Latest executive status symbol: personal telepresence

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 13 May 2008 01:59

Business IT - Technology

Cisco has down-sized its virtual reality videoconferencing product to offer a system suitable for an executive's office.

Cisco's TelePresence videoconferencing systems, launched in 2006 , have to date been available only as complete 'rooms' - including multiple screens and furnishings with the aim of enhancing the sense of reality by ensuring that all participants appear to be sitting in similar soundings. Now Cisco has unveiled a $US34,000 personal TelePresence system for use in individual offices, touting it as "the next evolution in virtual communications."

The price might well be affordable for many large organisations: however their ability to use the system will depend on having sufficient bandwidth between locations where they want to install the technology.

Cisco claims that the smaller form factor of the new personal unit, the Cisco TelePresence 500, "retains all the same qualities of the life-size, face-to-face Cisco TelePresence interaction while giving organisations the flexibility to support intimate, one-on-one meetings or enable employees to join larger group meetings from personal workspaces...[and] provides a lower-cost entry point for medium-sized businesses to experience telepresence in communication with partners, customers or suppliers."

It combines a 37-inch, (90cm) display, camera, microphone array, speakers and specially-designed lighting in "a complete solution that can be placed on a desk, mounted on the wall or stand on a pedestal in a private office, creating one of the first high-definition telepresence experiences for personal use."

Cisco says that the recent introduction of intercompany Cisco TelePresence services (by BT and AT&T ) will enable companies to meet in-person with partners, customers or suppliers with the same simplicity, security and experience as they can internally today.

Cisco also recently enhanced TelePresence multipoint capabilities with the ability to scale in a single meeting up to 48 sites, and has released interoperability with standards-based videoconferencing systems. And it has added a large nine -screen TelePresence room with seating for up to 18 participants billed as "ideal for group training and cross-functional team meetings."