The NearHub Vision: Redefining Team Collaboration

NearHub has always been about fostering interpersonal harmony. Over the past several years, there has been a significant shift in the ways individuals interact, prompting many teams to look for new technological solutions to facilitate these changes.

However, this has been the reality for many teams for a while now. As firms across the world have become increasingly global, forming teams across nations and continents, many of us have experienced the stress of asynchronous communication and the often impersonal nature of remote collaboration. I can say with certainty that I have had this experience in my own job, and the NearHub team was well aware of it when we began assembling our international workforce.

1. Why did we decide to enter the whiteboard market?

In fact, our company has been paying attention to the whiteboard market since its establishment in 2018. In continuous research, we found that the interactive whiteboards on the market generally have the following opportunities and problems:

Especially in the enterprise market, most customers only use the whiteboard as a display after buying it back.
For the whiteboard, the display can only provide writing and touching functions. If manufacturers want users to experience interaction on the whiteboard side, they must invest a lot in the development of systems and software.
Over the past couple of years, lots of whiteboarding software has appeared in the United States, including Miro, Mural, and more, some of which have reached the scale of tens of millions of end-users.

In addition, we usually consider two aspects before planning products, one is commercial value, and the other is user value:

Commercial value - According to the IDC report, the global interactive whiteboard (IWB) market size in 2022 will be $42.12 billion. It is estimated that during the forecast period, the global interactive whiteboard (IWB) market size will grow at an average growth rate of 10.05% and reach $76.89 billion in 2028.
User Value - In the past, we thought that the hardware whiteboards on the market did not have high user value, and customers bought them back and used them as display. It is not until nowadays that more and more SaaS companies have emerged that the user value of the whiteboard market has gradually become prominent.

Therefore, finally, we decided to integrate SaaS onto the whiteboard hardware. In this way, the whiteboard is not just a local display, but a real carrier for hybrid collaboration and hybrid teaching.

2. How to understand the core requirements of the interactive whiteboard？

For enterprise customers, the core needs of the whiteboard are nothing more than three points: screencasting, whiteboarding and video conferencing.

2.1 Screencasting

According to our market research, more than 95% of enterprise users require the screencasting function in their daily use. However, the usage scenarios of screencasting are very diverse and complex. For example:

Employees in the enterprise have different types of computers, tablets or mobile phones.
Based on the company's information security regulations, external visitors are not allowed to access the company's internal network.
During the meeting, the teammates need to cast their screens at the same time to present their respective project proposals.

After analyzing the pain points of the above users, we have developed a relatively leading screen projection solution currently on the market, which supports:

Cast anything through any computer, phone, or Ipad to NearHub Board, compatible with Mac, iOS, Windows, Android, Chorme.
Dual mode wifi module design, after enabling the AP mode, it can still achieve screencast even in a no-network environment.
In the screencast mode through HDMI + Type-B or Eshare, NeaHub supports reverse touch, which means you can directly control your computer through the whiteboard when giving a speech.
NearCast supports up to 4 devices' connections at the same time.

2.2 Whiteboarding

The NearHub whiteboard offers various features for business users and teachers, allowing them to provide a fully customizable and easy-to-use experience. These features include:

An infinite canvas for creating an unlimited amount of panels.
Pen, highlighter, smart text, and smart shape tools with customizable colors and thicknesses.
Easy-to-use eraser tools and the option to instantly clear the entire canvas.
Sticky notes for staying organized, taking notes, or creating matching games.
A lasso tool to select and move anything around the whiteboard with ease.
The ability to import documents and images as you want.

2.3 Video conferencing

With many enterprises and classrooms moving to a hybrid working or hybrid learning approach, more users rely on video conferencing to collaborate with their teammates or engage with their students no matter where they are. Our NearHub interactive whiteboard comes equipped with premium side speakers, 24-element microphone array and AI powered camera, allowing users to choose their preferred VCS (Video conferencing software) to get a quick start. NearHub integrates with several video conferencing options, including:

Zoom
Microsoft Teams
Google Meet
Webex
GoToMeeting
Tercent Meeting

There will inevitably be times when you need to use two programs simultaneously during a meeting. In these instances, users can split the NearHub screen between two applications. For example, you can open Zoom on half of the screen while keeping the other half open as a whiteboard. Users can also annotate on any app with a single touch and easily take screenshots of any app screen.

3. NearHub keeps growing and reacting

Providing the tools necessary to fulfill the demands of the moment is one of the most crucial things we can do at NearHub, as the way we operate in the future is constantly changing. No matter where you are, we believe that the NearHub Board system can enable you and your teams to interact more successfully.

At NearHub, we have already noticed improvements in the effectiveness of meetings, camaraderie among coworkers, and clarity of communication.

We invite you to test out NearHub and experience the benefits of our Board system for yourself.