InfoComm in Las Vegas was held the week of June 14th in Las Vegas. Telepresence Options was there getting the scoop on the latest and greatest in the field of Telepresence, Telepresence Managed Services, and Inter-networking Telepresence
Including "What makes a visual collaboration solution... Telepresence?"

PLUS updates on Digital Illusions, Digital Video Enterprises, Electrosonic, Glowpoint, HaiVision, HP Halo/TANDBERG, IMCCA, IPV Gateways, LifeSize Communications, Telanetix, TelePresence Tech, Teliris, Vidyo, and Virtela

Polycom announced that they have expanded their TPX product line with the addition of dual and single screen systems as well as added content on the table (pop up data collaboration screens) to the TPX 306M. 

Plus  Telepresence @ InfoComm - Best Bets!

Digital Video Enterprises (DVE) today announced two new telepresence systems: The DVE Telepresence Stage, a portable telepresence system for projecting realistic life-size people and floating 3-D objects onto a stage environment and the DVE Huddle Room 70, a telepresence group system with a hidden, eye-level codec and a frameless display image. .

PLUS Telepresence@InfoComm

High performance IP network provider MASERGY yesterday announced a solution for securely connecting telepresence and videoconferencing endpoints on disparate IP Networks.  Telepresence Options Publisher Howard Lichtman, sat down with Chris Carr, Director of Video Markets at MASERGY to get the scoop.

PLUS Telepresence@InfoComm

The Crash of Commercial Aviation Continues (We updated the HPL Timeline of Airlines Bankruptcies, Mergers, Acquisitions, and Fiascoes.)

Telepresence Options and Human Productivity Lab Website Traffic Through the Roof!

Human Productivity Lab YouTube Channel over 1,000,000 views!!

Somewhere between Orwell's Telescreen and the Star Trek Holodeck, lies another fictional idea, this one from the Victorian era, where a magical tunnel connects two remote ends of the earth together.   This intriguing device was trying to transmit images of people half way around the world while the participant would, simultaneously, be able to watch their audience.  Fast forward 100 years and this dream has been transformed into reality. 

This device is known as The Telectroscope, an art installation created by the British artist Paul St George in cooperation with this main sponsors Artichoke and Tiscali Communications.  St George and his sponsors first explained the device with a wonderfully fabricated story involving St George's great grandfather and some old fashioned schematics.  However, the real story behind this strange device is as fascinating - and fictitious - as the one St. George and Co. dreamt up.

Telepresence Options traveled to Plano, Texas this month for TelePresence Tech's unveiling of their new 3-D TelePresence Room, featuring a seamless 70" conferencing display and 3, 40" collaboration screens.  Using multiple beamsplitters, participants in the TPT room see 3D conferencing attendees and shared documents in the same field of vision, allowing for a more fluid conferencing experience.  The new 3-D TelePresence Room also features specially designed acoustical treatments, lighting and seating.

Here we continue our profiling of the leading companies in the telepresence industry with telepresence hardware and managed service provider Polycom.  Polycom is a leading provider of telepresence solutions for the enterprise.  The company's telepresence solutions range from the RealPresence Experience RPX HD 400 Series for large groups, to the modular Telepresence Experience TP 306M for more flexible installations and even personal telepresence units like the HDX4000 for corporate executives. Polycom also maintains an extensive managed service provider network which includes EasyNet, Iformata, Glowpoint, and Nortel. Follow the link below for the full profile.

Superb article by Telephony Magazine's Dawn Bushaus on the inter-operability of telepresence networks and systems.  We like diversity at the lab.  We like the buffet at Platforma, the beer selection at the Brickskeller, and stores that sell nothing but thousands of different kind of socks.  But what we really like is when Dawn Bushaus goes out and talks to half the telepresence industry and brings back a diversity of views that can't be found anywhere else.  Dawn talks telepresence inter-operability from a customer's perspective with: Mike Brandofino of Glowpoint, Darren Podrabsky of HP Halo, Hugh McCullen of Nortel Multimedia Services, Erica Schroeder of Cisco, Joan Vandermate of Polycom, Ira Weinstein of Wainhouse Research, Mack Treece of Teliris, and the Human Productivity Lab's President Howard Lichtman.

Cisco and AT&T made some made some major telepresence announcements last week.  Cisco has received its 500th telepresence system order making TelePresence the "fastest growing business ever in emerging technology."

AT&T has signed on as a Cisco TelePresence provider and has launched the industry's first Inter-company managed TelePresence offering with the ability to connect to joint venture partners, vendors, and customers on the AT&T network.

Here is an excellent article on the announcement by Roger Chen of Down Jones followed by Human Productivity Lab President Howard Lichtman's Thoughts and Analysis. 

Also an update on Telepresence Industry Professionals (TIP), our industry association for professionals in the telepresence industry which has attracted over 115 pros from the industry's leading firms. 

UPDATED AGAIN! - July 15th- We have expanded the HPL Timeline of Airlines Bankruptcies, Mergers, Acquisitions, and Fiascoes - Silverjet Airlines files for bankruptcy & Teliris offers free telepresence meetings to their displaced passengers...The International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts that industry losses will be between$2.3 and $6.1 Billion Dollars...IATA announces that 24 airlines have closed in the last 6 months [We can't even keep up] The head of EasyJet Germany predicts that high fuel prices could bankrupt up to 50 carriers leaving only 5 major carries in Europe.... British Airways and Malaysia Airlines scale back service... END UPDATE

Unfortunately, we called the crash of the dollar and the airlines like Babe Ruth's storied home run at Wrigley Field. Since December 2007, seven eight nine nine twenty four different carriers have declared bankruptcy or ceased operations, forcing mergers like the recently announced Northwest and Delta union. Count on continued turmoil in the industry to lead to additional fiascoes such as the faulty wiring issue that caused American Airlines to ground their entire MD-80 fleet, canceling about 3300 flights in the process. Travel woes now extend beyond American shores, demonstrated by the way British Airways mishandled its move to the new T5 terminal at Heathrow - causing over 400 cancellations and thousands of pieces of stranded luggage.

As the depreciating dollar continues to fuel price increases expect the cost of physical travel to soar and price competition between the airlines to decline. Bankruptcies and consolidation will reduce convenience as duplicate and unprofitable routes are eliminated. Expect smart organizations to hedge their risk against travel disruptions and price increases by deploying telepresence to reduce the expenses and inconvenience associated with physical travel. Publicly available telepresence will begin to take some of the travel market away from the airlines, compounding the carriers' problems as they lose their least price sensitive business travelers to the world of virtual travel.

The HPL visited with our friends at Cisco during the FOSE conference in Washington DC earlier this week.  We were shown one of Cisco's Network Emergency Response Vehicles, casually known as a NERV truck.  This acronym is appropriate because this truck's primary purpose is to serve as a temporary nervous center for government officials in a disaster area.  Best of all, the truck features a modified Cisco CTS 1000 TelePresence system inside.  Click through to learn more about the truck and see pictures of what it looks like at mission control. 

Dawn Bushaus at Telephony Magazine has a terrific piece on the telepresence revolution. She seems to have spoken with about half the emerging telepresence industry including Human Productivity Lab President and Telepresence Options publisher Howard Lichtman. After the article find information on how to join the Lab's new networking group for Telepresence Industry Professionals on Linked In.

So, what do you get when you combine the biggest swell to hit Teahupoo in years with space-age video technology? Easy. You get the best view, or should we say views, of the famed Tahitian lefthander...and you get to control the view. It works like this: Thanks to Immersive Media's 360-degree spherical video camera, a technology that uses a specially designed camera housing to capture eleven separate video streams, as well as their production and post-production platforms, all of the streams are arranged according to geodesic geometry to create a complete spherical image; in other words, a high-resolution, 360-degree view of Teahupoo's innards. By putting viewers in the director's seat and giving them the ability to look in all directions, the technology creates a first-of-its-kind video experience that gives viewers the feeling of actually being part of the action
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This morning, HP Halo has announced an alliance with Marriott to make HP Halo telepresence systems publicly available at Marriott properties. HP Halo also announced the new customers AstraZeneca, Dow Chemical and Toshiba, who are now available on the HP Halo Video Exchange Network (HVEN), which now extends to 22 countries on 5 continents. The new announcements from HP do not end there; they now offer a new executive / small group telepresence system called The HP Halo Collaboration Center. On top of all of this good news, HP revealed that 80% of HP Halo clients have purchased additional systems. After the jump, get Human Productivity Lab President Howard Lichtman's thoughts and analysis on the announcement.

U.S. News and World Report covered telepresence in its March 10th issue in this superb article by Liz Wolgemuth.  The article features a number of quotes by Human Productivity Lab founder and Telepresence Options publisher Howard S. Lichtman, a couple of which could benefit from elaboration.  The complete article can be found below and the Lab recently published  a "Telepresence Buyer's Guide" featuring some "News You Can Use" for the readers of U.S.News and World Report entitled "Which Telepresence System is Best"