The ‘wow’ factor

Ben Kelly

Ben Kelly is a columnist at MyBroadband, and writes about basically anything in the tech world which he finds interesting. He is also a...

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OK, SO CISCO’S TelePresence isn’t new. The global networking giant has been implementing it internally and selling it to clients for the past 18 months. But it’s still relatively new in South Africa and prohibitively high bandwidth costs mean it’s going to remain a niche-use technology in the short to medium term.

TelePresence has been referred to as “next generation video conferencing” and “video conferencing on steroids”. But Cisco prefers to steer clear of any reference to video conferencing at all – precisely because the old generation experience was (is) so terrible. Cisco claims TelePresence is a whole new experience in meeting people virtually with as much reality as possible.

However, it was naturally with a healthy dose of scepticism I went along to take a “test drive” at Cisco’s offices in Bryanston, north of Johannesburg. Even the prior warning from Cisco’s director of SA operations Kumaran Nair about the “wow” factor that chief investment officers in non-bandwidth constrained markets are apparently lapping up didn’t soften me at first.

However, it certainly is an almost magical experience. London-based Cisco TelePresence business development manager Ian Gander (whom I felt I met in person) says the intention was to create a meeting environment that was natural to humans. Attention to detail is key, with each TelePresence room replicating the environment in every corresponding room so it feels as if you’re sitting across the same desk as the person you’re “meeting”. That down to the desks, chairs, colour of the walls and even the carefully controlled lighting.

The monitors are ultra-high definition, so the picture is almost too good to be true, and the technologies are all next generation and fully integrated into Cisco’s unified communications platform. A Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes meeting request sets up the interaction and you simply enter the room at the right time and press a single button next to the meeting detailed on the IP phone in the room to start the call.

Cost-wise it isn’t a technology for the small business or home user. But Gander says the return on investment for large companies is compelling. He says Cisco – which already has 241 units in its offices worldwide and uses TelePresence regularly to replace costly inter-company meetings – has already saved US$180,4m (almost R1,4bn) in airline flight costs and claims some clients are getting payback on their investment within six to nine months.

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