A new sculpture posted online Wednesday at the Flatiron South Public Plaza in New York City isn’t your typical work of art. It combines technology, sociology, anthropology and art to allow people to interact with each other in real time in two locations. In this case, it’s between New York and Dublin.
The portal itself is an impressive work, weighing 3.5 tons, with a footprint of approximately 11.5 feet by 11.5 feet. Portals.org, the organization behind the project, would not share hardware specifications beyond the size of the video screen, which measures approximately 8 feet by 8 feet, preferring to maintain the idea that It’s a portal rather than a screen.
As the organization describes it, “Portals are an invitation to meet other humans beyond borders and prejudices and to discover our home – planet Earth – as it truly is: united and one. » They were originally designed by Lithuanian entrepreneur Benediktas Gylys.
While the concept is cool, the underlying software technology that powers it comes from Video Window, a British company that initially created software and hardware with the goal of connecting employees in remote locations – at home or in other offices – with a permanent connection. . In this case, they took the same concepts and applied them to the portal.
Daryl Hutchings, CEO of Video Window, says the portal needs many of the same features as a business, with a few caveats. “All video conferencing software is basically designed for scheduled meetings, so you schedule a time, you click the link and it lasts X amount of time,” Hutchings told TechCrunch. “That’s all well and good when it’s a scheduled call, but obviously when you make a permanent connection like the portal, there are inevitably connection issues.”
When these issues arise, most software will eventually give up, but Video Window is designed to help resolve connection issues through their APIs and continue, which is essential for this use case.
Another major consideration with this always-on technology is ensuring that it is secure. You don’t want people to be able to take control of the connection, and Video Windows software helps you in this regard as well.
Nicolas Klaus, partnerships manager at portals.org, says security was a key consideration for the city before agreeing to install one. “The cities we work with, including New York, are concerned about data security. Can we guarantee data confidentiality? According to Hutchings, it’s something that’s built into the software, so it’s not possible to “zoombomb” a portal like we saw early in the pandemic.
Klaus said working with Video Window, which has many well-known companies as clients, has helped them work with governments to reassure them about security. “This video window has worked with very established clients including Netflix, Apple and SAP, as well as some of the larger companies, who also take a lot of care with data security, and have also been very helpful,” he said. he declares.
Governments are sometimes concerned about having a permanent connection with another country, but portals.org has been building these facilities since 2021. It started with a portal connecting Vilnius, Lithuania, and Lubor, Poland, and so far, they were able to effectively resolve these issues with participating countries.
“And the simple fact that over the last three years we have been able to maintain almost non-stop 24/7 live streaming in other cities has given Dublin and New York a lot of confidence to join the network,” Klaus said.
techcrunch
