This Is How We Will Meet: SmartMeeting

Yesterday I took a group of five among industry experts, news reporters, and technology bloggers to a private demo of a new breakthrough conferencing and collaboration technology called SmartMeeting. This new, immersive 3D collaboration environment is truly a generation ahead of any other conferencing system available out there. People gather together in an actual three-dimensional space and can gather, discuss and hold effective meetings in front of a business table or while facing a panoramic giant projection screen. Each participant is represented by an avatar that she can customize before entering the meeting space, and which closely resembles a real human. Each avatar is capable of moving her lips as you talk live, and it integrates a number of visual expressions and body language movements that facilitate multiple forms of expression even when one is silent. Full-duplex, no-buttons-to-press VoIP is fully integrated and it is active by default. Quality is good and delay barely perceivable. The meeting space is equipped with all kinds of presentation facilities including co-browsing, text chat, document sharing, multimedia player, RSS/XML live news ticker, PowerPoint presentation, whiteboard, screen capture and more. The virtual meeting space is made up of multiple rooms, and participants can break up to work independently. Sound is also in 3D allowing you to hear sounds coming from the sides as people walk next to you, and disappearing altogether when people are too far away. All of this works in an SSL 128-bit secured environment which can be switched to 2D at a click of your mouse. The meeting space created can be made to be persistent, and when you come back to it after a meeting things, are just like you left them. Overall bandwidth required for all of this to happen: 28.8- 50Kbps. In-depth review coming up on Kolabora next. Free 30-day try-out available (PC only - 7.6 MB download). Price is $100/month for 5-user office, or $ 20/day for 20 persons max. This is a must-see (you need to have a recent PC with 3D card). (Check also Heike Philp personal report on this unique meeting environment).