dear subscribers, welcome to the august edition of the
TRANSCRIPT
Dear Subscribers,
Welcome to the August edition of the Telepresence Options Telegraph!
In this issue we bring you : A Review of Telepresence @ InfoComm, Marriott, Starwood, Regus, and Tata Taj all deploying Publicly Available Telepresence, Michael Jackson to Live On Via Telepresence?, An Interview with IP-V Gateway’s CEO and Cofounder Pat Montani, Teliris’ new 6th Generation Telepresence Platform, Magor Communications Launches Telecollaboration at InfoComm, a new Company Profile on Glowpoint, and new Solutions Snapshots on Iformata’s VNOC Symphony, the Cisco 3200, and the Cisco 1300, Telepresence People & More!
HSL’s Quick Thought of the Month: A “Telepresence Moment” on the Way to InfoComm
The last issue I semi-complaining about the amount of time I spend in planes, trains and automobiles. Over the past two months I was in San Francisco & San Jose to taking a group of european investors on a tour of telepresence and videoconferencing companies, then at the InfoComm show in Orlando, and last week in New York City moderating a panel discussion on how telepresence and videoconferencing managed service and inter-networking providers are going to connect disparate networks together for inter-company telepresence.
I had an interesting expereince on my way to InfoComm that drove home another advantage of telepresence over physical travel: Physical Safety! My United Airlines flight to Orlando was delayed when I arrived at the gate. I was cooling my heels in the departure area for quite some time before one of the gate agents made an announcement about why, and I am not making this up, he informed us that the plane had some mechancial difficulties because “The doo-hickey wouldn’t go into the thing-a-ma-bob” . I just happened to be sitting next to a passenger that knew a member of the flight crew and overheard him explain to her what the real reason was for the delay:
The cockpit was getting a malfunction light on part of the hydraulic system. The ground crew had been over the plane a number of times and, while they believed the hydralic system to be OK, they still weren’t able to turn off the light indicating a malfunction. In circumstances like this the pilot has the final say and he was refusing to fly the plane!
We were waiting around until United could find pilot that would!! That is what I call a “Telepresence Moment”!
Warmly,
HSL
Howard S. Lichtman,
Publisher – Telepresence Options
The Telepresence Options Review of Telepresence @ InfoComm 2009
Scenes from our Review of InfoComm 2009.
InfoComm, it took me a little while to finish up this year’s review of Infocomm as I spent four weeks on the road in June and July but better late than never. Check out my review of all the new telepresence announcements from the show with pictures and video of the latest and greatest in telepresence and visual collaboration technologies from Orlando with updates on: AV Concepts, Business Octane, Cisco, Digital Illusions, Digital Video Enterprises, Electrosonic, illusio technologies, Iformata, IMCCA, IVCi, Glowpoint, HaiVision, LifeSize Communications, Magor Communications, MASERGY, Musion, Polycom, TANDBERG, Telepresence Tech, Teliris, and Vidyo
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Publicly Available Telepresence Explodes! Marriott, Starwood, Regus, Tata Taj All Deploy!
Publicly available telepresence took off like a moonshot in June and July with major announcements from Marriott Hotels, Starwood Hotels, and Regus to deploy telepresence systems in dozens of global locations ranging from Sydney to Hong Kong to Frankfurt to Shanghai. Check out the details on each and get Human Productivity Lab President and Telepresence Options' publisher Howard S. Lichtman's Thoughts and Analysis on the market opportunity for telepresence in public places as well as a look at some of the other start ups and entrepreneurial efforts around publicly available telepresence including: Powwow Virtual, F2F Biz Cafe, and MEETnHD.
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Michael Jackson to Live On and Tour Via TelePresence?
Michael Jackson will perform from beyond the grave in London next month at The O2 arena on August 29, the day of Michael's 51st birthday. Get the rest of the story with Telepresence Options' Publisher and Human Productivity Lab
President Howard S. Lichtman's tips for artists and entertainers who are interested in building a catalog of content that will live on after them.
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The TelePresence Options Interview: Pat Montani, CEO – IPV Gateways
Pat Montani is the CEO of IP-V Gateways the most important company in the telepresence and videoconferencing industry that you have never heard of. IP-V Gateways is a telepresence and videoconferencing inter-connection specialist which means that they sit in a carrier neutral co-location facilities in Toronto and New York City where they connect different networks together, match disparate QoS tagging schemes from the various carriers, handle public/private address issues, and security on high-speed telepresence and video calls. For telepresence and videoconferencing end-users this means that IP-V can connect a company with a Verizon Business network connection to their joint venture partner on MASERGY, their law firm on Tata, or their customer on BT and ensure a quality telepresence/video experience. Right now IP-V is matching tags and exchanging traffic on 30+ carrier networks more than anyone else in the industry. On June 25th the company announced a deal with Telx a leading provider of carrier neutral collocation space and carrier "Meet-me rooms" where the carriers physically connect their networks. Telx has over 600 network providers who physically connect in Telx facilities. I had the opportunity to talk with Pat about IP-V, the deal with Telx, and the future of inter-company telepresence and videoconferencing that the inter-connection specialists and the telepresence/video exchanges are rapidly bringing into view.
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Teliris Releases 6th Generation Telepresence Platform, New CODEC, New Endpoints, New Video Network Infrastructure, New Customers, and 130+ New Rooms Sold
You don't hear a lot from Teliris on a day to day basis. They do not publish press releases on every deal they win, or every incremental improvement in their product and while the general business press is covering their much larger competitors because of their size relative to the economy as a whole (and/or their marketing &
PR muscle) Teliris tends to stay off the media radar. They tend to save up their news and drop big bombs a couple of times a year with InfoComm being their favorite target.
2009 is no different. This year the company with half a decade head start on Cisco, HP, Polycom, and TANDBERG in the telepresence game has proven again what persistent, practical, focused research and development can do for you. Oh yeah... $51MM in venture capital over the past couple of years hasn't hurt either.
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Magor Communications Launches HD Meeting Room at InfoComm
Magor Communications, a Terry Matthews funded company out of Ottawa, brought their line of "TeleCollaboration" offerings to InfoComm. While I unfortunately missed the company at the show I was able to catch up with Magor CEO Mike Pascoe and VP of Marketing Simon Gwatkin earlier this week to get the scoop. The company has released two high definition telepresence solutions: The two-screen Magor HD Office and the three-screen HD Meeting Room. Both systems feature low-cost software-based codecs running on general purpose processors to provide 1080p HD video at 30fps at 2.5MBps.
The company has focused their innovation on an enhanced implementation of H.264 to reduce the burstiness of video traffic to get the bandwidth requirements down to 2.5MBps per endpoint and allow the system to run over best-effort networks without the need for QoS. The company has also focused on simplifying the data collaboration component to allow users to easily share data during a session and developed their own wide-band audio platform including a dedicated control phone with an integrated beam-forming microphone array.
Check out a Video Overview Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zssn3_hHbig
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Telepresence Options is now on Twitter!
Telepresence Options’ readers have been asking me for some time why we are not on Twitter. The answer is that, as a productivity-facing technologist, I can’t for the life of me figure out why anyone would ever use Twitter. The signal-to-noise ratio is insane BUT we are all about giving the people what they want so if Twitter is your thing then you can follow the latest and greatest in telepresence via Twitter. We have over 365+ Followers so far without ever publicising our account which I understand is pretty good so evidently some folks like Twitter!
http://twitter.com/TelepresenceVTC
New Telepresence Options Solution Snapshots and Company Profiles!
We continue to add to our Solution Snapshots Catalog of the leading telepresence systems, managed service providers, and inter-networking solutions. These detailed Solution Snapshots feature important information for those evaluating their Telepresence Options including: minimum bandwidth required, minimum space required, and inter-operability information. Solution Snapshots feature information not found any place else on the internet including top-down floor plans showing minimum space required for each telepresence system for architects,
engineers and facility professionals trying to determine the best location to deploy telepresence environments. You can receive new Solution Snapshots as they are published by subscribing to our RSS Feed or via e-mail. All the Solution Snapshots will be published in the upcoming hard copy Telepresence Options Yearbook which you can receive for free by subscribing here.
Iformata Communications - VNOC Symphony Solution Snapshot
Overview: VNOC Symphony platform automates, simplifies, and improves scheduling, framing, monitoring, trouble ticketing, ad hoc calling, and a host of other issues around managing video network infrastructure and enabling enterprise video. The system allows easy scheduling of conferencing resources from Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, a web interface, an animated Microsoft Silverlight interface, Microsoft OCS, Blackberry, and even the Apple iPhone among others. Most importantly the system intuitively "frames" meetings between different telepresence platforms which means that it understands the geometry of camera capture, number of screens, number of sites, etc. and implements the appropriate screen layout which preserves the human factors in each meeting. Layouts can be changed during a conference by participants using an intuitive graphical user interface.
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Cisco TelePresence System 3200 Solution Snapshot
Overview: The Cisco TelePresence System 3200 enables organizations to host up to 18 meeting participants in a single large room. Ideal for large team meetings, cross functional meetings or training events, the Cisco TelePresence System 3200 delivers the superior video, audio and environmental features that create the immersive, face-to-face Cisco TelePresence experience. Based on the proven, market-leading Cisco TelePresence System 3000 design, the Cisco TelePresence System 3200 extends the Cisco TelePresence portfolio from small, personal settings and intimate business meetings to large meeting rooms. Cisco TelePresence scales to fit your organization's meeting needs today and into the future.
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Company Profile: Glowpoint
We continue our series profiling the leading firms in the telepresence industry with a profile on Telepresence and Videoconferencing managed service provider: Glowpoint. You can browse our Company Profile archive for previous companies profiled including Teliris, Cisco, Polycom, TelePresence Tech and others. You can subscribe via RSS or e-mail to receive Company Profiles of other leading telepresence firms as they are published. All the Company Profiles will be published in the upcoming hard copy Telepresence Options Yearbook which you can receive for free by subscribing here.
Glowpoint is a managed service provider for telepresence and videoconferencing systems. The company provides outsourced help desk, reservation assistance, and access to shared video network infrastructure for companies that are not interested in purchasing, patching, and supporting their own gear. The company also can host and/or manage a company's own video network infrastructure and provides outsourced and/or white labeled Video Network Operations Center (VNOC) services for large enterprises and carriers. The company operates the Glowpoint Telepresence interExchange Network (TEN) which connects their customers (and others) to other organizations for inter-company telepresence. Finally, Glowpoint offers a number of ancillary services related to telepresence and videoconferencing including video help desk, true QoS overlay network, and telepresence and videoconferencing event production.
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Cisco TelePresence System 1300 Solution Snapshot
Overview: Bring the power of Cisco TelePresence to multipurpose conference rooms. With a streamlined, elegant design, one screen, and three cameras, the Cisco TelePresence System 1300 Series can support meetings with up to six people in a regular conference room. All meeting participants are life-size and life-like in Cisco TelePresence calls -- and participation is effortless with automatic voice-activated switching. Built-in lighting produces high-quality, natural-looking video by eliminating facial shadows.
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Telepresence New Articles and Stories
From our on-going review of the most important stories on telepresence technologies and reporting on the telepresence industry. Browse the Archives
Subscribe to receive new articles via RSS or via e-mail.
Will Videoconferencing Kill Business Class Travel?HSBC: The Virtual BankTelework Day lands Tandberg participantsThe Nortel - Avaya Merger: The Brave New World of NorVayaUS Airlines Stung By Biz Travel Drop; More Cuts ComingBT Conferencing's Simon Farr's 60 Second Pitch on TelepresenceLearning is social, computational, supported by neural systems linking peopleCisco to introduce video-chat feature for televisionsAirlines adjust as demand slidesBringing Down the Conference Walls: Telepresence Q&A with Bob McCandless, CEO of BrightCom3D Conferencing System Allows for Virtual Light Saber DuelsA Full-Color Screen That Bends
Telepresence Industry Press Releases
Check out the latest news from the companies on the forefront of telepresence technologies, telepresence managed services, and inter-networking telepresence. Browse the Archives
Subscribe to receive new articles via RSS or via e-mail.
LifeSize Continues to Outperform the Video Communications Market; Posts Record Performance in First Half of 2009Verizon Business Extends Managed Services Capabilities to Corporate Customers in IndiaMASERGY Adds India Hubs in Response to Increased Network Traffic
LifeSize Expands Commitment to Federal Customers with Support for Government Security and Interoperability Standards and Government Procurement VehicleGlowpoint Forecasts Record Second Quarter RevenueAT&T, BT and Tata Demonstrate Industry's First Cisco TelePresence Call Across Multiple Carrier NetworksTwo new services for Telepresence, the immersive videoconference solution from Orange Business ServicesTelstra ushers in a new era of video collaboration with Australia's first Business to Business Cisco TelePresence serviceTANDBERG Reports Second Quarter 2009 Results
Telepresence Industry Deals
Sony Videoconferencing Win - 20 July 2009. Netgear, a worldwide provider of technologically advanced, branded networking products, has recently purchased and installed Sony Professional Video Conferencing Equipment in their Cork office in Ireland. The Sony PCS-XG80 equipment will be used by Netgear employees to video-conference with Netgear offices worldwide as well as with other companies for business purposes.
15 July 2009. Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC (TAQA), an emerging global energy player based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, has deployed Polycom’s RealPresence™ Experience (RPX™), in order to improve efficiency and productivity while reducing travel costs between its various sites in the UAE, UK, USA, Canada
and The Netherlands.
14 July 2009. Cable&Wireless Worldwide has signed a new framework agreement with the United Kingdom’s Office for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR) to provide video conferencing technology costing millions of pounds sterling.
08 July posted 3 August 2009. French oil and gas major Total has signed a 5-year global networking contract worth up to €100 million with Orange Business Services. Orange Business Services is responsible for the integration, operation and optimization of WAN networks for Total at more than 1,000 sites in 100-plus countries.
Odds & Sods
Cisco TelePresence Contest – Cisco is running a contest “Why I Want Cisco TelePresence”. Make a video showing how and why Cisco TelePresence can help your business and work/life balance. 1st Prize: $3,000 and 5 Cisco TelePresence Sessions on Cisco. 2nd Prize: $1,000, 3rd Prize: Steak Knives! Tata’s Ann Lim and Westinghouse’s Sherry Chapman seem to be tied in popularity and votes. I am going to post an
article on this as soon as I can find the time to finish my own entry. Get in on the action here: http://www.whyiwantciscotelepresence.com/contest/
New Sony Telepresence Website- Sony has a new website devoted to Telepresence at http://www.SonyTelepresence.com highlighting the bundled solutions that they have created using TelePresence Tech’s display technology and their distribution partners: Spire Global (United States) and Teleportel (Europe, Middle East, & Africa).
Teliris, a global provider of agile telepresence and collaboration, has announced a partnership with AVI Systems to expand telepresence availability in the Midwest
BT Conferencing has been named as Polycom’s Service Provider of the Year for 2008. The award recognizes BT for outstanding sales performance and excellence in meeting customer solution, service and support needs.
Richard Line’s Telepresence and Videoconferencing Insight Newsletter has an interesting interview with FVC’s Managing Director KS Parag who I met years ago at a Wainhouse Summit. FVC is the largest distributor of telepresence, videoconferencing, rich media, and networking in the Middle East out of Dubai. You can find the interview here:
http://www.vcinsight.com/
Telepresence People
Bob Kirk has been named CEO of Avistar
TelePresence Tech Founder and CEO Duffie White was named a finalist in Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year
Polycom CEO Bob Hagerty has been named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young for Northern California.
Global IP Solutions has announced that former Avaya Sales VP Anton Schwarz has joined the company as Vice President of Global Sales
Mr. Phillip Reyes has joined The Whitlock Group as Director of Government Sales
Verizon Business executives Farooq Muzaffar and Mustansir Jhaveri have been named by Global Telecoms Business magazine to its 2009 40 Under 40 list of senior executives most likely to lead the industry over the next decade or two.
Mr. Ed Rodriguez has joined The Whitlock Group as an Account Executive out of their Tampa office.
Time Keating has joined Qwest Communications as a Major Account Executive in Washington DC / NoVa
HaiVision has appointed Thomas Haider as European Channel Manager.
On The Bench – A Breakdown of Industry Talent in the Market for their Next Opportunity
Mike Funge – New York City - has a superb background in telepresence and videoconferencing managed services and IP networking.
Mark Farrar – Austin, Texas – is a talented entrepreneur, intra-preneur, and business development executive that is interested in the telepresence space. Howard S. Lichtman has worked with Mark at a venture-backed start up in the data center virtualization space that Mark co-founded and served as CEO and highly recommends him.
Telepresence Industry Professionals
Telepresence Industry Professionals (TIP) is our telepresence industry association on Linked In which is now over 840+ members! We like to call it "the telepresence industry's cool kids club" because so many of our favorite folks are on-board. The group
is a superb venue for discussion, networking, and industry news and information. There is a Jobs board for organizations looking for talent and for folks that are in the market for their next gig.
New and Notable Members this month include: Jeff Day, National Sales Manager, Video Solutions Group at Cisco, Bill Horst, Manager of Course Development at Convergent Communications, Robert Foster, Strategic Accounts Lead at AT&T, Robert Cain, Senior Project Manager for Hospitality Organization at BT Global Services, Paul Ledeboer, Lead Software Engineer at LifeSize Communications, Greg Thener, Regional Vice President of Sales at Vidyo, Tad Wilson, Regional Sales Director at IVCi, Gebran Chahrouri, Senior Manager of Software Development at Cisco, and More!!
New Jobs on the Telepresence Industry Professional Job Board – Telepresence Account Executives – AT&T, Telepresence Sales Engineers – AT&T, UK Demo Centre Consultant – Telepresence, Computer Field Technician
This issue of the Telepresence Options Telegraph is sponsored by The Human Productivity Lab
The Human Productivity Lab is the world's leading independent telepresence analyst, research and consulting firm serving global Fortune 5000 corporations across a broad range of industry sectors including financial institutions, multinational telecommunication providers, manufacturers, and energy companies among others. The Lab was founded in 2005 by Howard S. Lichtman, a productivity-focused technologist who advises organizations of all sizes on how to successfully deploy telepresence solutions to enhance internal and external communications, reduce costs and improve environmental responsibility while increasing organizational productivity and bottom line revenue. On the vendor side, the Lab works directly with both established technology brands and emerging companies entering the telepresence industry, including many video conferencing, collaboration and wireless communication manufacturers, distributors, networks and managed service providers, to develop and implement product specifications, business strategies, distribution channels, sales training and creative marketing programs. http://www.HumanProductivityLab.com/consulting
About Telepresence Options
Telepresence Options follows telepresence, telepresence technologies, and the companies that make up the telepresence industry. We profile new telepresence systems, telepresence managed service providers, and telepresence inter-networking solutions. Telepresence Options content is available for free on the internet and The Telepresence Options 2009 Yearbook will be published in hard copy in fall of 2009. The Telepresence Options 2009 Yearbook is the second in the series of Telepresence Options surveys and is the most recent update to Telepresence, Effective Visual Collaboration, and the Future of Global Business at the Speed of Light the most
widely read publication on telepresence ever.
The Solution Snapshot Catalog
The Solution Snapshot Catalog is our comprehensive and intelligently organized On-Line Catalog of the leading Telepresence systems, managed service providers, and inter-networking solutions available anywhere. You can start with our comprehensive overview of the various Telepresence Options and then drill down to evaluate telepresence solutions in various intelligently organized categories.
Telepresence Conferencing - On-Stage Telepresence & Telepresence PodiumsTelepresence Conferencing - Group SystemsTelepresence Conferencing - Large Group / ClassroomTelepresence Conferencing - Small Group SystemsTelepresence Conferencing - Executive SystemsTelepresence Managed Service ProvidersTelepresence Inter-Networking SolutionsTelepresence Video Infrastructure, CODEC, Display, and Peripheral ManufacturersTelepresence Resellers and Systems IntegratorsTelepresence Consultants
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Although the Human Productivity Lab embraces the advances in individual and organizational productivity made possible by telepresence and effective visual collaboration, our mission is guided by an overarching respect for human values and interests.
While Productivity is our Middle Name we always put the Human First.
- Howard S. Lichtman