Tag: Sine Wave Entertainment

Sinespace and Breakroom: A Look Back and a Look Forward—Adam Frisby Gives His 2021 Annual Keynote

This news is a little late, so I do apologize to Adam Frisby and his team at Sine Wave Entertainment (the makers of the metaverse platform Sinespace and it corporate cousin, Breakroom). I had decided to take most of December 2021 as a vacation from this blog, in order to refresh myself to meet the new year head on!

At an Office Hours presentation in Sinespace in early December, Adam (wearing his now-signature bunny rabbit avatar!) gave his Annual Keynote, in which he talked about how 2021 went, and what’s coming up for 2022. Here are some highlights from his speech:

  • Sine Wave were originally planning a promotional push for Sinespace last February, but the ongoing pandemic threw a monkey-wrench into those plans, and work shifted to Breakroom. Companies can now go to breakroom.net, buy it off the shelf, and customize it with little-to-no involvement from the team; this means that the Sine Wave team isn’t getting as tied up dealing with Breakroom customer issues as much as they have in the past.
  • Did a lot of work on compliance and auditing their back-end processes;
  • Did a lot of crossover stuff between Breakroom and Sinespace, including well-attended talks by Philip Rosedale and Matthew Ball;
  • Made a huge effort in Quality Assurance, fixing bugs and implementing feature requests in Sinespace (e.g. adding the ability to control your avatar turning speed);
  • The design and UX team is working on user interface improvements (including the Room Editor);
  • Usability improvements (e.g. click-to-walk now steers around obstacles; fixes to inverse kinematics for feet and hips on avatars for smoother movement);
  • Developer improvements (e.g. new LUA functions);
  • New network stack is coming out very soon (designed to have hundreds and even thousands of avatars in one location at once); Adam mentioned recent load tests with 650+ avatars; the new network stack works better on WiFi and cellular connections;
  • Vehicle improvements: a smoother experience, due in a couple of weeks!
  • New terrain system;
  • New parcel system (e.g. allows you to partition a region in three dimensions entirely within the client—drag and drop zones, set rent, etc.);
  • Unity 2020 support to come out in a couple of weeks;
  • Adam gave a demo of a new mobile-centric user interface for touch-screen devices such as monitors and tablets. Beta mobile viewers are available via the Discord server today if people want to test them out.
  • Coming up for 2022 (in roughly chronological order): the new network stack; Unity 2020 upgrade; improvements to virtual reality support; a new asset format; visual scripting tools; the new Room Editor; improvements to the base avatar (e.g. body shapes; they’re trying to find a good character artist).
  • When does Sinespace finally leave beta? Adam can’t give a firm answer, but he says “next year”.

If you want to watch the entire presentation, it has been posted to YouTube in a 38-minute video (the Q&A portion afterward was unfortunately not recorded):

This blogpost is sponsored by Sinespace, and was written in my role as an embedded reporter for this virtual world (more details here). 

Matthew Ball and the Metaverse Road Map: A Fireside Chat in Breakroom on October 21st, 2021

In case you haven’t noticed, the metaverse is suddenly having a moment.

Ever since Facebook announced that they were repivoting to become a “metaverse” company, things have gotten a little bit crazy around here. As Tony Parisi writes:

In the wake of Facebook’s new positioning as a Metaverse company, execs at a multitude of tech and media outfits have put it front and center of their strategy, or are at least saying they have a Metaverse strategy. Leading the pack are game engine companies like my employer Unity and graphics chip powerhouses such as NVIDIA. These companies are laying the groundwork by delivering miraculous real-time 3D tech on a regular basis, and they are built on solid business models delivering significant commercial value. They will indeed be foundational for the Metaverse. But these days you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an ad agency or tech startup that has the word Metaverse in a strategy deck, too. Sensing a Next Big Thing, people don’t want to have to play catch-up like they did with the Internet or mobile. Mind you, the term Metaverse isn’t new, nor is the vision, despite various attempts at rewriting history. But now that His Eminence has given voice to it, the Metaverse exists by fiat. So let it be written; so let it be done. And everyone is pouring in.

At a time when the word “metaverse” is being flung around everywhere by everybody (including by quite a few johnny-come-latelies who really have no idea what they are talking about), it’s important to listen to people who who were around before this sudden hype cycle. Among those people is venture capitalist Matthew Ball, whose well-known article The Metaverse: What It Is, Where to Find it, Who Will Build It, and Fortnite, provides some thoughtful insight and perspective on the topic.

Matthew Ball (picture source)

And it just so happens that the next speaker scheduled in the Fireside Chats series is none other than Matthew Ball himself! According to the official announcement:

Sine Wave Entertainment is honored to welcome Metaverse visionary Matthew Ball for a virtual fireside chat within Breakroom, our metaverse platform for real-life events. Author of the influential “Metaverse Primer“, lead creator of the Ball Metaverse Index, his insights and investments have shaped the business world’s understanding of what he calls a “successor state to the mobile internet”.

Join us for a wide-ranging conversation with Matthew, co-hosted by two leading journalists of the Metaverse era [Gene Park of the Washington Post and Wagner James Au of New World Notes].

Topics to be discussed include:

• What are the key Metaverse trends to watch for in the next 5-10 years?
• Will it wind up being dominated by the Internet giants?
• Is there more to the Metaverse beyond entertainment?
• Where do blockchain and VR fit into the technology’s future?• How will the Metaverse remake culture and business?

You can register for the event here, through EventBrite (it’s free). It takes place on Thursday, October 21se, 2021 at 8:00 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time/GMT or noon Pacific Standard Time/PST. When you register, you will receive an email message with a special link you have to click on to load the web-based Breakroom app in your web browser.

It promises to be a fascinating discussion, and one you won’t want to miss!

This blogpost is sponsored by Sinespace, and was written in my role as an embedded reporter for this virtual world (more details here). 

Editorial: I Need to Become More Business Minded About This Blog

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

I really do owe an apology to the truly wonderful folks over at Sine Wave Entertainment, the company behind the virtual world/social VR platform Sinespace, and its corporate cousin, Breakroom.

You see, it was almost exactly one year ago today that I entered into an agreement with them, where I would become an “embedded reporter” for Sinespace, and write sponsored blogposts about the people, news and events on that platform.

And while I got off to a rather strong start, I have really fallen down on the job over the past four months. My last real sponsored blogpost for Sinespace (a report on the Geek Weekly event at the Localhost Connection Café) was back in July, and since then I have only done one blogpost—and I screwed that one up! (Sorry, Sinespace.)

There are a couple of reasons for that lapse (the coronavirus pandemic, and the demands of my full-time paying job with the University of Manitoba Libraries), but part of the problem is that I have not been paying sufficient attention to the company or its products, so this is an apology, and a promise to do a better job!

I just find it ironic that I am writing much more about Second Life (when they aren’t paying me) and next to nothing about Sinespace and Breakroom (when they are!). It’s time to pull up my socks, pull my head out of SL, and focus. What started out as a tiny little hobby blog devoted to Sansar has grown and evolved over the past three years, and is turning into a business.

And if I really do intend to to follow through on my dream to become a full-time blogger and vlogger covering “News and Views on Social VR, Virtual Worlds, and the Metaverse” after I retire from the University of Manitoba Libraries, then I need to become a little more business-minded about what I do here.

As I say on my Patreon page:

My plan is to earn a side-income from my blog containing “news and views on social VR, virtual worlds, and the metaverse” (which is the tagline of my blog) when I finally do decide (hopefully, at some age before 65) to take my retirement. I already have a small but devoted following, and I want to grow that audience.

And yes, another thing I need to do is completely rethink the benefits that I do offer my Patreon supporters (another group of people to whom I owe an apology). And I want to once again, express my gratitude and appreciation for my existing patrons.

Part of my business on the RyanSchultz.com blog is writing sponsored blogposts and selling advertising space, which (in addition to the financial support of my wonderful Patreon patrons) allows me to cover the cost of hosting this blog on WordPress, among other things. I also run WordAds on my blog, after I had finally given up on Google Ads in frustration (you can read through my misadventures in dealing with Google’s automated system in this series of blogposts).

Between all of these ventures, I make a small amount of money (but you aren’t going to see me on the cover of Forbes anytime soon!). And I may tinker a bit with other ways to monetize what I do here, more often. For example, did you know that you can express your support by something as simple as buying me a coffee?

You can show your support by something as simple as buying me a coffee!
(Photo by Mike Kenneally on Unsplash)

Breakroom: A New Social Hub for Remote Work Teams, Education, and Conferences from Sinespace

Sinespace has decided to branch out into an area that has seen a mini-boom in recent months: social VR platforms whose aim is to provide an immersive social hub to bring together work teams who may be scattered across different neighbourhoods, different cities, even different countries!

This is a particularly critical need, as so many employees are now working in self-isolation from their homes in an effort to stop the spread of the current coronavirus pandemic. Keeping your team connected and motivated, when pre-existing lines of communication have been shattered and shared physical spaces are no longer available, can negatively impact a company’s productivity and morale, and its bottom line. Sinespace is selling Breakroom as a way to overcome these hurdles.

The concept is to bring your work team together in your own safe, secure, branded virtual world, providing team members a private space where they can hang out, connect with peers, chat around the virtual water cooler, and feel part of the group. Some of the benefits are:

  • Use live events and social hangouts to create momentum and enthusiasm;
  • Go beyond work collaboration tools to offer a full social space where your team members can be themselves;
  • Help people maintain the friendships they rely on in their daily lives, even if they are physically apart;
  • Support employee mental health while they self-isolate with shared spaces and activities, and combat the threat of depression and other mental health issues that isolation, worry, and fear can lead to.

Among the many features offered by Breakroom are:

  • Exhibition halls
  • Corporate headquarters
  • Amphitheaters
  • Open plan offices
  • Private offices
  • Student common rooms
  • Cinema and screening rooms
  • Live music venues
  • Casual game regions and tables
  • Breakout rooms
  • Hangouts
  • Explorable regions
  • Extensive avatar customization
  • 10,000+ virtual goods for shopping and building your own worlds
  • Full suite of communication tools (VOIP, IM and inworld email)
  • Video conferencing, video sharing and conferencing tools
  • Media sharing and desktop sharing tools
  • Branded exhibition stands
  • Event management system
  • Mature APIs for integrating other enterprise applications
  • In-world building and scene editing
  • HIPAA compliant regions for one-to-one therapy sessions
  • Support for live events including music, cinema, pub quizzes, seminar sessions

Breakroom is also partnering with a number of agency partners who can build a custom breakroom to your company’s specifications. And, of course, content designed by existing Sinespace developers can also be bought by users to use in their Breakrooms, giving them yet another avenue for sales.

Pricing for corporate users starts at US$500 per month for 50 seats, a fully-featured private custom branded space, with dedicated customer support. Additional seats can be purchased for only US$10 per month per seat. Bulk discounts are available; please contact the company for further details.

And Sinespace is offering Breakroom to state and public schools for free, with an unlimited number of seats! A product such as this can so easily bring students and teachers together, in an immersive, shared virtual space, in a way that Zoom and Webex simply cannot.

Breakroom

Wagner James Au of the long-running virtual worlds blog New World Notes has written several pieces about Breakroom: an introduction to the platform with a brief interview with lead developer Adam Frisby, as well as a poll asking potential education users what time slots they would prefer for live group demos.

And, I note with interest, among the staff listing for Breakroom, Wagner is listed under the job title of Public Relations for this new venture. You gotta hand it to Wagner; he knows how to hustle for his coin! He’s one of the hardest working men in the metaverse (after, of course, the utterly inexhaustible Draxtor Despres), and no doubt offers Sinespace the wealth of his many years of experience in virtual worlds.

On Friday, May 1st, Sinespace hosted the first open house of Breakroom, to demonstrate the various features of the platform for visitors. Sinespace staff demoed Breakrooms features to support remote work and teaching, including webcam calls, a dynamic whiteboard, screensharing, and a group quiz system.

A screencap from the Breakroom open house livestream (below)

And, if you feel the need to let off some steam, why not take your work team to the racetrack?

The race track in Breakroom

If you missed the open house, you can catch the entire hour-and-a-half livestream here. There’s lots to see and do! Breakroom is the perfect virtual meeting spot for your work team to feel connected and energized.

To get started in Breakroom, just fill out the form at the bottom of their official website, and a representative from the company will get in touch with you. There are also downloadable demo versions of Breakroom for both Windows and MacOS users, if you want to kick the tires, test out the features, and see how Breakroom can work for your company.

More information about Sinespace is available from their website, and you can also follow them on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Discord, and YouTube.

This blogpost is sponsored by Sinespace, and was written in my role as an embedded reporter for this virtual world (more details here).