Imagine using technology used by NASA to send and receive images from Mars for its LandRover mission—for your enterprise collaboration and video conferencing. In addition, what if this came free of cost along with your workstation! In a bid to make video conferencing mainstream, HP has launched its SkyRoom technology, which allows up to four users to enjoy audio, video and 3D application sharing through a network.

Anurag Gupta, Country Manager, Workstations, Personal Systems Group, HP India, says, “Till date, companies had limited options for videoconferencing which are expensive and typically strip out the subtleties of human interactions and don’t allow for the sharing of rich media content such as video and computer-aided design manipulation. Using breakthrough video and image transfer technologies originally developed by HP Labs to send high-resolution photos of Mars back to Earth for NASA, HP SkyRoom is the culmination of three years of R&D from HP Labs by the HP Worsktation team.”

SkyRoom is specifically targeted at enterprises that need to share and collaborate on high-resolution images of 3D designs, animation etc without having to install the expensive tools like AutoCAD at different locations. With HP SkyRoom, the company says that a remote user can take full control of a system and work on any application on that system, without having to install that application on his computer. The technology only transmits the pixels instead of the data and encrypts even that data—making data sharing more secure for the enterprises.

Apart from the 3D modeling and animation companies, the company states that SkyRoom could also be useful for the healthcare, education and government sectors. High-resolution x-rays and images can be shared remotely using SkyRoom for diagnosis by experts.

According to Gupta, what differentiates SkyRoom from its competitors is its advanced compression technique based on HP’s RGS (Remote Graphics Software) that enables 3D applications to be controlled and edited remotely in real time, combined with the ability to connect four people on a high-quality video conference.

HP SkyRoom is available, preinstalled in the HP Z800, Z600, Z400 and xw4600 Workstations at no cost. Select premium HP business PCs and notebooks will include a 90-day trial of HP SkyRoom, which will be available for purchase thereafter.

HP is hoping to boost the sales of its workstation computers by offering this solution free with all their workstations and at the same time making its presence felt in the video conferencing market currently dominated by Polycom and Cisco.