TANDBERG has launched the TANDBERG T3, a six-seat telepresence group system that replaces the TANDBERG Experia.  The system is available as a modular system or with an optional environmental package that provides chairs and an innovatively designed Nordic blue backdrop and lighting package that combine to make remote participants pop off the screen.

TANDBERG has also launched the new TANDBERG Telepresence Server that stitches together telepresence and traditional videoconferencing endpoints from other vendors into multi-point formats that leverage the unique multi-screen capabilities of telepresence environments

Additionally, TANDBERG and alliance partner HP Halo Collaboration Solutions have announced a partnership where HP will resell TANDBERG telepresence and video communications solutions and offer managed video services on the HP Halo Video Exchange Network (HVEN).

Get the details here along with Human Productivity Lab President Howard Lichtman's thoughts and analysis on the TANDBERG T-3, The TANDBERG Telepresence Server, and HP Halo's Managed Video Services

Also:  Telepresence People and sign up for our occasional newsletter the Telepresence Options Telegraph which we will be releasing next week and get an exclusive copy of a presentation that Howard recently gave on "Telepresence as Economic Disaster Recovery" to a group of CIOs, CTOs, and other executives at a private telecommunications consortium meeting last week.

UPDATE - September 16th, 2008 - Three more airlines have declared bankruptcy in the last week: Spanish carrier Futura, it's Irish subsidiary Futura Gael, and XL Leisure Group who stranded 89,000 customers abroad and left another 200,000 ticket holders in the lurch. Willie Walsh, the CEO of British Airways, openly predicted that an additional 30 airlines could disappear by the end of the year.   The Irish bookmaker Paddy Power has opened a book on which airline will go bust next.  British Airways confirmed that it has offered buyouts to 1,400 managers.

Telepresence's impact on the airlines is starting to be felt... HSBC, which recently announced a deployment of 6 Cisco TelePresence systems, reports that they were able to save $604,000 on air travel in one month between their London HQ and their Hong Kong office.  Publicly available telepresence deployments are starting to accelerate.  Tata Communications has launched the first five publicly available Cisco TelePresence systems in what they have announced will be a 100 system global roll-out by the end of 2009. PangeAir has begun rolling out publicly available telepresence locations in Hyatt hotels and launched a publicly available location in the Dayton Convention Center.  The Human Productivity Lab has relaunched our website for Powwow Virtual and is seeking partners and investors for our business model for a global network of publicly available telepresence conferencing centers featuring multiple telepresence systems connected to multiple telepresence Community of Interest Networks.   

A couple of weeks ago I participated in a webinar on telepresence and telepresence managed services for VoIP News sponsored by Nortel.  I shared the virtual stage with Hugh McCullen, the GM of Nortel's Telepresence and Multimedia Services.  During the webinar I discussed both the benefits of telepresence to the enterprise and the business case for investing now including the collapse of commercial aviation and telepresence as "Economic Disaster Recovery".  Hugh McCullen discussed Nortel's Video Network Operation Center (VNOC) and managed services around telepresence. 

In the article you can find a link to view the webinar or simply browse the slides presented in the presentation.  I have also added some thoughts on telepresence as "Economic Disaster Recovery"

Topics covered include:

What is Telepresence?
Connecting Supercomputing Human Brains
Telepresence Community of Interest Networks (CoINs)
The Coming Telepresence Utility Hockey Stick
Telepresence as "Economic Disaster Recovery"
Future Proofing Your Telepresence Investment
Telepresence Managed Service Providers
Nortel's Video Roadmap to Enterprise Transformation

Forrester Research interviewed Human Productivity Lab founder and Telepresence Options publisher Howard Lichtman for their recent publication: The CIO's Role in Enterprise Collaboration: Tapping the Groundswell. The superb report by Liz Brady, Maggie Zweiben, Laura Koetzle, and Nigel Fenwick explores best practices for using collaboration tools (including telepresence) for strategic advantage.  The full report is, unfortunately, only available to the C-level executives on Forrester's CIO Leadership Board, however, they were good enough to allow us to republish Howard's interview.

Plus: 

We have updated the Human Productivity Lab's Telepresence Consulting Website. We have added examples of some of the consulting services we have provided to global Fortune 20 oil companies, international investment banks, and national / international standards bodies. On the vendor side we have included information on Arming Telepresence Commission Driven Mercenaries, our open source competitive overview/sales training for telepresence vendors, managed service providers, and carriers. We have also included examples of consulting engagements for established telepresence vendors and those looking to enter the telepresence marketplace.

Info on how to sign up for tomorrow's free webinar on telepresence featuring Human Productivity Lab President and Telepresence Options publisher Howard Lichtman: Bringing High Definition to Your Data Network

According to industry analysts the market for telepresence managed services could be worth up to $4 Billion per year in the coming years. Perhaps this is why telepresence and videoconferencing managed service providers have been in the news lately with BT Conferencing acquiring WireOne Communications in April and Nortel Global Services announcing a deal to provide managed telepresence and videoconferencing services to as many as 130 of Deloitte's member firm locations around the world.  A deal that could be worth, by my back o' the napkin calculations, up to $25MM+ a year in revenue depending on the final mix of telepresence, traditional videoconferencing end-points, and network connections. So when I saw that our friends at Wainhouse Research had interviewed Glowpoint CEO Mike Brandofino I though our audience would be interested in what he had to say. I also interviewed Hugh McCullen from Nortel Global Services and Brian Kinne from Iformata Communications as well and threw in some of my thoughts and analysis for good measure.
PLUS An upcoming webconference on telepresence with Howard Lichtman

Telepresence Industry Professionals is now over 350 members!

InfoComm in Las Vegas was held the week of June 14th in Las Vegas. Telepresence Options was there getting the scoop on the latest and greatest in the field of Telepresence, Telepresence Managed Services, and Inter-networking Telepresence
Including "What makes a visual collaboration solution... Telepresence?"

PLUS updates on Digital Illusions, Digital Video Enterprises, Electrosonic, Glowpoint, HaiVision, HP Halo/TANDBERG, IMCCA, IPV Gateways, LifeSize Communications, Telanetix, TelePresence Tech, Teliris, Vidyo, and Virtela

Polycom announced that they have expanded their TPX product line with the addition of dual and single screen systems as well as added content on the table (pop up data collaboration screens) to the TPX 306M. 

Plus  Telepresence @ InfoComm - Best Bets!

Digital Video Enterprises (DVE) today announced two new telepresence systems: The DVE Telepresence Stage, a portable telepresence system for projecting realistic life-size people and floating 3-D objects onto a stage environment and the DVE Huddle Room 70, a telepresence group system with a hidden, eye-level codec and a frameless display image. .

PLUS Telepresence@InfoComm

High performance IP network provider MASERGY yesterday announced a solution for securely connecting telepresence and videoconferencing endpoints on disparate IP Networks.  Telepresence Options Publisher Howard Lichtman, sat down with Chris Carr, Director of Video Markets at MASERGY to get the scoop.

PLUS Telepresence@InfoComm

The Crash of Commercial Aviation Continues (We updated the HPL Timeline of Airlines Bankruptcies, Mergers, Acquisitions, and Fiascoes.)

Telepresence Options and Human Productivity Lab Website Traffic Through the Roof!

Human Productivity Lab YouTube Channel over 1,000,000 views!!

Somewhere between Orwell's Telescreen and the Star Trek Holodeck, lies another fictional idea, this one from the Victorian era, where a magical tunnel connects two remote ends of the earth together.   This intriguing device was trying to transmit images of people half way around the world while the participant would, simultaneously, be able to watch their audience.  Fast forward 100 years and this dream has been transformed into reality. 

This device is known as The Telectroscope, an art installation created by the British artist Paul St George in cooperation with this main sponsors Artichoke and Tiscali Communications.  St George and his sponsors first explained the device with a wonderfully fabricated story involving St George's great grandfather and some old fashioned schematics.  However, the real story behind this strange device is as fascinating - and fictitious - as the one St. George and Co. dreamt up.