The Dominator usence® world tour kicked off at the 2015 Dusseldorf Boat Show on Saturday, January 17, with luxury motor yacht Ilumen brought to life by virtual reality. With superyacht Ilumen, Dominator is breaking the waves not only with a truly unique offering in the market, but also by allowing customers to experience it through the latest virtual reality technology. The shipyard is proud to mix up luxury and innovation, thus creating a one-of-a-kind experience that the yachting industry has never seen before.
Virtual reality can recreate sensory experiences, which include virtual sight, sound and touch. Dominator’s Design & Development department has applied virtual reality technology to allow clients and interested parties to best experience the Ilumen yacht. This unique experience by Dominator Design & Development is known as usence®- your personal experience of presence. anytime. anywhere.
So how does it work? Dominator met with one of the most prestigious global carbon fibre suppliers to develop a pod which encases the user. The pod is made from the same materials that the Ilumen will be built from. Carbon fibre is the predominant component, but also elements of the highest-grade stainless steel and leather are used to allow the customer to ‘feel the quality’ of the same materials used through the build of the yacht. You step into the pod and immediately notice that this is different from anything else that has been developed in the virtual reality world. The base of the pod contains a touch sensitive pad which detects the movement of your feet. By placing the virtual reality headset on, and moving your feet, you are literally walking through the yacht and can move your head and feet in any direction, taking you through all aspects of the interior and exterior of the yacht.
A joystick is incorporated into the structure, not for the purpose of movement but for the opportunity to select and change certain features on the yacht. To enjoy this ‘encapsulating experience’ to the fullest, an operator from the Dominator team outside the experience will change colours, materials and textures instantly for the user. If the client walks through the main saloon and wishes to have light grey oak flooring instead of the dark brown oak parquet, this can be realized within seconds. Exchanging the Striato Olimpico marble in the owner’s bathroom on the main deck with Calacatta Oro marble or marveling the changes from Zebrano wood to Teak wood in the owner’s suite has never been easier before. Other interactive features of Dominator’s industry-first virtual reality experience include watching the opening and closing of the moon roof in the Ilumen owner’s suite or viewing the mechanism of the retractable roof of the carbon hard top on the flybridge. This virtual reality experience allows the clients to immerse them self immediately in their own Dominator yacht where they cannot only focus on the design elements that matter to them most but already feel the sense of space before the yacht is being built.
Certain features on Dominator’s latest offering, luxury yacht Ilumen, are also being rolled out across other Dominator yachts in the range such as the innovative carbon fibre hard top, containing a retractable roof. Therefore anyone interested in any of the Dominator yachts are encouraged to undertake the experience.
“We are currently in the build process for the first Ilumen yachts and those customers who have met with us at the shipyard and placed orders have been blown away with the presentations we have given them on the design and technical details”, states Alex Langhein, newly appointed CEO (previously with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars). “Now we want to widen the audience and provide potential customers who traditionally ‘wait to see a completed yacht’ with a unique experience where they truly can. Buying a Dominator is more akin with buying a megayacht. We offer our customers the same experience. Not only with the product (e.g. the owner’s cabin of the Ilumen is what you would expect on a much larger yacht) but with the overall experience. Dominator customers know this and this is why they always come back. The usence® experience allows us to broaden this fact to a wider audience of customers who are not always able to visit the shipyard in the first instance”.
Dominator has demonstrated that the Ilumen superyacht is not just a design project, the virtual reality experience was fed from all of the technical data surrounding the yacht. This has provided the outcome of simulating the physical presence of the yacht. The complex carbon design and production process which has gone into this unique experience is mirrored through the attention to detail that Dominator takes. Every Dominator is built to order, offering customers the ability to not only choose their materials but also a layout to suit their needs.
Angela and Christoph Pernsteiner, members of the Dominator owner family, are truly satisfied with the implementation of their idea: “We combined virtual reality technology, a team of special software engineers, the best suppliers for exclusive materials and our spirit of entrepreneurship. It was the passion, the grit and the firm belief in our idea that brought the Ilumen to life by virtual reality. With usence® Dominator Design & Development is not only pioneering the way in bespoke customer experience but takes the tailor-made philosophy of the Dominator yachts to the next level and enters an unprecedented era of instant realization of ideas and wishes.”
The World Premiere of this experience was on Saturday, the 17th of January 2015, at the Düsseldorf boatshow, kicking off the Dominator usence® world tour. Dominator teamed up with luxurious hospitality and renowned cooperation partners to provide this experience at some of the top hotspots all over the world such as Miami, Dubai, Singapore or Sydney to name just a few.
The Dominator superyacht Ilumen is shaped and designed by natural elements, created by visionaries and engineers and brought to life by usence® – your personal experience of presence. anytime. anywhere.
Below is a video showing Dominator at the 2015 Dusseldorf Boat Show: