Question: What is a scene?
Answer: A scene is a unique location within your tour that may be a full 360 virtual tour scene, a partial panorama or 180 degree scene, and individual snap shots are also considered scenes. When you take several snapshots and process them with our stitching software to make a panoramic virtual tour scene that will only count as one scene within your virtual tour.

Question: How large is the RTV Organization?
Answer: RTV consists of a staff of 15 employees.

Question: How do I know RTV will be around in the coming years to support me and my virtual tour business?
Answer: RTV has been in business since 1999. We have developed a proprietary virtual tour solution from the ground up and do not rely on other vendors or technologies to keep our system current. RTV is a profitable, privately held corporation. RTV has the largest network of virtual tour photographers in the world.

Question: What is a Full Service Dealer?
Answer: A Full Service Dealer is a person or entity that purchases a tour builder kit from RTV for the purposes of offering virtual tour services to others.

Question: Is this a franchise?
Answer: No. This is not a franchise. Full Service Dealers establish their own company name and identity separate from RTV. Each Full Service Dealer establishes its own policies.

Question: Do you have a trial version of the software?
Answer: We do not have a trial version of the software because of the fact that we must first calibrate your camera with the hardware and you must be trained. We do however offer a 30 day money back guarantee.

Question: Do you have a satisfaction guarantee?
Answer: Yes, RTV offers each customer a 30 day money back guarantee on all equipment purchased.

Question: What is a remotely hosted tour?
Answer: There are times that you might not want a tour hosted on our tour server facility out of Dallas, TX. These instances would include times when you want to private label your tour or build your own custom template around your tour. In these cases we offer you the ability to remote host your virtual tour so it can reside on your servers. When you remote host a tour you lose all of the buttons and feature sets that our tour servers place on the tour automatically. You will have to program your own buttons around your tour as well as code it into your web page. Remote hosting will require that you have programming skills for deployment or access to a web developer.

Question: What does the Tour Builder Software license include?
Answer: The license allows the tour builder to load the software on up to two computers. Please consult your RTV Software Account Executive for pricing of additional licenses.

Question: Is there an additional charge for the setup of real estate tour templates/skins by your logo staff?
Answer: There is no additional charge for the setup of real estate tour templates or skins by the RTV logo staff.

Question: Is there a charge to post tours to the various real estate websites such as Realtor.com?
Answer: RTV is an approved PicturePath™ member of Move.com the operator of Realtor.com. This means that we are authorized to send virtual tours from our servers to the following websites: www.realtor.com, www.homestore.com, and www.msn.com. Move.com applies a charge for each tour sent from RTV to the sites listed above. RTV passes on the charge. The cost to the Full Service Dealer is $22.95. All companies that post virtual tours to the Move.com network of sites are charged to do so. Companies that are not an approved PicturePath™ member are unauthorized to send virtual tours to the Move.com network of sites. RTV feeds to www.homeseekers.com, www.homes.com at no charge to the Full Service Dealer.

Question: How much does an audio narrative clip cost?
Answer: You are free to upload your own audio using our server side audio ripper and professionally voiced audio is available through our audio partner.

Question: Do we have to sign a contract that limits our service availability a particular market?
Answer: No. RTV does not require Full Service Dealers to sign a contract that limits your service availability. A Full Service Dealers may cover as large of a region as is desired.

Question: Do we have to sign a contract that limits our ability to work with competing technologies?
Answer: No. RTV does not require Full Service Dealers to sign a contract that limits your ability to work with competing technologies. RTV is confident that you will be so happy with RTV system that you will not require the use of any other technologies.

Question: What is a DMA?
Answer: A DMA stands for "Designated Market Area". This is the area in which you reside. RTV has established 1400 DMAs within the USA. Each tour builder resides within the borders of one DMA but is not limited to operations within that DMA.

Question: If I am allowed to service clients anywhere in the world, what is the purpose of assigning me to a DMA?
Answer: It is true that you can service clients anywhere in the word but a vast majority of your business will likely take place within your local market area. RTV uses the DMA system to cross reference your productivity with the market yield of your designated market area.

Questions: What percentage of Full Service Dealers use the camera you recommend?
Answer: 44% of the Full Service Dealers use the camera recommended by RTV. Any digital camera will work with the system.

Question: Is your software stable and easy to use?
Answer: Yes. RTV developed the software in house and maintains a full time staff of 3 software engineers. RTV issues updates to the software on a regular basis. RTV is currently offering users version 3.0 which is our easiest to use version yet. A demonstration of the software can be viewed at the following link: http://support.realtourvision.com/photos/Tour_Builder.wmv

Question: If I have multiple photographers using the same camera, will I have to work with the RTV Setup Department to create a separate lens file for each camera?
Answer: No. The lens file is unique to the camera model and not to the user. You will only have to work with the RTV Setup Department to create one lens file.

Question: If I have multiple photographers using different cameras, will I have to work with the RTV Setup Department to create a separate lens file for each camera?
Answer: Yes. The lens file is unique to the camera model and not to the user. You will have to work with the RTV Setup Department to create one lens file for each camera. The photo stiching software does support multiple lens files.

Question: What format does Tour Builder save images in?
Answer: Tour Builder saves images in .jpg format.

Question: If RTV were to close, would the software still be useable?
Answer: RTV is excited about the future and looks forward to continued growth in the years to come. The proprietary software would still be operational with or without the use of the RTV Tour Management System but the software relies on communication with the Tour Management System to generate fully functional virtual tours available for online viewing. The stitching functionality (necessary to create panoramic images) of the Tour Builder software would still be available.

Question: Is your online Tour Management System stable and easy to use?
Answer: Yes. The Tour Management System will provide you with a list of all of your virtual tours. You will be able to run reports on your tours, delete your tours, reassign your tours from one realtor to another, add banners, logos and photos, send out virtual tour links to others and more.

Question: Are the tours generated by your system MLS or IDX compliant?
Answer: Yes. RTV offers multiple viewing formats for each virtual tour. The different formats are viewable by clicking on unique links in the Tour Management System. There are multiple types of MLS tours. Each type has a varying degree of feature restriction so as to allow the Full Service Dealer to use the tour with the most features while still while meeting the requirements of the local MLS.

Question: How many banner ads can be placed on the virtual tour?
Answer: The tour window will support up to 15 banner ads per tour. If there is one banner ad on a tour, it will remain static. If there are multiple banner ads on a tour, they will rotate.

Question: Can I change the skin and text colors of my tour windows?
Answer: Yes. You can choose any color you wish for the skin and text colors of your tour windows.

Question: Can I place a link to school reports and city information on my tours?
Answer: Yes. You can have both a link to school reports as well as a link to city information on each of your tours.

Question: Can I place a link to a map of the property location on my tours?
Answer: Yes. A link to a map of the property is automatically generated.

Question: Can I place a floor plan on my tour?
Answer: Yes. You can attach a floor plan image to your tour and activate the floor plan button after uploading it from your software into the tour management system.

Question: Where do you link the tours out to?
Answer: Full Service Dealers paste the links of their virtual tours into the websites maintained by their customers or send them directly to their clients to post. If the virtual tour is a real estate virtual tour, it will also be sent to Homeseekers.com and Homes.com at no additional charge. Properties in the state of New York will also be sent to NYOpenHouse.com at no additional charge. PicturePath is available for an additional fee which pushes the virtual tour to Realtor.com, Homestore.com and MSN.com.

Question: Does RTV offer any business startup assistance?
Answer: Yes. RTV will provide you with a business start up CD. The CD contains more than 1,000 documents. It includes everything from picking a location for your business to sales and marketing presentations. There are legal forms, sample tours, logos, graphics, presentations, and more.

Question: Does RTV offer a website?
Answer: RTV offers a free website template on the business start up CD included in the builder kit that you can host through your choice of providers. RTV also offers custom website solutions, complete with hosting.

Question: What is the fee to host RTV custom websites?
Answer: Typically hosting of a standard website is $25 per month and includes ongoing support and updates.

Question: Does RTV offer sample tours for me to use on my website to show what the technology is capable of?
Answer: Yes. RTV makes links to sample tours available to tour builders for use as samples on their websites.

Question: When I buy the software will it be branded to the brokerage and can be branded to the individual agents that I do the tours for?
Answer: You can brand your tours to the brokerage as well as the agent. The ability to customize tours with branding is the same for both Full Service Dealers and In House Dealers. As a Full Service Dealer, you will be able to offer the same branding as a self service customer.

Question: Will the package work with my existing digital camera?
Answer: RTV's virtual tours system will work with any digital camera that is 3.0 mega pixels or higher. If your particular camera is not in the system at this time but we will create a lens file for you at no additional charge when we setup your account.

Question: Can you tell me more about Marketing Partner Banners?
Answer: We recommend no more than 10 marketing partner banner ads on each tour. Each tour is customizable with the banner ads you prefer. Each individual agent can have their own marketing partner banner ads on their own tours as well.

Question: Are the tours fish-eye?
Answer: The tours are not fish-eye. Fish-eye causes far too much distortion and has many photographic limitations. When you are shooting with a Fisheye you are not able to use the flash , you are unable to use the images from within your tour for print, you are unable to get perfect white balance, and focal settings for each hemisphere and therefore the images are not as crisp as they are in a multiple shot system.

Question: What is the total number of stills that can be included in one Virtual Tour?
Answer: The tour window supports any combination of partial panoramas, full panoramas, or still shots. These are all called scenes and you are allowed up to 30 scenes per tour. You could have 30 stills if you wanted a tour completely made up of still shots. Or you could have 4 full 360 panoramic shots, 6 partial panoramic shots and 20 stills making up your tour. It is entirely up to you.

Question: Is there a cost for additional scenes beyond the number 30 allowed for each upload?
Answer: If you exceed 30 scenes within a tour, an additional tour credit will be deducted from your account at the time of upload. You are not limited to 30 scenes but one tour credit will be deduced for every multiple of 30 scenes within a single virtual tour.