Midea and Insta360 Revolutionize Home Appliance Installation Using 360 Cameras

Immersive, comprehensive, real-time 360 documentation allows home appliance manufacturers and resellers to streamline the installation process, saving time on site and improving the customer experience.

Traditionally, appliance installation has been a laborious process. Property owners often end up hanging around to monitor progress and service personnel take basic documentation photos using mobile phones. This method of documentation is largely incomplete, inefficient and will not provide the clarity customers need, impacting customer experience and hurting conversion rates.

The world’s largest producer of major appliances, Midea, has recently adopted Insta360 cameras for air conditioning installation documentation. Through using portable 360 cameras like Insta360 ONE X, ONE X2 and ONE R, service personnel are able to streamline the air conditioning installation process. Midea utilized the "Mei Zhuang VR" WeChat mini app to allow customers to monitor the entire installation process remotely.

The adoption of 360 cameras has facilitated immersive, comprehensive documentation and most importantly, helped put customers' minds at ease.

Midea customer monitoring installation site remotely.

What is the value of a 360-degree documentation solution for appliance installation?

Compared with traditional photos, 360 cameras convey the information of the scene in full 360 degrees. This provides customers with a truly immersive experience and ensures that they don’t miss out on any important details. The documentation also serves as a powerful sales tool for manufacturers and resellers to better illustrate tailored construction plans to clients.

Midea’s service personnel are currently using Insta360 ONE X which has 5.7K video and 18MP photo quality. Such specifications facilitate the high-quality image capture needed for thorough installation documentation.

When using ONE X, service personnel can simply connect the camera to their mobile devices to begin shooting. Due to the ease of use and portable design, service personnel are now able to document entire work sites with much greater efficiency.

All of the data is centralized on the Mei Zhuang VR WeChat mini app, making it effortless to organize and share with customers. Thanks to the simple and efficient workflow, service personnel synchronize the construction progress in real time on the app for customers to view remotely.

How are 360 cameras utilized throughout the entire process?

1) Pre-installation

Midea found that most customers struggle to understand CAD drawings, so they needed a new approach to communicate the project plan to customers. Through utilizing 360 imagery and 3D modeling technology, service personnel are able to bring the design to life. This allows customers to clearly understand the full home improvement or construction plan in advance.

Midea air-conditioning installation 3D designs.

2) During installation

Midea uses 360 cameras to record the entire process directly from the installation site and synchronize the construction progress with the mobile app. Customers can remotely monitor the work using the app and rest assured that industry standards are being upheld.

Remote monitoring during Midea air conditioning installation.

3) Post-installation

Service personnel conduct post-installation 360 documentation to record all the completed work. This documentation then allows service personnel to carry out subsequent maintenance much more efficiently.

Post-installation documentation of Midea air conditioning.

The future of construction and home improvement documentation

Although Midea’s solution is currently available in China through the WeChat app, similar solutions could easily be developed in other markets as well. Using the Insta360 camera software development kit (SDK), other applicance manufacturers and resellers can easily develop their own apps to control the cameras and share documentation as well. With 360 documentation, appliance manufacturers and their resellers can better demonstrate their installation plans to clients, ultimately leading to more sales and higher customer satisfaction rates.

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