CITIC Telecom CPC's DataHOUSE AR Remote Hand wins Augmented & Virtual Reality Award for telecommunications at SBR TEA 2021

DataHOUSE AR Remote Hand leverages wearable AR technology to transform field engineers’ operations and maintenance processes.

CITIC Telecom CPC's innovative product, DataHOUSE AR Remote Hand, bagged the Augmented and Virtual Reality for telecommunications during Singapore Business Review's recently concluded Technology Excellence Awards.

DataHOUSE AR Remote Hand is a highly practical, productive, and effective tool for field engineers that allows them to do virtual collaborations with offsite members whilst streaming data in real-time. The technology employs AR glasses to allow field engineers to conveniently retrieve encrypted backend data from backend systems, so that they can conduct maintenance, troubleshooting, and field operations speedily. With virtual access to equipment history or status, service manuals, complicated technical procedures, troubleshooting logs, and graphics via a designated QR code for each device, they can utilise hand gestures to review a device’s historical record to speed up analysis and troubleshooting, minimising downtime and costs whilst boosting field engineer productivity by up to 50%.

Traditionally, field engineers communicated with back-end support using email or phone. This makes it challenging to describe a troubleshooting situation. The AR Remote Hand solves this problem by allowing back-end engineers to view real-time images streamed via AR glasses through an AR operations console. Its powerful video conferencing feature also offers engineers instant support and fosters off-site collaboration between global operations and maintenance teams. It also overcomes the challenges of time zone, languages, distance barriers, and professional skill sets in multi-technology environments.

On the customer side, the current pandemic has made it difficult for enterprises’ IT staff to travel to data centres and manage their equipment. Through its AR glasses, CITIC Telecom CPC’s DataHOUSE AR Remote Hand can serve as the customers’ remote hands. Not only does it show the status of on-site equipment as customers watch in real-time from offices or other locations through the AR operations console, but it also lets customers provide live instructions to CITIC Telecom CPC’s on-site engineers as they troubleshoot equipment issues without customers being physically in the data centre.

AR Remote Hand solution is the brainchild of CITIC Telecom CPC's professional teams of data scientists and research and development experts. Combining their knowledge with experts from the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI), which was founded by the Hong Kong government to enhance the city’s competitiveness in technology-based industries through applied research, this collaboration has been very successful in creating a groundbreaking technology to revolutionize management and maintenance in data center scenarios.

CITIC Telecom CPC is now building additional enhancements in the new version of AR Remote Hand by expanding its range of supported vendor equipment and adding on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to extend more service coverage. As one of the trusted partners of leading multinational and business enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region, it maintains its integrity as the premier connectivity, cloud services, information security, and data centre provider in the world.

The Technology Excellence Awards was presented by Singapore Business Review via video conferencing throughout the second and third week of April. This year's nominations were judged by of Daryl Pereira, Head of Cyber at KPMG; Cheang Wai Keat, Partner, Consulting at Ernst & Young Advisory Pte. Ltd.; Henry Tan, Group Chief Executive Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Nexia TS; Sivakumar Saravan, Senior Partner at Crowe Singapore; Cecil Su, Director, Head of Cybersecurity of BDO Singapore.