Today, working outside the office has become the norm across industries, changing the way we work and how we interact with team members and clients. Given the potential challenges of working remotely (internet connection and stability, for example), organizations need to build the right systems to maintain productivity and foster the same sense of teamwork and culture found in traditional office spaces. As architects, engineers and construction (AEC) teams know, collaboration is key to driving creativity, and is essential to the successful completion of any design project.
In a hybrid working world, many architects and clients are dispersed, working from different cities, job sites, or even separate parts of the country. Yet, they still need to collaborate in real-time to complete their best work, by deadline, no matter where they are working from. Some AEC firms are already leading the way with technology adoption, seeking new ways to make business improvements and support employee productivity.
It’s crucial that this technology is easy to manage by the Information Technology (IT) teams in AEC firms, but also quick to implement, while ensuring that performance and security aren’t impacted. Not a simple task, by any measure. But AEC firms Woods Bagot and CLK Architects found the right combination for their businesses by adopting the NVIDIA Omniverse [1] and HP Anyware [2] solutions.
As one of the oldest architecture firms in the world, Woods Bagot specializes in building design and planning across the globe. To present their ideas to clients, they create compelling, high-fidelity visualizations–easy to do when presenters and clients are in the meeting room together, not so much when people are working remotely and are at the mercy of network bandwidth. An early adopter of NVIDIA Omniverse, the Woods Bagot team is now able to collaborate on a unified design with clients located around the world using Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD), even when concurrently using graphics-intensive design and visualization software such as Autodesk Revit, 3ds Max, McNeel Rhino, and Unreal Engine 4. OpenUSD enables the interchange of data and assets between industry software and significantly decreases the need for data transfer between tools.
Corpus Christi-based CLK Architects is a leading architectural firm in South Texas, specializing in healthcare, higher education, K-12, and municipalities. When working remotely with 3D applications like AutoCAD and Revit, CLK Architect’s team members experienced deficient performance using their existing remote access solution. By switching to HP Anyware software, CLK’s designers can now directly access their rack-mounted, in-office workstations, the company's digital workspace, and any applications or files from wherever they’re working. Designers enjoy a consistent and powerful user experience, including clear lines, color accuracy, fluid motion, peripheral and multi-monitor support.
Additionally, the HP Anyware solution adds an extra encrypted layer of security, ensuring data remains protected within the data center, regardless of the designer’s work location or how many people are collaborating on a project. Drawings and other proprietary information are safe and that means client information isn’t exposed, even if a home device is lost or stolen.
How to enable remote collaboration in your office?
Integrating remote work in firms that are accustomed to working within the office environment leads to a complex set of IT challenges. This is especially true in the AEC space where business information modeling (BIM), a process involving the creation of 3D designs, forms the foundation of most AEC projects, and requires a great deal of real-time collaboration. The adoption of digital workspaces has solved a lot of hybrid and remote working problems, but it comes down to choosing the right combination of technology for the business. AEC firms, in particular, have unique challenges–they need to provide their users with the best remote experience when interacting with GPU-intensive 3D applications, both in terms of high frame rates and high-fidelity graphics. In addition, the solution needs to offer effective collaboration methods in a hybrid work setup, including real-time, responsive visual interactivity, which should mirror in-person over-the-shoulder collaboration experiences.
When choosing a digital workspace solution for graphics-intensive use cases, AEC firms need to prioritize technologies that deliver lossless reproduction of colors, text, wireframes, textures, and intricate graphics, for employee productivity and satisfaction.
NVIDIA Omniverse and HP Anyware offer a combined solution that provides a real-time collaboration experience for AEC users, no matter what device they’re using or where they’re working from. With photorealistic rendering, visualization, simulated flythroughs and interactivity when working on BIM modeling, CAD, and 3D applications, NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise and HP Anyware together provide efficient workflows between designers and clients.
Experience the power of NVIDIA Omniverse and HP Anyware with a free trial and visit HP Anyware for more information.
[1] NVIDIA Omniverse™ Enterprise is sold separately.
[2] Network access required. HP Anyware supports Windows®, Linux® and MacOS® host environments and Window, Linux, MacOS, iOS®, Android®, and Chrome OS® end-user devices. For more on the system requirements for installing HP Anyware, refer to the Admin Guides at: https://docs.teradici.com/find/product/hp-anyware. HP Anyware is based on the Teradici CAS software and licensing platform and is available through a 1- and 3-year subscription. HP Anyware subscriptions are based on the number of concurrent PCoIP connections used (pay for the number of host connections, not the software) with a minimum order quantity of 5. HP Anyware subscriptions gives you a license key to activate a connection to a hosted desktop as well as support and updates to the PCoIP Agents, PCoIP Clients and the Anyware Manager available for download here: https://docs.teradici.com/find/product/hp-anyware. For a limited time, an HP Anyware subscription also includes access and support for ZCentral Remote Boost and ZCentral Connect and is available for purchase through an HP Teradici seller or by contacting sales at: hp.com/Anyware.
