ROYAL OAK – Networker supreme Terry Bean is well-known in the metro Detroit social media scene. More than a decade ago he created Motor City Connect as a way for other digital entrepreneurs and marketers to network. It has since grown to more than 10,000 members.

But like most entrepreneurs, Bean also experiments with projects he hopes will turn into viable businesses – meaning they make money. His latest project is called PrivateLabelVR.Net, a Virtual Reality Entertainment company that offers out of home entertainment venues a turnkey VR package. Think VR-as-a-Service and you get the idea, except Bean’s team also provides the hardware, expertise to keep it all working, and 4D custom software touches that can add air, smell, motion and even temperature to the VR experience.

“We help out of home entertainment venues understand and profit from VR,” Bean told MITechNews.Com Editor Mike Brennan. “We come in and set them up with our business in a box solution. We give them all the hardware, and technology, software and operational expertise to run their own branded VR arcade.”

Hence the name PrivateLabelVR, he said. Bean’s company logo doesn’t appear anywhere on the product, just the arcade’s brand. So it looks like the arcade developed the product. PrivateLabelVR is not a franchise. It’s really another variation of Software-as-a-Service.

Pricing is a few thousand dollars down and $149 a month per booth.

“Our software helps them understand the game play and provide demographics on their customers,” Bean said. “Most importantly we take care of licensing requirements for games to play. We pay the developers so the developers love us. The venue or arcade owner  doesn’t have to worry about it.”

Pirating software is as easy as pirating a movie, he said. Some less than ethical arcade operators do just that, leaving the game developers with no revenue. Not how PrivateLabelVR.Net operates, Bean said.

“We add one game a week,” he said. “We offer more than 500 VR experiences right now. We offer our customers more than 60. One of biggest splits in this space is the difference between consumer grade experiences and commercial grade.  Our hardware is the HTC Vive, a very nice device.”

Last year, the VR industry shipped 6.3 million devices and generated $1.8 billion in revenue, according to research provided by Super Data. Most customers are gamers. They love it so much that VR game users reportedly engage in 40 sessions a month on average. But research firm Magid said such hard-core fans lack a compelling reason to shell out for the gear. PrivateLabelVR.Net solves that problem and positions video arcades in a market expected to quadruple over the next few years.

“Augmented Reality, and it’s partner in crime, Virtual Reality, are the biggest game changers in technology since the iPhone,” Bean said. “There is a reason Mark Zuckerberg (co-founder of Facebook) and his team invested  $2 billion dollars into a company that didn’t even have a working product let alone any sales. VR arcades will become many people’s first experience with VR.  We are looking forward to playing our part in the space.”

To check it out, click on http://www.privatelabelvr.net/#!