Publically Available Telepresence and the Network Effect: Cisco and Regus Perspective

2007.06.05 by John Serrao

The following article was written by Ed Kohler, a member of the Lab's TW2007 Coverage Partner, Technology Evangelist.

While pretty much all of the telepresence solutions on display at Telepresence World are impressive and have the ability to improve business communications, the power of this is largely limited by the number of units deployed. It doesn't take a telepresence expert to understand that spending hundred of thousands of dollars to enable face to face conversations between only two people is rarely justified. But as soon as a third, then fourth, fifth and counting unit connects to the network, the number of communications opportunities grows exponentially.

Cisco's James Peters explained this concept in a presentation titled, "Public Telepresence: The Network Effect" and focused primarily on a worldwide telepresence initiative between Cisco and Regus, the largest supplier of office space, meeting and conference rooms in the world. Regus is planning on rolling out 50 Cisco powered conference rooms around the globe starting in 2008. The telepresence powered conference rooms will be available for rent by business people for conferences between Regus centers as well as Regus to business installations of Cisco telepresence systems. Park Ave in New York City and Atlanta are two early location mentioned for Regus telepresence centers.

The goal here is to apply Metcalfe's Law regarding the power of communications networks to telepresence.

Cisco and Regus has been listening to demand for telepresence solutions, and have found opportunities largely near companies who are interested in integrating telepresence into their workflow, but can't justify dedicated units on their own campuses.