Demand for video and virtual events is only accelerating. For months, millions of people have been firing up video chats and conferences to replace meetings and events they’re unable to attend in person because of the virus. It also plays a major role in education, as well, allowing for virtual field collaboration exercises with remote classrooms and access to subject-matter experts all around the globe, as noted by Value Market Research. In addition, according to Global Market Insights, the video conferencing market could exceed $50 billion in the next six years thanks in part to the virus. Already, major corporations around the globe have indicated that they do not foresee a return to pre-COVID ways of working. With demand only likely to pick up momentum, some of the top companies to keep an eye on include NexTech AR Solutions (OTCQB: NEXCF)(CSE: NTAR), Zoom Video Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:ZM), RingCentral Inc. (NYSE:RNG), Teladoc Health Inc. (NYSE:TDOC), and Okta Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA).
NexTech AR Solutions (OTCQB: NEXCF)(CSE: NTAR) BREAKING NEWS: NexTech AR Solutions, an emerging leader in augmented reality for learning applications, and Ryerson University, a globally recognized leader in Higher Education with over 46,000 students have partnered to launch RALE, the Ryerson Augmented Learning Experience platform, based on NexTech’s InfernoAR. The technology license agreement has an initial value of $250,000 with the potential for more revenue tied to additional AR services. You can see a sample of the RALE here - please click to view video
The initial launch of RALE will focus on first year Chemistry, Biology and Physics students from the Faculty of Science at Ryerson and enable over 5,000 students to participate in rich, collaborative AR enhanced learning experiences during the Fall and Winter Terms.
The initial agreement calls for an annual license fee for the InfernoAR platform plus an annual license fee for the Aritize white label app plus a fee of per AR lab with an initial build of 20 labs. The potential is for the number of AR labs to run into the hundreds generating additional revenue for NexTech. The company expects to use this same business model to sign up additional Universities in Canada and throughout North America as COVID19 continues to disrupt classes and social distancing remains in place.
Dr. David Cramb, Dean of the Faculty of Science comments, “At Ryerson we took the bold step of re-imagining a virtual lab. With inputs from staff, students and faculty we designed and developed a completely collaborative environment that ensures an immersive and fun learning experience for our students. The incorporation of augmented reality into the STEM learning environment will change pedagogy forever. ”
Paul Duffy, President of NexTech comments, “A Ryerson student is a global citizen. What better way to transcend time and geography in today's COVID-culture than with Augmented Reality Holograms on the InfernoAR platform?” He continues, “each Virtual Lab has interactive videos, real-time collaborative Zoom sessions with lab technicians and fellow student lab partners complemented with AR Lab exercises that allow students to beam into their home the Lab materials required for each experiment.” You can see a sample of the RALE here - please click to view video
Evan Gappelberg, CEO of NexTech comments, “We are thrilled to be working with such an esteemed University as Ryerson”. He continues, “COVID-19 has created a huge challenge for learning institutions globally especially with labs where student and subject matter interaction is so critical to learning. Our InfernoAR platform is perfectly suited to solve this challenge by offering not only video learning but augmented reality for 3D volumetric object interactions. We think that with this use case InfernoAR is the solution not just for Ryerson but for Universities and Colleges all over the globe.”
Other related developments from around the markets include:
Zoom Video Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:ZM) announced Zoom for Home, a new category of software experiences and hardware devices to support remote work use cases. In a time where employers are grappling with what the new normal of work will look like, Zoom for Home elevates employee experiences to connect remotely and be productive. The future of knowledge work will be a hybrid of virtual and in-person experience. In a recent study by IBM, 81% of respondents—up from 75% in April—indicated they want to continue working remotely at least some of the time. More than half—61%—would like this to become their primary way of working. Major corporations around the globe have already indicated that they do not foresee a return to pre-COVID ways of working. Additionally, according to a recent study by Morning Consult, almost half of adults who are able to work remotely believe that virtual meetings are at least as effective as in-person meetings. Zoom for Home meets the needs of the present shelter-in-place and the new normal of hybrid workforces.
RingCentral Inc. (NYSE:RNG), a leading provider of global enterprise cloud communications, collaboration, and contact center solutions, today announced the appointment of Gunjan Aggarwal as Chief People Officer, reporting to Anand Eswaran, president and COO at the company. Aggarwal will be responsible for continuing to ensure that RingCentral is a great place to work for our people, from talent acquisition and development, to organization effectiveness, rewards and recognition, and global inclusion and diversity. Aggarwal is a 20-year industry veteran who joins RingCentral from RELX Group, a world-leading provider of information solutions based on big data analytics for professional and business customers with revenues of $10 billion. At RELX, she was responsible for all aspects of the people function across the 30,000 employee population. She also led executive and board engagements in planning, culture, inclusion, and risk mitigation in the people domain and oversaw a team of over 400 HR professionals.
Teladoc Health Inc. (NYSE:TDOC), the global leader in virtual care, reported strong financial results for the quarter ending June 30, 2020, citing sustained momentum across its diversified portfolio. In its U.S. market, the brief period of national COVID-19 containment in late May and early June provided visibility into continuing demand for virtual care, with utilization stabilizing at a level 40 percent higher than before COVID. Greater awareness and acceptance of virtual care, in addition to continued lower cost sharing, are helping to drive this sustained growth. Demand for specialty care including virtual mental health visits also continued to show rapid acceleration while InTouch Health, acquired by Teladoc Health on July 1st, has solidified the company’s leadership in hospital-based telemedicine and is projected to grow over 35 percent in 2020. “Even as we continue to battle the coronavirus in the U.S. and other hard-hit countries, we are also seeing sustained demand in areas that are no longer considered hotspots. In some states where the curve has flattened, we are still seeing twice as many patient visits as last year,” said Jason Gorevic, CEO of Teladoc Health. “While COVID-19 has accelerated the virtual care needs of consumers and providers alike, our broad based momentum in 2020 and beyond is rooted in the satisfaction and trust our partners have in our ability to transform the healthcare experience.”
Okta Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA), the leading independent provider of identity for the enterprise, announced a major milestone in cloud reliability and uptime, offering 99.99% uptime to all customers in every region of the world at no additional cost. Through its distributed and highly available cloud architecture, now Okta customers of every size – whether free developer instances, up to the largest enterprises – can now count on unparalleled reliability and nearly zero planned downtime. This further deepens Okta’s capability to enable anyone to securely use any technology. Virtually overnight, digital transformation has accelerated around the world due to COVID-19. Workforces are now relying on the cloud to maintain operations while consumers are turning to digital experiences to interact with their favorite products and services. Adobe’s 2020 Digital Economy Index report indicates e-commerce levels from April and May 2020 were higher than digital spending from the 2019 holiday season. This trend is only expected to continue during the pandemic in addition to the fading concept of working within the confines of a traditional office. According to Gartner, 74% of CFOs intend to shift at least some of their workforce to remote positions permanently. This new dependency has put the reliability, scalability, and security of technology to the test, making the consequences of cybercrime or downtime, planned or unplanned, catastrophic to both productivity and revenue.
Legal Disclaimer / Except for the historical information presented herein, matters discussed in this article contains forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Winning Media is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority and does not provide nor claims to provide investment advice or recommendations to readers of this release. For making specific investment decisions, readers should seek their own advice. Winning Media is only compensated for its services in the form of cash-based compensation. Pursuant to an agreement between Winning Media and NexTech AR Solutions, Winning Media has been paid three thousand dollars for advertising and marketing services for NexTech AR Solutions. We own ZERO shares of NexTech AR Solutions. Please click here for full disclaimer.
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