Enforced Home Working Will Be Game Changer for Virtual Reality
Enforced Home Working Will Be Game Changer for Virtual Reality
Enforced Home Working Will Be Game Changer for Virtual Reality
By Philip Whiterow
March 30, 2020
Summary
One answer is to host a conference in virtual reality and if you have the technology to hand, like Ireland's VR Education PLC, this period of enforced home working is set to be a company maker.
Dave Whelan, chief executive and founder of VRE, says his phones have been ringing off the hook since corona virus restrictions were imposed, with the company employing additional business development staff to handle the extra workload. Two weeks ago, it ran a virtual conference for Taiwanese electronics group HTC. The Hyve conference is normally an event with physical attendees, but as it was due to be held in China HTC asked VRE if it could host the event virtually.
Whelan says it had over 1,000 'logged in at the event through its virtual reality platform Engage.
Whelan adds that a key advantage of its Engage VR platform is that it has a very low bandwidth requirement for conversations inside the platform.
For people, who cannot run a Skype meeting or video conference because of bandwidth constraints, Engage will work perfectly well, he adds.
Whelan believes the last couple of weeks have been a game-changer for the VR sector overall, which up to now has promised much but struggled to deliver.
Engage uses 3D spatial audio, he explains, so if you are in a group of 50 people in a virtual room and there is a presentation going on at the front, you can still lean over to the person next to you and whisper as if you were sitting next to them.
Headsets are around US$400 each and can connect directly to W-Fi, while each 'virtual seat' on the enterprise version of the Engage platform costs US$300.
A new game Space Shuttle Commander is due to come out shortly on best selling headset Oculus, but Whelan says Engage is also being used a social medium to help people keep in touch in the current situation.
Following the success of the Hyve conference, HTC wants to be become a reseller of VRE's software in China and combine it with its own hardware.
Reference
Whiterow, P. (2020, March 30). VR Education believes enforced home working will be game changer for virtual reality. Retrieved March 30, 2020, from https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/916144/vr-education-believes-enforced-home-working-will-be-game-changer-for-virtual-reality-916144.html