Beam Me Up, Scotty: Telepresence is the Next Best Thing
Monday, March 28, 2011 • AV, Technology, Telepresence, Video Conferencing • 1 comments
Video conferencing has been around for a long time - roughly since the concept was introduced at the 1964 World's Fair -- and has often been suggested as a way to save travel costs for businesses. The problem is, with many videoconferencing systems and applications that most small business owners have seen, the quality is similar to what you might expect if you were talking to an astronaut on the Space Shuttle. Not quite a substitute for real face-to-face interaction.
The technology has made amazing leaps and has come down in price, so that most small businesses can at least consider deploying video communications for their business -- even in businesses with as few as 10 employees. Suppliers such as Polycom, Siemens, Cisco, Tandberg and others are the big names looking to encourage small businesses (under 1000 employees) to jump into telepresence.
Sue Hayden, executive vice president of video communications supplier Polycom, says the advantage of using what her company called "telepresence" (better technology needs a new vocabulary) goes beyond cutting costs through reduced travel. As important as reducing business travel costs is increasing productivity. People can "interact in a higher quality way and get more done. Visual communications allows companies of any size to meet face to face and ensure they are really productive."
So what's the difference between videoconferencing and telepresence? The latter, says Hayden, is a "high definition video experience that's crystal clear. You can see eyes blinking, people breathing. It's lifelike. It's an immersive experience." Systems today also are more flexible in terms of where they can be used. It can be from an employee's desktop computer, a conference room, or even a mobile computing tablet. Polycom says its systems are "platform independent" - a techie way of saying they go where you go.
A lot of entrepreneurial companies these days are virtual -- their employees may work from home, and they may not even have employees in the traditional sense. They may use talent across the globe with business partners and individuals who work for themselves. Telepresence systems can enable such organizations the flexibility to attract talent from anywhere in the world, knowing that true "like-being-there" communication and collaboration is possible. It's also easier to initiate telepresence contact than with videoconferencing. When individuals are part of a telepresence system, another user can "see" them online and can initiate contact, rather than having to schedule a pre-arranged meeting that employees have to log into.
Polycom has clients like a small magazine publisher with a few dozen employees, many of whom work from home; and a talent casting company with about 20 employees that's on the East Coast and can audition talent from the West Coast without having to fly them in. The technology also lends itself to fields like medical diagnostics, to give healthcare professionals the ability to share patient information remotely; and training/education, enabling organizations to offer higher quality interaction and information sharing.
Hayden says a business owner looking for a video communications system should focus on these questions:
The technology has made amazing leaps and has come down in price, so that most small businesses can at least consider deploying video communications for their business -- even in businesses with as few as 10 employees. Suppliers such as Polycom, Siemens, Cisco, Tandberg and others are the big names looking to encourage small businesses (under 1000 employees) to jump into telepresence.
Sue Hayden, executive vice president of video communications supplier Polycom, says the advantage of using what her company called "telepresence" (better technology needs a new vocabulary) goes beyond cutting costs through reduced travel. As important as reducing business travel costs is increasing productivity. People can "interact in a higher quality way and get more done. Visual communications allows companies of any size to meet face to face and ensure they are really productive."
So what's the difference between videoconferencing and telepresence? The latter, says Hayden, is a "high definition video experience that's crystal clear. You can see eyes blinking, people breathing. It's lifelike. It's an immersive experience." Systems today also are more flexible in terms of where they can be used. It can be from an employee's desktop computer, a conference room, or even a mobile computing tablet. Polycom says its systems are "platform independent" - a techie way of saying they go where you go.
A lot of entrepreneurial companies these days are virtual -- their employees may work from home, and they may not even have employees in the traditional sense. They may use talent across the globe with business partners and individuals who work for themselves. Telepresence systems can enable such organizations the flexibility to attract talent from anywhere in the world, knowing that true "like-being-there" communication and collaboration is possible. It's also easier to initiate telepresence contact than with videoconferencing. When individuals are part of a telepresence system, another user can "see" them online and can initiate contact, rather than having to schedule a pre-arranged meeting that employees have to log into.
Polycom has clients like a small magazine publisher with a few dozen employees, many of whom work from home; and a talent casting company with about 20 employees that's on the East Coast and can audition talent from the West Coast without having to fly them in. The technology also lends itself to fields like medical diagnostics, to give healthcare professionals the ability to share patient information remotely; and training/education, enabling organizations to offer higher quality interaction and information sharing.
Hayden says a business owner looking for a video communications system should focus on these questions:
- Is it easy to use?
- Is it affordable with a quick ROI?
- Does it have the quality and reliability that can result in productivity increases?
- Is it open standards (that is, will it work no matter what other technologies and vendor platforms are already in place)?
- Is it platform independent, able to work in any environment from a headquarters conference room to a laptop to mobile devices?
Excellent website.This is very informative..
Thanks.
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