At Google I/O 2025, Google announced a rebranding of Project Starline, a company-centric teleconfencing platform that uses 3D imaging.
Starline, now known as Google Beam, will come to “early customers” later in 2025 via previously announced partnerships with HP by Google, including Deloitte, Salesforce, Citadel, NEC and Duolingo, Google said. When Beam launches, it will integrate with Google Meet and other popular video conferencing services like Zoom, the company says.
Beam uses a combination of software and hardware, including six camera arrays and custom light field displays, to allow users to talk to someone as if they were in the same meeting room. AI models are positioned at different angles and convert video from cameras pointed at the user into 3D rendering.
Google claims that Beam is capable of “nearly perfect” millimeter-level head tracking and video streaming per 60 frames. With Google Meet, Beam also offers an AI-powered real-time voice translation mode that maintains the audio, tone, and representation of the original speaker.
“The result is that Beam is a very natural and very immersive conversation experience,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said during a press conference.
The problem is that there is a lot of demand for beams as many companies are moving towards a completely post-industrial setup. This seemed to aim primarily to be a hybrid office where people frequently meet with remote workers. Despite the fact that research failed to draw definitive conclusions about the productivity of remote workers, the perception among many in senior management, especially technology, is that work from home is like a failed experiment.
Some customers may be able to justify beams with virtual office-to-office meetings alone. In 2023, Google claimed that around 100 companies, including WeWork and T-Mobile, were testing prototype versions of Tech.
Google said Tuesday that it will work with Zoom with channel partners such as Diversified and AVI-SPL to bring a beam to the “Worldwide” organization.