My wife and I had a baby recently which has been wonderful…save only for the lack of sleep it has brought us. Sitting up with our son and my wife at night has given me not only insight into the amazing amount of work mom’s do but, also some time to think (and catch up Golden Girls re-runs). It was still dark out, sometime early this morning, while my wife rocked our young son to sleep (again), when I started to think about my day. How could I change my routine to squeeze in 20 or 30 more min of sleep? “Maybe I could stop showering and brushing my teeth?” I thought. That would save 30 min but, probably wouldn’t fly for long with my wife.
Next, I considered cutting out the process of wearing clothes. Would it be a radical move? Sure. Would it also go over very poorly with everyone else? Without a doubt. So, with both clothing and basic hygiene squarely in the “keep” column, I began to wonder, where else I could trim time from. Then, it struck me, “What if I didn’t have to physically go to the office?”. I'm not talking about telecommuting, that’s Busch league. I want more than phone calls and emails. I want an immersive experience without ever leaving my house. Enter Spark VR (virtual reality), sort of.
We are on the edge of some very exciting times in the Collaboration sphere as Cisco dips its toes into virtual reality with the release of Cisco Spark VR. Spark VR, while currently only an experimental release for the Oculus, is an exciting glimpse into what the future of collaboration, and VR's use in the enterprise, could look like. The integration of Spark and virtual reality will change the ways people will be able to interact and collaborate. It gives an entire new spin to the idea of “mobile workforce”. If you're curious to see it for yourself, a video demo of Spark VR and its capabilities can be found here OR if you're cool enough to own an Oculus and want to try it out for yourself, you can download Spark in VR right now from the Oculus Store.
While by no means a finished product, this experimental release for the Oculus is an exciting glimpse into what the future of collaboration, virtual reality, and even the possible downsizing of the physical office space of the future may look like.
If you're not quite ready for virtual reality yet then 3 flavors of new Spark Room devices should be just what the Dr. ordered. At the top end, the Spark Room 55, which appears to take some format queues from the MX endpoint lineup. This model is an "all-in-one" device that features a 55" 4K display, 5K camera, advanced microphone array and an optional stand or mount.
If you already have a display, or just love to plug cables in then, The Spark Room Kit or Spark Room Kit Plus may be more suited to your needs. Designed for customers that already have, or want to purchase, their own display. The Room Kit or Room Kit Plus can enable team rooms of up to 7 or 14 participants respectively with a method to simply and effectively add collaboration capabilities to the space.
No matter which Spark Room model you choose you’ll get access to a proven, next-gen feature set that includes native 4K wireless or wired content sharing, and an integrated high-definition camera with speaker tracking. No matter which endpoint you choose, you’ll have the flexibility to register the device to your existing Unified Communications Manager cluster or to the cloud via Cisco Spark.
Written By: Dustin Kaplan, LookingPoint Consultant Services Engineer