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Virtual revolution: XR technology transforms video conferencing!
Ilmenau University of Technology presents the XR project MULTIPARTIES to improve video conferences on September 19, 2025 in Weimar.
Virtual revolution: XR technology transforms video conferencing!
On September 19, 2025, the final demonstration of the MULTIPARTIES research project took place in the Wohnungsgalerie in Weimar. This event brought together participants from Weimar, Aachen, Lübeck and Ilmenau to present a revolutionary video conferencing system. Participants wore VR glasses and headphones to immerse themselves in a virtual environment where they could interact as avatars.
The main objective of the project, carried out by the TU Ilmenau, realized by Consensive GmbH and Brandenburg Labs, was to make video conferences more natural and appealing. Many people find traditional online meetings tiring and impersonal. The MULTIPARTIES project therefore relies on Extended Reality (XR) to create a sense of co-presence, where participants feel as if they are in the same room despite being physically separated.
Technological innovations in focus
The developed 3D communication system integrates realistic 3D avatars that show gestures and facial expressions as well as provide spatially plausible audio. This system allows users to intuitively meet in a shared environment, move across locations and interact. Participants hear voices in real time, from the direction the speakers are. This creates an immersive experience that improves and enhances digital encounters.
The companies involved – Consensive GmbH and Brandenburg Labs – used the VR4More platform and Deep Dive audio technology for this purpose. Economic advantages of these developments could lie in various areas, including in the digital world of work, where there is a gap between virtual and real encounters.
Insights into the use of XR
Extended reality, which includes virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR), is fundamentally changing how users interact with digital content and their environment. Technologies are helping digital experiences become much more dynamic and immersive. In education, healthcare, industry and entertainment, XR applications are setting new standards for user experiences. The perspectives that arise from the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into XR applications are particularly exciting.
The findings from MULTIPARTIES not only flow into the development of future technologies, such as the Okeanos series from Brandenburg Labs, but also into the international standardization of XR technologies. This could make a decisive contribution to ensuring that XR applications become increasingly broad and accessible in the next few years.
The project's scientific contact is Professor Karlheinz Brandenburg from Brandenburg Labs, whose team was involved in researching the effects of avatar displays and spatial audio.
Overall, the MULTIPARTIES project shows how modern technologies can help improve digital communication and restore a sense of connection and interaction that is often lost in virtual meetings. An exciting step towards a new era of virtual collaboration.