Category Archives: Cisco Video Conferencing
2011
Obama Orders Use of Video Conferencing to Promote Efficient Spending by Federal Government
Reducing business travel to save money has long been recognized as one of the major benefits of video conferencing. However, a November 9th executive order promoting efficient spending made it official when President Obama ordered the following: “…to ensure efficient travel spending, agencies are encouraged to devise strategic alternatives to Government travel, …such as teleconferencing and video conferencing.”
When it comes to video collaboration, the most commonly used measure for return on investment (ROI) is savings from reduced business travel. Companies around the world have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars each year by offering employees alternatives to flying to meet with colleagues, partners, or clients face-to-face.
But reduced costs is just one of the benefits of reducing the need to travel for business.
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2011
Telepresence and Digital Signage Offer 21st Century Tools for Schools
Is telepresence technology at the leading edge of a fundamental change in how future generations of students will be educated – not just at the grade school level, but also in institutions of higher learning? As the world becomes more oriented towards visual representations of information, the chance for video conferencing and delivery systems to play a formative role in bringing a fresh perspective to learning looms large over the entire industry.
Students at Pymble Ladies College (PLC) offer an interesting example of how administrators and teachers alike are partnering with telepresence providers such as Cisco in order to create a blended curriculum that places a heavy emphasis on participatory, image-based learning. The PLC campus has embraced connectivity as part of an effort to engage children and teenagers (from kindergarten to grade 12) who have grown up in a world where mobile phones and internet messaging and browsing software allow for instant communications and easy access to information, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Pymble Ladies College has deployed an array of technologies – including Cisco MXE and Digital Signage – to enhance its telepresence strategy and create an environment where students feel comfortable interacting with digital video media.
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2011
Cisco TelePresence Offers Medical Personnel A New Emergency Management Tool
Telepresence technology is becoming a more common feature of medical practices around the world, but it can also serve an important health care role outside of the traditional hospital setting. In fact, the benefits of video conferencing technology are beginning to work their way into the emergency recovery plans of medical administrators forced to manage the staggering needs of disasters whose scope sometimes overwhelms the capacity of standard medical deployment.
The recent flooding that has threatened over one hundred thousand Thai citizens offers a glimpse into how video conferencing can help the medical establishment provide a higher level of care to disaster victims. In a flood situation, the rising waters pose more than just a danger to residents who are unable to evacuate in time. Rivers that break their banks also cut off access to food, drinkable water, health care, and other important resources. The disruption in travel and distribution channels can effectively isolate populations from the services and supplies that they need, including emergency medics and rescue personnel.
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2011
Videoconferencing Professionals LinkedIn Group Roundup – September 2011
September was a fruitful month for conversation in the Videoconferencing Professionals LinkedIn group, with a healthy amount of participation from group members on a wide range of different topics. Trygve Wettestad, business development manager at Orange Business Services, started an intriguing discussion about the benefits of video conferencing via cloud-based video solutions versus those which run on a dedicated infrastructure owned outright by the client.
The general consensus of the group was that cloud-based video was notable for its ability to save on the up-front costs associated with dedicated video conferencing hardware, as well as reducing or eliminating the expense of the specialized training required to use and maintain it. This trends small and medium-sized businesses towards cloud-based communications, while larger organizations with greater access to IT resources favor the stability and lower long-term total cost of ownership afforded by a dedicated solution (like Cisco TelePresence). John Skeehan, senior product marketing manager at LifeSize, and Dave Dumas, project manager at Cox Communications, each provided particularly insightful comments and information during the course of the discussion.
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2011
Cisco Unveils New Telepresence Products at InfoComm 2011
Cisco took the opportunity presented by this past month’s InfoComm 2011 industry gathering to showcase some of the new telepresence products that it is bringing to market. One of the most intriguing new members of the Cisco TelePresence family is the TelePresence MX200 endpoint, which is intended to offer more affordable video communications to a wide range of business customers who are looking for a multi-room telepresence solution.
The TelePresence MX200 is self-configuring and can adjust to a new room in approximately 15 minutes using a simple on-screen setup process. Designed specifically to pull double-duty in both small conference rooms and individual offices, the endpoint’s 42-inch display is capable of full 1080p30 HD video and content sharing, as well as HD surround sound. The concept behind the MX200 is “TelePresence Everywhere,” as the unit is priced so as to make it feasible for companies to deploy multiple endpoints throughout their office space or facility.
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2011
Videoconferencing Professionals Linkedin Group Roundup – June 2011
Most Popular Discussions for June, 2011
The Videoconferencing Professionals group on Linkedin is a fairly active one, and this past June was no exception. Elie Massakbi, President of Syfx Tekworks (@leftyserve) tapped into the collective knowledge of the group’s 7,000+ members when he asked for a conferencing solution that would allow his company to cover a large room without the complications associated with wiring more than one microphone. Almost 50 telecommunications professionals chimed in with their suggestions as to how he could achieve a single microphone setup that would offer clear audio and still be practical, with solutions ranging from ceiling microphones (posted by Gerry Murphy of Infocor, Twitter handle @Gmurph61) to multiple-mic housings offered by Polycom and LifeSize (posted by David Schofield of Videonations).
These two options were backed up by numerous member endorsements, including several stemming from real-world experience using these types of devices in videoconferencing situations. Further potential microphone suggestions included the Audio Science mics offered by Cisco, as well as Revolab mics.
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2011
Cisco Video Collaboration Guide: Four Steps to Understanding the Possibilities of Video for Your Organization
Many businesses are interested in adopting a telepresence strategy or expanding the role of the video conferencing technology that they are already using within the organization. It is not always clear, however, what the best course forward is in selecting which areas of a business can benefit the most from video communications. To help provide decision makers with a resource that they can turn to when pondering these questions, Cisco has published a white paper entitled “Cisco Video Collaboration Guide: Four Steps to Understanding the Possibilities of Video for Your Organization.”
The “Cisco Video Collaboration Guide” starts out with a brief overview of the impact that video conferencing technology can have on a business’s practices and bottom line. It then quickly delves into the benefits offered by telepresence, including the ability to move faster and make decisions more quickly across an organization, the opportunity to more readily access experts within a company regardless of where they might be located geographically, and the way that video communications can create a tighter-knit group of co-workers and allow those employees to achieve a better work-life balance. Each positive aspect of video conferencing technology is backed up by a real world mini-case study.
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2011
Videoconferencing Professionals Linkedin Group Roundup – April, 2011
Joining a Linkedin group such as the Videoconferencing Professionals group gives those in the telepresence and video conferencing industry the chance to connect with like-minded individuals and participate in lively discussions and brainstorming sessions about technology, the social implications of video collaboration, and the future of videoconferencing. With 7,426 members, there is never a lack of something to talk about in this helpful and useful group.
Most Popular Discussions for April, 2011
By far the conversation which gathered the most interest this past April was a question from Bill Moede, a multi-media producer at CESA 7 (@bmoede), who asked how to bridge Skype connections to his Polycom network. More than 80 replies provided Bill with tips, software suggestions, and a debate about the merits of linking low-quality video conferencing software to a high end telepresence system. Blue Jeans Network was mentioned several times as one of the most user-friendly ways to achieve this type of interconnectivity.
Other lively discussions centered on a question from Rui Ribeiro of GÉANT’s (@racribeiro) about the best software suites or techniques to use when testing Ipv6 H323-enabled terminals, feedback for Darren Pitt of Saville Audio Visual (@Darren_Pitt) about ClearSea video conferencing tools, and an article posted by Keisuke Hashimoto of CNAR (@cnareportjapan), originally published by Computerworld, discussing Cisco’s plans for repositioning the umi personal telepresence system.
Top Influencer for April, 2011
The ability of his Skype question to stir up such a whirlwind of conversation makes Bill Moede the top influencer in the Video Conferencing Professionals group for April, 2011. Moede’s question was one of several conversations over the course of the month that involved Skype and its role in a business telepresence strategy, suggesting that he set the entire group to thinking about this consumer-level technology and whether it has true benefits that can be explored by corporations seeking an inexpensive video conferencing solution.
Benjamin Hunting
KBZ Blogging Team
2011
New Cisco Study On Video Conferencing and Collaboration – Key Findings and Takeaways (Part 2)
Last week, we took a look at the findings of a video collaboration and telepresence study that was commissioned by Cisco in order to sample the opinions and experiences of 6,000 global professionals regarding video conferencing technology. This post continues our examination of the Ipsos Mori study (The Benefits and Barriers to Video Collaboration Adoption) with a more detailed parsing of how telepresence is impacting the lives of workers around the world, and, in turn, the companies that they work for.
There is no question that once past the initial investment required to install a corporate video conferencing infrastructure there are significant savings to be had through the use of this technology. Two of the top three perceived benefits that emerged from the Cisco study were saving money (69 percent of respondents) and reduced business travel (77 percent of respondents).
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2011
New Cisco Study On Video Conferencing and Collaboration – Key Findings and Takeaways (Part 1)
Cisco, the leading video conferencing and telepresence systems manufacturer, has released the results of a new study that takes a closer look at global video collaboration. Specifically, Cisco hired Ipsos Mori to poll 6,000 business professionals in 12 of the world’s most important markets in order to put their finger on the pulse of how video communications are perceived.
The results of the study – entitled “The Benefits and Barriers to Video Collaboration Adoption” – were illuminating. A key finding was that perception of the utility of video conferencing in a business environment is directly tied to the level of experience that workers have with that type of collaborative communications. Simply put, in countries such as China, where 56 percent of those involved in the study are familiar with video conferencing, its perceived benefits are high. In fact, 90 percent of frequent telepresence and collaborative video communications users around the world stated that this technology saves them at least two hours of work time per week, and one-third of those respondents indicated that their personal time savings were as high as one day of work per week.
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Categories
- AV and Video Providers
- Business Video Conferencing
- Cisco Digital Media
- Cisco Digital Signs
- Cisco TelePresence
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