Digital video calling pod is seriously impressive
I’ve seen the future.
Actually, I’ve seen a live digital display of a tech CEO, while sitting in a 220 x 120cm work pod, in the dark.. but it felt like the future.
Framery Contact, the latest office pod from the Finnish brand leading the way in soundproof work spaces, has just been officially announced and I was lucky enough to have a test drive at the company’s Tampere HQ a couple of weeks back.
Essentially a heavily modified version of the popular Framery Q pod, Framery Contact is, according to its makers at least, the first of its kind to come to market.
They say the best magic tricks are essentially just smoke and mirrors and that’s pretty much the case with Framery Contact.
There’s no actual smoke (if there is, then you better get out of there sharpish) but there’s a mirror that combines with carefully positioned low level lighting and a crystal clear 4K display to create the illusion of sharing the pod with your video conferencing contact.
Unlike a Zoom call which, let’s face it, is incredibly awkward and gives no sense of presence, the experience of the Contact pod feels incredibly intimate and, well, real.
Me taking a call on Framery Contact
You really do feel as if you are sitting a couple of feet away from the person you are speaking with.
The experience starts when you enter the blacked out pod and take a seat on the high stool. At this point the screen in front of you has your own image looking back at you.
Your first, and only, bit of tech admin is to adjust your chair height so as your eyes line up with a grey bar on the screen, which takes a few seconds at most.
You then, via a touchscreen panel on your left, start a call, or answer an incoming one.
At that moment the visual on the screen switches to that of your contact and it’s pretty bloody incredible.
The image is a true-to-life replication of your video call buddy, you can see their whole top half while they sit on their high chair in their Contact pod, wherever they are in the world.
In my case, my buddy was Samu Hällfors, Framery Founder/CEO, who initiated the call from Framery’s offices in New York.
For the first 10 seconds or so the image isn’t actually perfect as it takes this time to render sharply. However, the effect is still so impressive that on my first call I didn’t even notice the lack of quality until the it suddenly improved.
At that moment the experience jumped to a “wow” moment… a rarity for a seasoned tech hack with a cynical mindset.
The experience is so ‘real’ that I actually felt a bit uncomfortable. Here I was suddenly sitting in a small dark room with a Scandinavian man I’ve never met before.
But it’s that intimacy and realism that Framery hopes will make Contact a big success. Company execs gave us the obvious examples of 1-on-1 meetings with colleagues and remote job interviews.
But I also felt that Framery Contact would be an amazing tool to have in your home.
If you have family in other countries you’ll already be familiar with that unsatisfactory feeling you get when video calling with your loved ones.
Framery Contact really does have the potential to genuinely make you believe you are breathing the same air as your contact.
That air is, of course, fresh as the air is circulated before, during, and after the pod is used. Contact is, of course, sound proof as well; using the same speech level reduction of 29dB as Framery Q, so it limits the amount of noise penetrating the pod from both directions, without causing a claustrophobic feeling.
Currently the experience is limited to 1-on-1 calls for the optimal experience; we were told the 3D magic effect gets thrown off a bit when there are more than 4 eyeballs in the room but the pod itself is big enough to also host a desk, so you could easily work on your laptop during a Contact ‘meeting’.
It has to be experienced to really be believed and the good news is that you can try it for yourself… there are demo pods in Framery’s showroom in Chicago, and at the Tampere HQ in Finland.
The company is, for obvious reasons (you’re looking at a pretty hefty five figure price tag) aiming Contact at businesses but you can register your interest via trycontact@frameryacoustics.com.
A wider rollout is planned following an initial pilot phase.
