Telepresence

Verizon Business offers managed telepresence

Dan O'Shea — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:16:28 -0500

Verizon Business has teamed up with Nortel Networks to offer a managed telepresence service that will be part of the carrier's unified communications strategy. The service, "provides complete setup and management of telepresence conferences, including pre-connected and configured video circuits, and the ability for users to make conference reservations online," according to a Verizon press release.

The telco is making use of Nortel global infrastructure of Multimedia Network Operations Centers (MNOCs), and it uses the vendor's video-bridging and gateway services to create interoperability. The deal is especially significant for Nortel, as it looks for bright spots following a weak third quarter that included announcement of further jobs cuts. The company has been active in the telepresence sector from early on, and this carrier announcement is the latest in a handful of high-profile deals.

It has been a big week for telepresence, as several publications also reported that Cisco Systems is now eyeing a potential consumer market for the technology a year or so from now.

For more:
- here's the Verizon press release
- here's the Nortel press release

Polycom looks to improve videoconferencing

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:36:18 -0500

In these tough economic times, videoconferencing reduces the need for travel, and with the evolutions in high-definition and telepresence technology, all you will miss is a germ-ridden series of handshakes. Following up on what already has been an active year in the sector, conferencing vendor Polycom has announced integration with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and availability of its Polycom Converged Management Application, which manages multiple video sites and connections from a central location.

Telcos and other service providers sell Polycom products into their enterprise customers, and both of these moves aim toward a broadening of videoconferencing services, perhaps to the point where carriers can offer it as a managed hosted service.

For more:
- Telephony provides coverage

HP, Tandberg team to tackle telepresence trend

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:01:49 -0400

The telepresence market is luring more and more companies in search of a pay-off for what is essentially an expensive, high-end videoconferencing service. The current economic climate doesn't offer much encouragement that even large companies will want spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on "telepresence rooms," and at least several thousands dollars per month on service, but you wouldn't know it from the action in this sector.

Most recently, Hewlett-Packard and Tandberg have forged a partnership under which HP will sell all of Tandberg's telepresence products, and extend its own Halo Video Collaboration Service to work with Tandberg's telepresence gear. The relationship is part of Tandberg's recently announced Total Telpresence offering, in which its equipment and maintenance solutions are paired with a telepresence service from another vendor.

For more:
- read this story at Network World

BT, Tandberg make telepresence moves

Dan O'Shea — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:35:28 -0400

Telepresence continues to be one of the hottest technologies of 2008, as BT this week announced its launch of inter-company telepresence communication capabilities, and Tandberg separately expanded and upgraded its telepresence product family. Both moves come not long after Cisco Systems announced an upgrade for its telepresence system.

BT's launch of its Global Video Exchange Service makes good on roll-out plans it discussed earlier this year. Both BT and AT&T use Cisco's gear, and both committed to services allowing telepresence systems at one company to communicate with systems at a different company, perceived to be a valuable capability among corporate partners and customers. BT was among the first carriers to become associated with telepresence in early 2007.

Meanwhile, Tandberg announced a new Telepresence Server solution supporting multi-vendor conferencing endpoints, a step toward interoperability that may help broaden the market for telepresence. In addition, the company is rolling out a high-end package called Telepresence T3, which includes furniture, room decoration and high-definition cameras and screens to create a ‘same-room' feel. Another new solution, Tandberg Total Service, provides telepresence as a hosted or managed service.

For more:
- see this story about Tandberg at Telephony
- read this BT press release

Cisco unveils UC, collaboration updates; Verizon buys in

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:10:08 -0400

Cisco Systems has announced the latest version of its unified communications software, along with a new software-as-a-service offering from its WebEx platform and enhancements to its telepresence solution. The announcement is being treated by some publications almost as if this were Cisco's first entry into unified communications and collaboration. Cisco actually was among the first vendors to target UC, it acquired WebEx back in early 2007, and it also has long championed telepresence.

Among the new moves, Cisco's Unified Communications 7.0 release supports interoperability between desktop communications products from IBM and Microsoft; the new WebEx Connect supports enterprise instant messaging, document management, calendars, wikis, mobile client software and other functions; and the telepresence offering now includes TelePresence Expert-on-Demand, which enables connection from telepresence systems to contact centers for customer service, according to ComputerWorld.

Verizon Business said in conjunction with the Cisco announcement that it will leverage Cisco WebEx Connect in the small and medium-sized business market as part of hosted applications. The telco also will support the new UC software as part of its managed services offerings.

For more:
- see this report at ComputerWorld
- read this coverage at The Wall Street Journal

Tandberg talking to potential buyer

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:13:27 -0400

Oslo, Norway, videoconferencing company Tandberg, not to be confused with the Tandberg TV group now owned by Ericsson, is in preliminary acquisition talks with a private equity firm. Tandberg declined to identify the possible suitor. Some reports suggested it could be U.S. private equity firm Silver Lake. That firm declined comment on the matter to the Financial Times, but it would be interesting on at least two fronts if Silver Lake does turn out to be the suitor.

First, former longtime Cisco Systems executive Charlie Giancarlo has been on board at Silver Lake since last year. Giancarlo's former employer has been carrying the torch for telepresence, the latest evolution in videoconferencing, for some time. Now, carriers and corporate enterprise alike are taking notice of telepresence, and the marketing for telepresence gear is heating up. Tandberg announced its own telepresence efforts earlier this year.

Second, Silver Lake owns enterprise-focused Avaya, and a Silver Lake acquisition of Tandberg could result in these occasional competitors working more cooperatively.

For more:
- see this story at The Financial Times
- read this report at Light Reading

Related articles:
Giancarlo left Cisco for Silver Lake late last year. Giancarlo report
Tandberg has a telepresence partnership with Nortel. Tandberg report

AT&T joins Green Grid

Dan O'Shea — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 21:51:10 -0400

AT&T has joined the worldwide Green Grid consortium working on ways to improve energy efficiency in data centers and corporate computing systems. Telcos such at BT and Verizon Business already are part of the group, and with increasing implementation of green strategies across many industries, AT&T certainly will not be the last telco to join the Green Grid.

As Telephony reports, AT&T also is seeing the customer-facing benefits of thinking green, having launched a managed telepresence service and now testing multimedia access gateways that can support home environmental control applications.

For more:
- read this report at Telephony

Related articles:
Green intelligence is something now offered by the TIA. Green report
Green thoughts have guided BT to new services. Green report

Deloitte taps Nortel for telepresence gig

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:29:00 -0400

Deloitte, the consulting and professional services giant, this week advised itself to take advantage of emerging telepresence technology as a way to cut travel costs and hassles, as well as reduce its carbon footprint. The company signed a managed services agreement with Nortel Networks that will involve 130 Deloitte office locations being outfitted for telepresence services. Major enterprises contract directly with major vendors and systems integrators every day, but it seems interesting that despite rising carrier interest in telepresence, no carrier apparently was able to step up and give Deloitte what it was looking for in a telepresence deal that packaged gear and services. Carriers might want to pick up the pace before their partner-competitors like Nortel and Cisco Systems get all the good deals.

For more:
- read this story at Network World

Related articles:
AT&T has a telepresence partnership with Cisco AT&T report
Tandberg and Polycom were lured into the telepresence fray this spring Telepresence report