Arendt makes virtual tour of the lake for POA

BY Dawn Rankins

Long-time resident Anthony Arendt decided to learn a new passion when his business shut down during the pandemic. This passion led to him developing a rather innovative, entertaining and useful 360 Virtual Tour of Canyon Lake. The online tour includes up close and personal visits of the lake, city, parks, beaches and facilities.

The project is now up on the Canyon Lake Property Owners Association website.

Anthony is a cinematographer by trade. He continues to work in that field and when he’s not traveling for work, he’s doing virtual tours, “which are in high demand now,” he said.

Photo provided by Anthony Arendt

Anthony worked on the original Avatar movie and did a film shoot for Nikon Z9, Sole Dance, which he directed and filmed. Sole Dance is a video demonstrating a groundbreaking technology for one of Nikon’s new cameras.

“I needed to do something when my business shut down,” Anthony said. “I figured, why not video the lake and amenities with a drone. I jumped on YouTube to learn all I could and I was off, taking videos from all over the lake.”

With the video footage in hand, Anthony thought it was some of the best that he’d seen. He reached out to the Canyon Lake POA to see if they would be interested in putting it up on its website.

“I was happy to work with David Cardoza at the POA,” Anthony said. “David said it was something that the POA wanted to do and was working on, so calling when I did was perfect timing.”

Putting together the 360 virtual tour took months.

“I took the time to learn how to do these virtual tours right,” he said. “I think I have some of the best, if not the best, virtual tours on the web today.”

The Canyon Lake virtual tour is designed to be used by not only those who live in Canyon Lake, but those who are contemplating the move and for friends of those who want to show where they live.

“People in Canyon Lake love where they live,” Anthony said. “Now, they have access to the 360 virtual tour and they can share it with their family and friends all over the world.”

The Canyon Lake POA couldn’t be happier about the project.

“We are pleased with the outcome of the 360 Virtual Tour project,” Tiffany Cribbs, POA communications manager, said. “It truly is a unique experience in Canyon Lake. Through the 360 Virtual Tour page, one can visit all our amenities with a click of a button. This is a great tool for those interested in moving to our community, new residents still exploring and settled residents who may want to re-explore the community from the comfort of their homes.”

Using a drone requires a license from the FAA. Anthony has obtained such a license and is a certified drone pilot/operator with the FAA. He can legally fly over 400 feet with FAA permission.

The project took many months to complete.

“It was time consuming,” Anthony said. “Not only did I need to cover the entire lake, but editing was also a big part of getting the video done right.”

The editing process required determining how the virtual tour video would eventually be used. Through collaboration with David at the POA, Anthony said it all came into focus and has turned out to be an incredibly valuable tool.

“For example, when you‘re looking at the tour, and you‘re in the Canyon Lake Pro Shop, you can actually make golf reservations.” Anthony said. “David had the idea to separate the video into unique portions. He took an extremely large video and broke it down into smaller sections. The smaller sections can be linked together when you‘re navigating the tour.”

Anthony has covered every portion of the lake, except the inside of the Lodge. He decided to wait until after the Lodge remodel to film that section of the tour.

The 360 Virtual Tour can be accessed by going to www.canyonlakepoa.com and going to the explore tab and from the drop down menu, click on Canyon Lake 360 Virtual Tour.

From there, a person can access the different tabs within the tour for closer views of interest. Also included are links to click on for the parks and beaches as well as Canyon Lake POA facilities, including the Canyon Lake Golf and Country Club, Gault Field, Canyon Lake Senior Center, the Equestrian Center, Happy Camp and the tennis courts.

With the Canyon Lake POA project finished and on the association’s website, Anthony is on to other projects.

“I just recently finished a project at Wilson Creek Winery,” Anthony said, “I think doing virtual tours is a great innovation for businesses. So many amazing things can be seen by virtual tours without leaving your home or computer.”