Cisco introduces telepresence system

Cisco Systems today introduced what it calls a “telepresence system” that provides realistic, remote “face-to-face” meeting experiences over video. Though most people would call it video-conferencing, Cisco would prefer they don’t.

“We never use that term,” said Al Safarikas, senior director of Cisco’s global wireline segment. “This is nothing like that term.”

The system consists of one or three high-definition video screens mounted on a desk in front of a light wall. Cisco claims the experience is far more realistic than other video-conferencing applications. All participants are presented life-sized. Cameras are mounted to allow for direct eye contact. Microphones are positioned to allow for sidebar conversations on either side of the desk. And the screens are equipped with ultrahigh-definition video to make the tiniest details visible.

The screens are 1080P plasma displays, meaning the entire screen is refreshed 1080 lines at a time. Some of the best HDTVs sold commercially today contain only 720 lines, only half of which are refreshed at a time, Cisco said.

“It’s spookily lifelike,” Safarikas said, recounting anecdotes in which participants read the small type on a water bottle presented onscreen. “It’s very much like being there.”

The system, available in December, requires 3 Mb/s to 4 Mb/s per screen. It delivers five nines availability, latency below 300 milliseconds, less than 10 milliseconds of jitter and packet loss between 0.03% and 0.05%. The users on either end must be linked by the same carrier using an IP/MPLS network, as the system cannot yet traverse two different carrier networks. And the link must be either private or virtually private, as the application is not meant to traverse the public Internet.

It also allows for value-added services such as video concierges. For example, if participants need to include a third party, such as a translator or a lawyer, a video concierge could locate and obtain one.

The single-screen version costs about $80,000. The triple-screen version is about $300,000.

AT&T is currently testing the product, Cisco said.

The release of Cisco’s platform today prompted videoconferencing supplier Teliris to issue a statement deriding the new offering and even using the forbidden word twice. “While Cisco will have its place in the video-conferencing market, their system is clearly a first-generation product offering with significant compromises and limitations," said Marc Trachtenberg, Teliris’ chief executive officer. "The Cisco video-conferencing product is offered at the same buying price point as our fourth generation telepresence solution, but fails to deliver the service, the high-quality eye-to-eye contact, the multipoint meeting capability, and the connectivity within and between companies that Teliris has made available for more than four years. Teliris has always offered a fully working meeting environment with fixed on-going costs, known effectiveness and guaranteed reliability."

When asked, Cisco executives were not immediately aware whether any of its telepresence technology came from a similarly focused research project at McGill University last year, which Cisco helped fund.