More information on Cisco's Telepresence initiative hit the internet today. Since there does not seem to be any publicly available photographs of the Cisco Telepresence Business Unit's group telepresence environment: "Big" I decided to illustrate the post with what I believe to be the earliest known reference to the concept of visual communication: Tom Swift and his Photo Telephone. First published in 1914 by Victor Appleton the book's alternate/subtitle: The Picture that Saved a Fortune seems apropos given the Billion Dollar Stakes involved in being the first company to set "The Standard" for effective Inter-Company visual collaboration.

In reading a review and excerpts from the book found Here, I found it especially interesting that "Tom" addresses the human factors of his collaborative environments by locating the photo telephones in "closed booth structures under bright lights, in order to get the devices to send a good picture."

The new article that covers Cisco's telepresence initiative can be found on CIO magazine's website Here:

Here are some choice excerpts: (The emphasis is mine)

President and Chief Executive Officer John Chambers gave a few clues on Wednesday about a "telepresence" system that he said will make videoconferencing more lifelike; the company is soon to unveil software for enterprises to manage and present video content for employees, partners and the public.

The telepresence system will use "life-size" high-definition video and directional sound technology that makes voices seem to come from where a user is located at the remote site, Chambers said. It will even include better lighting than current systems, said Donald Proctor, senior vice president of Cisco's Voice Technology Group, in an interview at the conference. Proctor declined to give more details on the technology.

Cisco expects the system to be announced later this year and become commercially available in about a year, Proctor said.

Videoconferencing has had a rocky history over many years, with expectations of a boom frequently dashed. Previous systems have failed because of complexity, high cost and generally poor quality, according to Proctor.

Cisco will solve the complexity problem by making the telepresence system just one component of its overall Unified Communications architecture, which also includes IP (Internet protocol) telephony, text messaging, application collaboration and desktop videoconferencing, Proctor said. Enterprises will be able to plug it into that infrastructure, he said. Telepresence initially is designed not for desktop use but for corporate boardrooms or dedicated videoconference rooms, Proctor said.

In a question-and-answer session with media at the conference, Chambers signaled a strong emphasis on video at Cisco.

"Video communications is the most effective way to communicate there is," Chambers said, referring to both videoconferencing and video on demand. However, he added that it will continue to coexist with other forms of communications.

It will be interesting to see if "Big" is all it is being cracked up to be or just a Cisco delaying tactic to keep companies from investing in proven, effective visual collaboration systems that are available today from Destiny Conferencing, Digital Video Enterprises, HP Halo Collaboration Systems, Telanetix, Teliris, and others.