Mark Sage with AREA
On this week's Industrial Talk we're onsite at IoT Solutions World Congress and talking to Mark Sage, Executive Director at AR for Enterprise Alliance about “Enterprise Augmented Reality to improve productivity, lower cost and improve safety”. Get the answers to your “Industrial Collaboration” questions along with Mark's unique insight on the “How” on this Industrial Talk interview!
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MARK SAGE'S CONTACT INFORMATION:
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sagemark/
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ar-for-enterprise-alliance/
Company Website: https://thearea.org/area-resources/
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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
augmented reality, people, companies, technology, real, ai, world, iot, absolutely, organization, alliance, industry, enterprise, sage, area, mark, industrial, listeners, conversation, business
Industrial Talk is brought to you by Armis. Yes, you were in the digital transformation game. Yes, you need to find trusted companies, trusted individuals to help you along with that journey. The Armis platform delivers complete asset intelligence, you know what that means, insights into your connected assets, you're in the digital transformation game, you have to have that insights into what is connected, go to armis.com Find out more, you will not be disappointed. Also industry IoT Consortium. At industrial talk, we always talk about education, we always talk about collaboration, we are always talking about innovation. And if you're a business that has any desire to be resilient to the future, you need to be able to educate, collaborate, as well as innovate with other industry professionals. That's a must. Industry IoT consortium brings that all together, you need to be a part of this community, you need to be connected with these leaders that are all apart the industry IoT consortium, go out to ai consortium.org. Find out more again, you will not be disappointed, you're just going to be happy. Hey, and welcome back to industrial talk. Thank you very much for joining. We were on site at the IoT solutions World Congress, Barcelona, Spain, and you need to put that event on your bucket list plan for to 2023 because it's an incredible, incredible venue with incredible professionals, solving problems and that, you know, you if you want to listen to the other interviews, they're all out on industrial talk now in the hot seat this time, his name is Mark sage, He is the executive director at augmented reality for enterprise Alliance or area. And we're talking about how augmented reality will be impacting your business, the future of manufacturing industry and everything in between. It's an exciting time. And of course, we're all about that education. We're all about that collaboration and and definitely innovation. This conversation is dead center. Now think about becoming a part of the industrial talk ecosystem, because then you get the hang out with Mark sage and many others. So enjoy this conversation on augmented reality.
All right, hot seat Mark Sage. He's going to lay down some sage advice. I had to do it. In augmented reality enterprise. Alliance. Let's get cracking. You know? It's The pleasure is all on this side of the mic. Absolutely. So yeah. How long you been here at this conference? You just sort of arrived, just flew
in this afternoon, gave a talk and flying back. Now you
are a you're a globetrotter and trendsetting type of guy. All right, let's, let's for the listeners out there marks age. Give us a little background, where you come from, and then we're going to talk about augmented reality, because that is a cool topic.
And it certainly is a cool topic. Thanks, Scott. So I've been around in the mobile business for about 15 years working for various different operators. And ended up that kind of work, running some global alliances, looking to compete with the likes of the Apple iPhone, iOS and Android operating system, and just loved the idea of running alliances, where you bring in different parts of the ecosystem together to try and solve some real business problems. And then had the massive opportunity of running the area.
So defined for the listeners, in general, what is augmented reality?
Absolutely. So like to think of a continuum. We're normally in the real world, we spend most of my time in the real world, thankfully, some people more than others. Absolutely. On the other end of the spectrum is the virtual world. So we've heard often seen films and kind of understand virtual reality or completely in a virtual environment. There's nothing real in augmented reality is basically putting digital content on top of the real world. So you're still in the real world. But you're able to see that digital content in different forms different guises.
See, that's a hell of a definition. Because I think that there's confusion with there's there's an overlap between augmented reality and virtual reality. I think that that's a great way of being able to define it. Okay. So you're here. Augmented Reality enterprise Alliance? Give us give us a little 411 or background. You don't have 411 In the UK, what do you have for information? If you want to dial something, Google? Yes, it's Google. So give us the Google about this area.
It's got the kind of very simple what we're trying to do. It's a global organization, helping to accelerate the adoption of enterprise AI. When its long form, AI, enterprise Alliance, global membership, not for profit Alliance, dedicated to helping accelerate the adoption of enterprise AR, creating a strong ecosystem.
It's true, but, you know, I've been very fortunate to understand a lot of people are using ecosystem, and therefore I'm using the word ecosystem, and we are creating an ecosystem to, but mine is more to sort of revolves around gin and tonics. So this is global, nonprofit, great adoption of, but it's augmented. So you popped in AI, right? No,
My English accent, it was definitely a
see it is to see Yeah, so no to that, listeners, it's still AR. Which, which I guess I wasn't sharp enough to put it together. But that's okay. last interview, I can make those mistakes?
Absolutely. You do they bring up an important part. Yes. Because the bottom line, and you've mentioned it in your introduction, it's about solving real business problems. So it could be a combination of IoT data coming out of different solutions and different parts, AI might be involved by making some sense out of that content turned into information, AR augmented reality, is really about being able to show a view and work with that content, it's that kind of visual layer on top of it.
So I get it, I think it's very good. And I think that in the real world, if I had a series of assets out in the field, whatever. And let's say I have this sort of digital twin solution, then I can also put in a sort of a augmented reality type of component to that, and really, from my desk to have a real, real insights into the operations of my assets and be able to make good decisions, tactical decisions that are truly beneficial and, and timely.
Absolutely, and strategic decisions as well as strategic. So if we look at a couple of simple use cases, that's kind of tend to focus on the problems that can be solved. So again, using digital twin, potentially, but one of the things you could be is I want to create a new manufacturing line, I need
to bring in Oh, that's a use case.
Well, it's all about Yeah,
go ahead. Sorry. As I walk all over you because I'm a professional.
No, it's the kind of visualization. So if you have a new manufacturing line, you may need to put it, you may need to bring that up really quickly. You need, they need to bring new equipment in to the building. Now, again, using digital twin and AI, you can actually walk around and see if this will fence if it's gonna go around bends and stuff like that. So you can visualize the space you're in and use AR to understand the most effective way to get that those assets in as one very kind of simple, not simple, but useful use case, I would say where the industry is at the moment, we're doing a lot more and because COVID as well, but the remote Assist is the board's huge ships, and companies are making real return on investment, invest in this technology, because they don't have to have people traveling when something breaks down, you know, maintenance, stuff like that it doesn't have to travel everywhere, you know, the co2 emissions are reduced. And basically the the person with a problem in front of them is speaking to an expert anywhere in the world. Anytime that experts put a digital overlay on what that that individual needs to do to solve the
problem. See, I think that there are good and bad things that took place in COVID Look good is that I think it's it's accelerated the solutions like this and others. And I don't think it's ever gonna go back.
Absolutely great. And I think one of the kind of challenges some of the barriers to adoption, we call, you know, in AI, you have something called pilot purgatory, stuck in pilot the whole time kick around and trying to look at ways of leverage it. And using the technology. Well, remote assistance was a great way and because they had to suddenly think about, well, we need to think about the network. You're gonna have a limited number of people actually on the manufacturing floor. Yeah. How do we make sure that the downtime is reduced? So networking was much better remote assistance, all these kinds of tools that needed to allow companies to be better digitized, you know, once they've done And then there's a whole bunch of other solutions using these other technologies we talked about, it doesn't stop.
Because I find that companies that have been in this sort of journey who have said, Yes, we need to be in it. Yes, it's painful. Yeah, I get it. But we need to be there are in better position today, because they went through that sort of gauntlet. And they're able to have a more resilient type of business. And once again, never going back.
No, and to be honest, to stay competitive in the global market, they have to be yours. You can't, you can't be, you know, an old traditional company. I've seen them. And I've been in them where they're pushing PCs up and down the floor kind of maintenance, looking at old 3.1, Windows screens with maps and diagrams and the longest cable and just don't see it business with that today. So they need to look at this new technology and what what they need to do to digitize to do that digital transformation. And I
think I think the message is resonating. I think that they're, I think with your, your your alliance here, I think, and it's with OMG to it, right?
Yeah, absolutely. It's probably worth me, Scott, just explain a little bit about who's members of the alliance Yeah, gives you an idea of the kind of higher level there's three different segments. So there's the companies deploying the technology, as a concept, Boeing and Medtronic, Welsh Water, Rockwell, so So these companies that are out there, that are doing it within their own environment, so they're learning a lot and be able to bring that knowledge back. Then there's another group of providers, the technology, we tend to, in the AR bits, separate that into hardware providers. So the Microsoft's the magic leaks, real well in a whole bunch of other device providers, and then the software providers as well. And then the third group, we have a bunch of non commercial organizations, so things like government agencies, research institutes, universities, and standards organizations. And when you bring all of that melting pot together, kind of knowledge across a whole bunch of different subjects, becomes really strong, people are learning from each other developing best practice, they're not making the same mistakes that they could have potentially do without speaking to and learning from other people. And then we layer on a bunch of kind of content or information that they can use. So we focus on some of the barriers to adoption, things like security, safety, human factors, and creating anything from infographics to playbooks to really detailed research on anything from ROI calculators to gear with us, 5g and AI are doing to looking at human factors and best practice and a whole bunch of different things. So it's, it's that kind of melting pot of knowledge conversation, best practice, that really helps drive to successful implementation.
I don't know how you succeed in this this IoT world is this industry for Dotto without a collaborative type of model, because there's, I just don't see it.
I think you're absolutely right. And I think the companies that realize that, you need to understand where you need to compete, and then where you need to work together. And I think the companies that started to understand that we're the ones leading this kind of technology, and to be honest, would be a much better position to 510 years time, make this journey. Now. The other ones are going to pay struggle to play catch up.
Yeah, no, you're, you're spot on. I, you can't be I mean, this is so important. And, and, you know, listener, you just don't be prideful. You need to be a part of organizations like that. You just do and you need to contribute. You need to, you might have something valuable for, you know, people who succeed, I think there's just so it's imperative.
Yeah. And I think, you know, when people have gone through to deploy this technology, because there's also a big human element to it.
That's it. It's all here with the commodity, you know, it is yeah,
yeah. But people think it's like, oh, well, we're just deploying another set of kind of tablets or mobile phones, like, actually, that's the worst thing you can do. You're dealing with people that are actually doing work. Now. If you work with them at the very start, understand what their problems are, and how this technology can help them. They are going to be the biggest advocates of it. If you say to them, right, here's a I put this wearable device on and start doing your work. Your project will fail or it's likely to fail, because these people have some drama, you're doing something I don't know if I need it. I haven't been involved. I don't like this. They're kind of natural reaction, which is unfortunate, but
sadly, but it's it's a common tale. Because how I wasn't a part of the conversation, but you know, I think we've you've got a great alliance here. I think that It's really important. I think you're pulling in the right people, right organizations, right companies to be able to come up with sort of a roadmap that people need.
Yeah, I think and I think that legacy, what's on your mind as we develop that next kind of pot is abandonment, interoperability and standards. So as the industry matures, technology matures, companies are looking for that kind of standards development, that will be something have
to it because it's all about humans and trust I trust and an organization like this, it just naturally trust it, because you've got plenty of companies putting value into it like that. All right, how do people get a hold of you mark?
They can look at the area website, www dot, the area.org. Or, as the area
I'm digging the fact that you got that URL.
I go there a lot. No, it? Well, there's a huge amount of content, you know, people are interested, and we're gonna have a stick around there. You know, it's not always easy to find stuff, because there's so much there. And we're working on that. But we want to be a resource
for everybody. All right, that's Mark sage, the organization is area for augmented reality. And not to see I'm trying old eyes. Now, augmented reality, for enterprise alliances worn out. Anyway, that was fantastic, my friend, thank you for being flexible. We just, we just ran into each other and you were ready to go. Look at as I called you on the spot. You're a professional if this whole augmented reality thing. You got a good professional in podcast. All right. All right, listeners IoT solutions World Congress, that's where we're broadcasting, it is in Barcelona, excellent organization, you need to get involved. So thank you very much. We will have another great conversation shortly. So stay tuned. You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network. All right. Once again, thank you very much for joining us real talk and hearty thank you to Mark sage. What a great opportunity to interview him to have that conversation on augmented reality at the IoT solutions World Congress, How about them apples, the future's bright. And you know, at industrial talk, we're always I mean, I guess I always harp on it i, because I'm so passionate about the need for an industry, to educate, to collaborate and to innovate. And here's here's area, here's Mark sage. He embodies all of that. He's constantly educating, you go out to his staff card out on LinkedIn, reach out to him, Hey, you could see the articles that he just produces about augmented reality, how that's going to positively impact your life. It's an amazing thing. And he's also about collaboration. Because area is a is a collection of individuals and companies that have a passion to try to really bring that augmented reality to the your enterprise, it's going to happen, your minds will be involved and engaged and collaborate. And then it's just going to continue to be innovative. And I just, it's an exciting, exciting time. And it's such an honor to have that conversation with marks agent, and of course, many at the IoT solutions World Congress. And again, put that on your bucket list. It's a must attend event, even though Mark flew in and flew out. It's a busy guy. But anyway, they're talking about all of that at IoT solutions, real calm, and then some, and then some. And again, I'm just the guy that sorta Hey, I'm bringing a six pack of beer and having a grand old time and I get to soak up, you're coming to learn with me, so I get to soak up all that education. All right, we're gonna have to just call it Galata interview. People, be brave, dare greatly say that all the time. You got to be industries that but you got to hang out, you got to collaborate with people like Mark sage, and that you're not going to to end you're going to continue to change the world. Thank you very much for what you do. We're going to have as you know, I've got many more conversations at the IoT solutions World Congress. So stay tuned. There's more to come
About the author, Scott
I am Scott MacKenzie, husband, father, and passionate industry educator. From humble beginnings as a lathing contractor and certified journeyman/lineman to an Undergraduate and Master’s Degree in Business Administration, I have applied every aspect of my education and training to lead and influence. I believe in serving and adding value wherever I am called.
