Latest Telepresence News, Research and Analysis:
Solution Snapshot: MASERGY's Intelligent Transport with Video QoS
March 18, 2010 | Howard Lichtman
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 floorplans 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
received 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.
The MASERGY Intelligent Transport with Video Quality of Service is, as the name suggests particularly optimized for video communications applications. It incorporates specific packet delivery guarantees for completeness and sequence, jitter and failover to deliver the world's best-performing video and telepresence experience. That's why the leading Video Managed Service Providers look to MASERGY as their default wide area network service provider.
The MASERGY Intelligent Transport with Video Quality of Service is, as the name suggests particularly optimized for video communications applications. It incorporates specific packet delivery guarantees for completeness and sequence, jitter and failover to deliver the world's best-performing video and telepresence experience. That's why the leading Video Managed Service Providers look to MASERGY as their default wide area network service provider.
Technology changing how we work, play, shop
March 15, 2010 | Howard Lichtman
BY ROY WENZL, The Wichita Eagle
Our avatars are coming. Those mobile and 3-D and interactive technologies being created around us are about to beam us into a new world, filled with workday holograms, avatars and stuff we called magic only a few years ago.
Some of the new magic is being created in Wichita. It's going to enrich and disrupt our lives. It's going to delight us and plague us.
In that augmented reality that may soon envelop us, in a world where we'll soon control images and data with hand gestures rather than keyboards, you might soon meet Virtual Interactive Liz, who already exists in Old Town, who will pucker her lips and bat her long lashes at you from store fronts, from transparent kiosks, from interactive billboards.
Solution Snapshot: BT Conferencing's Global Video Exchange
March 11, 2010 | Howard Lichtman
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: Managed Service Providers, Exchange Providers, Video Network Infrastructure, and Inter-Connection Solutions. You can received 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
BT Conferencing Global Video Exchange
The BT Conferencing Global Video Exchange is a new offering initially available only to customers of the Cisco TelePresence product line to enable inter-company telepresence sessions. Using an SBC-based approach to overcome security concerns and translate around IP addressing incongruities, the GVE can bring two independent Cisco TelePresence customers together. From a user perspective, endpoints are addressed using the E.164 format making session initiation as simple as dialing a telephone. This approach makes initiation of ad hoc point-to-point sessions quite easy and allows BT Conferencing to conveniently apply routing, security and calling control policies to the session requested.
The BT Conferencing Global Video Exchange is a new offering initially available only to customers of the Cisco TelePresence product line to enable inter-company telepresence sessions. Using an SBC-based approach to overcome security concerns and translate around IP addressing incongruities, the GVE can bring two independent Cisco TelePresence customers together. From a user perspective, endpoints are addressed using the E.164 format making session initiation as simple as dialing a telephone. This approach makes initiation of ad hoc point-to-point sessions quite easy and allows BT Conferencing to conveniently apply routing, security and calling control policies to the session requested.
Magor Launches the 3rd Generation of TeleCollaboration
March 8, 2010 | Howard Lichtman
This morning Magor Communications announced the launch of the 3rd Generation of their TeleCollaboration HD WorkPlace product line. Magor TeleCollaboration is a telepresence and visual collaboration solution that combines a multi-screen, high-definition peer-to-peer telepresence system with a revolutionary data collaboration platform that allows for accessing data on internet connected computers via a secure virtual private network and sharing data with both users on other Magor TeleCollaboration systems and on the internet participating using only a browser.
The company also expanded their product line with the announcement of the single screen executive system: The HDSolo which features a 46" screen, fixed camera capture, and all the data collaboration tools available to Magor's larger systems.
The company also expanded their product line with the announcement of the single screen executive system: The HDSolo which features a 46" screen, fixed camera capture, and all the data collaboration tools available to Magor's larger systems.
The March Edition of the Telepresence Options Telegraph
March 3, 2010 | Howard Lichtman
We have just published the March 2010 edition of the Telepresence Options Telegraph, our newsletter that covers the latest in telepresence technologies and the telepresence industry.
In this month's issue:
- Digital Video Enterprises Launches Immersion Room
- The Inter-Company Telepresence and Videoconferencing Conference and Working Group
- Show Me the Users! Super Cool Things that Real Companies are doing with Telepresence and Visual Collaboration
- The Telepresence and Videoconferencing Exchange Review
- Cisco Launches Updated TelePresence Systems and Telepresence Interoperability Protocol - What Does it Mean? Howard Lichtman's Thoughts and Analysis
- NLR, Internet2 on TelePresence at Joint Techs
- Hotel Guests Checking Into Public Cisco TelePresence Rooms
- New Telepresence Options Company Profile - MASERGY
DVE Launches Revolutionary Immersion Room - Telepresence and Visualization
March 1, 2010 | Howard Lichtman
The DVE Immersion Room - life-size seamless telepresence and visualization
Digital Video Enterprises (DVE) officially announced the launch of their next generation telepresence and visualization environment known as the DVE Immersion Room. The room is both a 4 or 9 seat telepresence conferencing environment where participants face a seamless 120 inch screen that hides the camera at eye-level and a high definition visualization environment where volumetric images appear to float in 3D. The room recently won Frost & Sullivan 2009 Global Conferencing Telepresence Product of The Year Award.
The Inter-Company Telepresence and Videoconferencing Conference and Working Group - April 22nd, Reston, Virginia
February 24, 2010 | Howard Lichtman
Show Me the Users! Super Cool Things that Real Companies are doing with Telepresence and Visual Collaboration
February 21, 2010 | Howard Lichtman
You can do some really cool things with telepresence and effective visual collaboration! Here is a compilation of videos from the HPL's YouTube channel (1.5MM views of our posted content, 367 subscribers, and 23,800+ channel views) showing real organizations using their telepresence and videoconferencing systems for everything from surgical education to tele-psychiatry and from distance learning to crowd gathering. You can even see Telepresence Options publisher and HPL President Howard Lichtman in a funny hat. A special thanks to Christopher Welch from Glowpoint who came up with the idea and helped me find so many excellent examples of interesting applications.
1. Surgical Education
Posted by the Human Productivity Lab: "video footage of the unveiling of the MedPresence Surgical Education Suite at Barrow Neurological Institute. The system is used to teach surgical residents without there having to be present in the operating room and can be used to teach seminars and symposiums around the world.
1. Surgical Education
Posted by the Human Productivity Lab: "video footage of the unveiling of the MedPresence Surgical Education Suite at Barrow Neurological Institute. The system is used to teach surgical residents without there having to be present in the operating room and can be used to teach seminars and symposiums around the world.
Inter-Company Telepresence and Video Conferencing Exchanges Emerge as Next Wave in Fast Growing Service
February 16, 2010 | Howard Lichtman
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 16, 2010 - Ashburn VA and Northborough MA - Independent research firm and consultancy, Human Productivity Lab and Brockmann & Company, the customer insight firm, have published the first comprehensive review of inter-company telepresence and video conferencing exchanges. "The Inter-Company Telepresence and Video Conferencing Exchange Review" which educates CIOs, executives, managers, telepresence and video conferencing professionals about the opportunities and challenges of connecting with partners for effective visual collaboration and the first methodical comparison of the leading exchange service providers.
Inter-Company Telepresence and Video Conferencing Exchanges Emerge as Next Wave in Fast Growing Service
Says The Industry's First Review of Exchange Services and Providers
Telepresence and Videoconferencing Exchange Providers
February 10, 2010 | Howard Lichtman
A somewhat typical telepresence and videoconferencing exchange connecting disparate networks so inter-company video can flow at high quality
True telepresence requires crystal clear high-definition video to maintain the illusion that participants are in the same physical space. Lost or delayed IP packets and/or packets that arrive out of sequence cause video codecs to seize up and display video artifacts on the screen and/or clipped sound that can annoy and jolt participants out of their immersive experience. While most network operators have the ability to maintain exceptional quality on their own networks they need to connect to other networks to enable high quality inter-company telepresence and videoconferencing sessions with their customers' partners, vendors, and clients.
Telepresence and Videoconferencing Exchange Providers are Service Providers that connect together disparate networks while maintaining QoS so that video traffic can flow without compromising video quality. Many Exchange Providers are providing additional services that simplify and facilitate inter-company telepresence and video sessions between partners including: Directory Services to enable the scheduling of resources in other organizations, Security Services that implement security policies that protect the networks and organizations that connect at the exchanges, and Diagnostic Tools that can identity where problems arise across disparate networks and video network infrastructure elements.
Next week the Human Productivity Lab and Brockmann and Company are publishing the first comprehensive review of telepresence and videoconferencing exchange providers. The review is written for organizations who are interested in connecting to their partners, customers, and vendors. We researched and surveyed the top exchange providers and managed service providers that are providing both wholesale and retail exchange services including: AT&T Business Exchange, BCS Global's Global Video Exchange, BT Conferencing's Global Video Exchange, Easynet Managed Virtual Meeting, Glowpoint's Telepresence interExchange Network (TEN), MASERGY, Telemerge, Teliris B2B On-Demand Gateway, Verizon Business' Immersive Video Exchange (VIVE).
This article provides a sneak peak and excerpts from the upcoming report and the opportunity to save 20% by purchasing a pre-publication copy before 5:30 PST / 8:30 PM EST on Tuesday, February 16th. (Click Here for Faxable Order Form)
Telepresence and Videoconferencing Exchange Providers are Service Providers that connect together disparate networks while maintaining QoS so that video traffic can flow without compromising video quality. Many Exchange Providers are providing additional services that simplify and facilitate inter-company telepresence and video sessions between partners including: Directory Services to enable the scheduling of resources in other organizations, Security Services that implement security policies that protect the networks and organizations that connect at the exchanges, and Diagnostic Tools that can identity where problems arise across disparate networks and video network infrastructure elements.
Next week the Human Productivity Lab and Brockmann and Company are publishing the first comprehensive review of telepresence and videoconferencing exchange providers. The review is written for organizations who are interested in connecting to their partners, customers, and vendors. We researched and surveyed the top exchange providers and managed service providers that are providing both wholesale and retail exchange services including: AT&T Business Exchange, BCS Global's Global Video Exchange, BT Conferencing's Global Video Exchange, Easynet Managed Virtual Meeting, Glowpoint's Telepresence interExchange Network (TEN), MASERGY, Telemerge, Teliris B2B On-Demand Gateway, Verizon Business' Immersive Video Exchange (VIVE).
This article provides a sneak peak and excerpts from the upcoming report and the opportunity to save 20% by purchasing a pre-publication copy before 5:30 PST / 8:30 PM EST on Tuesday, February 16th. (Click Here for Faxable Order Form)
MASERGY Company Profile
February 8, 2010 | Howard Lichtman
We continue our series profiling the leading firms in the telepresence
industry with a profile on telepresence and videoconferencing network provider: MASERGY. You can browse our Company Profile archive
for previous companies profiled including Teliris, Cisco, Polycom,
Glowpoint, 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 2010 Yearbook which you can receive
for free by subscribing here.

MASERGY is a next-generation carrier that has redefined enterprise wide-area networking by delivering innovative products, advanced capabilities and a superior customer experience, all on an integrated global IP/MPLS network. The company's WAN services and advanced networking capabilities deliver a superior customer experience with VPN options, including VPLS and Private IP, that support seamless network convergence for superior voice and video performance. MASERGY provides flawless performance for Telepresence, high definition or standard video communications to any customer location and the industry's strongest SLA. Through partnerships with BT Conferencing's Global Video Exchange and IP-V Gateways, MASERGY offers connections to thousands of organizations using telepresence and videoconferencing.
Cisco Launches Updated TelePresence Systems and Telepresence Interoperability Protocol - What Does it Mean? Howard Lichtman's Thoughts and Analysis
January 27, 2010 | Howard Lichtman
Cisco new, enhanced 18 seat telepresence classroom: The Cisco CTS 3210 with LCD screen, lower power consumption, faster installation, and better bandwidth management
Cisco has made a number of new TelePresence product announcements including releasing a new signaling protocol that will allow other vendors to effectively connect with and inter-operate with Cisco TelePresence endpoints while keeping the correct eye-lines, spacial acoustics, and data collaboration capabilities. The company has also announced a new, enhanced version of its flagship six seat telepresence group system: The Cisco CTS 3010 and a new enhanced version of its 18 seat classroom: The Cisco CTS 3210. Cisco has also announced five new telepresence "experiences" or application specific customizations of its existing systems. Find out what it all means with Telepresence Options Publisher Howard Lichtman's Thoughts and Analysis including his prediction and reasoning why 2010 will be the year that Inter-company telepresence and videoconferencing takes off
Polycom and Juniper Partnership - What Does it Mean? Howard S. Lichtman's Thoughts and Analysis
January 25, 2010 | Howard Lichtman
The January Edition of the Telepresence Options Telegraph Newsletter
January 18, 2010 | Howard Lichtman

We have just published the January 2010 edition of the Telepresence Options Telegraph, our newsletter that covers the latest in telepresence technologies and the telepresence industry.
In this month's issue:
- Logitech/LifeSize, ooVoo, Vidyo, Vizio, Microsoft, and/or Apple waiting in the wings?
- The Telepresence and Videoconferencing Exchange Review
This Month's Telepresence Options Telegraph is Sponsored by: Human Productivity Lab

The Human Productivity Lab is the world's leading independent telepresence analysis, 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.
http://www.HumanProductivityLab.com/consulting
In this month's issue:
- "Home Telepresence"/Videoconferencing at CES - The Battle for the Living Room
- Logitech/LifeSize, ooVoo, Vidyo, Vizio, Microsoft, and/or Apple waiting in the wings?
- The Inter-Company Telepresence and Videoconferencing Handbook
- The Telepresence and Videoconferencing Exchange Review
- Cisco has 91% of TANDBERG, Closes Acquisition
- TANDBERG Introduces T3 Custom Edition
- Telepresence inter-operability - The Fall Internet 2 Trials
- Videoconferencing Consolidation Puts All Eyes on Polycom
- New Telepresence Options Sponsors - Tata Communications and BrightCom
- Telepresence News Articles and Stories
- Telepresence Press Releases
- Telepresence Industry Deals
- Odds & Sods
- Telepresence People, TIP now over 1100+ Members!, Telepresence Industry Jobs, and "On the Bench"- A Breakdown of Industry Talent in the Market for their Next Opportunity.
This Month's Telepresence Options Telegraph is Sponsored by: Human Productivity Lab
http://www.HumanProductivityLab.com/consulting
Home Telepresence/Videoconferencing at CES - The Battle for the Living Room
January 12, 2010 | Howard Lichtman
The big stories for the telepresence and visual collaboration industry coming out of last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is the rapidly developing "Battle for the Living Room" where telepresence and videoconferencing companies, consumer electronics companies, and networking providers have unsheathed their swords in the billion dollar contest to provide two-way videoconferencing over broadband internet connections to the home. Cisco, Polycom/IBM, and Skype/Panasonic/LG have all announced and/or demonstrated products that will bring high definition videoconferencing into the living room. In this article, I take a look at the current and future applications for home telepresence and videoconferencing, the various business models, the players who announced they are heading to the living room at CES and the other potential industry participants lurking in the home office and on the family computer who just might join them.
The Inter-Company Telepresence and Videoconferencing Handbook
December 21, 2009 | Howard Lichtman
The Handbook comes during a week when a blizzard shut down much of the northeastern United States, 2,000 rail passengers are abandoned below the English Channel for hours, and a British Airways union threatened to strand tens of thousands of passengers.
Telepresence Managed Services, Public Room, and Internetworking Provider Tata Communications Joins Telepresence Options
December 14, 2009 | Howard Lichtman
Public Telepresence - A global network of publicly available Cisco TelePresence Suites that can be rented by the hour. Built in collaboration with Tata's community of partners like Starwood Hotels and service providers like PLDT and Neotel, the Tata public rooms are located in leading business centers and hotels around the world . Tata has also partnered with leading travel management providers Carlson Wagonlit Travel and American Express Travel to offer telepresence as a business travel option. To telepresence-enabled organizations, they can extend their internal network of Cisco TelePresence rooms with Tata's growing network of publicly available locations worldwide.
Telepresence Managed Services - Tata provides a managed service for Cisco TelePresence that includes network, equipment deployment, maintenance and management, reservation support and concierge service, help desk, and hosted video network infrastructure.
Telepresence Exchange and Internetworking - Tata Communications runs one of the world's largest global private IP networks and offers overlay and converged network solutions with the QoS demanded by telepresence. The company also runs the Tata Global Meeting Exchange, a networking platform that connects private enterprise telepresence networks to other private , carrier and publicly available telepresence networks including Tata's global network of publicly available Cisco TelePresence Suites. This globally distributed and open Telepresence Exchange can enable enterprises to connect with their business ecosystem.
Telepresence Interoperability - The Fall Internet2 Trials
December 8, 2009 | Howard Lichtman

The first industry-wide immersive telepresence interoperability demo was held at the Fall Internet2 meeting in San Antonio, Texas in October. The trial successfully connected multi-codec systems from Polycom (TPX HD 306, RPX 200, and RPX 400), LifeSize (Room 100), and Tandberg (T3), all of them operating on different networks (Interenet2, Commodity Internet, Polycom network, IBM network, and Tandberg network). Eight test cases covered multipoint calls using both voice switching and continuous presence. The telepresence systems connected to either Polycom RMX 2000 conference server (controlled by the Multipoint Layout Application, MLA) or to Tandberg Telepresence Server, while the two servers were connected to each other. Basic connectivity worked in all eight test cases.
From what I could discern from the coverage of the event much of the interoperability trials revolved around the basics of connecting disparate video codecs through various pieces of video network infrastructure. The result was a variety of traditional videoconferencing continuous presence (CP) layouts across the multi-screen displays of a variety of telepresence systems. While this is a very important capability and the ability to participate in a multi-site continuous presence call across the multiple screens, videowalls, and large beam-splitters of telepresence systems is a dramatically better experience than CP multi-point over a single screen, this only represents one aspect of telepresence interoperability.
Ultimately for true telepresence interoperability the ability for disparate systems to connect (through video network infrastructure and point-to-point) while maintaining as much of the "magic" of the telepresence experience as possible will be neccessary: telepresence multi-point where life-size participants from each remote site are displayed side-by-side in a global roundtable format with correct eye-lines and spatial acoustics, effective data collaboration between disparate systems, and a framework for inter-company scheduling and meeting governance. Our upcoming publication: The Inter-company Telepresence and Videoconferencing Handbook will have what I believe to be the fist attempt to measure this level of interoperability between disparate systems.
The best coverage of the Internet2 interoperability event was from Stefan Karapetkov, Director of Emerging Technologies at Polycom, who posted coverage on his excellent blog: Video Networker which we are republishing here with video and images from the event. If any of the other vendors or participants have similar coverage and/or responses then please forward them to me at HSL(at)HumanProductivityLab(dot)com and I will include them as well.
Telepresence Solution Provider BrightCom Joins Telepresence Options
December 6, 2009 | Howard Lichtman
BrightCom's Visual Collaboration System 2.0 provides the infrastructure for Lumina Telepresence and ClearView Video Conferencing Solutions. Unlike other solutions, VCS 2.0 is a single network appliance that provides businesses with meeting administration, meeting scheduling, a complete set of web conferencing features and NAT firewall traversal. High definition video, standard definition video and audio broadcasts are integrated with the data broadcasts. This can be displayed in a multi-screen layout that the meeting moderator can configure. Alongside multiple data broadcasts, VCS can also display up to 16 subdivision on multiple video screens that can be seen by an unlimited number of participants.
Updated! Cisco Has 91% of TANDBERG, Closes TANDBERG Acquisition!
December 4, 2009 | Howard Lichtman


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