A
ctually buying a Beam Pro
would set you back quite a bit.
Mercifully, rather than emptying out
your life’s savings, you can rent one
from a UK-based company like Pilot
Presence. (www.pilotpresence.com).
At 6ft (1.8m) tall, the Beam
certainly has presence – easing it out
its flight case took two of us. On first
impressions, it looks like the kind of
machine that might have made a
good sidekick in an ’80s movie. But
behind the retro white computer
paint, the Beam is solidly built. Its
sure-footedness means you’ll feel
confident taking it anywhere – even
a factory floor – without having to
navigate every little bump in the
road.
Setting it up just required us
to plug in a keyboard and key in
our Wi-Fi details. Despite some
slightly intimidating menu screens,
the Beam only took a few minutes
to install and was no more
complicated to configure than a
wireless speaker.
Piloting the Beam is remarkably
simple. Once you’ve registered your
device and installed the software on
your computer, the view from two
cameras – one looking straight
ahead, the other pointing at its base- is relayed back to your desktop. It
stitches the two views together to
give you a full body view of what’s in
front of you. On-screen, two parallel
lines are laid over the images to
show where your Beam is heading
while you steer with the arrow keys.
Despite its considerable size,
the Beam whizzed round the office
faster than any other device we
tested. There was absolutely zero
delay between hitting forward on the
keyboard at home and the device
driving ahead. The head also houses
some pretty sharp speakers, so I
boomed out clearly and loudly to my
colleagues, though occasionally a bit
too loudly, as one co-worker pointed
out. The microphone is remarkably
sensitive too: it picked up enough
ambient noise – cars passing by, rain
batting against the window – to
make it feel like I was really in the
office. It does, however, lack the
ability to be able to adjust the height
of the screen, which makes
meetings where everyone is sat
down a little awkward.
QQQQQPHOTO: THESECRETSTUDIO.NETTAKE CONTROL
The Beam is controlled via
desktop software that combines
the views from both cameras
making it easy toSELF CHARGING
Approach the dock, press the
‘Park’ button and the Beam Pro
will reverse into placeEYES FORWARD
A camera with a light is aimed
at the floor to help you avoid
clipping people’s anklesTECH HUB
http://www.suitabletech.com/beamBEAM PRO