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1. Can you say a few words about your background and what you’re doing at Agmu Virtual Reality (VR)?

I’m a professional mechanical engineer. I studied in the UK. I came to Sri Lanka and started my career in Orange Electrics as an R and D engineer. My entrepreneurship experiences came when I started my Orange IT company with just two people. I started and expanded to one of the biggest operations at Orange electrics now. I have another few entrepreneur ventures as well; I was doing fair and green cosmetic items, then started an LED brand and finally started Agmu which is mainly into the construction industry where we provide turnkey solutions to the clients. We do architectural designs, Interior Designs and construction and fabrication of furniture, light fittings etc. We started Virtual Reality (VR) which supports services for our own operation and now it has become a separate business.

2. When did you first come across Virtual Reality and why do you think VR technologies are rising in popularity right now?

The first time I came across virtual reality is in 2014 when Oculus was acquired by Facebook when there was a big hype about virtual reality in the world. Why I went for VR is because at the time when I was doing my constructions I had huge issues with architects being unhappy that clients are not understanding what they are saying. Fundamentally when the project comes it didn’t work well. Most of the contractors and clients also were really disappointed because even though they work hard and spend money they didn’t get enough appreciation as projects went on either being not up to the clients’ expectations. I was really looking for the solution for the major problem which is communication.

Whatever in the architect’s mind should be communicated to the client. Client doesn’t have any sense of the design. So I wanted to come up with a solution where whatever the architect visualizes others too can see it at the initial level. Initially we started this company to communicate design. Here architects design with the help of VR. A client can walk into their to-be built house beforehand and see whether it’s up to their standards and expectations or not. Then again he will take a contractor to build the building. All he has to do is to replicate what he has seen. Architects in the future will be able to work on design concepts in a more advanced way than they do today.

3. We have noticed that real estate developers started using your technology for walkthroughs in apartment buildings. Is this something you expect will gain in popularity?

Of course. Our major target was communicating designs. Earlier it was just for our own operations. But this technology now not only to the communicating design but also there are lot avenues we have seen. Specially into the real estate market. For any sales and marketing activity the virtual reality can make a huge impact.

4. What are the other industries that come to you for your services? Why?

Right now we are working also on advertising industries including commercial sector. We can send the Virtual product to anyone to try it out. So this will be a bit of a mix of VR and AR which we call as MR (Mixed Reality). Other than that even the leisure industries are what we target; for the hotels and to promote destinations. We are targeting our app to be a platform for the hotels where people can

AGMU VRA Boon for the Future Property Buyer- Ainharan Vivekananthan -

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actually go into the room that they are going to stay and see the view they get and etc. and decide whether to make the booking.

5. Are you looking forward to develop your enterprise from a business to business perspective or is there a market for the regular consumer as well?

Our target right now is Business to Business. But we need the consumers to understand the market. Right now how Agmu works is we have the paying clients which are the other businesses but for the end users it’ll be always free. We started with an exhibition at BMICH recently and we have planned to have a tour all around the country so we’ll be having a VR day out. People can come try it out and understand what it is.

6. What makes your VR stand out ?

What Agmu does is maintain particular VR that anyone can use. We make it so easy that even a person who knows just to drag and drop things in the computer can still create a VR experience. You don’t need any coding knowledge or experience.

7. Why doesn’t the app contain much content?

We don’t contain any contents. We created a platform for architectural, real estate, interior, leisure, hotel or any firm to put their contents in it and use it to communicate ideas or do sales and marketing. We are a platform for it.

8. The building industry is known for being slow to adopt new technologies. How is your experience with this?

Yes they do not adapt to technology easily. That’s not only in Sri Lanka. It’s the global status. It is very difficult. But we give this free for the NGOs who understand the benefit of it. We are trying to create a demand from that to this industry which we hope that the industry will adapt to it soon.

9. Can you share a bit of information about your clients?

Our clients can be any interior firm. Interior firms majorly will benefit from our app because we have come up as a solution for them. Then contractors, property developers like apartment developers etc. will benefit to market their products, and to communicate the designs properly at the initial stages. Real estate, hotel and leisure industry and Education industry other industries that will benefit. Education is another big thing for this particular VR technology. With VR it is very easy to convey ideas. We

can educate people in a different way. We look into the education aspects as well. Those are future plans.

10. Can you tell our readers how this product has evolved and what can we expect to see in the future?

Right now VR is in its infant level. Reason is that the real technology was introduced after 2014. Yet most people don’t even know about this technology. Last 3-4 years there was bit of a development but this is so far popular in the gaming industry. Very hardly this could be found in the professional industry. VR is the 4th big thing that happened after computers, smartphones internet.

11. Aware of your participation in the Construction event, could you tell us about the feedback you received?

It was amazing because we were struggling to handle the people who came. People like to handle new technology. Most of them thought it was just a game and we educated them that its not just a game and the movie but also its for professional services. There was a huge demand that helped us educate them.

12. What are the biggest challenges in using VR?

There are two types of VR; PC based, and smartphone based VR. PC based VR is too expensive. Its difficult even for us to manage we need high-end PCs and the equipment is also expensive. Another bottleneck we have is the location. We can’t take it anywhere. Problem with the Mobile VR is since the Mobile VR hasn’t yet come to the standard to run a proper VR experience, experience is bit limited.

13. You’re involved in educating disadvantaged children. How do you see that this will help to bring about the desired future of Sri Lanka.?

When we started this our goal was also the education sector. We can bring this technology even to the rural areas of the country. We are going to take the education everywhere so people reach technologies close to them. Even the schools that don’t have proper funding to buy a lab now can have it with the help of VR.

14. What is your company’s vision?

The ultimate vision is to become an innovation hub. I’m panning to start something where if someone has a completely different idea, we are going to do it. We can even bring the entire world to do something new all the time.

Interviewed by Musaffa Mafaz