Technology Platform Transforms Video Conferencing with Multi-Share Collaboration

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

The year was 2002, and the movie Minority Report presented a dystopian future where a home could be voice-controlled, there were driverless cars, facial and optical recognition was normal, and the fascinating gesture-based computing technology was the rule for the proposed 2054 reality. In fact, many came away from the movie fascinated with how Tom Cruise swiped things with his fingers from a screen, and many wondered what it would feel like not to use a corded mouse to move things. 

Forward to today’s world — what seemed like science fiction is now part of our daily routines. Most phones like Apple Inc. AAPL iPhones feature face recognition, Tesla Motors, Inc. TSLA offers autopilot with cruise control, and most meetings are held on Zoom Video Communications, Inc. ZM, Microsoft teams MSFT or Google Hangouts GOOGL. Additionally, solutions like Slack Technologies, Inc. WORK, Cisco Systems Inc. Webex CSCO and Salesforce.com Inc CRM have become essential in corporations.

Yet, even with so many solutions as a part of everyday life, when we are in virtual meetings attendees still need to ask the person in control of the screen if they can show or do something in particular to give better visibility. Therefore, this is where that image of Minority Report becomes an eager wish for many.

Oblong Inc. OBLG, an award-winning maker of multi-stream collaboration solutions, has created a core technology platform that enables applications to be developed that run across multiple screens and multiple devices. 

The company creates solutions on how to make computers more flexible, capable, useful, interactive, and empowering for humans working together on the advancement of business, government, education, and culture.

Here’s what you need to know.

The Future Through Oblong’s Approach

The company’s products and solutions are built on the work of Co-Founder John Underkoffler, a pioneering researcher in spatial computing at the MIT Media Lab. 

Underkoffler was plucked from academia by Hollywood to envision the future of human-computer interfaces for films such as Minority Report, The Hulk and Iron Man.

Oblong works with Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and universities around the world. The company’s customers include Lockheed Martin Corporation LMT, Under Armour, Inc. UA, Ford Motor Company F, IBM IBM, Blackrock and more.

Oblong brings together screens, streams and devices into a unified environment. The company combines data presentation and analytics capabilities with collaboration capabilities, enabling it to turn big data into insight and intelligence through its flagship product, Mezzanine.

Mezzanine

Mezzanine brings data sets, workspaces and communication channels to life across multiple screens in multiple locations. It allows interaction from a number of input devices simultaneously, including touch screens, phones and tablets. 

Oblong frees users from sitting in one place, tied to one device, and enables the free flow of teamwork where collaborators can access, share and control content on a fluid visual canvas all at once.

Mezzanine scales up to support the most immersive and commanding innovation centers — across link labs, conference spaces and situation rooms — and down to the smallest workgroups.

Currently, the company offers 3 types of Mezzanine: 

• • Mezzanine 200 Series: multi-share collaboration to small and medium-sized rooms so teams can work with content from different locations and sources at the same time.
  • Mezzanine 300 Series: features three displays, providing teams with an immersive sandbox for all of their content and data, and can integrate a Cisco Webex Board as a digital corkboard to add annotation and whiteboarding to the Mezzanine environment. 

• Mezzanine 600 Series: three digital corkboards that give the flexibility to customize the workspace allowing users to Combine them to make a single large surface or distribute them around the room based on architectural or workflow needs.

Mezzanine + Webex Room System

Mezzanine + Cisco video solutions place content at the forefront of meetings.

In January 2021 the company announced that Oblong’s Mezzanine™ solution had been solely awarded a new Cisco Certification in the Content Experiences category.

This new certification offers Webex video device users a more seamless user experience, dramatically increasing their ability to share and engage with live content streams. 

Mezzanine’s integration with Webex allows distributed teams to share up to 10 live streams of content simultaneously delivering both a unique and unsurpassed level of user engagement. In addition to in-room experiences, Oblong’s certified integration enables remote participants to be “full” participants in the meeting. By using newly added features in Webex, touch-enabled devices can now remotely connect participants to a Mezzanine experience.

Corporate Highlights

• Fourth-quarter 2020 product sales from flagship Mezzanine™ collaboration suite increased more than 50% sequentially to over $1.6 million, versus $1.1 million for the third quarter of 2020.
• Fourth-quarter 2020 total revenue increased more than 20% sequentially to over $3.9 million, versus $3.3 million for the third quarter of 2020.
•  

For more information visit the company’s website.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.