Virbela, a leading name in virtual reality innovation, has now released a final round of updates for the FRAME platform. These updates add the finishing touches to the service before the official rollout begins and pricing is officially announced.
Though Virbela has a virtual reality and meeting experience of its own, this is intended more for larger meetings than the smaller, more intimate get-togethers of FRAME. The latest round of updates to FRAME range all the way from the ability to upload and enjoy your own 3D environments, to a new spectator mode for people who don’t need to be fully involved within the frame.
I caught up with Gabe from Virbela to chat about the latest updates and the future of FRAME.
What Makes FRAME Unique?
The FRAME environment is a little smaller in scale than Virbela, according to Gabe, but it’s also easier to get into. There’s no need for an install, and you can bring a lot of unique things into Frame.
“It’s a highly customisable no-code space. You get a sidebar where you can access an inventory of things quickly and easily during your conversation. Once you bring components in, you can move and drag them around however you choose. You can create interconnected series of sites, link to other frames and screens, and create unique connections.”
FRAME is an all-in-one solution for communication and collaboration, offering access to everything from 360-degree photos to language and transcription features. Part of what makes the experience so special is that it’s so easy to implement and adjust according to your needs.
FRAME also recently got an extra boost from access to the Babylon.JS web development framework. Gabe told me that the company chose this framework for its clean, simple, and powerful structure, as well as the long-term vision that Babylon shared with the brand.
“Babylon worked with us on the recent update to make sure we could get the best benefits out of the engine. They also helped us to overcome a few roadblocks too.”
What Can People do with FRAME?
Part of FRAME being a highly customisable experience is the option to access your own environment. Although there are many great environment options to choose from, users can now upload their own environments, and FRAME will simply create a navigation mesh, to ensure everything works.
“We want people to be able to bring in their own environments whenever necessary and customise the experience however they choose”
FRAME also recently added emojis that “blast out” of your avatar and show your sentiment towards a conversation, without the need to speed. “People see the emoji coming from you and you see it on your screen. It’s a good non-verbal way to express something in a group conversation”.
FRAME also offers speech-to-text and dynamic live translations. You can access this function using the text window on your screen, and people around the world can turn on their own text chat translation features, to ensure that everyone understands each other.
FRAME Is Becoming More Sophisticated
FRAME is built on innovation and best-of-breed solutions from leaders in the technological space. Sophisticated VR support means that people can have more immersive meetings, while speech and language tools bring people together regardless of common geographical boundaries.
FRAME also recently introduced some new spaces, according to Gabe, such as a campus environment where you can connect with potential students in a learning environment. The campus has various buildings to explore and even an outdoor theatre. There’s the option to load people directly into a specific part of an environment, like a lounge or hall if you want them to be there.
“You can bring up to 40 participants into your frame and add people into the mix as spectators too. Currently, we’re putting a cap on 20 spectators, who kind of just act like ghosts in the background, listening to the meeting or event. There may be a possibility to expand this spectator option going forward, as there’s less pressure on our back-end and front-end rendering.”
Spectators on FRAME can see and hear everything, but they’re not interacting with the meeting, or talking themselves. This could be a good option for virtual classes, where a teacher doesn’t want to deal with students talking over them during a lesson.
When I asked Gabe about use cases for FRAME, he noted that education is an important one, but companies are using it to bring people together in meetings too. “Atlassian’s Trello team commissioned us to create a FRAME recreation of the New York office where employees will be able to meet using their Quest VR devices. That’s going to be a great experience”.
Creating More Immersive Environments
FRAME and its immersive environments could play an important role in all kinds of communication and collaboration. More people are joining the environment from VR headsets every month, particularly those in the Quest landscape. Enhanced VR navigation makes it easier for people in the FRAME to explore their virtual environments with speed, and there’s even a VR navigation panel so you can pull content into a meeting too.
Anyone can go onto FRAME and create their own 3 unique frames with dedicated URLs during the Beta period now, and Virbela is looking forward to introducing pricing soon.
As Gabe reminded me, this is only the beginning of what tools like FRAME can accomplish. The company is looking forward to getting feedback from customers on how to improve the experience for everyone. After this beta phase and the initial rollout is over, there will be plenty of scope for additional growth going forward.
