Redefining Human Connection with HP's Hybrid Systems

How can innovative changes to collaboration fundamentally reimagine human connection, pushing the boundaries of what's possible in hybrid and remote workplaces and beyond? 💫

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Find out at the Six Five Summit: AI Unleashed! Collaboration track speakers, Greg Baribault, VP of Product & Portfolio Management, HP Hybrid Systems at HP, and Andrew Nartker, General Manager, Google Beam, join host Melody Brue for a compelling discussion on their pioneering partnership.

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Key takeaways include:

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🔹The Inspiration Behind a Transformative Partnership: Explore the core vision and inspiration that fueled the collaboration between HP and Google Beam, aiming to redefine human connection.

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🔹Key Technologies Driving Connected Experiences: Explore the pivotal technologies that are at the heart of this reimagination, enabling richer and more seamless collaborative experiences.

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🔹Impact on Workplace & Customer Experience: Understand the significant effects of this innovative collaboration on both internal workplace dynamics and external customer interactions, fostering new levels of engagement.

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🔹Future Directions of Collaborative Innovation: Gain insight into the exciting future directions and potential developments emerging from the ongoing partnership between HP and Google Beam, marking the next wave of human connection.

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Learn more at HP.

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Or listen to the audio here:

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Melody Brue: Hi, and welcome to the Six Five Summit AI Unleashed. I'm Melody Brue with Moor Insights and Strategy. Today I am joined by Greg Baribault, VP of Product and Portfolio at HB Hybrid Systems, and we have a special guest with us, Andrew Nartker, General Manager of Google Beam, to talk with us about a recent development between the two companies for this collaboration spotlight on HP's vision for an immersive workspace. So you guys, my mind was blown in this demo earlier, seeing the dimension with Google Beam. It's actually something that I wasn't expecting, and even after I saw people's reaction of like, wow, it really is something I think you have to see to understand. So Andrew, can you kind of just start with us, tell us HP dimension with Google Beam has been described as a breakthrough innovation, and I can understand why now after seeing it.

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Andrew Nartker: Thank you.

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Melody Brue: But how does that represent the next generation of AI in the workspace?

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Andrew Nartker: Thank you, Melody. I am so happy that you enjoyed it and had such a good experience. We find that's the true breakthrough that when people use HP Dimension with Google being, they just instantly feel connected to somebody that they care about and work closely with. And that's hard to do with technology today. So bringing people closer is the ultimate mission and we're happy that it's doing so well. How do we do that? That's kind of the hard part and what we use AI for, so we've got a really advanced system, HP Dimension Hardware and Google software. Google's advancements in AI really generate a lifelike 3D video of anybody that uses HP Dimension with Google Beam. So that's the core and what makes it possible. At the end of the day, when you use the product, you don't see any of the technology. You see it fade away. You see a person that you care about and you basically join the same room as them. You think that's the true breakthrough because then you connect and build that trust that we think is so important for the workplace.

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Melody Brue: To tell you the truth, I thought Greg was playing a trick on me. I thought he just came into the room and I was like, wait, come on. It's really amazing. Greg, do you have anything to add to that?

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Greg Baribault: Sure. At HP we really believe in this vision of connecting people in deeply authentic, genuine ways, and we think it restores energy and the communication, it makes people feel connected and focused on the discussion that they're having. A lot like we are right here. And HP dimension with Google Beam really is just the best example of putting people in what they feel like is the same room and having that deeply connected experience.

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Melody Brue: Yeah. Give me just a couple of examples because I really do feel like if you haven't experienced it, it might not make sense to you how that feels so different than being say on a video call. In what situation do you imagine this to be really important that people connect in that way? I mean, eventually, I imagine you want everybody to connect this way, but first use cases. How do you see this being used in the workplace?

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Greg Baribault: Yeah, there are so many use cases we envision for this, but more personal connections between two people where especially if they know each other and you're sort of recreating that in-person experience. We've seen it used of course in business scenarios, executive to executive. We've seen it used with direct reports or managers to have deeply authentic one-on-one conversations. We've seen it in much more personal experiences like with deployed troops, reaching back to families at home and connecting in a really immersive personal way with them. It's quite incredible.

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Melody Brue: It is really incredible the way that you feel like there's eye contact. You don't have to look for a camera, you don't have to wonder if the person is doing something else while they're talking to you, but you don't see anything around the edges. So how is that designed and part of the whole strategy for this?

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Andrew Nartker: Yeah, yeah. I think it's a very thoughtful design that we've worked closely with HP on. So HP Dimension with Google Beam looks like a frame, just like a picture frame that's on your wall, but it kind of fades away and becomes a window and we turn it on. The camera's not between you and somebody else that you care about, it's just you and that person together. That's really hard to do. So with our technology, we're able to get the cameras to the side of the bezel, integrate them well, and then really turn it into a 3D video camera that's generated on the fly from your perspective. And really doesn't exist in hardware, but more in software. So a very special thing.

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Greg Baribault: And you talked about focus and the focus point is super interesting because when you're in the experience, you're really focused on just the other person and you're aware that they're focused on you. And so you do have fewer distractions. And in some of the studies we found that people have greater recall after a discussion like that. They're more present and they can recall more of the conversation that was had then in the 2D discussions, or they may be distracted by other things.

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Melody Brue: So Greg, how does HP dimension with Google Beam fit into the broader portfolio for you?

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Greg Baribault: So our portfolio ranges from all sorts of meeting environments, from focus rooms to board rooms and everything in between personal spaces. We really see this as the flagship experience that's just so much more immersive than you can achieve in a conference room, especially with multiple people and on a two dimensional plane. But we do see this as a continuum. So we aspire to have HP poly equipment in all of our enterprises and really have the best equipment for each purpose. It's a very purposeful design, so we can scale from small rooms, medium rooms, to these one-on-one immersive spaces as well.

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Melody Brue: Yeah, that's great. At a time when AI is enabling advancement so much in so many different sectors, from semiconductors to AI assistance, agentic AI, how is HP ensuring AI powered collaboration remains practical, secure, and scalable?

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Greg Baribault: Well, a lot of our vision is to enable more AI to move closer to the user, move it into the computer part of the PC itself. So we call that moving AI to the edge. And so moving that AI to the edge will enable people to have lower latency, better performance, more security and access locally even while offline. That's for the scenarios that you described. We also believe in moving AI to the edge for things like audio and video processing. So to improve the audio quality, cleaning up the sound product we also launched today is used in the HP dimension with Google Beam to provide world-class audio that's powered by AI to remove all the background sounds and reinforce that authentic connection with people.

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Melody Brue: So how do you imagine the future of work and AI really kind of changing the way people work, the way people connect, obviously the dimension, but with Google Beam is a big part of that. How do you imagine just the future changing at all in the workplace with all of this new technology?

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Greg Baribault: You want to take that? 

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Andrew Nartker: Sure. I think I hope this technology allows us to become more connected closer, build deeper relationships, see our friends and colleagues more often, but literally be able to do that from anywhere in the world, wherever our company needs us, wherever we need to be. Build those kind of trust and bonds, but be flexible and be hybrid and all the things that I think are beneficial for workforces today.

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Melody Brue: Yeah, and how does that affect, I mean you talked a little bit about people want to be seen and heard, and when you combine that with compute at the edge, it actually allows for people who normally may not be connected to be connected and it sort of creates a more inclusive environment across the board. How do you kind of design for that? Think about that for the future. We've got people bouncing back and forth, of, yes we're going back to the office. No, we're not. There's always going to be exceptions of people who are traveling or for whatever reason. So how do you think about your portfolio, where you want the future, where you see the future of work going with this?

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Greg Baribault: Yeah, it's a great question. I like to think of it as meeting people where they are. We do have people that are active in the workplace day after day and they're connecting with people that may be permanently remote or temporarily remote. We also are finding people that are entering the workforce and that haven't built those relationships yet. They haven't built the credibility in their organization yet, and they're finding it difficult to engage with, especially if they're remote to engage with their teams. So we really believe that technologies like HP Dimension with Google Beam will create those deeper connections between people, enable them to come into the workforce, maintain those rich connections, and really thrive.

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Melody Brue: Yeah. If you had one big bold, I'm going to ask you both of this. One big bold prediction for where we're going to be in three years when it comes to workplace collaboration, technology, how people are going to be viewing this. What's one thing, I'm sure there's lots of things, but you can name just one. You go first, Dan.

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Andrew Nartker: Wonderful. I think what we're building together with HP Dimension with Google Beam is going to surprise people and it's going to reform their idea of what a computer can do to help them work. The computer will fade away, become really natural to use, and it'll be people at the end of the day that kind of get the true work done. So I think we'll surprise people with that.

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Melody Brue: Yeah. And how about you, Greg?

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Greg Baribault: I would say putting technology within reach and making more accessibility, making it more accessible to more people. We're seeing the costs of these technologies come down, greater access, more people connected with greater network availability, and I think it levels the playing field for everyone, and I think AI is really going to empower that from far more people than we see today.

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Melody Brue: Awesome. I love both of those predictions and I hope we see them come about. Thank you for joining us for this collaboration spotlight at Six Five Summit AI Unleashed. Please stay with us for more coming up soon.

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