about realabs
2014–2017 · REA Group, Melbourne
Exploring and promoting emerging technologies at REA Group — from a hack day handshake to the world's first VR property portal. Each marker is a real deployment or milestone from the REALABS archive.
+95%
Email enquiries
Listings with Matterport tours
+140%
Phone reveals
Listings with Matterport tours
2017
realestateVR launch
Google Daydream platform
World First
VR Property Portal
realestateVR on Daydream
Hack Day Handshake
Luke Chadwick tells Nigel Dalton at an REA hack day: "If you let me work on the Oculus kit, I'll come back." Nigel: "Done." The seeds of REALABS are planted. Early DK1 empathy demos target execs and agents—Luke's mantra: people won't believe VR until their knees wobble.
Haven Apartment Capture
Multiple camera technologies tested on Haven Apartment: Matterport (affordable, exceptional UX), Faro (high-end commercial surveying), and Stephan Pernar's custom GoPro 360 rig on steadicam. The GoPro rig caused severe motion sickness in VR—lessons learned.
First Matterport camera acquired
September brought the inaugural Oculus Connect 1 conference in LA—VCs thick as flies, everyone convinced VR is the next big thing. Luke visited Matterport's tiny office in Mountain View, buying a camera to bring back to Australia.
First Matterport 3D Banner Live
First Matterport 3D banner surfaces on realestate.com.au listing pages—initially as a banner, later as the second photo. The HD19 Digital Suburb block-out demonstrates the early capture-to-visualisation pipeline.
+95% email enquiries, +140% phone reveals
Camera Lending Program distributes Matterport cameras to real estate agents. Engagement statistics emerge: 95% more email enquiries and 140% more phone reveals on listings with Matterport tours. Keir Meikle joins the team; Joh Robbins (graduate) is embedded.
Zero Latency Partnership
Melbourne's free-roam VR startup Zero Latency joins the AREC booth. Haven property loaded into their headsets—agents physically walk through a virtual house. Zombie shooting paired with calm VR property inspections creates unforgettable demos.
Pre-release Vives from Valve
Luke receives a one-on-one pre-release HTC Vive demo at Valve's Seattle office—six degrees of freedom, 'The Lab' experience. Valve ships headsets to REA. At a hack day, Joh Robbins & team build the Plank Experience—reams of A4 paper simulate the plank, creating visceral fear of heights.
1,500 attendees, 30+ talks
OC2 in LA sees Facebook exerting more control with incremental hardware improvements. Brendan Iribe delivers the keynote. Luke collects more industry contacts.
Regina Dugan on Pasteur's Quadrant
At SXSW in Austin, Interior Architects demo floor-plan scan on tablet—capture and navigation workflow. Regina Dugan's talk on Pasteur's Quadrant and rapid hardware R&D playbooks inspires the team's innovation approach.
First HoloLens in-office
Microsoft HoloLens arrives in-office. Gesture training and early AR explorations begin with Nigel Dalton leading trials. The potential for mixed reality in property visualization becomes clear.
Matterport Partnership Announced
At Silicon Valley VR conference, Matterport presents the REA Group partnership on main stage. Gear VR rollout strategy solidifies. Demos include Vive whiteboard collaboration exploring multi-user VR.
Plattar + Digital Neighbourhood
Plattar partnership with Rupert Deans (ex–One Fat Sheep, Hell Pizza AR) creates the 'Digital Neighbourhood' activation. Tomorrow Ave and Morgana Ave expo booths feature dozens of AR triggers revealing 3D overlays. Ray White AR brochure lets users point phone at brochure to load listings.
Team War-rooms realestateVR
VR roadmap sessions with sticky-note timelines. Team war-rooms realestateVR and Matterport ingestion. Partners assemble: Cogent and DiUS as development partners. Google Daydream selected as mobile VR platform. Extensive UX iterations ensure UI mirrors realestate.com.au patterns.
realestateVR launches
realestateVR ships on Google Daydream—the world's first VR property portal. Features include price overlays, agent cards, navigation cues, property search and browse, and Matterport tours as primary content. Browser fallback ensures accessibility.
Unity City-Block Prototype
Balance-Beam VR demo with physical prop alignment for agents. Chapel St HoloLens walkthrough demonstrates AR property navigation. Unity city-block prototype enables VR/AR navigation tests. Drone footage captures the REA office from above.
01
Visceral demos convert skeptics faster than slide decks.
02
Both required for organizational buy-in.
03
Hardware innovation happens elsewhere; focus on capture pipelines.
04
realestateVR mirrored existing realestate.com.au UX.
05
VR for wow factor, browser/mobile for accessibility.
06
Matterport, Valve, Zero Latency, Plattar all amplified reach.
07
Planks, roller coasters, and zombie shootouts made VR unforgettable.
CORE TEAM
Nigel Dalton
Executive sponsor, coined 'REALABS' name
Luke Chadwick
Lead, partnerships, demos, strategy
Joh Robbins
Graduate → Unity developer, Plank creator
Keir Meikle
Unity 3D development
Adam Purdie
Team member
Tammy Tantschev
Team member
Stephan Pernar
360° capture pioneer
CONTRIBUTORS & COLLABORATORS
Drew Pearce
Product Manager
Matt Butt
Development
Andras Bubics
Development
Miranda Bruce
Contributor
Matt Shanks
UX/Design
EXTERNAL PARTNERS
Matterport
3D capture technology, REA partnership
Zero Latency
Free-roam VR, AREC demos
Valve
Pre-release HTC Vive units
Plattar
AR activations, Digital Neighbourhood
Cogent
realestateVR development
DiUS
realestateVR development
Phoria
Matterport sales (Trent Clews-de Castella)
NETWORK CONNECTIONS MADE
Josef Nalevansky
Ongoing friendship
Gough Venter
Ongoing friendship
Joelle McKay
Yarra Valley Council innovation
Rupert Deans
Plattar founder
Ready to put a prototype in the field?
Let's build the thing you can demo in 90 seconds and measure within a week.
REALABS @ REA Group · 2014–2017 · Exploring the Future of Property