We've been researching solutions in this space for quite a while.<p>We have 6x 80" smartboards and have tried everything from Lync to Realtimeboard.<p>While some solutions work better than others, no one has solved a fundamental problem... When you try to collaborate in real time with a remote person - all the human communication cues are lost.<p>Collaboration is a dynamic and fluid process. We subconsciously read each other to gauge the reaction to a proposal, we interject and riff off of others. We try to pull introverts into the conversation and tame the extroverts.<p>All of this is practically impossible when a colleague is elsewhere on the network.
This is one of the things where I think remote work can fall down: standing around a shared space to easily quickly scribble and share ideas. Video gets you close, and lots of tools have some kind of sharable space you can write on or draw on with a mouse, but none of them have ever been as effective as a whiteboard for me when you're trying to quickly explain a concept or structure.<p>Actual product looks annoying though. It's a quite specific kind of team that wants to drop $5000+ per screen, and it's definitely not small fully remote startups (where doing that for everybody is both very expensive and super inconvenient), even though that's where this would be most awesome.<p>Might try and have a go soon with just cheap graphics tablets and existing web tools though, or just normal android tablets. Almost the same experience, at a tiny fraction of the price.
A 40-50" (diagonal) "whiteboard" is still very small. I have a 4'x10' whiteboard right behind me, and a 6'x4' to my immediate right, and I'm always running out of room.
One of the similar products I've recently seen demonstrated recently is Bluescape from Haworth. It isn't really mobile, but it can also be up to 210": <a href="https://www.bluescape.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.bluescape.com/</a> or <a href="http://haworth.com/products/technology/teamwork/bluescape" rel="nofollow">http://haworth.com/products/technology/teamwork/bluescape</a><p>Also of course, the Microsoft Surface Hub: <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-surface-hub/en-us/product-specs" rel="nofollow">http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-surface-hub/en-us/product...</a><p>If you're looking for a great portable markerboard, Watson's Etch is great: <a href="http://www.watsonfurniture.com/products/etch-markerboards" rel="nofollow">http://www.watsonfurniture.com/products/etch-markerboards</a>
I can't be sure, but it seems like they are just going to release a big Wacom tablet and add real-time collaboration for the price of a 2013 SMART car. That isn't a fair comparison, as it is unlikely corporations will be comparing a fleet of used smart cars to collaboration workstations in their budget. WTF is the usecase for this? 10-11k for people to draw on the same canvas in different locations? I think it is actually quite cool, but the pricepoint is absurd and it is an open question how the real-time sync will work between >1 device.<p>I am half serious when I say that this product seems to be exclusively marketed at apple engineers & designers to lazy to walk up the stairs to collaborate with each other.
We run a startup and have been working on the remote-teamwork problem for a while now.<p>Having dabbled with hardware and partnering with hardware vendors, mainly because we believe hardware is definitely a piece of the puzzle but, to frame the problem around the device first, is the pitfall that SMART/MS SurfaceHub have all fallen into.<p>As others have pointed out, sinking thousands of dollars into a solution that will soon be replaced due to advancements in display technology, hardly seems worth it, especially for small to medium businesses. We designed our software so that anyone can pick it up and try it for free with their team, without worrying about needing new or fancy hardware.<p>Ultimately Collaboration includes all of your devices, including your big touch screens, pc's, smaller devices and whatever else that may turn up in the future (VR?). Google's offering for drawing has always been lacklustre and its a shame there is nothing we can try and use from this announcement today.<p>For those wondering, my startup is called Collusion (collusionapp.com).
We built collaborative whiteboards into our distance learning classrooms in 1997 or 1998. Smartboards were around for several years before we started and we wrote custom drivers to capture the cursor position and send the pointer information to the remote sites.
Nothin wrong with a plain old WriteyBoard. Shameless plug, sorry guys.<p><a href="http://writeyboards.com/" rel="nofollow">http://writeyboards.com/</a>
Video here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXwV5SlKLAE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXwV5SlKLAE</a>
I have been very interested in this seemingly similar software, and the projection hardware is much more conducive to this scenario.
<a href="http://www.nureva.com/span-system" rel="nofollow">http://www.nureva.com/span-system</a>
This is literally just a picture and a vague blurb.<p>It is kind of unusual but in this specific case you may be better off with the Engadget article than the official site:<p><a href="https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/25/google-jamboard-digital-whiteboard/" rel="nofollow">https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/25/google-jamboard-digital-...</a><p>Seems like it will cost "under" $6K. But since they're using $6K as their pinned price, I'm guessing over $5K.