Cisco today has turned its long touted TelePresence
videoconferencing system from a thing of the future into a tool for
the enterprise.
TelePresence, which was demonstrated at its Networkers User
Conference in July, puts people, places and events in the same
virtual location, even if they are 10,000 miles apart.
Although Cisco's TelePresence July demonstration didn't impress
some Networker attendees on an enterprise level, it was looked upon
as "cool," innovative technology.
"I just can't make the leap from the baseball scenario [that was
portrayed during CEO John Chambers' keynote] to the boardroom. It
was cool stuff, but I'm not sold yet," said Bart Mandalay, a
network engineer with a New York-based financial institution, who
sat in on the keynote.
TelePresence relies on Cisco technology, including video, audio
and remote communication technologies over an Internet Protocol
(IP) network.
Cisco claimed, TelePresence transforms remote experiences to
in-person experiences by capturing important interactions
regardless of the distance between the parties.
As the TelePresence category grows, Cisco will develop
additional applications tailored for specific industries, such as
healthcare, retail, banking, entertainment and government. The
first application to market, however, is the Cisco TelePresence
Meeting solution and it is targeted at businesses to facilitate
collaboration and enhance productivity. According to Zeus
Kerravala, Yankee Group's senior vice president of enterprise
research, TelePresence is significantly different from traditional
videoconferencing.
"Although the basic concept of visual communications is the
same, the clarity, quality and realism of TelePresence is
significantly enhanced," he said. "However, I don't think its
something that can be conceptualized."
TelePresence needs to be experienced to be well understood,
Kerravala added.
"It would be beneficial to Cisco to build out as many demo
centers as possible and run as many of their top customers through
it as they can," he said. "TelePresence isn't for everyone though,
with a six figure price point, right now only the largest customers
will likely deploy it."