Masergy is a global network service provider created to deliver the strongest network experience for expanding mid-size to large enterprises. Howard Lichtman of the Human Productivity Lab sat down with Chris Carr to talk about their video specific solution that provides a number of key features essential for telepresence

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Polycom has been one of the leaders in visual communication technology. Their products can be seen in boardrooms across the World. Howard Lichtman of the Human Productivity Lab, sat down with the President of Polycom, Bob Hagerty to talk about Polycom’s RPX product line.

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DVE has been getting a
lot of attention at Telepresence World with the launch of their new
tele-immersion system.



However, when DVE’s co-founder and CEO, Steve McNelley, PhD took the stage to
present his thoughts on the telepresence industry, he decided to take a more
high level approach than focusing on specific products. His presentation focused
on what telepresence is with an anticipated steer toward what makes DVE’s
solutions unique.



McNelley defines telepresence as “eye contact” and has a beef with competitors
who use terms like, “approximating eye contact” to market their telepresence
solutions. Anything short of eye contact is not a true telepresence user
experience as he defines the term.

DVE’s co-founder and CEO, Steve McNelley on stage at Telepresence World

He explained that many factors have to come together to create a telepresence
experience, including appropriate conversational distances, true eye contact,
and life size images of meeting guests.



Cameras places above monitors will project a down-looking image to attendees on
the other end of the line. Placing the camera in front of the screen is
intrusive. Putting it in the screen can work, but is also intrusive. Placing the
camera behind the virtual guests who are projected on a transparent screen
allows for capturing participants looking directly into guest’s eyes on the
other end of the connection.



The Telepresence Workplace: The Vision



McNelley laid out his vision for where he’s like to see this industry
move:

• Put personal telepresence systems in everyone worker’s corporate office
  across from their desk. This would provide immediate personal access for ad
  hoc meetings without the pain of scheduling access to a telepresence room.
  This brings us closer to a telepresence phone.
• Roll out systems in homes to create face to face, eye to eye telecommuting,
  removing the disconnectedness telecommuters often suffer from. McNelly
  suggests that this has the potential for significant financial savings and
  improvement of quality of life.
• Use products like the
  Codian’s MCUs for
  multiple user telepresence calls on personal telepresence units using
  voice-activated switching situation.

McNelley didn’t get into describing DVE’s tele-immersion system where they’ve
created a large conference room with strikingly realistic projections of meeting
participants across the boardroom table. Technology Evangelist, in
partnership
with the Human Productivity Lab is conducting an interview with DVE as I
write this, so look for that here and on
HumanProductivityLab.com
in the near future. The photo below from DVE shows an example of this
technology, but doesn’t do justice to how life-like this is when experience in
person or on video.

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DVE has been getting a
lot of attention at Telepresence World with the launch of their new
tele-immersion system.



However, when DVE’s co-founder and CEO, Steve McNelley, PhD took the stage to
present his thoughts on the telepresence industry, he decided to take a more
high level approach than focusing on specific products. His presentation focused
on what telepresence is with an anticipated steer toward what makes DVE’s
solutions unique.



McNelley defines telepresence as “eye contact” and has a beef with competitors
who use terms like, “approximating eye contact” to market their telepresence
solutions. Anything short of eye contact is not a true telepresence user
experience as he defines the term.

DVE’s co-founder and CEO, Steve McNelley on stage at Telepresence World

He explained that many factors have to come together to create a telepresence
experience, including appropriate conversational distances, true eye contact,
and life size images of meeting guests.



Cameras places above monitors will project a down-looking image to attendees on
the other end of the line. Placing the camera in front of the screen is
intrusive. Putting it in the screen can work, but is also intrusive. Placing the
camera behind the virtual guests who are projected on a transparent screen
allows for capturing participants looking directly into guest’s eyes on the
other end of the connection.



The Telepresence Workplace: The Vision



McNelley laid out his vision for where he’s like to see this industry
move:

• Put personal telepresence systems in everyone worker’s corporate office
  across from their desk. This would provide immediate personal access for ad
  hoc meetings without the pain of scheduling access to a telepresence room.
  This brings us closer to a telepresence phone.
• Roll out systems in homes to create face to face, eye to eye telecommuting,
  removing the disconnectedness telecommuters often suffer from. McNelly
  suggests that this has the potential for significant financial savings and
  improvement of quality of life.
• Use products like the
  Codian’s MCUs for
  multiple user telepresence calls on personal telepresence units using
  voice-activated switching situation.

McNelley didn’t get into describing DVE’s tele-immersion system where they’ve
created a large conference room with strikingly realistic projections of meeting
participants across the boardroom table. Technology Evangelist, in
partnership
with the Human Productivity Lab is conducting an interview with DVE as I
write this, so look for that here and on
HumanProductivityLab.com
in the near future. The photo below from DVE shows an example of this
technology, but doesn’t do justice to how life-like this is when experience in
person or on video.

Share This

DVE has been getting a
lot of attention at Telepresence World with the launch of their new
tele-immersion system.



However, when DVE’s co-founder and CEO, Steve McNelley, PhD took the stage to
present his thoughts on the telepresence industry, he decided to take a more
high level approach than focusing on specific products. His presentation focused
on what telepresence is with an anticipated steer toward what makes DVE’s
solutions unique.



McNelley defines telepresence as “eye contact” and has a beef with competitors
who use terms like, “approximating eye contact” to market their telepresence
solutions. Anything short of eye contact is not a true telepresence user
experience as he defines the term.

DVE’s co-founder and CEO, Steve McNelley on stage at Telepresence World

He explained that many factors have to come together to create a telepresence
experience, including appropriate conversational distances, true eye contact,
and life size images of meeting guests.



Cameras places above monitors will project a down-looking image to attendees on
the other end of the line. Placing the camera in front of the screen is
intrusive. Putting it in the screen can work, but is also intrusive. Placing the
camera behind the virtual guests who are projected on a transparent screen
allows for capturing participants looking directly into guest’s eyes on the
other end of the connection.



The Telepresence Workplace: The Vision



McNelley laid out his vision for where he’s like to see this industry
move:

• Put personal telepresence systems in everyone worker’s corporate office
  across from their desk. This would provide immediate personal access for ad
  hoc meetings without the pain of scheduling access to a telepresence room.
  This brings us closer to a telepresence phone.
• Roll out systems in homes to create face to face, eye to eye telecommuting,
  removing the disconnectedness telecommuters often suffer from. McNelly
  suggests that this has the potential for significant financial savings and
  improvement of quality of life.
• Use products like the
  Codian’s MCUs for
  multiple user telepresence calls on personal telepresence units using
  voice-activated switching situation.

McNelley didn’t get into describing DVE’s tele-immersion system where they’ve
created a large conference room with strikingly realistic projections of meeting
participants across the boardroom table. Technology Evangelist, in
partnership
with the Human Productivity Lab is conducting an interview with DVE as I
write this, so look for that here and on
HumanProductivityLab.com
in the near future. The photo below from DVE shows an example of this
technology, but doesn’t do justice to how life-like this is when experience in
person or on video.

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The CEO of Telanetix,
Tom Szabo, delivered a presentation titled, “Driving Telepresence ROI with New
Technology” which took at look at the driving forces behind growth in the
Telepresence industry.



Reflecting on the current growth in the telepresence market, Szabo suggested
that, “telepresence is turning into an overnight success that’s been 20-years in
the making.”



It’s all about driving the applications down to the user level. That’s key to
making this a big market.



Telepresence today, is largely a communications tool used between C-level
employees within a company or between companies. However, Szabo explained that
some of the biggest opportunities for improving business efficiency comes from
getting this technology into the hands of mid-level employees like product
developers, film production crews, and similar groups who do a lot of
collaborative decision making throughout their business days.



He explained that sales are generally limited to only a small handful of units
when sold as a C-level solution, but that number explodes when sold as solutions
deeper within organizations.

Tom Szabo, CEO of Telanetix, On Stage and On Screen

Szabo summarized four drivers for growth in the telepresence industry:



1. Usability: It’s only just in the past 12 months that telepresence has been as
easy as pressing a button once set up. Telepresence systems have to be
“CEO-proof” when sold as C-level as they are today.



2. Accommodation of Technology: Users shouldn’t have to accommodate the
technology in any way. Instead, they should be able to conduct business and
communicate in ways that are comfortable for them rather than being forced to
learn to communicate all over again. They should be able to walk around, use
whiteboards, etc.



3. Data handling. Telepresence is currently a tool used by CEOs or high level
managers who focus primarily on face to face interactions. Employees deeper in a
country would benefit more from solutions that enable sharing applications or
products. This form of collaboration has the potential to significantly decrease
approval wait times. Sharing tools and applications in full resolution at a
remote location is where things get interesting.



4. Cost: It has to be affordable to get it into the core part of businesses.
Pricing has to be justifiable for rolling out telepresence solutions deep in
companies.



Put another way, when telepresence systems are easier to use, more flexible,
more powerful, and cheaper, this industry will really take off.

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While pretty much all of the telepresence solutions on display at Telepresence
World are impressive and have the ability to improve business communications,
the power of this is largely limited by the number of units deployed. It doesn’t
take a telepresence expert to understand that spending hundred of thousands of
dollars to enable face to face conversations between only two people is rarely
justified. But as soon as a third, then fourth, fifth and counting unit connects
to the network, the number of communications opportunities grows exponentially.



Cisco’s James Peters
explained this concept in a presentation titled, “Public Telepresence: The
Network Effect” and focused primarily on a worldwide telepresence initiative
between Cisco and Regus, the
largest supplier of office space, meeting and conference rooms in the world.
Regus is planning on rolling out 50 Cisco powered conference rooms around the
globe starting in 2008. The telepresence powered conference rooms will be
available for rent by business people for conferences between Regus centers as
well as Regus to business installations of Cisco telepresence systems. Park Ave
in New York City and Atlanta are two early location mentioned for Regus
telepresence centers.



The goal here is to apply Metcalfe’s Law regarding the power of communications
networks to telepresence.



Cisco and Regus has been listening to demand for telepresence solutions, and
have found opportunities largely near companies who are interested in
integrating telepresence into their workflow, but can’t justify dedicated units
on their own campuses.

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One thing that is fairly ironic about the Telepresence conference is how many people are in attendence. As in, people have traveled to San Diego from all over the world where they’re discussing how their technology solutions allow you to avoid traveling all over the world.

This led me to wonder, “why aren’t more of the presentations being done via telepresence solutions from the solutions providors?” For example, Charles Stucki from Cisco mentioned that John Chambers was a real believer in telepresence, and Chambers would have loved to make it to the telepresence show. Why didn’t they schedule a Cisco powered presentation where Chambers addressed the telepresence audience for a few minutes during Stucki’s presentation?

The first presentation that followed through was Teliris‘ European Charman, Martyn Lewis, who presented at the conference from eight time zones East in London. He mentioned that this allowed him to save four days of travel and jet lag. And it also helped proved the effectiveness of their technology.

Was it effective? His presentation garnered a large applause. The live Q&A that followed seemed as natural as if he was physically on the stage. The biggest area where it falls short is following the speech when he surely would have been approached by audience members with business cards in hand. Teliris has other team members on staff, so that’s accounted for as some level, but could that be the key connection that generates new business?

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Chuck Stucki, VP and GM, Telepresence Systems,
Cisco Systems, Inc
gave us an update on Cisco’s position in the world of telepresence. He started
out by emphasizing that John Chambers, Cisco’s CEO, is a huge believer in
telepresence and is pushing Cisco’s growth in this initiative.



Cisco envisions a new form of communications they refer to as, “The Human
Network” which combines technology, information systems and social structures.
Regardless of what device a person is using, the important thing it that they
enable a human touch and feel between parties.



Internally, Cisco has been seeing 50% utilization per 10-hour day of the
telepresence rooms. The majority of use is for internal communications with 30%
customer-involved.

Chuck Stucki, VP & GM, Telepresence Systems, Cisco

Core functions are where Cisco is seeing the most use of products. Stucki didn’t
specify what types of internal meetings, but things like product development and
management meetings come to mind. Fast decision making using telepresence rather
than waiting to schedule physical meetings improves efficiencies.



Stucki mentioned that visual communications are even more important for
cross-cultural communications. With the many acquisitions Cisco’s been involved
with around the world, I’m sure they have first-hand experience with this. He
mentioned that this is especially important for people speaking in their
non-native languages.



Customers are looking for an easy to use system tied into an interoperable
global network, built on industry standards forming a complete communications
solution. From immersive telepresence solutions down to adding someone into a
meeting from a cell phone, interoperability is a key to factor to make systems
usable and flexible for real-world business communications.

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