We asked some of the best minds from the professional AV industry to conduct a thought experiment about how they would incorporate the Apple Vision Pro into meeting spaces. Here are the results.
It is undeniable that Apple has an uncanny ability to change consumer behaviour with its technology. If you are old enough, you will remember how Apple changed how music was consumed with the release of the iPod. And everyone should know that the iPhone can easily be credited as single-handedly placing a fully functioning computer into the pockets of users from every demographic.
Apple’s success in these endeavours is easy to pinpoint but hard to replicate. Pushing technological advances, an extreme dedication to creating truly intuitive UI and UX and creating developer platforms that continue to evolve form a cornerstone of the company’s approach to technology.
The next frontier Apple has set its sights on conquering is the world of augmented reality or mixed reality. To do this, Apple is set to launch the Vision Pro which it classifies as a ‘powerful spatial computer’. At first glance, the Apple Vision Pro looks just like any other virtual reality headset (think Oculus Rift) that has been on the market. But as we have mentioned, Apple has an uncanny ability to get users to adopt devices where others have failed.
From the details that Apple has released to the public, the Vision Pro looks set to become the most technology and feature-dense personal device on the market. With OLED screens that deliver more pixels than a 4K TV, cameras, spatial audio, Lidar sensors and IR flood illuminators, the Vision Pro certainly looks like it will be equipped with the technology beef to transport users into an augmented reality. Paired with this, you can expect a novel and easy to adopt interface that should allow users to take control of augmented reality in a way they never have before. While all this exposition about the Apple Vision Pro is interesting, the question you might be asking is ‘how is it relevant to the professional AV industry?’.
To be frank, it is not. The Apple Vision Pro is not even available for purchase and discussion about its adoption and impact are firmly in the realm of conjecture. But it is still an interesting thought experiment to wonder how the Apple Vision Pro might interface with the world of professional AV. It was not long ago that the iPhone and the iPad took AV towards BYOD (and now BYOM) as users began to ask for their personal devices to be supported in commercial spaces.
What would the ramifications be if the same unfolded with the Apple Vision Pro? The device is equipped with cameras, speakers, microphones, and displays. If the idea of BYOD is extended to it, how would meeting spaces have to change and evolve to support the intersection of augmented reality with workspaces?
This thought experiment, and all the questions it raises, was posed to some of the best minds from the professional AV industry. Following is a collection of their viewpoints, thoughts, and opinions on how they would go about the task of integrating the Apple Vision Pro into workspaces.
Myke Ireland, Insight Systems
Full disclosure, I’m an Apple fan. So, it’s hard for me to not believe the Vision Pro will change everything about AR and VR. It most certainly will, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little sceptical about AR and VR in the meeting space. Yet even as a sceptic, there’s always a commercial aspect to consider.
The reality is, commercial AV needs this kind of shake up. We are so far behind the software curve it’s not funny. Companies that weren’t even active in AV, Microsoft for instance, are now saying to us ‘this is how your UI will be’. And the worst part? It's better than ours.
AV well and truly missed the boat on software, and we’ve been frantically playing catch up for a decade. Of course, we can argue back and forth over who makes the best software or hardware for the next decade. What no one can argue is Apple makes the best UI and subsequent UX in technology, and it’s those experiences that drive the latest Apple product to the top of the Christmas wish list.
Apple will deliver the best virtual and augmented reality experiences that we’ve ever seen, and that will drive the market to think differently about AR and VR in the meeting space. The Vision Pro won’t necessarily be the product that ends up in the meeting room, especially while it still looks like a fighter pilot helmet, but it will be the catalyst for a new generation of products that will.
Mradul Sharma, 3CDN Technologies
We have been evaluating conferencing in VR space for some time now, considering solutions such as MeetinVR, Meta’s Horizon Workplace, to name a few. Spatial recognition of other participants in the virtual room, and interaction especially on Meta’s Horizon Workplace is compelling.
Also, the ability to take a remote desktop in the metaverse and continue to work from there allows users to have all resources in the metaverse. However, there are few significant shortcomings (especially on Oculus devices), such as a battery life of two hours and limited pixel density which restricts nature of interaction in the metaverse.
Apple to its credit, will be solving this with Vision Pro headsets which have 4K pixel density for each eye and longer battery life. But then, this does not really affect the way we lay out office spaces. Apple Vision Pro is a personal device, and not an appliance that makes meeting room hardware redundant. Apple Vision Pro should accelerate evolution of hybrid work and UCC where we will have a new experience around collaboration equity, allowing users to not just see each other in equal frames, but have a deeper and more immersive interaction while being in the same virtual space.
Most of the current conferencing on VR experiences is based on WebRTC. Apple, thanks to their own OS, demonstrated FaceTime with Apple Vision Pro. In the enterprise space, Microsoft Teams dominates the UCC space and I don’t see this changing anytime soon. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft is able to extend the Teams experience in the metaverse while supporting devices such as Apple Vision Pro. I see this happening soon, given how Satya Nadella has changed Microsoft where the focus is less on Windows, and more on cloud apps that work across different platforms.
Faye Bennett, Faye Bennett Consultancy Services
In order for AR devices like Apple’s Vision Pro to be adopted in meeting rooms, the industry needs to consider the impact this will have on physical spaces and collaboration technology within those environments.
The combination of the AR device with AI support seems to point to a replacement of physical spaces. While it creates a collaborative experience remotely, the in-person experience of using these devices in physical rooms is questionable. The AR capabilities teamed with the embedded audio, speakers and cameras can be seen to threaten the traditional integrated space. And what is designed to be a device to bring people together in virtual environments, may in a corporate context mean people become more physically disconnected in workspaces. Businesses will need to decide how the adoption of these consumer (no doubt prosumer, in time) devices will impact company culture, relationships and return-to-office initiatives.
As an industry, we should be adapting to the evolving technological landscape and the changing preferences of consumers. How we do that is likely to be less about the technology and more about enabling collaboration and ensuring first-class user experiences.
We need to consider support models for roll-out, asset management, training, and adoption. The need for a structured managed service approach will be essential for end user support, hardware management, data collection and concierge assistance. And with the impact on physical spaces of new technological developments like the Vision Pro, we might want to consider how we futureproof our businesses to remain valuable and relevant.
Julian Phillips, AVI-SPL
Firstly, if we are talking bottom-line profit then Apple might have to develop an AV B2B channel for their Vision Pro devices and services, otherwise, we will have to source from IT distribution as we currently do for Apple TV and iPads with razor-thin margins.
We are currently integrating other VR and AR headsets into spaces for specialised applications like collaborative design and medical simulation, and in many ways Apple Vision Pro will follow the same design principles of these other multi-input and output display devices.
However, it’s the use case for Vision Pro that creates the greatest challenge, real-time collaboration by multiple people mostly joining remotely from their own space and possibly different infrastructure and networks. Given the virtual nature of the spaces being designed, what happens in the cloud will probably dictate the experience more than anything else.
We got every excited about the ‘touch’ UX a decade ago and although we have had some success with other products such as Microsoft Surface Hub and other multi-touch formats, the issue has never been about technology, it’s always been about user behaviour and adoption. So, we doubt that gesture (with the Vision Pro) will revolutionise the meeting room, but gesture support might need to be built into our designs and we will have to be very thoughtful about training and meeting support.
Rhythm Arora, Qubix
If you ask me, the Apple Vision Pro is a ‘selfish’ device. The experience is catered very heavily for the singular user without really considering a party or group experience and that in my opinion would be the defining feature of meeting spaces built with the Vision Pro integrated into them.
We know that inclusivity is important, but the balance required shifts based on a sliding scale of how many participants are physically present and how many participants are joining remotely. The Apple Vision Pro would not really deliver the required experience for physical, in-room interactions and this is not something that could be designed away. I think it will be a great attendee device, but a terrible presenter device and AV will need to develop to address this.
At the same time user expectations regarding intuitiveness and ease of use continue increasing. We like to jokingly say that ‘products are becoming smarter, but users are behaving dumber’ to allude to the fact that everything needs to work with one touch and instantaneously.
Even with Apple’s excellence when it comes to designing products that users find intuitive, if the Vision Pro becomes a part of meeting spaces there will definitely be requirement to support it. User error is inevitable and when it happens someone needs to be on hand to provide a solution which points to the fact that AV will remain relevant from a managed services perspective.
Niko Walraven, Neat + Inavate
Our vision at Neat is to enable users to have meetings anywhere and anytime in a natural manner. Meeting spaces are evolving toward this goal.
Users are finding traditional configurations with fixed seating and inflexible technology to be detrimental to the process of natural and fluid collaboration and communication. At the same time, advances in AI are helping us create smarter devices that are empowering users.
If the Apple Vision Pro becomes incorporated into meeting spaces, I expect it will be in order to support the greater freedom of how to collaborate that users are asking for. But the Apple Vision Pro is not the only solution that can create this freedom to collaborate and communicate. The Neat Board 50, for example, is a movable collaboration board that allows for meetings to be held anywhere and enables users to behave in a natural and organic manner.
Another consideration for effective collaboration is inclusivity. The Apple Vision Pro looks like a great device to really include remote participations in conversations and give them equity, especially if you pair it with an effective AR or VR platform. But what about the participants present physically in the space? The Vision Pro effectively excludes in person collaboration and communication. There is no way for users to receive facial cues and body language signals because these cannot be expressed through a digital medium with fidelity.
We know that the modern workplace is not a place for individual work, but really a place for people to come together and collaborate in person. And as long as this requirement exists, Neat will be able to create value. From designs that enable users to gesture and move naturally as they collaborate, to apps that bring new functionality and essential features like how content can be shared with all participants, Neat will continue to follow the user and meet their requirements.