Personal Telepresence, when deployed correctly, is quickly becoming intrinsic to multi-office and multinational business processes as a result of its lower cost and flexible model. All the major vendors have introduced a version over the past year and claim to deliver what videoconferencing never could – hard dollar savings to companies of all sizes. In order to achieve this, solutions must maintain the crucial immersiveness that defines telepresence technology.
The first commercial Telepresence system was launched in 1999. The objective of this deployment was to make participants from multiple locations feel as if they were in the same room. During the ensuing 10 years, additional vendors joined in to to define a market separate and distinct from traditional videoconferencing. This period may be characterized, as is so typical of emerging high-technology markets, by constant innovation, the virtuous leveraging of Moore’s Law, significant competition from agile start-ups to established companies, and liberal use of the term employed to describe the market.
Telepresence innovation has manifested itself in the extension of both the breadth and depth of the early products. The first commercial telepresence system, designed by Teliris Telepresence in 1999 for the executive boardroom of a leading financial services firm, has four screens, a long mahogany table and walls that cover the screens when they are not in use. The range of current solutions run from custom telepresence rooms with six screens and seating for 14 participants at a single table, to new Personal Telepresence solutions designed for single participants, and a host of solutions in between. Likewise, telepresence depth has increased with the advent of interoperability between different telepresence solutions and with traditional videoconferencing systems, the introduction of immersive collaboration tools that allow people to act as if they are in the same room (e.g., writing on a virtual flipchart, passing paper across the meeting table, etc.), and managed services to guarantee the reliability of telepresence meetings.
The term ‘ telepresence’ has often been used, misused, and abused. Some vendors have attempted to reposition their traditional videoconferencing products, codec vendors and desktop videoconferencing providers have adopted the term, and even telepresence providers differ on the definition.
Through focusing on the host of Personal Telepresence solutions introduced over the past year, the definition of telepresence as a separate and distinct market from traditional videoconferencing becomes clear. Personal Telepresence is not a marketing gimmick or a spin for improved desktop videoconferencing, but if executed correctly rather incorporates all the major features of ‘boardroom’ class telepresence solutions. Personal Telepresence is an effort by telepresence vendors to extend their portfolios to include a single-participant solution.
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