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Introducing Surface Hub 2

microsoft.com

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Re: Introducing Surface Hub 2

#41

Post by ChuckMcM »

I would love a Surface Hub, I tried to buy one and couldn't because they were only available to 'qualified' customers (something an individual apparently never could be).

Now with 4K (or 8K!) displays it becomes completely credible to replace a white board with one. And the benefits of the shared whiteboard and presence is really solid when working with someone who isn't local.

The software infrastructure investment is immense however. And while I would love to see an open source version of this I doubt such a thing would ever exist. You need a video conferencing component, a drawing/archiving/sharing component, hardware that can accelerate the drawing function to avoid lag, and significant bandwidth to host both video and images being swapped updated in real time.

Re: Introducing Surface Hub 2

#42

Post by zeusk »

xur17 wrote: post #38
zeusk wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps they can process the image; We already do it with document scans from off-angle.

Wouldn't this require repositioning the person's eyes in the video? Not saying that isn't doable..

No, users look at where the other person is on the screen; not at the camera. So reprojection can be done to a known point of view.

IIRC, hololens does some of the reprojection magic already.

Re: Introducing Surface Hub 2

#43

Post by mrep »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #41

I would love a Surface Hub, I tried to buy one and couldn't because they were only available to 'qualified' customers (something an individual apparently never could be). Now with 4K (or 8K!) displays it becomes completely credible to replace a white board with one. And the benefits of the shared whiteboard and presence is really solid when working with someone who isn't local. The software infrastructure investment…

While I agree the benefits of the shared whiteboard sound nice, I much prefer the feel of drawing on a whiteboard over touch screens. Plus, whiteboards are much cheaper.

Re: Introducing Surface Hub 2

#44

Post by Someone1234 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #41

I would love a Surface Hub, I tried to buy one and couldn't because they were only available to 'qualified' customers (something an individual apparently never could be). Now with 4K (or 8K!) displays it becomes completely credible to replace a white board with one. And the benefits of the shared whiteboard and presence is really solid when working with someone who isn't local. The software infrastructure investment…

> I tried to buy one and couldn't because they were only available to 'qualified' customers

You can order one from CDW right now[0]. They did initially only open them up to Microsoft Partners with a certain level, but that was many years ago now.

I will say that a Surface Hub is much more useful when used as part of AD/O365. Since Skype for Business is a major selling point and not really useful to the individual. Using it as a glorified e-whiteboard isn't its strongest feature, it is a fantastic meeting/collaboration tool.

[0] https://www.cdw.com/product/Microsoft-Surface-Hub-touch-surf...

Re: Introducing Surface Hub 2

#45

Post by jrs95 »

gagege wrote: post #12
reacharavindh wrote: post #9

Very creative, and cool, but a part of me cringes thinking of people touching those displays with their greasy fingers...

What makes me cringe is the thought of trying to answer the video call which Skype proceeds to drop and you spend 15+ minutes trying to reconnect with the caller which leads to you just using the old fashion conference telephone sitting on the table.

Silicon Valley's satire rings true yet again: https://youtu.be/9YOEEpWAXgU

Re: Introducing Surface Hub 2

#47

Post by byproxy »

meritt wrote: post #3

The music composition on this video sounds eerily similar to Final Fantasy 7's main theme. These sections specifically: * Surface Hub 2: https://youtu.be/7DbslbKsQSk?t=1m34s * FF7 Main Theme: https://youtu.be/nPSdaQW97rA?t=58s

It's a fairly generic motif.

Re: Introducing Surface Hub 2

#48

Post by sebringj »

The thing I liked the most was the person view in how it shows things in real life dimensions, seems much more "personable" to communicate across distances for teams, at least from a non-vr way.

Re: Introducing Surface Hub 2

#49

Post by zaksoup »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #13
zaksoup wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft definitely has been moving towards a more cross platform software suite. My biggest issue is that Skype is by far the worst video calling platform. Zoom and BlueJeans long since surpassed hangouts, and even hangouts is better than Skype. I saw another hn commenter mention that all of their skype calls begin with 10 minutes of handshaking - "can you hear me? let me restart my computer. hold on my mic isn't b…

Is that Skype or Skype for Business (which is just a rebranded Lync, which is just a rebranded Office Communicator)? In any case, as the site mentions, the new Hub is exclusively for Teams, which has its own conferencing system.

Good question, and I have no idea. The conferencing system in meeting rooms was managed by a facilities team. Probably it was Skype for Business, given that?

Now we're all using Zoom and it's much smoother. /anecdote

Re: Introducing Surface Hub 2

#50

Post by Kenji »

xur17 wrote: post #38
zeusk wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps they can process the image; We already do it with document scans from off-angle.

Wouldn't this require repositioning the person's eyes in the video? Not saying that isn't doable..

Yes, and there are already AI/Machine learning solutions for this problem. The paper detailing this must be a few years old already.
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