Sydney to get public Cisco TelePresence facility

Stuart Corner
Monday, 19 March 2007 04:58

Your IT - Home IT

UK based Regus Group, a global provider of serviced offices, is to offer Cisco's TelePresence virtual reality videoconferencing technology as a publicly available service from over 50 locations around the world.

Regus has signed a deal with Cisco to provide 50 TelePresence systems which its says "will be rolled out over the coming weeks in the leading business cities around the world including New York, London, Tokyo, Sydney and Paris."

The service will be made available both to existing Regus tenants as well as the general public, and will be bookable by the hour or for longer periods. Cisco announced TelePresence last October. It is  a videoconferencing system and service that uses virtual reality techniques to much more closely emulate real face-to-face interactions than current systems are able to achieve.

Initially it will offer only point-to-point conferences but will be upgraded to support multipoint with Cisco's just-released TelePresence Multipoint Switch.

Cisco, which is rolling out its own network of over 50 TelePresence centres around the world, says it will use the Regus installations to supplement and complement these. "Cisco will use the service to provide more geographically convenient facilities for Cisco's customers, employees and business partners to collaborate more effectively."

Cisco will provide remote network monitoring and management of the TelePresence, unified communications and network elements of the Regus service and its TelePresence Remote Assistance service will provide real-time administrative support for Regus and customers in setting up and managing meetings.

Mark Dixon, CEO of the Regus Group, said: "We have long believed there was a gap for a premium electronic meeting room solution. There is a desire to eliminate unnecessary global travel due to the congestion of airports, cost of travel, demands on time and focus on green issues."

Regus claims to be the world's largest provider of 'outsourced workplaces'. It has 950 locations in 400 cities and 70 countries.