Konecranes – Welcome to Dream Terminal
A digital home to Konecranes products and services.
The need
Konecranes is a leading provider of container and industrial material handling solutions. They wanted a cutting-edge way to showcase their extensive portfolio. With a desire to impress their existing clients and attract new ones, Konecranes required a fresh, futureproof solution that would go beyond standard marketing efforts.
Valve VFX team’s close partnership with Konecranes dating back to the mid-2000s laid the perfect foundation for a unique approach.
“We had a huge library of Konecranes products as CAD files. These computer-aided design files are used to digitally model physical objects. We recognised the potential of these assets to create something truly extraordinary – it was just a question of what it could be,” Risto Karhu, Head of VFX at Valve says.
Soon, though, Valve had an idea. And it all began with video gaming.
The solution
Leveraging the power of Unreal Engine 5, the idea of creating an industrial metaverse called "Dream Terminal" was born. This virtual environment utilises Konecranes' CAD library to showcase their entire ports offering, shipyard services, Automated High-Bay Container Storage and more. The solution harnesses the capabilities of video gaming technology to create an immersive 3D environment.
The Dream Terminal features over 200 pieces of Konecranes equipment and thousands of containers. The expansive world encompasses 40 gigabytes of data and is crunching through billion polygons in real-time.
The results
1. Diverse Platform
The Dream Terminal provides a multifaceted platform for virtual reality, gamification, training, and traditional marketing efforts. It offers opportunities for digital twin applications using Nvidia Omniverse or other platforms.
The Dream Terminal has also presented some surprising, yet practical benefits such as the ability to paint Konecranes equipment using their customers’ brand colours, giving them a warm welcome into Konecranes Zone portal.
2. Speed and Accuracy
The Unreal Engine 5 enables rapid changes. It facilitates quick updates, eliminates rendering errors and relieves 3D artists’ stress when working under tight deadlines. It outperforms traditional rendering by completing tasks in four hours compared to four days with 15 CPU nodes.
3. Payback
Despite a considerable investment, the Dream Terminal demonstrated immediate returns. The ability to make changes swiftly, reduce errors and accelerate rendering times has already proved advantageous in marketing, sales and training.
Customer feedback
The Dream Terminal’s reception from Konecranes personnel has been enthusiastic, particularly among salespeople. The Dream Terminal was launched at TOC Europe 2022, one of the world’s premiere container handling events. “The Dream Terminal was liked by our salespeople because, using it, they can sell our products in a much more direct and personal way,” said Martin Matsson, Marketing Manager of Port Cranes, Konecranes. “They’re just waiting to get it on their laptops.”
What lies ahead?
Next up could be a product configurator for an online store, then a virtual world for a trade fair where the products can be driven in a game-like environment. All of this is achieved by using modern solutions such as the Unreal game engine and Omniverse, developed by Nvidia, which is a twist on the metaverse. It will be a flexible marketing and sales platform that can adapt to Konecranes’ evolving needs, ensuring its relevance for many years to come.
