Recently in the Virtual Innovation Center (VIC): To show the participants a 5G workshop, how artificial intelligence or object recognition can be used in the smart factory, we beam the entire group into the virtual space of TechBoost, the start-up program from Telekom, at the touch of a button. Sounds like science fiction? It's not. The VIC makes it a reality.
The Virtual Innovation Center is a digital copy of our real Innovation Center in Munich. Visitors can take part in our workshops as a lifelike avatar and follow presentations, video meetings, and live demonstrations. Tangible showcases bring innovative trends and technologies closer to interested clients. The goal: To develop digital solutions for real use cases.
We digitally recreated the 5G campus showcase from the example in the VIC – it had originally been planned for the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Robot arms and autonomous forklifts can be controlled, and logistics chains started, at the click of a mouse. Supplying the entire factory site with 5G mobile communication coverage in combination with edge computing ensures the necessary real-time response of machines and vehicles.
Then it gets even more innovative: A client would like to trace objects in their factory in real time and know the location of these objects at particular times. No problem – with a few more clicks, I teleport the whole group into the virtual TechBoost space where we bring together start-ups and business customers in virtual space. This is where we take a seat in the stands and, from inside our TechBoost program, watch the start-up tapdo bring us a live showcase of how an IoT-based track & trace solution can be used for object tracing. The customer's CTOs and the start-up then withdraw to a virtual meeting room to discuss the technical details. The remaining participants continue on in the Virtual Innovation Center. At the end of the day, the group beams to our virtual island to talk shop – digital cocktails included.
We are continuously developing our ecosystem of virtual spaces: Our Individual Solutions & Products GmbH (ISP) is currently building a virtual event factory for larger events – including lounge and bar. Colleagues in Berlin, Utrecht, and Detroit are also planning their own rooms. We are also continuously expanding the spaces themselves. Since we operate the technical platform of the Telekom Ecosystems in the Open Telekom Cloud, we are able to flexibly scale the system and, in no time at all, clone entire rooms, for example, to create space for further breakout sessions.
The spaces can also be visited from outside: Our design gallery, the future and innovation forum of Deutsche Telekom in Bonn, will in future be able to hold hybrid workshops. If, for example, the colleagues there want to show the participants our 5G showcase, the entire group can be led into our innovation center using VR glasses.
