HP has develop into the primary firm to preview {hardware} constructed with Google Beam, the 3D video communication expertise previously often called Challenge Starline. It’s launching the HP Dimension, a tool that incorporates a 65-inch mild discipline show with six high-speed cameras contained in the bezel to create “a true-to-life” 3D video of your caller.
Google first introduced Challenge Starline’s rebrand final month. On the time, Google mentioned that it will let third-party producers, beginning with HP, use its design framework to construct gadgets with Beam. The HP Dimension is supposed for enterprise use. It prices $24,999, and that doesn’t even embody the software program wanted to carry video calls, as customers might want to buy a Google Beam license individually to realize entry to Zoom or Google Meet. (HP and Google haven’t mentioned how a lot a license will price but.)
As my colleague Alex Heath identified in a demo of Google Beam, you don’t want a headset, glasses, or any form of particular gear to see a colleague as in the event that they’re in the identical room. Beau Wilder, HP’s head of future buyer experiences, mentioned you don’t want a particular room both, however having a white background is finest for an “optimum” expertise.
“We’re not making an attempt to place a caricature in a small field throughout the desk from you,” Wilder mentioned. “We would like you to stroll into the room and immediately make eye contact with out even excited about it.”
HP Dimension customers will nonetheless be capable of maintain calls with folks from different video conferencing platforms and gadgets, however their colleagues gained’t be capable of see their photographs projected in 3D — and vice versa. Together with a sequence of built-in cameras, the HP Dimension options adaptive lighting that “adjusts to the setting,” permitting customers to see practical shadows on facial options and pure pores and skin tones.
The HP Dimension pairs its mild discipline show with spatial audio that Wilder mentioned “by no means separates the voice from the physique.” It comes with HP’s new Poly Studio A2 desk mics, in addition to 4 audio system situated behind its curved, “acoustically clear” mid-wall for “a direct path to the ears.”
“The last word aim of Google Beam — and it’s manifested on HP Dimension — is to really feel such as you’re there,” Andrew Nartker, normal supervisor of Google Beam, mentioned through the briefing. “You’re feeling identical to you’re there on the desk working collectively … It’s all meant to convey us collectively and finally really feel like we’re utterly bodily current.”
The HP Dimension will launch within the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, and Japan later this yr. Firms like Salesforce, Deloitte, and NEC Company have already dedicated to bringing Google Beam into their places of work.