Google brings Beam 3D video booths to 20 USO locations

What was announced

Google said on 26 October that, together with the USO, it is bringing HP Dimension with Google Beam to 20 locations globally so deployed service members can have lifelike, 3D video connections with loved ones ^[1]. Josh Woodward, Google's VP of Labs, Gemini and AI Studio, wrote the announcement ^[1].

Google says Beam's true-to-life 3D video makes families feel as if they are stepping into the same room ^[1]. The company has not, in the post, listed all 20 locations. It does name Trzebień in Poland, Fort Bliss in Texas, Grafenwöhr in Germany and Fort Hood in Texas as sites involved in the programme so far ^[1].

From pilot to rollout

Google Beam began a pilot connecting families between Trzebień and Fort Bliss earlier this year ^[1]. The programme is now expanding to Grafenwöhr and Fort Hood, and Google released a docuseries directed by military veteran and filmmaker Kyle Hausmann-Stokes ^[1]. It follows four soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment during their deployment in Poland ^[1].

Four families

Google's post describes the experiences of four families. Sergeant Amoy Brown and his wife Tiyanna Orane, separated by an eight-hour time difference, used Beam to celebrate her military promotion and for Amoy to interact with their son ^[1]. Army Chaplain Roland Kassales, deployed for 15 months across his first two years of service, used it so his daughter could read stories to him with body language and eye contact ^[1]. Sergeant First Class Matthew Jennings saw how much his newborn daughter had grown, and Major Michael Rodriguez watched his one-year-old take her first steps ^[1].

Kassales said that incorporating feeling and body language would go a long way towards soldiers' overall well-being ^[1]. These are accounts chosen by Google for its own docuseries, so they show what the company wants to highlight rather than an independent evaluation.

Why it matters for business

Beam is one of the clearest examples of Google pushing 3D video communication beyond the office. The post frames it as a way of redefining human connection, and the rollout puts the technology, built with HP, in front of many more people in a real-world setting ^[1]. For businesses weighing remote-presence tools, the useful signal is that Beam is now in multi-site, ongoing use rather than a single demo, though Google gives no figures on usage, cost or outcomes ^[1].

The practical limits are worth noting. Beam relies on dedicated HP hardware at specific sites, so this is not something a family or employee can use from a laptop ^[1]. Anyone considering it for a company should treat the announcement as a signpost to follow. Pricing, availability for commercial customers and independent evidence of benefits were not covered in the post. More information is available at goo.gle/USO ^[1].

Source: Google — How Google Beam connects military families globally