[LINK] Government teleconferencing

[Scott Howard]

On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 4:33 PM, Jan Whitaker <jwhit at melbpc.org.au> wrote:

> Have any linkers seen this particular technology [Telstra/Cisco] in
> use? [BTW, I'm copying Lindsay Tanner into this message]
>
> I've been around videoconferencing for -- goodness! -- 20 years!
> Gawd, I'm getting old. Anyway, it's not the picture that is generally
> the problem, it's the AUDIO. Unless these installations pay attention
> to proper mic and speaker placement, having HD pictures won't matter
> diddly-squat. Without clear and consistent audio, you might as well
> shut it down. No communication will take place -- full stop.


Yes, I've used Telepresence, and it is everything it's hyped up to be and
more!

Every single part of the environment is controlled,  from the exact colour
of the desk and chairs used, down to - as you've suggested - the position of
the cameras, microphones and speakers.

The end result is something you have to experience to believe. When someone
in a remote location is speaking, the sound appear to be coming directly
from them, to the extent that it's easy to forget that they aren't actually
sitting on the other side of the table from you.  There's been more than a
few reports of people standing up and reaching over to shake hands with
someone on the "other side of the table" - forgetting that they are actually
thousands of kilometres away.



> I also hope that the government has done an analysis of the training
> needs for this.


If it's setup right, there is no training - presuming that you're using
Exchange/Outlook for email and calendar.  Book the Telepresence rooms just
like any other meeting rooms, and then when you walk in the display will
show the details of the meeting.  You then press a single button and it
looks after the connection from there.

To call Telepresence "teleconferning" really isn't doing it justice - but
it's hard to know how good it really is until you've actually experienced
it.

There's photos and details of the setups on Cisco's website -
http://cisco.com/telepresence

  Scott.