USAFA Virtual Tour

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) requires a web-based virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree spherical photography and videography capability that includes the design, production, and hosting of interactive 360-degree walking tours that enable interaction at multiple interest points and independent 360-degree video vignettes. Service shall begin/continue July 1, 2023.

• Maintain hosting capability and ensure web-based accessibility to the industry standard 99% uptime.
• Maintain a USAFA-branded mobile application available for download from the Apple App Store on iOS and the Google Play Store on Android. Application will NOT include in-app purchases.
• Ensure content is accessible, fully functional, and adapted in standard mobile and web browsers, including Google Chrome, Google Android, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Samsung Internet, and Opera.
• Ensure content is accessible, fully functional, and adapted for display on computers, smartphones, tablets, televisions, head-mounted virtual reality displays and the 360-degree planetarium dome.
• Capture and provide detailed visitor traffic analytics to include demographics, geographic location, behavior, duration, end-to-end user experience tracking, trigger and hotspot engagement, devices and browsers used to access the content, and conversion rates. 
• Ensure specific locations within the tours have a distinct URL and the capability to be shared and integrated across web-based platforms and marketing channels, including email, social media, and websites.
• Contractor will be required to apply up to four updates to the interactive tours per month, including modifying and injecting Government produced photography, videography, audio, and copy.
• Provide all equipment, supplies and services to ensure all content and the platform complies with Title 10 United States Code, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This compliance must include the following: browser support, operating systems, screen resolutions including responsiveness for mobile, assistive technologies, text sizing, and whether the video will be open or closed-captioned.

CLIN STRUCTURE - See attached CLIN structure and period of performance schedule.

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

The Government intends to solicit and award a sole source contract to YouVisit, LLC.

For DoD, services may be deemed to be available only from the original source in the case of follow-on contracts for the continued provision of highly specialized services when it is likely that award to any other source would result in substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition and would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirements. YouVisit has numerous proprietary elements protected by existing U.S. patents incorporated into the existing virtual tour. The first example is the use of inquiry optimization, where YouVisit's software utilizes algorithms to intelligently display calls to action to viewers to provide additional insight and information. Users can visit different university websites, gather additional information, or plan a visit all from within the virtual tour. YouVisit's proprietary performance insights are also integrated into the USAFA virtual tour. These insights are reporting capabilities that enable real-time return on investment (ROI) calculations and provide end-to-end tracking of the user journey. This capability tracks the time viewers spend at each tour stop, the number of overall visits, the number of tours stops each viewer makes per session, how long each visitor spends on the website, etc. This capability provides USAFA with powerful analytics to make critical university decisions. Additional proprietary information includes YouVisit's ability to embed interactive hotspots within the tour stops to layer content within the 360 videos that creates a robust viewing experience that incorporates a real-life actor into the stops so viewers are able to see a 360 visual of an individual speaking or interacting with the tour stop.

YouVisit has also completed additional tasks under the current contract effort, which are not proprietary, but would nonetheless require another vendor to re-complete or modify, such as embedding links to the virtual tour stops throughout the USAFA website, developing and maintaining a mobile application to be used in conjunction with the virtual tour, and the utilization of adaptive focus to deliver 360 content in up to five times the standard 360 photography.

In summation of all the above factors, awarding USAFA's follow-on virtual tour contract to any other vendor would lead to a significant duplication of cost and effort for the Government. The utilization of proprietary technology would mean no other vendor would be able to recreate the virtual tour experience in the same manner as YouVisit has established. This would either lead to a miss-matched solution as updates occur, mixing YouVisit's videos with another vendors, or would require a complete recreation of the whole virtual tour experience to include re-shooting all tour stops, redoing the website integration, and modifying the mobile application. Significant time would need to be allocated to develop, test, and implement another contractor's solution.

All responsible sources may submit a capability statement prior to the closing of this synopsis. Capability statement must provide a clear explanation of the contractor's ability to meet the requirements of the performance work statement (PWS). Contractor must provide existing examples that the Government can review to determine if the provided solution meets the PWS requirements. The contractor must also provide a clear explanation/schedule for how their solution can be active and running by July 1, 2023. If a source is interested, they must respond to this synopsis by the closing date, requesting receipt of a copy of the solicitation. Note, the Government does not anticipate releasing the solicitation to the GPE (sam.gov).