By Ricardo Montesa, CEO, Brainstorm.

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the transition into remote work and, quite possibly, the days of in-person-only work might be long gone. As Summer comes to an end, and the stronger restrictions imposed by the pandemic to prevent the spread of the virus fade into memory, many companies are questioning whether this ‘new normal’ is now officially in place. If so, what are the next decisions to be made? Is the future of work fully remote? Is it fully virtual? Or is there a happy medium?

“At Brainstorm we have been handling remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic and have taken many lessons onboard from the recent months that are relevant for the future of remote working arrangements, both for us and in other companies and industries too,” says Miguel Churruca, Marketing Director at Brainstorm. 

He says that employee efficiency and morale has remained high during the pandemic, and that Brainstorm employees have remained engaged and committed to their work. The company has helped facilitate this by strengthening its technology stack and its communication channels, both internally as well as to customers and other stakeholders. These processes allow it to be confident in maintaining a hybrid model of work, giving employees the flexibility to work from home when needed and also working from company offices for teamwork activities, in-person meetings, or physical/technical projects.

“During the initial outbreak of the virus, the main industries we operate in, which are the broadcast and AV sectors, also found themselves in a need to find fast solutions to urgently establish remote production workflows,” he comments. “ While it may have taken all of us some months to settle in, we are all now swimming comfortably between a hybrid model of work, with the right processes and tools in place. In my opinion, one of the key facilitators of this swift change has been the manufacturers making technology widely available to all, enabling students, corporate staff, production teams, and more to work seamlessly from any location.” 

To contribute to a growing stack of technological tools that companies can use at affordable prices to maintain this hybrid workflow, Brainstorm has recently launched Edison PRO, an affordable and easy-to-use high-end presentation tool that uses Augmented Reality (AR) and virtual environments. Edison PRO allows a large sector of users — including corporate, live events, education, houses of worship, influencers, broadcasters and online content providers — to turn a simple presentation into a complete interactive show through an affordable and easy-to-use platform that does not require a studio setup and can also be remotely operated. Template-based for ease-of-use and requiring no previous experience in graphics, video, image, or 3D object creation, Edison PRO allows users to enhance their speech and storytelling with real-time 3D graphics and other visual aids, as well as include themselves in the presentation. All they need as a starting point is a Powerpoint file or a PDF.

Scope Producciones, ​​a Spanish audiovisual production company with more than 20 years of experience in the sector, has been one of the first companies to embrace the Edison PRO software to come up with new and creative solutions for agencies and brands looking at producing content remotely. 

Antonio Murillo, Senior Consultant at Scope Producciones, commented: “The Edison PRO platform offers a highly developed level of technology to any company and individual at a very affordable price, without the need for intermediaries or large systems. Tools such as Edison PRO, allow anyone to continue working remotely when needed, whilst accessing the latest technology available to continue performing.”

“From video calls to virtual events, we have all become very used to the ‘virtual’ component and these formats are increasingly common and increasingly accepted. As this trend continues, we need more companies to help democratise technology for everyone to have access to it and be able to sustain a hybrid model which grants access to key technology remotely” concludes Miguel Churruca.