Digital Video Enterprises announced two new telepresence solutions today:  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. 

DVE Co-founder Steve McNelley, left, appears on-stage virtually with a 3-D visualization of the globe with the very real DVE co-founder Jeff Machtig on the right. 

The DVE Telepresence Stage is a patented portable telepresence solution that allows you to project life-size presenters and floating 3-D objects to a remote stage somewhere else in the world.  The tech is similar to Cisco and Musion's On-Stage TelePresence Experience but with some important differentiators:

• The system is uses a direct projection screen which appears to have a superior reflectivity to the Musion eye-liner foil.  The projected image is bright, even on a lighted stage, with superb realism.
• The system is portable.  It can be set up in an hour, doesn't require "bouncing" the image off the stage eliminating the need to take up valuable stage real-estate, and can be removed in less than one-minute.

The DVE Telepresence Stage is $59,000 and includes the dimensional transparent projection screen,  full road cases, environmental lights and props.  The client supplies the projector.






The DVE Huddle Room 70 is a small group telepresence system that presents 1-2 remote participants life-size or additional participants scaled down.  The system hides the camera at eye-level behind a piece of silvered glass called a beam-splitter.  Hiding the camera improves the naturalness of a virtual meeting as the brain doesn't register the camera and adjust behavior.  Locating the camera at eye-level improves eye-lines between participants and gives the approximation of eye-contact.   The design of the system allows participants to sit closer to the display than most traditional telepresence group systems creating an intimate, immersive experience.

If you have seen other DVE beam-splitter telepresence solutions you will notice a substantial improvement in the Huddle Room 70: The new system utilizes a flat panel display image that eliminates the black bezel that previously framed remote participants.  This creates a more immersive effect and allows you to blend the image into the environment more seamlessly if both sides have the same color wall so the remote participants seem to be in the same room. 

The DVE Huddle 70 is $84,000 and comes bundled with the LifeSize Room High-Definition Camera and Codec platform.  The system also includes a specially designed table, 2  interactive tablets for data collaboration, environmental lights, an LCD flat-panel display. The client provides their own chairs.  The system can be utilized with any videoconferencing camera and codec. 

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Howard Lichtman's Thoughts and Analysis

There is something magical about transporting a photo-realistic life-size human being halfway around the world that can interact with people as if they are in the same room.  Our video on the Cisco/Musion On-Stage TelePresence Expererience has generated over 45,000 views on YouTube.  There is another version that has generated over 280,000 views.  There is something about the experience that seems to say: "The Future is Here!!"

And the future is here... it just isn't evenly distributed... yet!  The DVE Telepresence Stage addresses a number of fundamental logistical challenges related to speakers and presenters addressing remote groups:

1.  High-profile, sought after speakers usually don't reside in the same area as most of the gatherings that they are invited to address. In fact, the transportation of  highly sought after speakers can add substantially to their ultimate fee as many require first-class airfare, world-class hotels, and reimbursement for their time while traveling. 

2.  A speaker can only be in one place at a time.

The telepresence revolution effectively addresses both of these issues.  Now with the rental of a portable, easy-to-set-up-and-use telepresence system a speaker can address an audience anywhere in the world with a time commitment of the length of their address and the time to drive back and forth from where ever the remote system is set up AND can, potentially, address dozens of venues simultaneously.  Expect to see more and more virtual speakers in the near future. 

The DVE Huddle Room 70 - The system is very similar in form/function to the new Telepresence Tech TPT Room that I reviewed last month so many of my likes and dis-likes are the same.  Both systems will be on-display at InfoComm in Las Vegas so look forward to an old-fashioned wild-west shoot out on the strip! 

What I liked:

Eye-contact - Hiding the camera behind the beam splitter at eye-level provides for a more natural experience by keeping truer eye-lines and hiding the camera.

Open Platform & Easy Way to Improve Existing Videoconferencing Deployments- While the DVE Huddle Room 70 comes bundled with the LifeSize Room system the solution is also an open platform for a variety of cameras and codecs and can improve the human factors of an existing SD or HD videoconferencing deployment by improving the end-user acceptance of the overall experience.  The solution seems well-suited to videoconferencing managers looking to improve the usage of their existing videoconferencing investment without a greenfield upgrade. 

Cost Effective - Almost 1/3 the cost of many of the leading telepresence group solutions with the ability to run on a single T1 and/or E1.


What I don't:

Small Capacity in Life-size- While the room can seat multiple participants the size of the remote primary participants must be reduced when you are seating more than 2-3 on the front row.



Telepresence@InfoComm - Best Bets!

Tomorrow we are off to Las Vegas and InfoComm.  Please stop and say hello if you see me on the show floor! Here are some of our Telepresence "Best Bets" at the conference. 

Howard Lichtman, President of the telepresence consultancy Human Productivity Lab will be attending InfoComm. If your organization is looking to do something cool with telepresence then please contact him at HSL@HumanProductivityLab.com with your interest.

The IMCCA's Telepresence@InfoComm Program on Thursday, June 19th in LVCC Room 219.  Check out the full program Here.

Teliris will be holding a press conference to announce their 5th Generation Telepresence Platform on Wednesday, June 18th at 8:00 AM PST @ Booth No. C2438, keynoting the Telepresence@InfoComm Program, and hosting a private party in a secret locale high above the strip. 

The HD Conferencing and Telepresence Showcase at InfoComm will be held the 18th, 19th, and 20th in the Central Hall 3, Booth C2976.  View Demonstrations by Digital Video Enterprises, LifeSize Communications, Polycom, Telanetix, and TelePresence Tech.   

Digital Video Enterprises will be launching two new Telepresence Systems at InfoComm. The DVE Huddle 70 and the DVE Telepresence Stage. You will be able to find them in the HD Conferencing and Telepresence Showcase in the Central Hall 3, Booth C2976

Glowpoint will be representing their new Telepresence Exchange Network, premiering a schweet new video, and hosting a fly private party. 

Polycom will be announcing a number of new telepresence offerings and a new and improved TPX 306.  You can also find them in the HD Conferencing and Telepresence Showcase in the Central Hall 3, Booth C2976 and in booth # N6019. Get a preview here. 

Telepresence Tech will be showcasing their new TPT Room System at InfoComm and keynoting the IMCCA's Telepresence@InfoComm program.  You will also be able to find them in the HD Conferencing and Telepresence Showcase in the Central Hall 3, Booth C2976