J. Nicholas Hoover of Information Week had an excellent article on Cisco's Telepresence initiative and a video interview with Cisco's CEO John Chambers where he discusses Telepresence in some length. The complete Information Week article can be found Here. My excerpts below and as usual the emphasis is mine.


Click Here or the Image Above to Watch the Interview with John Chambers

Chambers' Telepresence Vision Sign Of Demand For Collaboration

Videoconferencing's been an elusive tech dream. This time, it'll plug into other collaborative tools

By J. Nicholas Hoover, InformationWeek
May 8, 2006

Cisco CEO John Chambers is always on the lookout for the next killer app. "Every customer we've shown it to just goes, 'I've gotta have this,'" Chambers says excitedly about his latest pet project. President Bush got a demo during his visit to Cisco's headquarters last month. What's this must-have thing? Next-generation videoconferencing, known as "telepresence." Video meetings have been promised for decades, but they're still pretty much limited to occasional business functions. The broadband network, however, is ready to handle videoconferencing now, even if employees still aren't so sure. The Web is all about instant messaging, Web conferencing, blogs, wikis, streaming video--all platforms for exchanging ideas. So why shouldn't these apps be made better and simpler, combined into a more "real" communications experience? People need better collaboration tools on the job, and video in some form is going to be part of the mix.

Chambers' message is intriguing in part because video's been so tantalizingly out of reach for years. Today it's either ultra-high quality--a Hewlett-Packard and DreamWorks partnership will outfit videoconferencing studios, if money's not a big obstacle--or depressingly low end. Chambers' telepresence dangles the promise of a high-end desktop app that's as easy to use as E-mail.

The pressure is on IT teams to deliver better collaboration. U.S. gas prices are back up to around $3 a gallon, with no sign of a drop, giving companies an incentive to replace travel with rich Internet collaboration. And government officials are warning municipalities and businesses to plan for a widespread flu outbreak, including keeping people separated from each other if necessary. If there ever was a time to get people communicating online without denying them the benefits of physical proximity, this is it...

...Cisco's Chambers wouldn't reveal details about the telepresence technology he showed President Bush, other than to say the company may have something to market this year. He describes telepresence as the ability to make an IP-based video conversation as rich as face-to-face communication. "It's the first application that I've seen in a long time that isn't just a killer application; it changes business models," he says.

Chambers knows he must address the big problems of videoconferencing. Room videoconferencing systems are generally expensive. Cisco's line will likely include desktop products usable with Webcams. The key there is the quality: Telepresence by definition involves higher-definition video.

When Cisco brings telepresence to market, expect it to announce both room-based and PC products, integrating them into its unified communications offerings. It already sells the IP/VC product line that supports videoconferencing, including a gateway for desktop systems, a video terminal adapter that connects room-based systems to an IP network, and a control unit for linking people from different locations. Its Unified Personal Communicator has videoconferencing capabilities. But these aren't the kind of high-volume, easy-as-E-mail options that Chambers promises to deliver.

Quality and ease of use are only part of the reason businesses haven't bought into videoconferencing. Many don't see the value. Is this a mass market app like phone and E-mail--or a niche? "This is leading edge, so there's always a chance the technology won't work as we expect," Chambers admits. "Time will see if it plays out to the level that I hope it will in terms of functionality."

Others are trying. Besides Live Communicator, Microsoft has Live Communications Server and Live Meeting for face-to-face discussions. Tandberg and Polycom offer unified communications suites with high-definition video, but their products haven't set the market on fire. A report by Wainhouse Research in September characterized videoconferencing adoption as "a disappointment" and said some companies have actually decreased their use.

Among the believers, Cigna Healthcare recently began letting customers exchange written communications with physicians at a secure Web site, resulting in "virtual house calls." "Telepresence could be more than a next step in this process--it has the potential to be a quantum leap," CIO Scott Storrer says. "This technology could enable us to provide members with video health coaching in their home and also connect them to their doctors in real time." The health care industry is likely to lead the way in video. Another likely leader is the court system, where some are experimenting with video appearances to avoid the cost and risk of shuttling accused criminals for every step in the process.

The promise is real, whether it's for a new generation of videoconferencing that delivers the feeling of a face-to-face meeting, or the more near-term goal of melding online interaction into a more manageable console. The need to support increasingly distributed workforces and business partnerships, as well as anticipate $5-per-gallon gas and a flu pandemic, should at least put telepresence on the radar of business technology leaders. But cultural and technical barriers could stall the market for years, just like they did for VoIP, Chambers' last killer app.

HSL Note: Cigna Insurance, whose CIO Scott Storrer was quoted in the article above, was (and still is) an early TeleSuite customer with two TeleSuites Systems linking their headquarters in Philadelphia and offices in Bloomfield, CT. With only two location they leave their TeleSuite Systems connected all day so that if the systems are not in use for a meeting employees can pop in and chat. Cigna's usage was the basis for an interesting article in the Philadelphia Inquirer which can be found Here.