR presentations provide clearer design understanding, reducing design revisions and accelerating decision-making.
• Cloud Alignment: QuarkXR seamlessly integrates into Lake|Flato’s existing cloud-driven IT strategy, decreasing hardware investment and increasing scalability.

Early Results & Industry Benchmarks

Early pilot feedback indicates substantial benefits:

• Travel & Cost Savings: Anticipated to save thousands annually by significantly reducing travel, logistics, and hardware costs.
• Operational Efficiency: The streamlined workflow is expected to cut VR-related IT support and hardware upgrade expenses.
• Client Experience: Lake|Flato can deliver the high-quality client experience they require with much less effort. This leads to high client satisfaction and fast design approval speed.

Competitive Advantage

Unlike traditional VR setups requiring expensive on-site computing or legacy VR collaboration platforms (The Wild, IrisVR), QuarkXR uniquely delivers desktop-level visual fidelity from the cloud, fully wireless, without compromising mobility, inclusive of existing software such as Enscape. This aligns with Lake|Flato’s thin-client strategy, optimizing both operational expenditures and IT resource allocation.

Looking Forward

Lake|Flato Architects plans to expand this VR solution across multiple projects and client teams, leveraging QuarkXR and T-Mobile’s 5G network to transform remote client collaboration and design reviews further. As hard metrics become available, the firm expects to validate and quantify the extensive efficiency and cost savings anticipated from this innovative implementation.

Testimonial

“Implementing QuarkXR’s cloud VR streaming with T-Mobile 5G has streamlined our off-site client interactions - delivering powerful immersive presentations without bulky equipment, while aligning perfectly with our cloud-first approach.”

— Dan Stine, Director of Design Technology at Lake|Flato

Want to explore similar benefits for your firm?

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