The above video, by popular YouTube caster and Minecraft expert SethBling, may seem a bit tangential to the subject of business video. But it shows how far video technology has come, which may have big implications for continued business video growth.
Minecraft is an incredibly popular videogame featuring persistent worlds where players can build things out of blocks of materials. You can think of it as internet Legos. Given this canvas, the Minecraft community has created incredible structures, complete cities, and even giant functional machines.
SethBling, working with Verizon, has taken the functionality of Minecraft creations to the next level with a working in-game smart phone. You have to see the video above to fully understand it because it is so different from anything I have seen in videoconferencing, or in a video game, up until now. They built a giant smart phone (built out of blocks) inside the game, and it can participate in real time video calls with people out in the real world.
Verizon created a page with the technical details of how this all works. But the key takeaway is the fact that we are able to make a call work between a physical real-world, phone, and a virtual in-game phone. It was only a few years ago that we were struggling with interoperability between different vendors of video equipment. Now we have interop between different realities.
With this is mind, it is safe to say that video technology has reached a level of flexibility that few of us had even foreseen. There is no longer any excuse to hold off on implementing your ideas for new, creative and innovative use of business video. We have finally democratized this technology, it is no longer a tool solely for the Fortune 500. Whether it be to boost team productivity, better engage with your customers, or something completely new and different, video should be in everyone’s toolkit.
