Cisco brings "Star Trek" meeting rooms to public

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 16 Oct 2008 at 08:49

Cisco has begun installing its telepresence meeting room suites in hotels across the UK, US and India, as it opens the technology to public use.

Telepresence technology uses high-definition screens and spatial audio to create the illusion that the person you're speaking with thousands of miles away is actually in the same room.

As part of the illusion, Cisco oversees the installation of every teleconferencing suite around the world, ensuring each are identical, so that it genuinely appears everybody involved in the meeting is sat around the same boardroom table, right down to the decorations.

The company demonstrated the technology in Taj Hotels in London, Bangalore and Boston, which plan to offer their guests use of the suites for anywhere between $299 to $900 per hour, depending on location.

Cisco has already has around 100 large companies, such as Procter & Gamble, using the technology which costs anywhere between $75,000 and $300,000 depending on the number of screens used.

"John Chambers [Cisco CEO] wants us to think like Star Trek. We wanted to create a completely immersive technology, so that we could replace the need to fly," a Cisco spokesperson told PC Pro.

"Intimacy is a big part of this technology, and something that videoconferencing has always missed. Travel is another big factor. It's always been one of a company's biggest costs, so this could lead to great savings."