Microsoft shows a new proof-of-concept: holoportation.

Microsoft wants to make holographic phone calls and video conferences as natural as face-to-face communication. Using 3D capture technology and their new HoloLens, they hope to transform their base of Skype conversations into 3D holographic conversations.

This comes from Microsoft Research’s Interactive 3D technologies (I3D) group who combines research on 3D graphics, computer vision, machine learning, novel hardware, augmented reality and NUI.

Their remit is to demonstrate radically new user experiences built using state-of-the-art vision and graphics algorithms, and novel sensing or display hardware. While their projects mix theory and practice (researching new algorithms and techniques), they also build complex systems, and demonstrate our results practically.

Acer announces the Chromebase 24 for Meetings-- a Chrome OS-powered all-in-one videoconferencing solution featuring all the hardware, software, software and support required for virtual meetings.

Designed for smaller meeting areas with up to 2 users, the Chromebase 24 for Meetings features a 24-inch 1920x1080 resolution touchscreen, adjustable (by 5-30 degrees) HD camera, 4 microphones and 2 stereo speakers. Acer does not provide further hardware specifications, but the device's similarity to previously announced Chromebase 24 AiO PC suggests it runs on an Intel Core chip.

IDC reports some solid results from the enterprise videoconferencing industry, with EMEA revenues growing by 2% Y-o-Y (or 28.2% Q-o-Q) during Q4 2015. Global Q4 2015 revenues are up by 2.4% Y-o-Y.

"Some good news for the worldwide enterprise videoconferencing equipment market. It enjoyed positive growth in both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year revenue numbers in Q4 2015," the analyst says. "In addition, revenue was slightly positive for 2015, stemming the tide of three consecutive years of annual revenue declines."

Global revenues are also slightly up for overall 2015 (by 1.5%) breaking the streak of 3 annual consecutive revenue declines for the market.

After having divested LifeSize, the world’s largest peripheral maker still wants to transform collaboration. Just not in the higher end of the market. The company, known as a power in the consumer IT industry that sells quantity via computer dealers and resellers, is interested in the broader market of conferencing and collaboration.

That leads us to Logitech at ISE 2016, showing a new video conference solution, Logitech GROUP, for mid to large size conference rooms.

Logitech GROUP provides HD video conferencing for groups of up to 14 people, or up to 20 with the optional expansion microphones. Logitech GROUP is affordable and enables organisations to use the same room system configuration for whichever unified communications, web conferencing or video conferencing application already in use. The solution deploys in minutes and is simple to use, allowing any meeting space to be a flexible multi-use video collaboration space.