Video calls have helped military families feel closer with those serving than ever before, and through a new partnership with the United Service Organizations, Google wants to take that feeling even farther.
Google is bringing its Beam video conferencing devices to USO centers both in the US and globally beginning next year, the company confirmed today, in what’s being called a “pilot program.” This will see the HP Dimension — currently the only commercially available Beam products — being made available for use for both actively-deployed troops and their families located stateside. Google says Beam’s 3D video conferences will be available for everything from big celebrations to smaller family moments.
Beam — formerly Project Starline — is a difficult product to accurately describe if you haven’t used it before, and considering HP’s unit costs $25,000 (and requires two units to function as intended), that group presumably includes most people. With a 65-inch 8K light-field display and six cameras scattered around the bezel, a lot goes into capturing and rendering a realistic real-time 3D model, and as someone who’s previously received a Starline demo at Google I/O, I can tell you it’s every bit as impressive as you’d hope for that price tag.
While Google Beam might’ve been a fairly ingenious idea at the height of video conferencing during the pandemic, I actually think use cases like this feel much more obvious and fulfilling compared to simple enterprise applications. Really, this sounds like a great initiative on the parts of both Google and the USO. Video conferencing has really improved the lives of military families with members under active deployment, and with something like Beam, that feeling of sharing space together really is taken to a whole new level.
Google hasn’t specified where HP’s conferencing units will be rolled out — or how many are coming, for that matter — but expect more details to come in 2026.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments