Audace worked with the Bridgestone brand on an immersive learning project.
Crédits photos : Audace
Since 1999, Audace Digital Learning has been designing and supplying immersive digital learning programs. The company now specializes in virtual reality professional training, particularly in the industrial and healthcare sectors. Audace worked with tire manufacturer Bridgestone to digitalize employee training, a solution that has since been exported internationally. Audace Digital Learning is one of the exhibitors at the VR/AR event Laval Virtual, on April 9-11, 2025.
Can you tell us more about your company?
Founded in January 1999, Audace Digital Learning is a dynamic agency with a team of over thirty professionals. While its head office and production studio are located in the North of France, the company has also established a sales agency in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
Audace ventured into digital learning in 2000 following a request from ArcelorMittal. This collaboration sparked a drive for innovation and the pursuit of tailored solutions. By 2007, this momentum led to the development of the company’s first virtual reality training tool: a crane operation simulator for the steel industry. Since then, Audace has continuously expanded its expertise.
With 25 years of experience in customized digital learning and its first immersive learning projects dating back to 2007, Audace has gained the maturity to confidently support clients in their VR, AR, and MR training initiatives. Years of expertise have positioned the company as a true “pioneer in immersive learning.” Its recognized know-how has earned the trust of major clients, securing long-term contracts in the demanding fields of industry and healthcare.
What will you exhibit at Laval Virtual?
Audace will be showcasing its cutting-edge multi-learner visualization and management application for stand-alone headsets at booth A15. Visitors can experience this innovative solution firsthand through a series of XR demonstrations, including a VR simulation of ATEX risk developed for INERIS and a VR training program for logistics professions created for AFTRAL and Promotrans.
Can you share some innovation insights to us and our visitors?
Until recently, tracking learners in VR posed a significant challenge for trainers, limiting real-time supervision and interaction during exercises. To address this, Audace has developed an innovative multi-learner management and visualization application for stand-alone headsets. This solution allows trainers to monitor multiple learners simultaneously within a shared virtual environment, facilitating direct and meaningful interaction. By overcoming the issue of learner isolation, this advancement marks a major breakthrough in immersive training.
The application distinguishes itself with real-time learner activity tracking, offering both an overview of all participants and the ability to zoom in on a specific user, with updates every two seconds for seamless monitoring. Designed to be lightweight, adaptable, and customizable, it meets the diverse needs of trainers and learners across various training scenarios. Additionally, its compatibility with a wide range of devices significantly expands its applications.
Compared to previous technologies, Audace’s solution provides a more robust and flexible approach to immersive training challenges. While UnityRenderStreaming and WebRTC laid the groundwork for live content delivery, they lacked an efficient platform for real-time multi-learner interaction—an essential gap that Audace’s innovation successfully bridges.
By equipping trainers with the tools needed to effectively track, engage with, and assess learners using autonomous headsets, Audace is responding to a critical need in immersive training, redefining how learning experiences are managed in virtual environments.
How is your solution transforming your business field?
Audace assists leading industry players in their digital transformation and operational performance by creating training solutions and business applications that address a wide range of challenges.
Through the solutions we develop, we help enhance the appeal of professions in high-pressure sectors. For instance, our tire manufacturing training simulator, created for Bridgestone Bilbao, has been successfully adopted by other Group plants over the years, including those in Hungary and Poland, to integrate with their specific production tools.
Bridgestone, a leading tire manufacturer, opted for a blended learning approach combining classroom training, a Virtual Reality (VR) simulator developed by Audace, and simulation in a training Mini-Factory. The aim was to overcome Bridgestone’s hiring and training difficulties by enabling unemployed people with no manufacturing experience to acquire the technical skills and pace needed to work on a tire assembly line, without having to endure the stress of actual production.
To meet this need, Audace reconstituted a complete production line and various machine tools on a 1:1 scale. Seven workstations and associated operations were simulated. Evolving in their virtual environment with the help of a VR conveyor belt, operators can perform virtually all the tasks required to mount a tire, and learn precise technical gestures and how to monitor control points. Several levels of difficulty and scenarios enable safe, step-by-step training without involving a real machine. The trainers benefit from on-screen image feedback. They can monitor results and intervene to anchor a point or overcome a difficulty.
Sustainability and the environment are key topics of this century. How do you cope with these concerns in your XR technologies?
Our commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is based on four pillars: governance, social, environmental and societal commitments. These pillars support a global approach to sustainable innovation, ethics and respect for stakeholders.
Eco-design is at the heart of Audace Digital Learning’s practices, to limit the environmental impact of our digital products while guaranteeing maximum accessibility. By integrating international standards such as WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), we ensure that our digital devices are high-performance, inclusive and environmentally-friendly.
At Audace, we optimize our digital resources by compressing files (WebP, OGG), using 3D techniques such as mip-mapping and designing lightweight shaders to reduce energy consumption. Our adoption of the OpenXR standard guarantees interoperability and extends the lifespan of our applications. Thanks to Git, we structure our projects in a modular way to avoid duplication and optimize collaborative work. We also apply WCAG standards for enhanced accessibility and more resource-efficient design. Finally, we favor eco-responsible hosting, measure our consumption with Unity Profiler and support our customers in making sustainable digital choices, while aiming for INR’s Numérique Responsable label.
