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| Cisco TelePresence in action |
Cisco, the company whose
network equipment powers much of the Internet, announced a new network solution:
Cisco TelePresence, a high-end videoconferencing application that the company
calls “almost the same as an in-person interaction.” Video with twice the
resolution of high-definition TV, life-size images, imperceptible latency and audio
that appears to be coming from individual participants combine to give
TelePresence users a real sense of sitting face-to-face with a person on the
other side of the virtual table, according to Cisco. Participants in large
meetings can carry on multiple conversations at once, as if they were in the
same room.
The TelePresence solution, which will be available in December, will
be delivered not over the public Internet but over private connections operated
by Cisco-certified providers. (Verizon Business is currently testing
TelePresence over its high-performance Private IP and Ethernet networking
services, with a view toward providing it to its customers.) However, meetings
can be scheduled and initiated by users without IT support.
The first application announced today, the Cisco TelePresence Meeting
solution, is targeted at businesses to facilitate collaboration and enhance
productivity. Two versions are available, one designed for small-group meetings
and one-on-one conversations, and the other for meetings of 12 people or more
around a virtual table.
Cisco plans to develop additional
applications for specific purposes, such as doctors’ appointments,
"virtual specialists" to provide in-store expertise, remote
interviews or depositions, or family visits.
TelePresence is the third major network solution introduced by Cisco. A physical
security/video surveillance application was introduced earlier in the year, and
the Digital Media System was introduced last month. Although a number of other
vendors, including HP, already offer telepresence solutions, Cisco’s technology
is homegrown; the company has 25 patents pending on telepresence technology.
