At Telepresence World in San Diego, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Marc Trachtenberg, the CEO, CTO, Cofounder, and Deputy Chairman of Teliris, the global commercial leader in installed telepresence systems. Marc discussed Teliris' work on interoperability between disparate telepresence systems, its new web interface for telepresence meetings, his recent announcement of 11 new Fortune 1000 customers deploying 50 new telepresence systems, and the company's recent $40 million dollar capital raise from Columbia Capital and Fidelity Ventures.

First, some of the key takeaways from the interview:
Teliris has launched the Teliris Telepresence Gateway, an interoperability platform to connect Teliris VirtuaLive telepresence systems to disparate telepresence systems from other vendors, traditional standards-based videoconferencing systems, audio and desktop conferencing systems, and even web-enabled devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. The Telepresence Gateway handles the signaling and transcoding between the assorted video and audio codecs from disparate manufacturers for interoperability with Teliris' VirtuaLive telepresence systems.

The Telepresence Gateway is built on a proprietary offering from Teliris called the Dynamic Scenerio Manager (DSM), an algorithmic engine that understands the geometric logic of the Teliris telepresence environment and now the geometric logic, signaling, and protocols of telepresence systems from other vendors. The DSM is then able to set up the optimum configuration for multi-site meetings between rooms of various sizes, number of participants, number of screens, etc.

Teliris has upgraded the DSM to now understand the geometrical logic of connecting to disparate telepresence systems. Marc specifically mentioned Cisco TelePresence, HP Halo Collaboration Studios, Polycom RPX, and Tandberg Expedia as telepresence systems they have modeled in the DSM.

The capability addresses one of the biggest challenges for interoperability between telepresence systems: Connecting disparate systems while maintaining the eye-lines, directional audio, culturally correct format and other human factors to create a seamless experience.

Screenshot of Teliris WebConnect - Provided by Teliris

The company also announced WebConnect, a web tool that allows remote participants to engage in virtual meetings from any broadband Internet-connected device. WebConnect lets remote participants view images from up to four screens in the meeting as well as any presentations or data being shared. The remote participants can see the nonverbal cues of the participants to appropriately time interjections and can also take over and run the presentation from their Internet-connected device. Marc even mentions testing the connection on a train from Boston to New York using a laptop connected with one of the new Verizon EVDO Rev A cards.

Teliris also announced 11 new Fortune 1000 customers deploying a total of 50 new VirtuaLive systems, continuing his company's lead in publicly announced customer installations. The new customers include Fidelity, Sony Ericsson, QUALCOMM, Tate & Lyle, Royal Bank of Scotland and Merck. As reported by the company's press release, a number of customers wish to remain confidential, including: "an international media entertainment company, a major consumer product conglomerate, one of the largest tobacco manufacturers, a preeminent international bank, and a major telecommunications group." Marc also mentions in the interview that one Teliris customer is deploying a total of 35 systems throughout their enterprise.

Teliris VirtuaLive HD Unified

Marc discusses a trend that I have also noticed when talking with current and potential telepresence end users: The discussion about ROI has shifted from travel savings to the cost savings from business effectiveness that telepresence brings to organizations. Marc gives the example of a pharmaceutical customer that saved $11 million in travel avoidance one year and $12 million the next year, which the firm's President of R&D found irrelevant compared to shaving five months off the development cycle of bringing a new drug to market.

Marc also shared details about the firm's recent $40 million capital raise, led by John Siegel at Columbia Capital and Anne Mitchell at Fidelity Ventures. The proceeds of his new capital are being used to:

* Increase public awareness of Teliris through sponsorship of events like Telepresence World, where Teliris was able to participate as Diamond level sponsors alongside Cisco, Polycom, and Telanetix.

* Expand partnerships and channel partnerships. Marc specifically mentions a partnership with BT Conferencing, which has added the Teliris VirtuaLive platform to its portfolio of visual collaboration solutions.

* The company has also ramped up its manufacturing capabilities to deal with the influx of new orders.

Most interestingly, Marc mentions Research & Development will not see a great deal of new investment. Marc believes the company has enough R&D "in the can" to remain product and feature-rich for the next 18 months.

Teliris VirtuaLive HD Executive

Marc also discusses his company's relationship with Columbia Capital and Fidelity Ventures, both of which Marc believes fundamentally understand the value of the telepresence industry as more than simply one step up from videoconferencing.

HSL's Thoughts and Analysis

My last interview with Marc in May 2006 and the analysis it inspired on telepresence versus executive aviation remain one of the top five most downloaded articles on HPL's website. The interview has been watched over 400 times on the Lab's YouTube channel and another 490 views of the legacy version we are hosting on our website. Only our interviews of Randy Harrell and Phil Marechal at Cisco have more views in our interview series.

In the May 21st 2006 article that accompanied the interview, I identified Teliris, TeleSuite/Destiny Conferencing, Digital Video Enterprises, and Telanetix as four companies to watch in the telepresence industry. So in addition to the obvious continued success of Teliris, how did I do as a prognosticator?

Destiny Conferencing was acquired by Polycom in January 2006 for $50 million in cash and a potential $10 million dollar earn out over the next two years. Telanetix recently announced a customer backlog in the third quarter and has seen its shares rise from $2.15 to $5 today, trading as high as $7.39 along the way. Digital Video Enterprises stole the show at Telepresence World, astounding the assembled delegates with its revolutionary, seamless tele-immersion room.

Now that I've broken my arm patting myself on the back, let's return to my promised thoughts and analysis on Teliris:

The company seems poised to continue its winning streak. Take a look at what the company has going for it:

* Properly capitalized with strong investors from tier-one funds famous for their active participation in supporting their portfolio companies.

* New partners and channel partners, including the super-strong BT Conferencing with its global reach, global IP MPLS network, global sales and support organization, and visionary CEO.

* WebConnect, improved manufacturing and installation capabilities, and the institutional knowledge gained by being in the industry for six years.

* A growing network of Global Fortune 5000 customers connected together in a telepresence-effective visual collaboration Community of Interest Network (CoIN), the value of which grows exponentially as additional members join. Each new Teliris customer increases the utility and value of the network as a whole by reducing the transaction costs and improving the productivity of conducting business among the growing number of participants in a self-reinforcing virtuous cycle.

* The Telepresence Gateway and their work on interoperability which also increases the utility of the Teliris offering by providing a capability to connect to disparate telepresence and videoconferencing systems.

So where did I go wrong in my predictions? I thought for sure that Teliris (and at least one more of the others) would have been bought up by now by global Fortune 2000 players looking to supercharge their entry into what is looking like a billion dollar market.

Stay tuned on that front... more to come...

Full Disclosure: Teliris was one of eight sponsors of the Lab's 2006/2007 paper Telepresence, Effective Visual Collaboration, and the Future of Global Business at the Speed of Light. They are one of two sponsors of our telepresence industry weblink directory and one of an estimated 11+ sponsors for our upcoming multi-vendor survey of Telepresence and Effective Visual Collaboration: Telepresence Options 2008.

Telepresence People

The multi-talented Ray Siuta has crossed the finish line of retirement. Prior to settling down and taking it easy until he grows bored out of his skull, Ray had most recently led the global launch of the HP Halo Collaboration Studio. Prior to Halo Ray had been the business strategy manager for the Ink Supplies Business which saw multi-billions of dollars of growth during Ray's tenure and remains one of HP's most profitable divisions. Ray also participated in a number of successful start up efforts at HP including: calculators, ink jet supplies, and personal storage. Ray was also the first sponsor for the Lab's 2006/2007 paper: Telepresence, Effective Visual Collaboration, and the Future of Global Business at the Speed of Light for which we remain grateful! The Lab wishes Ray a superb and well deserved retirement!

The incredibly busy Darren Podrabsky has taken over the ropes as acting Marketing Manager at HP Halo Collaboration Solutions.

Aaron Roe has returned to the telepresence industry as Vice President of Business Development at telepresence managed service provider: Iformata