Avaya adds another dimension to business with web.alive

Avaya is bringing a more interactive feel to collaboration tools with its new 3D service. Web.alive is a new cloud-based, on-demand, secure, immersive collaboration platform using spatial audio and 3D visuals. The solution is browser-based and simple to deploy for any company with a few clicks. Users of the service adopt 3D avatars to walk around customizable web.alive virtual environments to interact with one another via life-like conversation and share desktops and videos. The system uses 3D HD audio and tracks how close you are to other users and who you can hear talking.

When telepresence provides us with true photo-realistic HD quality conversations, one would wonder why a company might choose to deploy a 3D video-game-style world to collaborate. An intersting use for this software is the virtual conference world where the idea of bumping into people on the conference floor might be a collaboration goal. While video conferencing is great to connect with business partners and collegues you already know, it doesn't really expand your network of contacts. The web.alive platform is a way for companies to create spaces that invite new people in to collaborate and while wondering around a virtual environment a user might strike up a conversation with another person and create new business.

Currently the service has been used by a university to enrich its study abroad program and a company fostering entrepreneurship has been using it for networking events. Additionally the USDA has contracted Avaya to create a persistant virtual environment for a inter-agency collaboration that includes the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State.

For more:
- read the release

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