Sick of Zoom? Try this Sims-style virtual meeting platform

tagsLecture Hall Seating Design

The award-winning team of journalists, designers and videographers tell the brand story through Fast Company’s unique lens

What is the next step for hardware, software and services

Our most important business annual guide

A leader in shaping the future of business in innovative ways

New workplaces, new food sources, new drugs-even a whole new economic system

Celebrating the best ideas in business

If you are tired of Zoom meetings and Houseparty gatherings, a company in London

Introduced a new method of connecting with colleagues, friends and family, which looked more like a video game than a virtual meeting room.

Teooh's software invites anyone to set up digital events in a range of spaces, from wood-paneled lounges to auditoriums with virtual chairs. You don't need to adjust the webcam and make sure you are standing in a professional background, but you can adjust the animated avatar to represent you in the meeting, thereby customizing your hair, skin tone, body shape and other features.

The meeting environment looks like

Or virtual environment

, But CEO Don Stein emphasized that Teooh intends to make the platform accessible to everyone (not only game fans) (the platform was launched in a beta version on April 1 and can be used on computers or iOS devices with Android) .

"Gamers have been doing this for ten years

with

," he said. "We can now do this for ordinary people who may not have an Xbox, gaming PC or headset. "

When I talked to Stein and some of his colleagues on the platform, I spent a few minutes customizing the look on the Macbook, roughly approaching my body, and choosing the hairstyle I desire once the barber shop reopens. Then, just a click of the mouse took me into a virtual environment, where I sat at a small round table with some people from Teooh. We can talk to each other through headsets and our computer microphones, and respond to comments by clicking on a set of standard reaction emojis, emojis will display these emojis and show great effects, but we don’t see them in real life each other.

This is part of Teooh's benefits: you don't need to fuss about dress or background, nor worry about shaving or makeup, because you can customize your avatar to look smooth or sc as you want. Of course, the disadvantage is that you cannot see all the emotions on other people’s faces, and it may be difficult to use emojis to react to particularly important news or comments. When Stein spoke to me, his colleagues often responded to his statement with reaction emojis. Their character movements seemed to be a bit repetitive, but compared to watching a video conference player keeping his poker face, this may be Not so embarrassing yet.

The controls are relatively simple, especially for anyone who has played video games in the past. Because the avatar moves in a very narrow range, it is difficult to imagine making an embarrassing mistake. Stein said this is the goal: despite some learning curve, game enthusiasts are not required to use the platform.

He said: "It is impossible to build only for the pioneers of virtual reality."

Stein said that another important aspect is that the Teooh environment can be used to host various virtual events. Animation Film Festival

Recently held online

Use Teooh, use a virtual meeting room specially designed for group discussions, and equipped with a digital screen, you can display slides and even video clips.

Participants sitting in the Teooh auditorium can turn around and talk to the avatar sitting next to them, and find each other's information by clicking or tapping. This is similar to the way two conference participants shake hands in the pre-coronavirus world. When they talk to each other, the sound will be transmitted to other participants through the space, becoming a form of acoustic simulation of the real auditorium.

"We have done a good job of building the audio engine from the ground up to reproduce the feeling in real life," Stein said. He quickly performed a demonstration, placing both our avatars around the auditorium, showing how our proximity affects how we can hear each other or whether we can hear each other. Naturally, speakers using digital microphones on a virtual stage are easier to hear than speakers in an auditorium.

For privacy considerations, Teooh is not completely real: discussions at the private meeting table on the side of the virtual meeting room can only be heard by the participants, so private conversations can be conducted without fear of eavesdropping.

Stein said the company plans to launch other types of rooms based on user needs. He said that in the pandemic, virtual space has been widely used.

He said: "We have people hosting birthday parties and personal birthday parties with their families." "We have some people hanging out with their parents. We took a bar quiz."

Although Teooh will continue to provide free hosting, it also plans to offer a premium plan with greater customization capabilities. Users may have more options to customize their avatar, similar to large free games (for example,

. Company customers can make similar adjustments to the meeting room according to their own preferences, add logos on the walls, or choose ideal seating arrangements, lighting schemes and virtual decorations.

"The way we make products is essentially Lego bricks," Stein said.

The company is also developing a ticketing system to allow users to provide paid or restricted admission. Of course, public events will bring a greater risk of malicious users harassing others, so Teooh is also developing tools to enable users to report inappropriate behaviors, and may require event participants to use external platforms (such as LinkedIn or Twitter) by default. Log in, so they are associated with external identities. Stan said: "You know they feel the social pressure to act in an appropriate way."

Apart from genuine misconduct, it is not clear what the exact behavior looked like. When I try to make my avatar look like a professional version of myself for interviews and presentations, do I choose something whimsical, such as longer hair, virtual high-top sneakers or even green skin, Have a night of casual trivia? How many reaction emojis of the correct number can cheer up a colleague or boss’s speech? Is it weird to use cardiac response in professional settings? Does the fact that no one can see your distracting face means that multitasking is fine?

When the pandemic eases, Teooh may not be able to contend with real events. But at the same time, it provides a good breakthrough for thinking about what to wear and where to sit on the next Zoom call.

Steven Melendez is an independent journalist based in New Orleans.

Contact Us
  • Maggie Kwan
  • +86 757 2363 2953
  • +86 139 2480 2689
  • +86 757 2387 9469
  • info@fumeiseating.com
  • +86 139 2480 2689