Oblong Profile
Oblong, Inc. operates as a provider of patented multi-stream collaboration products and managed services for video collaboration and network solutions.
Mezzanine Product Offerings
The company's flagship product is called Mezzanine, a family of turn-key products that enable dynamic and immersive visual collaboration across multi-users, multi-screens, multi-devices, and multi-locations. Mezzanine allows multiple people to share, control and arrange content simultaneously, from any location, enabling all participants to see the same content in its entirety at the same time in identical formats, resulting in dramatic enhancements to both in-room and virtual videoconference presentations. Applications include video telepresence, laptop and application sharing, whiteboard sharing and slides. Spatial input allows content to be spread across screens, spanning different walls, scalable to an arbitrary number of displays and interaction with the company's proprietary wand device. Mezzanine substantially enhances day-to-day virtual meetings with technology that accelerates decision making, improves communication, and increases productivity. Mezzanine scales up to support the most immersive and commanding innovation centers; across to link labs, conference spaces, and situation rooms; and down for the smallest work groups. Mezzanine's digital collaboration platform can be sold as delivered systems in various configurations for small teams to total immersion experiences. The family includes the 200 Series (two display screen), 300 Series (three screen), and 600 Series (six screen). The company also sells maintenance and support contracts related to Mezzanine.
Key capabilities and features of Mezzanine include:
Share Work With Others. Easily present work by plugging in or sharing wirelessly with the Mezzanine app. Share up to 10 connected devices, including laptops, in-room PCs, and digital media players. Upload images and slides to present and explore content alongside live video streams.
Capture Ideas Instantly. Save snapshots of on-screen content to make sure good ideas don't get lost. Annotate content in the Mezzanine app and share thoughts with others. Download meeting materials to reference or share after the meeting.
Visualize Options and Outcomes. Mezzanine content spans multiple displays so the information needed is in sight and on hand. Share more content, see more detail, and improve visual storytelling. Arrange content for side-by-side comparisons and cross-referencing.
Unite Distributed Teams. Connect teams and get everyone on the same page. Meeting participants share the same visual workspace so they can perform like they are in the same room. Everyone in every location can add content and steer the conversation, increasing opportunity and motivation to participate.
Connect with Ease. Mezzanine works seamlessly with existing video conferencing and collaboration solutions so teams can join meetings with the tools they use every day. Integration with Cisco and Polycom systems simplify connecting rooms with voice, video, and content.
Orchestrate Content. Place content anywhere in the room from anywhere in the room with Mezzanine's award-winning wands. Gestural interaction makes it easy to move and highlight content to focus the attention of the team.
Managed Services for Video Collaboration
The company provides a range of managed services for video collaboration, from automated to orchestrated, to simplify the user experience in an effort to drive adoption of video collaboration throughout the company's customers' enterprise. The company delivers its services through a hybrid service platform or as a service layer on top of the company's customers' video infrastructure. The company provides its customers with the following services to meet their videoconferencing needs:
Managed Videoconferencing is a 'high-touch' concierge-based offering where the company sets up and manages customer videoconferences. The company's managed videoconferencing services are offered to the company's customers on either a usage basis or on a monthly subscription. These services include call scheduling and launching, and videoconference monitoring, support and reporting.
Remote Service Management provides an overlay to enterprise information technology ('IT') and channel partner support organizations and provides 24/7 support and management of customer video environments. The company's services are designed to align with a globally recognized set of best practices, Information Technology Infrastructure Library ('ITIL'), to standardize processes and communicate through a consistent set of terms with the company's customers and partners. The company offers, on a monthly subscription basis, three tiers of Remote Service Management options, ranging from remote proactive automated monitoring to end-to-end management to complement the needs of IT support organizations (including 24x7 support desk, incident/problem/change management, site certifications, and service level agreements).
Managed Services for Network
The company provides its customers with network solutions that ensure reliable, high-quality and secure traffic of video, data and internet. Network services are offered to the company's customers on a subscription basis. The company's network services business carries variable costs associated with the purchasing and reselling of this connectivity. The company offers its customers the following networking solutions that can be tailored to each customer's needs:
Cloud Connect: Video: Allows the company's customers to outsource the management of their video traffic to the company and provides the customer's office locations with a secure, dedicated video network connection to the Oblong Cloud for video communications.
Cloud Connect: Converge: Provides customized Multiprotocol Label Switching ('MPLS') solutions for customers who require a converged network. A converged network is an efficient network solution that combines the customer's voice, video, data, and Internet traffic over one or more common access circuits. The company fully manages and prioritizes traffic to ensure that video and other business critical applications run smoothly.
Cloud Connect: Cross Connect: Allows the customer to leverage their existing carrier for the extension of a Layer 2 private line to the company's data center.
Sales and Marketing
The company uses a variety of marketing, sales, and support activities to generate and cultivate ongoing customer demand for the company's product offerings and managed services. The company has a team of direct sales representatives and sales engineers. The company sells globally through both direct customer sales and channel partners.
Customers
The company has a diverse customer base, including Fortune 1000 companies, along with small and medium enterprises across a wide range of industries including aerospace, consulting, executive search, broadcast media, legal, insurance, technology, financial services, education, healthcare, real estate, retail, construction, hospitality, and government, among others. The company seeks to establish and maintain long-term relationships with the company's customers.
A significant portion of the company's products and services are sold through the company's distribution channels, and the remainder is sold through direct sales. The company's distribution channels include systems integrators, channel partners, other resellers, and distributors.
Competition
Certain features of the company's Mezzanine product offerings compete in the communication and collaboration technologies market with products offered by Cisco WebEx, Zoom, LogMeIn, GoToMeeting, along with bundled productivity solutions providers who offer limited content sharing capabilities, such as Microsoft Teams, and Google G Suite. In the rapidly evolving 'Ideation' market, certain elements of the company's application compete with Microsoft, Google, InFocus, Bluescape, Mersive, Barco, Nureva and Prysm.
With respect to the company's managed services for video collaboration, the company primarily competes with managed services companies, videoconferencing equipment resellers and telecommunication providers, including BT Conferencing, AT&T, Verizon, LogMeIn, Yorktel, ConvergeOne, and AVI-SPL. The company also competes with companies that offer hosted videoconference bridging solutions, including Blue Jeans, Vidyo and Zoom. Lastly, the technology and software providers, including Cisco, LifeSize, Microsoft, and Polycom, are delivering competitive cloud-based videoconferencing and calling services. With respect to the company's managed services for network, the company primarily competes with telecommunications carriers, including British Telecom, AT&T, Verizon and Telus.
Intellectual Property
The core technology platform for Mezzanine is called g-speak. It enables applications to be developed that run across multiple screens and multiple devices. The company's customers use the platform to solve big data problems, to collaborate more effectively, and to go from viewing pixels on a single screen to interacting with pixels on every screen.
The company's suite of managed services for video collaboration can be accessed and utilized by customers regardless of their technology or network. Customers who purchase a Cisco, Polycom, Avaya, or LifeSize (Logitech) system, or use certain other third-party video communications software such as Microsoft, WebEx or WebRTC, may all take advantage of the company's services regardless of their choice of network. The company's services support all standard video signaling protocols, including SIP, H.323 and Integrated Services Digital Network ('ISDN') using infrastructure from a variety of manufacturers.
Research and Development
The company incurred research and development expenses during the year ended December 31, 2022 of $2.9 million, related to the development of features and enhancements to the company's Mezzanine product offerings.
History
The company was formerly known as Glowpoint, Inc. and changed its name to Oblong, Inc. in 2020.
