Underground Infrastructure - September 2023 - 30

Directional Drilling
" That's what we're trying to talk to
customers and dealers about, " he said.
" We have the base model of this: 'Where
do you want to go with it?' And I don't
know what that answer is yet. "
Wave of the future
While that may not be clear right now,
the view is very much toward the future.
A lot of children and teens today, including
Hubbard's own kids, play video
games and are comfortable with VR, the
controls and how it all works.
" That's our next generation of not
only employees, but also our operators, "
Hubbard explained. " A lot of the equipment
is going this way where it's more
technologically advanced and the kids
of today are just more familiar with it.
We're trying to gear a lot of the things
that we do toward that next generation,
and we feel like this is a perfect fit. "
Meta, the technology company tied
to Facebook, was chosen because it was
a platform they could build in. Metecs, a
third-party company based in Houston,
is the developer behind the Ditch Witch
Metaverse, Hubbard said.
While he and I began and ended
our meeting through Microsoft Teams
for interview purposes, we also each
donned the VR headset and met as avatars
in the Ditch Witch Metaverse, and
in the virtual lobby: a two-story room
with twin ramps curving up each side
toward the second story, where there
was a conference table spread with blueprints
and a view above the clouds.
Our avatars took seats at the conference
table where I was able to look
at the blueprints, which are for some of
the company's real equipment manufactured
in Oklahoma and Ohio.
" Just like in the real world, you can
imagine anything being on this table,
and you and I can pick it up, look at and
interact with it, " he stressed. " It's a real
meeting space in the virtual world. "
Visible from the conference table,
across the room on the first floor were
four colorful doorways resembling portals.
Each led into the virtual showroom
Hubbard explained that with virtual reality " We're
trying to gear a lot of the things we do toward that
next generation, and we feel like this is a perfect fit. "
of a sister company including American
Augers, Trencor and Subsite.
Small world
The beauty of Metaverse and of virtual
reality is that it can shrink the world, thus
offering an innovative new way to connect
with clients, Hubbard observed.
An ultimate goal is to create virtual
models of everything the four brands make
across all product lines, he pointed out.
For example, if a customer across the
world wants to see the American Augers
DD240T drill but can't attend a trade
show and the local dealer doesn't have
one, the customer can meet with a representative
in the Metaverse and virtually
walk around the drill to see it. Next, the
customer can teleport to a virtual job site
and meet with the training department
to learn how to operate the equipment
safely, effectively and efficiently. Then, if
the client decides to purchase one, their
avatar can teleport to a dealership lobby
to meet with a salesperson.
" And you, wherever you are in the
world, have just purchased a piece of
equipment from Ditch Witch that you've
never seen it in real life, " Hubbard said. " I
think that's the endgame, though we're a
long way from that. "
While not every product has yet been
incorporated into the Metaverse, the
Inside the Metaverse, the virtual reality lobby offers four portal doorways to a showroom
for each sister brand.
Underground Infrastructure's Corinna Hunt's
introduction to the Ditch Witch Metaverse
doubled as her introduction to the world of
virtual reality.
30 SEPTEMBER 2023 | UndergroundInfrastructure.com
http://www.UndergroundInfrastructure.com
Underground Infrastructure - September 2023

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