First, my apologies for taking so long to get this announcement and article posted to the site. We were scrambling last week to set up a trip to the west coast where we are this week with a three person video crew shooting video for the website and our YouTube Channel at MacWorld, Cisco Systems, and the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Last year we were experimenting with shooting video (see some of our early efforts Here and Here. The success that we had with video has led us to increase our focus on video in the coming year and this is our first trip out to apply the lessons that we learned in 2006 to better communicate our research into telepresence, effective visual collaboration, and personal and organizational productivity.

Speaking of productivity, one of our other major goals for 2007 is to expand our evaluation and review of the technologies and tools that we believe will give our readers and their organizations the biggest boost in both in personal and organizational productivity. While our main focus in 2006 was telepresence (which is the technology that I believe has the most potential to improve business effectiveness and productivity for global organizations) I am also interested in sharing the lessons, technologies, and tools that we have discovered for helping the widest possible audience vs. telepresence which, while remaining a critical focus of our efforts, unfortunately due to its cost and position on the technology adoption curve remains a solution of interest primarily to the global 5000 and their vendors and joint venture partners with a need to be directly connected to them.

So we had planned to focus this week on personal and organizational productivity but events in the telepresence industry have overtaken us... Look for a video update from us from San Francisco later today...

HP and TANDBERG to Deliver Full Portfolio of Visual Collaboration Solutions

PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 3, 2007 - HP (HPQ) and TANDBERG (OSLO: TAA.OL), a global leader in visual communication, today announced an alliance to make their respective telepresence and video conferencing portfolios interoperable.
As a result, businesspeople will soon be able to collaborate using everything from the immersive telepresence experience of HP's Halo Collaboration Studios to TANDBERG's conference room and desktop-based systems.

HP and TANDBERG have agreed to pursue a development program that will allow TANDBERG's industry-leading standards-based video conferencing systems to operate on the HP Halo Video Exchange Network (HVEN), which powers the Halo experience.
Users of TANDBERG video solutions will have the opportunity to experience significant quality improvements and, at the same time, users of HP Halo Studios will be able to extend their communications links to TANDBERG systems worldwide.

Enabling natural, personal connections across cities or around the world, HP's HVEN is a dedicated and secure, high-bandwidth, full duplex, worldwide fiber optic network. Halo on the HVEN significantly increases team effectiveness, provides faster decision-making capabilities and decreases the need for travel.

With its alliance with TANDBERG, HP intends to extend the application of the HVEN from a dedicated telepresence network to one that enables full interoperability between HP Halo and traditional standard-based video conferencing.

"Interoperability between immersive studio environments, such as HP Halo, and standards-based video conferencing solutions has become a key requirement for our customers," said Ken Crangle, general manager, Halo Collaboration Studio Unit, HP. "This alliance answers that need as we will be able to provide customers with a complete portfolio of conferencing and collaboration solutions from immersive telepresence studios to executive desktop solutions."

Deploying TANDBERG solutions on the HVEN will enable customers to enjoy reliable, high-quality video applications such as high-definition video without requiring further investments in internal IT resources or upgrades to corporate networks. For HP Halo customers, the addition of TANDBERG's systems to the HVEN will allow them to use a broader suite of collaboration solutions.

"By leveraging HVEN, customers can unleash the full power of TANDBERG systems for a greater video experience," said Geir Olsen, executive vice president, TANDBERG. "With this alliance, customers can be assured of uncompromised video and audio quality and reliability every time they are in a video call, whether at the desktop, in the conference room or in a Halo Studio."

The companies plan to begin marketing each others' solutions in the coming months.