Mobile collaboration software provider Net Power & Light has launched video collaboration in the form of the “Spin” application, which allows up to 10 people to participate in a video call and contribute to workflows in environments where remote communications are critical.
Businesses can embed Spin into their suites of applications and service offerings, as well as link to social media like Facebook. It leverages cloud architecture, rather than peer-to-peer, to overcome limitations like one-to-one video calling, the challenges of integrating video with collaboration and the need to initiate video conferences from the desktop.
Mobile video is nothing new, but true to its name, Spin offers a twist: It uses a proprietary network protocol (it has 18 patents issued to date) that differentiates data streams and sends, for example, animations and drawings through one channel, and audio and video through another. The result is support for simultaneous collaboration activities, such as watching videos, viewing photos, and annotating documents.
“Business collaboration is the Holy Grail of enterprise environments,” said Thomas Engdahl, CEO of NPL. “Hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and development have been poured into collaboration applications, but virtually all fall short based on their one-dimensional approach or feature limitations. Spin’s unique architecture not only supports mobile devices, but also allows multiple users to collaborate in multiple ways at once. Our users believe that Spin ushers in a new generation of collaboration, offering rich experiences that go beyond traditional screen-sharing approaches such as Skype and Google Hangouts.”
Applications that would be suited for the capability constitute creative production, including post production, publishing, animation and graphic design, distance learning, global classrooms and study groups, entertainment like synchronous viewing parties, remote auditions and viewer collaboration, equity trading and consultation, medical imaging and evaluation by collaboration, white-label applications for mobile devices, smart TVs and set-top boxes, and so on.
“We’ve found the Net Power & Light framework to be incredibly powerful — the immersive multi-sensory experiences coupled with low-latency communications yield a truly mind-blowing product,” said Tamara Childs, chief strategist for conference call services at Ubiquitous Innovation. “We will be incorporating Spin into our day-to-day operations, specifically for the HD videoconferencing and document and media sharing features, to enable better collaboration with our remote teams.”
