CISCO NETWORKING

What isn’t Cisco Telepresence?
Recently my local Cisco Account Manager came by and asked me if we did any video conferencing. I said “wait, you are going to try to talk me into one of those Telepresence Suites from TV, aren’t you”. He said, “no” but proceeded to tell me all about it. It was intriguing but I also realized that it wasn’t within the reach of my company - even though we are a large company. Today, a Cisco Telepresence Suite may only be practical for the largest of the large companies.
I have evaluated a number of video conferencing systems in my time. On the more expensive side, most of these were a dedicated unit that mounted in a room. There was a TV and a camera. The camera transmitted the images of the people in the room over dedicated circuits. All of this was, say $15,000 for the equipment on each side of the video link plus the dedicated circuits that connect the two locations. For full motion video and quality audio, you need a fair amount of bandwidth, such as a 512Kb or T1 circuit. While Cisco’s Telepresence is similar in concept to what I just described, in reality, it is so different that perhaps they shouldn’t even be compared.  

How is Cisco Telepresence different?

If you are like me, the price tag of the video conferencing system I described above was pretty expensive. Well, like many high-end restaurants, I’ll just leave the estimated price of the Cisco Telepresence suite off the menu for now, and save it for the end of the story.
The Cisco Telepresence suite is not just “different”. It is extremely different. While they are both “video conferencing systems”, the Cisco solution is in a different league.
You see, with Telepresence, the people on the other end are life size (really). When they talk, it seems like it comes from their mouth. The picture is so clear that you can really look them in the eye. There is no jitter. There is no delay when the people move or talk. In fact, I have heard that it seems so real that attendees have tried to pass papers to others in the meeting, through the screen. Sounds like Star Trek, right? However, it is here today. I mean, the “President” on 24 doesn’t have to be the only one using it. Perhaps you can get your company to install some of these. However, before you ask the boss for his checkbook, you should know what it takes to make this happen.

The Technology behind Telepresence

So what does it take to create a video conference so real that you accidentally try to “shake hands” with the person on the screen? Let’s find out…
To make this happen, you will install:
  • Qty 3 True 1080p High definition 65” plasma screen
  • High definition cameras
  • Many Microphones and Speakers
  • Special Lighting arrays
  • Paint color of the room one of the “Cisco certified color recommendations”
  • Have certain size conference table – “one half virtual table”, installed by Cisco
  • Two 1Gb Ethernet ports in the room
  • Provide 2 to 3Mbps bandwidth per active screen
  • A low latency network with QoS and voice as the priority
  • Cisco Call Manager backend for SIP call setup and connection
Surprised? I was too. But don’t worry, you don’t have to install most of it. Cisco says that they do it all for you. Cisco says that, once it is installed, it works just like a phone and it is so easy to use that an IT person is not required to setup calls.
I suppose that the bandwidth requirement really isn’t that bad. I mean, to provide for my AT&T UVerse HD TV DVR, Internet, and phone at my home, AT&T says that they have 45MB of bandwidth to my house, run over my existing copper phone cables (I wish I had that all for my Internet). In comparison, the 10Mb you may need for a conference between two cities across the continent doesn’t seem that bad. In other words, if you can afford the Telepresence units, you can defiantly afford the monthly 10Mb bandwidth cost.

(Graphics courtesy of CNET, Inc.)


Click here to find out more!
(Graphics courtesy of Cisco Systems, Inc.)