PAUL JACOBS KEYNOTES VR/AR ASSOCIATION ENTERPRISE FORUM

Wireless XR Will Give Users Superpowers!

Imagine being transported into a fully immersive virtual world, so rich in photorealistic imagery and sensory detail that you forget it’s not real life. As advancements in enterprise virtual reality (VR) applications speed up, the underlying wireless technologies to support lifelike experiences must keep pace.

“We will give people superpowers,” our Chairman and CEO, Paul Jacobs explained during his keynote address at the July 2022 VRARA Enterprise Forum. He went on to describe the high-performance applications enabled by XCOM Labs’ innovative Wireless XR system. “We’re really just getting started with this notion of extending reality.”

In developing the gold standard in wireless XR systems, the XCOM Labs’ team has achieved low latency, high throughput, and reliability breakthroughs that solve many of the issues that previously prevented users from experiencing the full potential of this exciting technology. Gone are the bulky backpacks and cords connecting users to powerful computers, or the cumbersome lags that can oftentimes cause feelings of motion sickness or glitches. Instead, using millimeter wave spectrum in the globally available 60GHz unlicensed band, our system allows multiple users to roam freely across a large space while experiencing seamless, high-quality content. 

One of the most powerful ways we’ve been able to illustrate these improvements recently is through our collaboration with The VOID, a hyper-reality experiential entertainment creator, to generate the most immersive VR experience yet. Using our highly reliable wireless system, we ditched the 22 pounds of equipment previously needed to provide such photorealistic quality visuals and moved heavy processing loads into a wireless network, or edge computer. 

Jacobs explained that the breakthroughs The VOID and XCOM Labs demonstrated also apply to enterprise applications, not just entertainment. 

“The experiences before were driven by the fact that you had this very heavy backpack on and power consumption was very high,” Jacobs said. “You had this big block of a battery that you had to carry around and it only lasted for about 30 minutes. Now, you’re going to be able to have extended experiences without sacrificing image quality.”

AWE attendees were transported from the 144-square-foot demonstration stage into a hyper-realistic experience that tapped into a variety of sensory details including, sight, sound, motion, and temperature. As users freely roamed the virtual space, they could interact with each other as well as the environment around them, without experiencing lags or sacrifices in the 4K video quality at 90 FPS with up to 400 Mbps per user. 

These next-level immersive enterprise environments enabled by our wireless technology include learning and specialized training to industrial automation, smart warehouses, and even telemedicine. 

“An expert at a remote facility will be able to instruct a novice who is doing surgery in the field, able to point out where that person needs to make incisions or do various procedures,” Jacobs explained. “The novice can even stand inside the avatar of the expert and follow their motions.”

Our system is designed for those who need the highest reliability to support their XR use cases, ensuring that wireless throughput and latency are never the limiting factors that curb human imagination. 

At XCOM Labs, we believe in unlimited possibilities and delivering the unexpected. Interested in learning more about how our next-generation wireless technology can elevate your XR experience? Contact us, today!

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4 Key Learnings from the VRARA Enterprise Forum 2022

by Jennifer Pastega

The Motive team was excited to attend the VRARA Enterprise Forum on July 21st, 2022. The event brought together industry-leading organizations interested in ideas surrounding enterprise digital transformation through immersive technologies.

As we all have experienced, the last few years have brought new changes and challenges to organizations. After attending the event, four themes stood out:

VRARA Enterprise Forum Key Learning 1

Hybrid is here to stay

The COVID-19 pandemic caused us to shift our workspaces from desks at the office to desks at home, forever changing the way we work. Before the pandemic, a Gallup study found that 32% of employees preferred working remotely compared to 60% who preferred working entirely on-site. After getting a taste of the flexibility that came with working from home, the number of employees preferring remote work jumped to 59%, with only 9% preferring entirely on-site. To remain competitive, companies need to provide hybrid work options.

The pandemic showed us that working from home and staying connected is possible. Even though many organizations have given the green light to return to the office, remaining flexible with options to meet in person is something that will continue. In his session on why the future of industrial work is immersive, Mark Wenzowski of Virtalis stated that 74% of American companies are using or plan to use a hybrid environment.

Sessions at the event echoed the complementary nature of virtual reality and hybrid work. This new hybrid-focused work environment benefits those interested in VR training. Given the ease of transporting headsets, training can occur no matter where an employee is. Using Motive, organizations can replicate their work environments using CGI, meaning employees can practice the skills they need in a familiar environment. Trainees no longer need to be on-site to complete their training.

VRARA Enterprise Forum Key Learning 2

Out of the Proof of Concept (POC) phase

The next trend we’re seeing take hold across the enterprise is a move away from PoCs and towards full-scale enterprise-wide deployments. With use cases continuing to expand and meaningful data readily available, there is no longer the need to prove that the technology works. 

In his opening remarks, Mark Grob, Head of Immersive Technology at UPS and Co-Chair of the VRARA Enterprise Forum, shared that the enterprise customer is now laser-focused on four key areas: security, automation, ease of deployment, and developing solid partnerships with solution providers. 

While immersive technology continues to progress, customers across healthcare, aviation, and government have all shared similar needs when looking at the wide-scale adoption of immersive technology solutions. 

With incredible competition popping up in the space, solution providers looking to carve out their competitive advantage should focus on listening to the needs of their enterprise customers. They can look to more robust security standards like SOC 2 compliance, seamless login experiences through SSO, and integration with internal systems like learning management systems. 

Motive is proud to have security and scalability at the heart of the platform, including SOC 2 Type II compliance and industry-leading integration support.

VRARA Enterprise Forum Key Learning 3

No code and low code tools 

Attendees of the event were also excited about no code and low code tools for building XR environments and scenarios. To meet the growing demand for AR and VR applications, non-technical users need the ability to author content. This ability gives power to those who understand the training and learning objectives and transforms how VR training is created. These tools already exist thanks to cutting-edge solutions made by innovative teams like Motive.

No code and low code tools substantially benefit learning, innovation, and XR teams looking to create XR projects. These tools transform the speed and cost of application development and help scale XR across an organization.

With these tools, individuals with no coding experience or technical expertise, be it SMEs or instructional designers, can quickly develop, change, and deliver XR experiences. Percy Stocker of TeamViewer emphasized that “drag and drop tools make it easy and interesting for non-technical users to develop the content of the future.”

It may seem natural to think that developers see these tools as threats. However, that’s not the case. Developers see no code and low code tools as the perfect partner to help them save time while working under pressure. There’s no wonder why a Gartner report forecasted that by 2024, low-code adoption will comprise 75% of global software solutions. 

VRARA Enterprise Forum Key Learning 4

The data to back it up

Lastly, it’s clear that we have a level of data that wasn’t available before. In the early days of VR training, we all looked to the same few studies to evaluate the return on investment. While these studies were powerful, for most organizations, seeing transformational change was aspirational rather than concrete. In 2022, we now have hundreds of references to look to. 

Organizations using and scaling their VR training consistently see faster training times and cost savings, sometimes in the tens of millions of dollars. Oberon Technologies Chief Marketing Officer Vi Kellersohn shared in their experience that companies have saved 30% to 70% of costs on average by using VR training. Mark Wenzowski from Virtalis reported that organizations had experienced a 40% decrease in training costs when using VR training.

These significant returns on investment are now commonplace. A bigger divide is forming between companies that harness the power of VR training and those that do not. It’s officially a competitive advantage. While VR technology continues to advance, it’s a better time than ever to tackle your first VR training project or take your POC and begin to think about scaling.

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Recap: VRARA Enterprise Forum Showcases VR/AR in Business and Industry by Jon Jaehnig of AR Post

By Jon Jaehnig

The VR/AR Association Enterprise Forum took place virtually on March 17. The one-day marathon event drew together a number of the usual suspects, including Varjo, Lenovo, and Microsoft, all of whom hosted keynotes. In addition to keynotes, the event featured a number of expert talks and panel discussions.

Enterprise VR/AR: Before, During, and After the Pandemic

One less-than-shocking trend at the Enterprise Forum, as well as other recent digital events, involved echoing the sentiment that enterprise VR/AR has exploded in recent months. This is an objective fact that typically comes with the prediction that the technology won’t go anywhere when coronavirus distancing and travel restrictions lift.

“Through this very difficult time that we are all going through, which seems to be gradually coming to an end, this industry has been catapulted more quickly than any of us could have imagined,” said Cathy Hackl, futurist and Global Advisor to the VR/AR Association. “I’m excited to see where we’re going. Enterprise has really taken off from an adoption standpoint.”

Virtualware CMO David Moreno, in the same welcome address, suggested that the growth of these technologies would continue. Speakers throughout the enterprise forum agreed that the faster, more affordable, and more environmentally friendly remote collaboration would not soon disappear simply because conventional travel is allowed again.

“Enterprises are creating a new reality of work,” Microsoft Canada’s Azure Mixed Reality Lead Sean Graglia said in a later keynote. “MR is here to stay. It’s adding value today and it’s positioned to add even more value on Microsoft.”

How Enterprise Leverages VR/AR, According to Microsoft

Graglia wasn’t just at the enterprise forum to shill Microsoft. As one of the industry’s rare multinational end-to-end powerhouses, Microsoft has potentially unparalleled access to real numbers and use cases across a huge swath of enterprise verticals and Graglia shared a few of them in his keynote.

“As the technology has matured, so too has the portfolio of use cases that the technology is being used to address,” said Graglia, pointing out huge growth particularly in education and health fields.

Specifically, Graglia identified six key use cases that were not only increasing in adoption but beginning to merge and overlap as industry adopters expand how they use VR/AR. Those key use cases are:

• Remote Collaboration;

• Guided Training;

• Training and Simulation;

• Sales and Marketing;

• Design and Prototyping;

• Contextual Data Overlay.

This kind of convergence of use cases is partially because of the versatility of VR/AR, but it can also arise organically in companies that aggressively pursue it. In last year’s virtual GDC series from VIVE, Amy Peck pointed out that a virtual asset created through remotely collaborative design and prototyping can then be reused for training, sales, and beyond.

Announcements

Varjo representatives gave a keynote focusing on their new VR and MR headsets which recently started shipping.

Updates From Lenovo ThinkReality

Lenovo ThinkReality representatives gave a keynote focusing on the new A3 AR glasses announced at CES. However, the company is still keeping quiet on often-asked questions like release date and price points, though Lenovo’s AR/VR Hardware Project Manager Mike Lohse hinted at some potential features including battery packs and expanding hardware compatibility.

“Some of our current customers with our A6 want to do that 8-hour shift, and we want to find solutions that allow them to do that,” Lohse said in a call with ARPost after the forum. “The glasses themselves don’t have their own power source, they rely on the host device, which is also running its own applications.”

Material from ThinkReality affirms that the enterprise version of the glasses is only compatible with select Motorola phones, which act as a controller and keyboard through a companion app. However, subsequent releases may have a wider range of product compatibility, as suggested by Lenovo’s AR/VR Software Product Manager Mayan Shay May-Raz.

“It’s been our plan all along, but we’re very dependent on the XR services that are on the flagship phones,” Lohse said on the call. “Right now, we really only know what Motorola has and does so we can really crawl into that situation… in this case, we’ve really been able to drive a lot of internal support.”

May-Raz also commented on the ability of the glasses to access virtual content, as well as 2D content in a 3D manager. One major application of the glasses, particularly the cabled PC edition, will be virtual screens. This application will feature the ability to have screens remain in a user’s field-of-view, or be pinned to locations in the physical world.

Qualcomm Exploring Perception Algorithms

During the same keynote, Patrick Costello, Senior Director of Business Development at Qualcomm, commented on the chips that the company provides to ThinkReality that split processing between host and client devices for smaller form factor, better battery life, and lower heat output.

“We’re spending a lot of time exploring algorithms, particularly perception algorithms, and harnessing those to use less power,” said Costello, who also said that Qualcomm chips reduce power consumption by as much as 36%.

The Enterprise Forum Is Over but VRARA Returns in June

It’s been a busy cycle for VR/AR. The organization’s larger VR/AR Global Summit is coming in June.

Last year’s Global Summit saw huge news including HP’s launch of the Reverb G2 Omnicept, as well as ThinkReality’s first teaser for their A3. With the crazy year that VR/AR has had since then, we can only expect that this year’s Global Summit will be huge as well but this year’s Enterprise Forum was enough to hold us over until then.

VRARA Enterprise Forum 2021 – Round Up by John Woods

By John Woods

The VRARA Enterprise Forum revealed some exciting updates for the VR/AR for enterprise space, with industry leaders Varjo, Lenovo, and Microsoft sharing essential news and insights for 2021 and beyond.

Throughout the event, more than 600 executives from automotive, aerospace, construction, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, and other sectors came together to hear the latest news from global brands leading the VR/AR for enterprise space.

Here are some of the critical updates we gathered from the event.

Varjo Talk Product Design With Mixed Reality

Leading hardware developers, Varjo, started the event with a keynote on the new age of product design with collaborative mixed reality.

Alongside a detailed look at all the latest features of the next-generation of its flagship XR-3 and VR-3 headsets, Head of Design and Research at Varjo, Hannah Nilson, explained how mixed reality is transforming the way businesses engage with customers in 2021 and beyond.

One feature of particular interest discussed during the event was the powerful Varjo Eye-tracking capabilities that enhance consumer research by giving detailed real-time analytics of customer experience in virtual or mixed reality stores based on their point of vision.

With this eye-tracking tool, Varjo tells us that businesses can now monitor and report on valuable metrics based on how customers view their products and what part of the product design best drives conversions.

Lenovo Discuss ThinkReality A3 Release

Lenovo also had some exciting updates to share regarding the upcoming release of its new ThinkReality A3 enterprise-grade augmented reality smart glasses.

While we still have no confirmed price or release date, the Hardware Product Manager of Commercial AR/VR at Lenovo, Mike Lohse, told us the company is currently putting the final touches on its device ahead of the forecasted launch in Q2 2021.

Some of the final touches Lohse mentioned during the keynote included better drop impact protection on the A3 Industrial Edition and the possible inclusion of a second battery pack and software optimization to reduce battery consumption.

He also mentioned that while the ThinkReality A3 currently offers mobile support for Motorola handsets alone, the company is looking to expand its offering to other mobile developers in the future.  

Microsoft Demonstrates Value of Enterprise MR 

Following on from their Microsoft HoloLens Forum and Microsoft Ignite events earlier this year, Microsoft sent Azure Mixed Reality Lead for Microsoft Canada, Sean Graglia, to the VRAR Enterprise Forum to discuss the accelerating value of enterprise MR.

During his keynote, Graglia explained how mixed reality is transforming enterprises across the spectrum, from remote collaboration and training through to sales assistance, design, and prototyping.

According to sources mentioned during the presentations, global spending on mixed reality is expected to reach an astonishing USD 160 billion by 2023, with 87% of large companies already exploring, piloting, or deploying the technology today.

Garcias also added that at least one-third of enterprises would support mixed reality experience platforms, including augmented reality, by 2021, proving how quickly adoption of VR/AR tech is already spreading through the world of big business.

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More brands / end-users confirmed for our VRARA Enterprise Forum in March!

More info and tickets here

The VRARA Enterprise Forum brings together the best minds in the Virtual & Augmented Reality ecosystem in the enterprise sector!  Meet the top vendors and end-users who are leading in this space!  

We expect 500+ executives from leading vendors and top brands/end-users in automotive, aviation, manufacturing, mining, telecoms, and address uses case/solutions such as field services, maintenance & repair operations, inspections and surveying, production operations, among others. 

In addition to presentations, sessions, and demos, we will have the best-in-class online networking!  We will have group networking, plus, a 1-on-1 networking area that will enable you to connect on video or via chat with all the Speakers & Sponsors and other executives attending, where you can preview each other's credentials and bio, and talk business!

Confirmed end-users/brands participating include Ciena, Dolby, Daimler, DPR Construction, KLM, Medtronic, Lockheed Martin, Orange, Siemens, Toyota, among others! 

More info and tickets here

"In 2020, I attended two VRARA online forums. The 1-on-1 networking was exceptional. I met CEOs and industry leaders from all over the world, and it was truly a blast! Having 5 minutes of undivided attention with industry leaders is fantastic (better than at in-person events where people can be distracted). I got 70+ leads for my business to pursue. The content and speakers were outstanding, so I'd say I totally got my money's worth. The online platform ran smoothly so I have zero complaints there. This platform does a great job of enabling you to reach key decision makers in a relaxed yet fun way. I highly recommend it."  - Cathy Edstrom Grochowski

Daimler, KLM, Medtronic, Lockheed Martin to speak at our VRARA Enterprise Forum in March!

The VRARA Enterprise Forum is a very focused event for the Enterprise that will bring together the leading industry players.

Confirmed end-users/brands participating include Daimler, KLM, Medtronic, Lockheed Martin, Toyota, among others!

We expect 500+ executives and we will cover automotive, aviation, manufacturing, mining, telecoms, and address uses case/solutions such as field services, maintenance & repair operations, inspections and surveying, production operations, among others.

In addition to presentations, sessions, and demos, we will have the best-in-class online networking in groups and 1-on-1's that will enable you to connect on video or via chat with all the Speakers & Sponsors and other executives attending!

If interested to speak or sponsor, email info@thevrara.com

If you haven't yet, get tickets here today before the early-bird pricing ends!

In 2020, I attend two VRARA online forums. The networking ("speed dating" / 1-on-1 networking) was exceptional. I met CEOs and industry leaders from all over the world, and it was truly a blast! Having 5 minutes of undivided attention with industry leaders is fantastic (better than at in-person events where people can be distracted). I got 70+ leads for my business to pursue. The content and speakers were outstanding, so I'd say I totally got my money's worth. The online platform ran smoothly so I have zero complaints there. This platform does a great job of enabling you to reach key decision makers in a relaxed yet fun way. I highly recommend it."

- Cathy Edstrom Grochowski

Call for Speakers! VRARA Enterprise Summit at LiveWorx Taking Place on June 10th in Boston

More info about the Summit and sign up to Speak here

The VRARA Enterprise Summit will take place on June 10th at LiveWorx in Boston. The full-day event will bring together the best thought-leaders in VR/AR from across the globe. Presentations from industry leaders will include VR/AR in the Enterprise, Training, 5G, and much more.

VRARA is the VR/AR Association, an international organization designed to foster collaboration between innovative companies and people in the VR and AR ecosystem that accelerates growth, research and education, and develops best practices and guidelines. VRARA has over 4200 companies and 25,000 professionals registered, over 50 chapters globally, and 20 industry committees. VRARA programs & initiatives are designed to accelerate anyone’s growth, knowledge, and connections.

LiveWorx is the world's most respected digital transformation conference for the enterprise. Experience the most innovative and disruptive technologies — VR/AR, IoT, machine learning, blockchain, robotics and more. 6500+ technologists are expected. LiveWorx is June 10-13.

More info about the Summit and sign up to Speak here