The new studio at Fox News got a major facelift that has it looking, as Jordan Crook at Tech Crunch explained, not a little bit like Minority Report but “just like Minority Report.”
The new sci-fi features were created by Oblong, which, as Crook writes, “helped create the technological interfaces seen in the futuristic movie [Minority Report].” The new studio has a product called Mezzanine, which the company describes in a video as “next generation conference room technology.”
The motto for Mezzanine? “Share any content, from any device, with anyone, anywhere.”
So, while Mezzanine was created for conference rooms, it is obviously useful in the television industry, and Fox News host Shepard Smith is taking full advantage of their products. Crook includes a video in his write-up of Smith showing off the gadgets. At one point, Crook writes, “Smith uses a 38-foot remote-controlled video wall manipulated by a white hand-held wand tool.”
Oblong’s Chief Scientist John Underkoffler commended Fox News, describing their decision to adopt the Mezzanine product as “a laudably ambitious undertaking.” This is the most public adoption of the product, Underkoffler noted, which will hopefully mean Oblong will see an increase in revenue, because they basically received free advertising when Smith showed off the Mezzanine to millions of viewers.
Here’s the coolest projection about the wand that Smith used. Obviously, that is how a user interacts with Mezzanine’s technology now. But it sounds like the company will eventually abandon the wand for technology they have created that already responds to gloves and hands. That will entail enhancing G-Speak, Oblong’s spatial operation system behind all of its products.
As a tech geek who adores gadgets, it will be exciting to see what Oblong comes up with next.
