The most promising applications of immersive technology in the enterprise are related to unified communications and collaboration. The fifth annual XR Industry Insider Survey found that 95 percent of organisations plan to increase their investments in immersive tech to enable better remote collaboration and training – much of this in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

As organisations try to adapt their remote working technologies for high-touch scenarios  where one-on-one interaction is essential, for example), VR is becoming an important focus area. It replicates all the dynamics of in-person conversations and group discussions without requiring participants to be there in person. That’s why companies like Meta (formerly Facebook)  are bullish about the future of UC&C in VR, particularly in the context of the metaverse. 

Facebook is already making strides with its vision of working in the Metaverse with their new VR offering, Horizon Workrooms. 

Defining Horizon Workrooms 

Horizon Workrooms is a collaboration platform that allows employees to gather in a virtual space, using VR or web, and engage in productive activities through whiteboards, VR workstations, calendar apps, file sharing, chat, and other virtual replicas of office tools. 

You could think of it as a virtual version of your office conference room, lounge, or huddle zone, complete with all its collaboration aids and technologies. Do you want to type inside a virtual room? Horizon Workrooms can port your keyboard. Do you want to smile at your colleagues, or show disagreement by frowning? Avatars in Workrooms support complex facial expressions. Do you want to conduct extended remote meetings? Participants can dial in through VR or video and synchronise their calendar apps. 

In other words, Facebook’s Horizon Workrooms aims to be your one-stop destination for collaboration and work inside the metaverse. 

Horizon Workrooms and Work in the Metaverse 

Horizon Workrooms was first launched in August 2021, at a time when organisations around the globe had adopted remote and hybrid work. Workrooms aimed to bring high-touch capabilities to remote working, without the need to commute or meet face-to-face in real life. 

CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined his plans to build the metaverse in July 2021, right before that month’s earnings call. Following this, Meta (formerly Facebook) launched an open beta of Horizon Workrooms for Oculus. 

Horizon Workrooms supports the Oculus Quest 2 family of headsets (now Meta Quest), but you can join meetings via the web as well. At the time of launch, Horizon Workrooms was just another app in Facebook’s slowly but steadily growing portfolio of VR offerings. But now, in the context of the metaverse, Horizon Workrooms has further potential. It will enable work-related interoperability with third-party apps available in the VR space. For example, Zoom has already signed up as Meta Horizon Workrooms partner, and several others would follow. You could imagine an entire unified communication landscape residing in the metaverse at some point in the future. 

Let us discuss the key features of Horizon Workrooms and their role in the overall metaverse experience. 

Key UC&C Features of Horizon Workrooms 

As Meta’s August announcement, Horizon Workrooms has seven main capabilities for employees. 

Customisable workspaces 

The default space that comes with Workrooms can be customised. You can add unique logos, put up posters, change the background scenery, and so on – and you can create multiple rooms for different purposes. Note that the core layout (i.e., furniture arrangement, wall positioning, etc.) will remain the same for now. 

A virtual whiteboard 

Every room on the app will have an infinite whiteboard, which you can use through a pen-like controller. Whiteboards are persistent and you can project files and images from your PC to the board. 

VR replica of your workstation 

The new Oculus Remote Desktop app will let you stream your desktop image and control your peripherals from a VR environment. Currently, Workrooms supports five trackable keyboard variants. All edits made from Workrooms will be accessible outside of VR. 

Ultra-customisable avatars and audio 

Horizon Workrooms brings Facebook’s ultra-customisable avatars with “a quintillion combinations” into the workplace. This is augmented by low latency spatial audio to provide an immersive experience, where you will hear audio based on where the speaker is seated. 

Productivity capabilities 

Horizon Workrooms can be integrated with your Outlook or Google calendar. Also, each room will have a persistent address to capture notes, share files, send chat messages, etc., during and after meetings. 

Hand-based navigation 

Quest and Quest 2 ship with inside-out cameras so that your headset can detect the orientation of your hands and fingers. In Workrooms, you can use your hands as the primary input instead of controllers. 

Multi-device compatibility 

Like regular UC apps, participants can join in through VR, video calls, or by clicking a meeting link. Workrooms will initially support up to 16 people in VR and 50 participants in total, including video. 

When Can You Start Collaborating on Horizon Workrooms? 

Since the launch of its open beta in August, Horizon Workrooms  has been constantly evolving. Anyone who is 18 years and older can sign up for Workrooms and create a new virtual space for their team. Importantly, this requires a separate Workroom account, which is separate from your Oculus and Facebook accounts for the sake of employee privacy. 

Apart from these initial features, Meta has announced added enhancements like Instant Remote Desktop Connection and a smarter AR integration. There’s also a feature called Space Sense that will improve Oculus’ virtual boundary mechanism with automatic object/intruder detection. Zoom has already announced a partnership with Meta Horizon Workrooms (the first of its kind) – and this includes its powerful whiteboarding capability in addition to video calls. These features are expected to debut in early 2022.

So, to return to the question of when we can start collaborating on Workrooms, the answer is right now. 

However, the Workrooms experience will rapidly change and evolve as Facebook’s vision for the metaverse gains more shape and form. We’d expect greater customisation of core layouts, more third-party interoperability, and definitely an increase in maximum user numbers. 

 

 



from UC Today https://ift.tt/3tKUBCj