Oblong Industries Announces New Features for Mezzanine

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 13, 2017) - Oblong Industries, Inc., the pioneer of interactive spatial computing environments for the new era of collaborative work, will demonstrate this week at InfoComm 2017 new touch annotation capabilities for its Mezzanine 200 Series visual collaboration solution. It's another key step in the evolution of workplace technology from the firm that places human-centered design principles at the core of product innovation and development.

"Teams that use Mezzanine collaborate more effectively because they do not have to wait for a turn or switch modes or ask for permission to do anything," says Navjot Singh, Chief Product Officer at Oblong Industries. "Participants can be in a video chat and be whiteboarding, sharing applications and documents all at the same time. When designing our touch-based annotation experience, we were able to retain that delightful experience. Users will now be able to walk up and start drawing at any time, with multiple users on multiple screens. It's a natural extension of our capabilities."

Oblong CEO John Underkoffler adds, "Oblong wrote the book on gesture, and direct pointing via Mezzanine's spatial wand is the most powerful way to move, arrange, and interact with content around a room. Touch is an important proximity-based case of gesture; today we're excited to add annotation to Mezzanine's interaction arsenal -- for quickly marking up whatever's on a screen, touch is obvious, immediate, and gratifying. The addition further amplifies the unbeatable value Mezzanine brings to collaborative work, presentation, and decision-making."

Touch annotation on the Mezzanine 200 Series opens up new and better ways to work together. Unlike many digital whiteboard solutions, which only enable annotation over a single directly connected device, Mezzanine allows annotation over multiple streams simultaneously. Collaborators can annotate over graphics or live video, including live video feeds of analog whiteboards in other locations. Snapshot the annotated content instantly to create a new asset and deliver it directly into the workspace portfolio for later reference and download. Visitors to booth 1871 at InfoComm in Orlando this week will be able experience touch annotation firsthand, which is slated for delivery in Q3 2017.

Also available for delivery in Q3 are integrations with popular enterprise utilities that are a part of the Microsoft ecosystem, including calendar integration with Microsoft Exchange and video integration with Skype for Business. It's easy to schedule and start Mezzanine meetings with these familiar enterprise tools, enabling remote collaborators to join directly from their Skype client, or for rooms to connect with a Skype meeting ID.

The hardware and software innovations for the Mezzanine series of solutions introduced this year have brought the opening price point down below $50K, making it more accessible to more teams in more places. Earlier this year, Oblong announced innovations that make Mezzanine swift to install, including bezel-mounted infrared gesture-tracking which requires no ceiling remediation, and a smaller hardware footprint to support more Mezzanine configurations and easy in-room installation. The rich feature set of Mezzanine is unparalleled in the industry, providing not just an engaging wow-factor for presentations but real utility for collaborators doing important work with visual information and complex data across the enterprise.

Oblong's customers include NASA, PwC, IBM, Fujitsu, and Accenture along with other forward-thinking Fortune 500 companies. The independent analysts at Gartner featured Mezzanine in the recent research note "Select the Right Technology for Modern Meeting Rooms." A study by Forrester validates the business impact of Mezzanine for the enterprise and shows that Mezzanine pays for itself in less than eight months with an ROI of 226% in 3 years. It's clear that the future of work is more immersive, visual, and productive with Mezzanine. To experience Mezzanine firsthand, make an appointment to see Oblong in booth 1871 at InfoComm or visit one of 18 offices worldwide.

About Oblong Industries
Oblong Industries' innovative technologies change the way people work, create, and communicate. With roots in more than two decades of research at the MIT Media Lab, Oblong's flagship product Mezzanine™ is an immersive visual collaboration solution that defines the next era of computing: simultaneous multi-user, multi-screen, multi-device, multi-location immersive visual collaboration. Mezzanine's groundbreaking Infopresence capabilities multiply the effectiveness of distributed organizations and catalyze new, more effective, more collaborative workflows. Oblong is headquartered in Los Angeles and supplies Mezzanine systems to Fortune 500 enterprise customers and reseller partners. Learn more at www.oblong.com, and connect via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.