A videoconferencing revolution is on the horizon. Reece Webb speaks with David Rosenthal and gets hands on with Google Beam.
Every once in a while, a technology appears that redefines how we approach our everyday working experiences. It starts as a whisper – “Did you hear about that new prototype?”, “That sneak preview blew my mind!” and suddenly, there it is: a technology on the market that realigns our expectations and makes us wonder how we worked without it.
Google Beam looks likely to be one of those technologies. Starting life as Project Starline, shown in the coveted whisper suites at ISE, Google Beam has taken the industry by storm with a rebranding and first unveiling at InfoComm 2025 which saw throngs of attendees flock to a fully booked joint demonstration between Google and HP.
Tucked away within a secretive, blacked out room in a Google UK office is at first what looks like an unassuming, minimalistic setup – a white wall, a simple but cleanly designed desk and a display outfitted with six cameras embedded to the left, right, and top of the screen. This may sound uninspiring, until the screen comes to life and the only word to leave your mouth is “wow”.
A videoconferencing call has begun, but not in the way that you know it. In front of you is a 3D participant, visible without a VR/ AR headset or any additional hardware whatsoever, sat in an identical room to you, as if right across the very same table. You begin to talk and notice that the conversation feels natural; there’s no self-view, you are making natural eye contact and communicating with natural body language by leaning in towards your participant in a way that looks and feels genuinely real. Even when your ‘beamed’ partner holds up an object like an apple, just a slight lean to the left or to the right reveals their thumb hidden behind the object as if they are sat next to you. This is the fourth generation prototype of Google Beam.
So how does this technology work? Google Beam uses a volumetric video model to make calls appear fully 3D from any perspective. It transforms standard 2D video streams into realistic 3D experiences, allowing users to connect in a more natural and intuitive way.
The system uses cameras and AI to create 3D videos of participants on videoconferencing calls without using headsets, glasses, or wearables. The system will be compatible with several videoconferencing platforms, providing a native Zoom Rooms or Google Meet experience along with support for 3D calls, 2D traditional group meetings, and interoperability with cloud-based video services including Teams and Webex.
David Rosenthal, go to market lead, Google Beam, explains: “There’s technology here that turns you into a 3D model. That model looks 3D without glasses and there is a lot of AI technology that compensates for things that you can’t observe. The amazing part is the number of different skillsets that piece all of that together: we worked with eye doctors, 3D modelling engineers, hardware engineers and audio specialists. If you try to recreate an in-person conversation, you need a deep, PHD-level expertise in every one of those areas. What makes Google Beam unique and only possible for a handful of companies is that we have the wherewithal to invest and arrange an engineering team that has all of those different skillsets.
“The response from customers has been that they haven’t seen anything like it. It’s really exposed a lot about what makes a person tick, some want to use it in boardrooms and others want to use it to speak to their family overseas. Everybody is super excited about having technology that challenges soul-crushing meetings, it drives human connection and higher quality meetings.”
Google Beam is designed for one-to-one experiences, using two identical Google Beam setups with identical backgrounds, desks, and technology to create that feeling of talking in the same, similar sized room. The experience uses accurate camera tracking, AI and spatial audio to create a truly natural meeting experience. Google has partnered with HP, developing a 65-in lightfield technology screen, called HP Dimension, to bring Beam to life.
Rosenthal says: “The Beam experience is a one-to-one, 3D experience. HP brings expertise in computing, audio and video which we feel is industry leading. Google is bringing 3D modelling, Google Cloud computing, and AI which we’re using for audio recreation, noise suppression, 3D modelling, and coverage of areas outside of the cameras’ field of view which we use AI for.
“HP brings manufacturing scale, we bring a bit of the scientific know-how in terms of how the eyes work, how displays work, and bringing it all together into a go-to-market plan.”
Fighting fatigue
Google Beam has the potential to disrupt an alarming trend associated with extensive videoconferencing usage. Known as videoconferencing fatigue, a feeling of tiredness and alienation due to too long or inappropriate video-based communication, the presence of self-view cameras and unnatural forms of communication have long plagued remote workers and employees who frequently use videoconferencing in their daily work lives. Not so with Google Beam.
“It’s just you and your eyes”, explains Rosenthal, “the eye contact is essential. There’s no self-view in real life, but when you are on a traditional 2D video call with six people on the screen, you’re always co-processing. You have self-view, and you are doing other things, so Beam removes that. We gathered data on behavioural statistics and found that people give and receive ~50% more facial movements, body gestures and retain ~30% more information [with Beam] than on 2D videocalls, so it’s a richer and deeper experience.”
Disruptive technology rarely fits into a single box, and when it comes to applications and usage, Google relies on its customers to help identify use cases which go beyond the traditional scope of high-level, executive one-on-one meetings.
Rosenthal continues: “In general, we are focusing on use cases, which go across verticals. An enterprise that focuses on software and an enterprise that focuses on manufacturing have the same type of use cases when it comes to people operations and executive communications. Senior executives work in different locations where every single one of their conversations is high stakes.
“People operations are also important to us, we want to target the entire life cycle of people operations from job fairs, to recruiting, to hiring, training, and performance reviews. But we want to democratise this technology, we’re sure that senior leadership will be the starting point for Beam, but we want this to become a core tool for communications for everyone. We really want everybody within an organisation to be able to take advantage of Beam, because the technology provides value to anybody who has video meetings and spends a long time using videoconferencing platforms.”
Google Beam is yet to hit shelves, but even before its official launch, conversations around future form factors, use cases and applications are already stirring as Rosenthal explains: “While Beam is a person-to-person experience, we are still keeping our eye on multi-person experiences. Any new technology has an escape velocity problem and the best way to approach an escape velocity problem is to figure out different form factors that put more eyes behind more beam units, and we are exploring ways to do that.
“We’ll be accepting orders shortly, and we’ll bring them to select customers starting later this year. We’re accepting pre-orders, and HP is collecting those as well. We believe that the technology is flexible, and we’ll be able to go into various form factors over time, and we aim to be guided by our customers. We’ve had conversations around recordings and viewings, for example a CEO providing a welcome experience for new hires, and we’ve had conversations around people operations in the entertainment industry. We’ve had preliminary interest from talent agencies and production houses who want to look at what this looks like for the next generation of talent scouting where you don’t have to fly people over long distances to cast a wider net. It’s a high value engagement tool and it’s all focused on personal connections, and that’s where we’ll remain.”