Sigh, I thought this story was embargoed until tomorrow morning but I guess not. I should have known the rules. If PR says 8 a.m. on Monday that really means 6 p.m. Sunday night.
Anyway, I’m editing the video now and it’ll be up in the morning.
Cisco is the one doing the announcing. Here’s what I saw last week.
The PR folks led me into a room. I turned on my camera. I thought there were six people around a desk at first. I saw Mike Vizard, who is on the Gillmor Gang, among other things.
We say hi, but then I notice that the three people on the other side of the desk are actually on HD screens and aren’t in the room at all.
The desk is made to fool your eye into thinking the folks on the screens (if you haven’t figured it out yet, Mike Vizard was actually in New York, along with two others) are actually in the room at the same table with you. In an article about this in the San Jose Mercury News a Gartner Analyst said it was “like magic.” I agree. When you first experience this it is stunning.
There is lighting built in to make sure you look great. Microphones (using surround sound, so the voices come from where they are located on the screens) are built into the table.
The video tomorrow will show you a bit of how it feels to be in one of these rooms, but I’m watching and it doesn’t really demonstrate the experience. Being in this is unreal: like being teleported into a Star Trek movie.
Cost? $300,000 for the three-screen version, or $80,000 for single screen version, so this is only for really rich people or companies right now. More articles about the Cisco Telepresence system are on Google News.
I used to sell videoconferencing systems for Winnov. This is nothing like what you can get on cheaper systems. Tomorrow’s video will give you a lot more details.
Scobleizer 
Mr. Scoble – we’ve been working with a group called Teleportech that’s been doing this HD holographic type communications work for a while now. The US Marine Corps been working on this stuff for YEARS. It’s amazing the clarity (even on distant objects in the sending and receiving ends). Field of view is way more than adequate. Can you imagine once this is practical for in the home use?… WOW!
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Mr. Scoble – we’ve been working with a group called Teleportech that’s been doing this HD holographic type communications work for a while now. The US Marine Corps been working on this stuff for YEARS. It’s amazing the clarity (even on distant objects in the sending and receiving ends). Field of view is way more than adequate. Can you imagine once this is practical for in the home use?… WOW!
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I totally want one in my house. But won’t pay $300,000 for it.
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I totally want one in my house. But won’t pay $300,000 for it.
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Other then the screens beign HD how is this really different from systems large companies have been using for 20 years or more? I saw rooms like you describe at Digital years ago.
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Other then the screens beign HD how is this really different from systems large companies have been using for 20 years or more? I saw rooms like you describe at Digital years ago.
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The rooms you saw at Digital were not HD. The sound was not surround sound. The quality wasn’t there. And the room wasn’t setup like this to fool your mind into thinking you were across the table. Watch the video tomorrow. This stuff is a HUGE step ahead of where we were even a couple of years ago.
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The rooms you saw at Digital were not HD. The sound was not surround sound. The quality wasn’t there. And the room wasn’t setup like this to fool your mind into thinking you were across the table. Watch the video tomorrow. This stuff is a HUGE step ahead of where we were even a couple of years ago.
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Nice!
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Nice!
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Nifty, the private sector starting to get into this…Pentagon has had telepresence on the radar for many years, tho not sure the focus has been on the resolution, rather the tactile and haptic feedback per “remote surgery”, “explosives neutralization” and “remote pilot” concepts.
Kinda just all the VR hype era, repackaged up, at high res. And seems just Cisco looking for some end of rainbow ‘pot of gold’. And being that it be an bandwith hog de jour, seems more an excuse to upsell a new network or massive upgrade, still might be an investment that will pay off, but not for at least 5 years. However the usual Analyst skeptics were wow’ed, so maybe, if performs in real world and not jazzed half-rigged demos. But nice that all the raw techy trends going Video. Cisco might not be only a geek-known router company, rather a video company, give a few years.
PS – Donald Stuart just did a Gartner piece on telepresence that I got in my stack of stuff. Not sure if he covered Cisco…
As for the PR, well everyone already knew (horribly kept secret), shame when PR ties hands like that tho.
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Nifty, the private sector starting to get into this…Pentagon has had telepresence on the radar for many years, tho not sure the focus has been on the resolution, rather the tactile and haptic feedback per “remote surgery”, “explosives neutralization” and “remote pilot” concepts.
Kinda just all the VR hype era, repackaged up, at high res. And seems just Cisco looking for some end of rainbow ‘pot of gold’. And being that it be an bandwith hog de jour, seems more an excuse to upsell a new network or massive upgrade, still might be an investment that will pay off, but not for at least 5 years. However the usual Analyst skeptics were wow’ed, so maybe, if performs in real world and not jazzed half-rigged demos. But nice that all the raw techy trends going Video. Cisco might not be only a geek-known router company, rather a video company, give a few years.
PS – Donald Stuart just did a Gartner piece on telepresence that I got in my stack of stuff. Not sure if he covered Cisco…
As for the PR, well everyone already knew (horribly kept secret), shame when PR ties hands like that tho.
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Security … sinks ships
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Security … sinks ships
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Not everybody uses timezones when they specify an embargo date. Australian news services often break stories first.
“If PR says 8 a.m. on Monday” then they haven’t said anything meaningful… they need to get out of the house and think globally.
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Not everybody uses timezones when they specify an embargo date. Australian news services often break stories first.
“If PR says 8 a.m. on Monday” then they haven’t said anything meaningful… they need to get out of the house and think globally.
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John: actually they said “8 a.m. eastern time.”
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John: actually they said “8 a.m. eastern time.”
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New technology? New for who?
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New technology? New for who?
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Come on guys/gals, tell Robert how you can do the same thing for a lot less money with some of the current technology.
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Come on guys/gals, tell Robert how you can do the same thing for a lot less money with some of the current technology.
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This looks interesting.
Seen lots of video in recent years in the justice system. Remote arraignments and such – imprisoned inmates addressing the courts and so on. No need to haul inmates around.
The PR embargoes are for those whose only value is being first. If you have something to add, some value to include in reporting on this program, then the embargo won’t hurt you.
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This looks interesting.
Seen lots of video in recent years in the justice system. Remote arraignments and such – imprisoned inmates addressing the courts and so on. No need to haul inmates around.
The PR embargoes are for those whose only value is being first. If you have something to add, some value to include in reporting on this program, then the embargo won’t hurt you.
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Robert, why does the three screen version cost significantly more than the single screen version?
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Robert, why does the three screen version cost significantly more than the single screen version?
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I meant to ask:
why does the three screen version cost significantly more than THREE TIMES of single screen version?
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I meant to ask:
why does the three screen version cost significantly more than THREE TIMES of single screen version?
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Size, bandwidth, complexity.
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Size, bandwidth, complexity.
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Folks, it is not a new device but I do admit that’s a cool gadget for international companies… HP also offers the similar product too… I am working on this project in Hong Kong.
http://www.hp.com/halo/index_noflash.html
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Folks, it is not a new device but I do admit that’s a cool gadget for international companies… HP also offers the similar product too… I am working on this project in Hong Kong.
http://www.hp.com/halo/index_noflash.html
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