Tangi Awards

CEO Hunter Bankston is the inspiration behind the mixed media services company, ecko360. An entrepreneur at heart, Bankston always knew he wanted to develop his own successful company.

Written by Betsy O'Leary | Photos by Riyen Helg

By age 27, he had risen through the ranks of the tech industry to become the business development manager for four separate start-ups. He knew how to hustle when it came to making impossible deadlines and bringing projects in on time.

Inspiration can strike any time, but idea guys like Bankston know when to act. While working in the oil and gas transfer sector as project manager for TransCanada Corporation (now TC Energy), Bankston had his lightbulb moment.

Back then, few companies utilized technology to produce three-dimensional virtual tours of properties they owned and managed. Some California realtors were using these tours for their clients, but Bankston’s vision reached farther than that.

From his roles as project manager, Bankston realized the expense of flying workers and company executives to far-flung locations for pre-project walk-throughs. There were also per diems, hotel and rental car costs that cost companies far more than his virtual representations of the same environments.

Latter & Blum was the first real estate company in Louisiana to see the potential ecko360 offered. They eagerly contracted with Bankston’s media content company. From there, business exploded in multiple industries.

As Louisiana’s first Matterport service partner, ecko360 produced digital twin virtual 3D models that are now widely used in industries like insurance, hospitality, construction, and real estate to enhance security and simplify surveillance.

When it comes to the mixed media services ecko360 offers its clients, there is no limit. In addition to traditional photography and videography, Bankston is a licensed thermographer who does thermal imaging. Another hi-tech, popular feature the company offers is aerial light detection and ranging (LIDAR). A new way of obtaining elevation data, it creates precisely detailed realistic models using laser pulses and sensors.

Bankston is proud of his company’s Telly Award for video services. These national awards honor excellence in video and television across all screens. Their winning entry was a video resume for a New Orleans client looking to broaden their employment horizons.

Now, video resumes are becoming more mainstream. But then, they were an applicant’s cutting-edge way to stand out from the crowd. ecko360 took the client’s concept and ran with it, writing the perfect script using both humor and creativity.

The client got the job and gave ecko360 permission to submit it in the competition. It won. When they needed a high-quality video, the Tangipahoa Parish Economic Development Foundation turned to Bankston and his highly qualified tech crew to create the perfect media content they sought. ecko360 also produced media content for national companies DSLD and Jani-King.

As Bankston looks to the future of ecko360, he reflects on his company’s motto, “Content is King." He and his team will continue creating beautiful content for clients both locally and around the globe.