In March when offices and businesses closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, people were forced to use telecommunications and video conferencing for day to day collaboration in place of the face to face conversations. Whether your organization or workplace had already adopted solutions and systems for video conference or work remote many hadn’t used the methods in their day to day role. Many were also accustomed to face to face meetings and conversations, that were rapidly changed to video meetings and calls. For IT professionals this enormous change meant they would now support a larger than typical remote work community and systems. All while also working from home. For technology companies this meant an enormous increase in usage and a need to improve security, upscaling systems, and developing new features.
For some this meant taking a step back and improving their systems to accommodate the dramatic increase of usage, for others a race to resolve many security flaws uncovered. For Microsoft, it meant innovating on their already robust collaboration product Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft studied how users used their products as they moved to remote everything, along with working with virtual reality and Artificial Intelligence (AI) experts to reimagine virtual collaboration via Microsoft Teams. In July, they announced a set of new features and experience in Microsoft Teams to make virtual interactions during virtual meetings more natural, engaging, and a bit more human. These set of features to enable people to feel connected no matter where they are located.
Together mode uses AI segmentation technology to digitally place meeting participants next to each other in a theater type background, making participants feel like they are sitting next to each other in the same room. This new meeting experience makes meetings more engaging and helps participants see facial expressions and body language. Give your neighbor a high-five or maybe even give the person in front of you some bunny ears, keeping things light and engaging.
This new reimagining of virtual meeting technology led Microsoft and the NBA to partner together and bring virtual fans to NBA games. The NBA is using Microsoft Teams Together Mode to bring you the virtual fans in the stadium view. Making it appear and feel like everyone is together to cheer on their favorite player or team. NBA players can see their fan’s reactions and watch their fans cheer them on. Such a huge win for fans, NBA teams, and Microsoft.
Microsoft Teams is free to use to anyone with a valid email address and has a number of features that garner collaboration and file sharing. Gather at least five of your friends or family and give Together Mode a try.
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Sources:
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/07/08/reimagining-virtual-collaboration-future-work-learning/
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/07/24/reimagining-teams-experience-basketball-microsoft-teams/
Last modified: January 4, 2021
