We’ve written many articles over the years about why interactive maps are valuable and important, but most of you already know that or you wouldn’t be reading this. Let’s talk about something a little more practical today. If you are using the nuCloud platform let’s go over seven different types of media content that you can include in stops and the use for each.

 

1 – Photo
No surprise here huh? Photos are the most commonly used form of content in any map (if we don’t count the words in the descriptions). Pictures can very in many ways.

Interior shots
Exterior landscape shots
Seasonal pictures
Night spot lights on buildings
Active events
Beautiful garden and landscapes
And of course students, faculty and staff shot in dozens of different ways.

No matter how you use them, pictures are you table setters.

 

2 – YouTube 360 Video
YouTube is your defacto standard on uploading and sharing videos around the web. Besides your standard embed we support easy integration. YouTube even supports 360 videos that can be embedded to add a great element of interaction with virtual reality.

 

3 – Vimeo Video
Vimeo is like the more professional and cleaned up little brother of YouTube. Sure he’s not as big and popular, but he’s a nice dresser. You can showcase special events with more drama by adding videos. Display student ambassador video guides. Similar to how we support integration with YouTube you can also grab the embed code or just the URL for the video and we’ll handle the rest.

 

4 – Google Street
Now we start to get into the more interesting multi-media options for your map. What makes Google Street View so compelling is that it is free content IF it’s available in your location. If you look up a location on Google Maps and then go to the street view all you need to do is click on the three circles in the top left hand corner and select “Share or embed image”.

 

5 – Ricoh Theta S 360
Sure there are literally dozens (possibly hundreds) of tools you can use to create 360 degree panoramas but we’ve found the Ricoh Theta to be extremely easy to use. This inexpensive camera is a great way to start gathering content for your map that isn’t just another picture.

6- Matterport 3
The Matterport 3 is a fully contained virtual tour creator. Now you can make your building interiors and turn them into full explorable walkthroughs. This tool really takes virtual tours to a new level while also not taking your budget to the next level.

 

7- Sketchfab 3D Model
With thousands of aerial photos gathered by drones stitched together you can create 3D models much faster than by hand. We will warn though that because these are full rendered 3D models that they can be quite memory extensive. Be sure that your visitors have tons of RAM and a fast internet connect to really make this experience work.

 

Takeaway
So these are just seven media options we use all the time or have played around with and have found extremely easy to use. We’re curious though. What tools or solutions have you used to create compelling multimedia for your interactive map?