Digital product development in a distributed virtual environment

Virtual Reality leads Digital Product Development technology to a more effective and convenient way by presenting the product model in an immersive real 3D environment. Distributed VR even gives the possibility for partners to discuss the design of the product independent of their locations. This paper introduces the ongoing work with a Digital Product Development System with Virtually Cooperating Teams Using Optical Networks - ProVit, which aims at building up immersive telepresence systems for design review running over high-bandwidth networks. Video and audio streams are integrated in the virtual environment to support teleconference aspects of the distributed design review sessions. A network management system has been developed for the supervision, maintenance and processing of distributed setups, and network security.