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We chat with Howard Liu of Juvivo about how a small office pod could redefine your working life.
"Hello, everyone. I'm Alex here with Gamereactor. I'm here with Howard.
We've been checking out some really interesting office stuff, but Howard, it seems a little loud here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very loud now, so I think maybe we can go to the phone booth to do the interview."
"You think?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Let's go. Let's get out of here.
Howard, we're back. This is a little cozy, but my god, is it quiet."
"Really soundproof, you know. We can't hear nothing outside, but just inside, okay, very quiet.
This is cozy, as I said, but this is a two-person sort of office pod that you guys have created here.
Yeah.
What is this sort of product like, apart from being super quiet for people to focus when they're working?
So, you mean for such products, how can we, yeah, how we make the product so quiet, or?
Yeah, how you make them so quiet, but also what makes them just sort of stand out and shine, you know what I mean?
Ah, got it. So, first, why we can make the soundproof effect so good."
"So, first, you can see we put our soundproof panel inside.
Yeah.
Yeah, and also we use four sides. Yeah, four sides.
And also, even we have put the glass."
"Some people think, oh, glass, maybe not so quiet, but we use like a double.
That's very thick.
So, people can also, we can also help people reduce the noise.
Yeah."
"Yeah, and when you have a good working environment, so no noisy to like distribute to you, so you can work here and can focus on the products.
Yeah.
Focus on any work you want to."
"Yeah.
Yeah.
So, this is the pod itself.
Does it come with any accessories or things like that?
Because, obviously, you filled these out with things like treadmills and standing desks and things like that."
"Is this customizable to how the user wants?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so this is an idea from the whole team because we think as traditional, you know, the pod only will put the sofa, desk, and normal, even little chairs, right?
And then I think, okay, how do we like make this pod like a sports pod?
Yeah."
"So, we will put our standing desks and also the treadmills.
And also, okay, I think it's not too short for us.
Okay, let me pop on now.
Ooh."
"Ooh.
Yeah, now you feel better.
Yeah, how do you feel?
I can't reach my elbow.
Yeah."
"Yeah, it's good.
Okay.
Yeah, so this is how we propose this idea because we hope like one day people, when they have the quick phone meeting and they still can work inside and can have a good situation or even work for a long time."
"Yeah.
Did the inspiration for this, is it sort of almost like taking the privacy of working from home but bringing it to the office in a way?
Sorry, can you again?
Yeah, so for the design inspiration, was it something like, you know, people over the last few years have got very, very used to working at home."
"There's a lot of privacy in that.
There's a lot of like personal responsibility in that.
Do these pods almost allow for that to come back into the office in a way?
Yeah, yeah, yeah."
"That's a good question.
You know, before the COVID-19, people don't realize it.
But when you're doing like at least like two years for people working at home and so they, you really get used to, okay, work by them or herself and don't want to distribute it by anyone."
"So when the COVID-19 is over and people come back to office, people will think, oh, I cannot get used to the environment.
Yeah.
Yeah."
"When I make a phone call from family, from my friend, I don't want to like be heard by, you know, the colleagues.
And on the other side, because of COVID-19, lots of, how can I say, lots of like a company just seal or shut down."
"So they have limited space.
So they cannot build lots of conference room.
Yeah.
So people don't want to go back.
So what should we do?
We just build such like a phone booth."
"Yeah.
So when people go to the open office, even the open office, they can see lots of like the meeting room here.
So they, when they have a quick call, quick phone with a friend or with like a colleague or with like a friends and their like parents, so they can still love to walk, get back to the office because we offer the good communication environment."
"Yeah.
Yeah.
This isn't the only thing that you guys have got there to sort of improve like office lives out there.
There's chairs that have pedals on them."
"There's things that help with that sort of like extra exercise thing.
What's the intent behind that?
Like, what are you guys hoping to achieve, I guess, with a bike, not a bike, a chair that you can pedal like a bike?
Because, you know, we, our, our, our notion is not only just to offer you guys some office furniture."
"We hope we can balance the work and exercise.
Yeah.
People always think, if I work, how can I exercise?
Yeah.
But just go to Jovio, you can find it somewhere."
"We have the fitness chair, exercise bike, and also the treadmills.
So they will come back together, help you to refresh up.
Even you work for maybe like a long time, but you can still ride as a bike.
Yeah."
"Howard, it might be asking you to sort of pick your favorite child, but is there anything that you guys have brought to CES that you're like the most excited about?
You mean the most about this trade show?
Yeah."
"Yeah.
About the stuff that you've got here that you're like really excited.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah."
"Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I hope they can have a different experience when working with our staff.
Yeah."
"Howard, that's all I've got for you.
Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And I appreciate it."
