Introducing the DIGITABLE PLUS

 

The DIGITABLE PLUS is the ultimate in meeting space technology

Multi-user technology is the next step in technology. This has been the unshakeable vision of nsquared for the past eight years.

Collaboration is a powerful  agent for productivity. Well-designed modern workplaces have ‘anchor points’ to encourage planned and unplanned meetings. These are key to encouraging and harnessing creative team thinking and organisational innovation. 

Eight years of research, one year of meticulous designing and six months of solid perspiring has led us to the point where we are today.

And today, we are excited to announce, marks the launch of our newest and best digital table to date: the DIGITABLE PLUS.

The DIGITABLE PLUS has been designed to be the ultimate ‘anchor point’. Researched, designed, prototyped, and tested to within an inch of our lives here at nsquared. We are excited to announce that it is now available to purchase for your workplace to get your collective juices flowing. Start having truly productive meetings. Work. Together. Better.

To learn more, watch the video below and send us an inquiry at info@nsquaredsolutions.com.

For updates on digital tables and multi-user technology, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

Activity Based Working: The Future of The Office

 The Ogilvy & Mather Office has a variety of places to work Picture: Future of Work

The Office has seen a number of transformations over the past thirty years. The cubicle farm of the 1980s, fraught with privacy issues and distractions, eventually broke down its walls to make people feel more accessible and lessen these distractions. The detest of the cubicle farm led to its exact opposite, the open plan office. Just destroying the cubicle walls as a solution for distracted employees and a lack of transparency meant a number of new flaws itself. Studies have shown that people (especially introverts) find the open plan office can actually hinder or intimidate lowering productivity and teamwork, and more often than not, other people are a significant source of distraction.

    

The approach to the office space of 2015, which has been favoured by nimble startups such as Dropbox and even huge corporations such as Google, is the idea of ‘Activity Based Working’ (ABW). ABW is a style of working which is team-oriented and allows for a significant degree of flexibility for workers. There is no fixed desk for any individuals, who position themselves wherever they like within the office depending on their preference and work from laptops. 

    

Why are office architects designing in this way? Steven Hodder, president of the Riba and chairman of Hodder and Partners Architects, put it this way - "The idea that the desk is a unit of productivity is changing very, very rapidly. Your productivity is not measured by the amount of time you sit behind a thing called a desk. It is what you do. It is about your output.”

Open, fluid spaces means people can sit themselves where they would like depending on their mood that day: stressful project due tomorrow? Private booth it is today. Creative brainstorming of a product needed? The beanbags near the kitchen it is. 

   

This concept of ABW is beginning to be more freely accessible as technology progresses: we are no longer confined to landlines plugged into a single person’s desk. Computer software means the same level of communication can easily be achieved wherever a person has their laptop. 

When you go to ABW, however, you lose the idea of 'your own space' in the office: having your pictures on your wall, your snacks in your desk drawer, your favourite pens on your desk. In ABW, you personalise your environment to suit your personality. This is a look beyond technology which often, and mistakenly so, mediates communications. Going to a pure digital world is often a fallacy, and overlooks the joy we get from physical spaces and objects, which is why the importance of human interaction is so vital to the modern office. 

   
And so, most importantly, this kind of fluid space takes full advantage of a team atmosphere by providing designated spaces for interaction and collaboration. As Steven Hodder put it, “there are great stories of researchers having incidental space and just bumping into one another and having ideas.” Anchor points, for planned or accidental meetings, are key to harnessing and encouraging innovative team thinking. Collaborative technology like digital tables are designed specifically for this purpose, to achieve a real, dynamic and interactive activity based work space, to enhance collaboration and communication instead of controlling it. 
  
 ABW is an exciting next step for offices moving to a social, collaborative approach to work. AB provides more productive employees, which is good for business, and happier, more satisfied employees meaning a better outcome for everyone.  
  
 To learn more about collaborative technology, visit nsquaredsolutions.com or follow nsquared on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Users collaborate on a DIGITABLE PLUS

How Do You Emotionally Engage Your Audience?

 

Windows Hello uses Iris detection technology source: Mashable.com

Humans are animals. Sure, we have a consciousness that our primate counterparts might be lacking but we are still driven by instinct. We still have no control over our emotions.  Our emotion is what drives our behaviour - and it is for this reason why brands need to consider engaging on a deeper, emotional level if they really want to reach their audience meaningfully.

Engagement involves understanding what your audience wants, grabbing and sustaining attention and keeping ideas simple. But emotional engagement is a whole step up from this.

So how can brands meaningfully engage with audiences? There are many different ways, dependent on both brands and audience.

Microsoft has focused their energy on creating a more personal computing experience for their customers. Recently, this has involving the release the Windows Hello. Windows Hello means your computer or device is able to recognise your fingerprints, face or iris. As well as enhancing peace-of-mind by significantly improving security, the device becomes a highly personal and personalised piece of technology. Windows Hello authenticates applications, enterprise content and customises online experiences. The technology adapts to the user instead of the other way around.

Microsoft is a great example of the application of technology into peoples lives to impact them beneficially. With beneficial impact comes emotional engagement. As technology becomes increasingly sophisticated and the digital and physical worlds meet on the edge, this beneficial impact becomes more of a possibility.

This edge of the physical and digital world is an exciting step for engagement as brands have the opportunity to talk back to people. A static marketing brochure can suddenly become an exciting choose-your-own video journey, chosen through an immersive touch screen. Interactive media is up to 41% more emotionally engaging than regular static media. This is because people treat interactive media like a person, we suspend our disbelief of the virtual world and brand messages becomes a two-way, dynamic conversation.

Digital tables are the result of advancements in technology; delighting, engaging, two-way interaction. The digital table is a phenomenon because, unlike other forms of technology, it is designed for many people at once. Multi-user interaction means conversations happen in-person with friends and family, creating deeper emotional engagement. This is because as we interact, chat, share and laugh, we unconsciously draw these emotional connections.

The gradual meeting of the digital world with the physical world, with more personalised computing and the application of technology to enhance peoples lives, represents an exciting step in user interaction and emotional brand engagement.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter to learn more about digital tables or other emotionally engaging multi-user solutions.

 

Users interact on a digital table

 

Microsoft Surface Hub: New Collaborative Technology

Collaboration is increasingly being recognised as a powerful agent of productivity. We are told to have a laugh with coworkers and to help coworkers integrate into company culture to better retain staff. This is great because it's better for everyone: we get to have fun and the company gets more productive employees.

Image: Microsoft

This week Microsoft announced the launch of the Surface Hub, a collaborative tool to increase productivity for business meetings. While we at nsquared have been going on about the benefits of collaboration since 2008 (in fact, our whole organisation is built on the power of collaboration), this announcement shows the power of multi-user technology is beginning to be recognised, and on such a huge scale too. 

Microsoft is said to have billed it as a "large-screen collaboration device" which will automatically sync with OneNote, have an endless whiteboard for team brainstorming, as well as a number of large-screen apps. The device will be available in either a 55- or enormous 84-inch screen, and will be mounted vertically like a television. With Microsoft starting to take orders in just three weeks from 24 markets around the world, Microsoft's vision for the collaborative meeting space is truly at our doorsteps.

It is exciting to see steps forward in the collaborative sphere as the technology nsquared has been pioneering gets recognised as forerunners in this field. While a wall-mounted touch screen is great, there are of course limitations: Standing and arm fatigue means the meeting times would have a short life span. Only one or two people can interact with the screen at one time (in one physical location) means that annotating and brainstorming is limited to those at the front. nsquared technology specifically addresses these problems with our 360 degree immersive and inclusive DIGITABLE range. The DIGITABLE already has potential to share from tabletop to screen to create an immersive environment. Imagine the potential of the engaging conference capabilities of Microsoft Hub in combination with the collaborative interactivity of the DIGITABLE.

Users interact on an nsquared DIGITABLE

The future of meetings has arrived. While Microsoft may have taken a while to get here, we embrace new, intelligent technology that has real potential to improve peoples lives. If you would like to learn more about our collaborative DIGITABLES, or other intelligent business solutions, click on the respective links or follow us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Have a collaborative week!

Put Down Your Phones And Put Your Hands On The Table

 Image source: pazoo.com

Imagine you are sitting at a restaurant waiting for dinner, and your friend pulls out their phone. In fact, you probably do not need to imagine this as it is a daily occurrence for many of us every single day. This can be endlessly frustrating as not only does it break the flow of conversation but it also builds a barrier between the two of you as they quickly become distracted; one notification leading to another. Just like this image from How I Met Your Mother checking Barney's Facebook then needing to check Barney's Instagram. This is true of restaurants; lobbies, schools, libraries, museums and in almost every public space we suffer the same frustrating behaviours. This is the digital age however and more than ever we do expect digital answers.

A table has, and always will be, the natural place for meetings. We sit ourselves around one to chat, to eat, to socialise.

The DIGITABLE is a tool to help enrich these interactions. Instead of pulling out our phones, breaking conversations and isolating people, a communal screen in the centre of table makes technology a social activity.

nsquared attractor is the app developed for 360 degree, multi-user ad hoc interaction. With context-relevant content floating around ready to be engage with, it is a tool to help bring people to a table to interact with digital content collaboratively and socially. Whether to search through  information as the conversation progresses, to watch videos of nearby attractions or browse content in a retail or education space, nsquared attractor is the simple-to-use, sleek application that puts peoples phones back in their pocket and gets them talking again.

Check out the latest video on nsquared attractor below!

If you're interested in cutting edge multi-user technology, follow nsquared on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn and find out about our latest news as it happens.

Future of Screens: LG Wallpaper TV

Image: LG

In an announcement that is going to make your current flat screen body conscious, this week LG announced the launch of the “Wallpaper TV". The Wallpaper TV is the latest development in screen technology - using breakthrough, albeit outrageously expensive, curved screen and OLED technology. But, the future looks bright if you are itching to clip your TV to your wall like a magnet to your fridge as soon as possible, the costs are being reduced dramatically every month as efficiencies and breakthroughs continue. Read more on specifications here.

What does this mean for digital tables? 

While this isn’t touch screen technology, this development means a lot for the DIGITABLE. Where the TV is about entertainment, the digital table is about interaction. Efficiencies in screen technologies, making them smaller, more flexible and more affordable, mean we are one step closer to having more screens in more places. One day, flexible touch screens such as the LG Wallpaper TV will be able to be applied to any table surface and comprehensive, capable multi-user interfaces will be there to work in symbiosis with us; we are that much closer to a world of enriched collaboration. Bring on the Wallpaper TV!

Check out our website for more details on our latest collaboration and productivity technology.

Introducing the DIGITABLE

We have had an exciting past few months at nsquared. We launched a whole new and improved interface with radialshell. We had the chance to attend the Easter Show with our friends from Lockyer Valley. Neil was a speaker at the Corning Realising the Vision symposium. We are constantly updating and improving our software; over 30 multi-user apps, that keeps us busy non-stop. Also we have had a number of great new members join our growing team.

Now, we are excited to announce, we are launching the DIGITABLE.

The DIGITABLE is a collaborative tool that combines leading edge, award winning technology, carefully crafted to encourage greater productivity in meetings. This product is now available at an incredible price, learn more here.

We have launched a new video with our friends from Haworth to walk through the DIGITABLE - check it out below!

This is the start of an exciting new range of tables nsquared is developing specifically aimed at increasing productivity in meetings. Work Together Better. Stay tuned for more announcements soon.