Press release: CyberLightning Expands the 3D Internet, Launches CyberTeam Virtual Environment for Business Collaboration

OULU, FINLAND — CyberLightning Ltd. today introduced CyberTeam, a virtual world meeting tool that supports collaborative group work in hosted networks or as a cloud-based service. CyberTeam provides an immersive, interactive meeting environment for up to 24 participating avatars that can share data and media content and work within applications while talking and chatting.

CyberTeam presents a private environment where avatars gather for group work. In standard configuration, the room’s walls have five screen surfaces for display of any type of media or data content. Presenters can work with their own media content and view data on the screens as part of an interactive session and all material can be “saved” to the meeting site, allowing easy stop and restart of meetings.

Unlike audio and videoconferencing alternatives for group meetings, the immersive nature of virtual world conferencing increases participant engagement and focus. Easy participant access and interaction in the meeting room, or multiple rooms in an enterprise, makes immersive collaboration productive for both scheduled and ad hoc meetings.

“We are seeing that the act of being an avatar in a virtual environment has a big impact on participant involvement and the overall level of collaboration achieved in a multi-site work situation,” said Jani Pirkola, founder and managing director of CyberLightning. “With teams operating in virtual environments, organizations get better control of both local and long-distance travel time and cost, while enjoying the value and creativity of interaction and shared experience.”

Scalable Implementation

The CyberLightning CyberTeam collaboration environment is customizable to specific organization requirements, from simple meeting rooms to themed virtual worlds. Organizations can also assemble sets of rooms to support multiple work teams and working environments.

In its initial release, CyberTeam supports users on Macintosh and Windows platforms supporting DirectX 9.0c video acceleration and delivers an effective interactive experience with Internet connectivity at bandwidths as low as 2 MB/sec. Hosted environments require a Windows server with multicore processor. Virtual room view screens are populated as streaming video and voice support is provided by an integrated VOIP engine.

Pricing for a server-hosted or cloud-served single meeting room ranges from $4,390 to $6,290 for license and initial set-up. There is a monthly support fee ranging from $439 to $749, depending on the number of concurrent users, data capacity monthly traffic and additional services.

About CyberLightning

CyberLightning is paving the road to the 3D Internet, beginning with tools to improve business communications and collaboration. The company was founded in 2010 by a core team at the Center for Internet Excellence at University of Oulu, Finland. More information is available at www.cyberlightning.com