Cisco has announced the release of an interoperability protocol
that it believes will enable vendors and suppliers in the
telepresence space to seamlessly collaborate with each other and
with customers. At the same time Cisco cited five new telepresence
applications with collaboration features.
"Cisco has offered to license its protocol to industry
participants royalty-free," the firm stated in a recent release.
"Many have already expressed their support for this protocol and
are now evaluating how it could be deployed with their product
offerings."
In agreeing to release the protocol to the public domain, Cisco
noted that it already supports the H.323 standard, which Cisco uses
to interoperate with standard and high-definition video
conferencing systems and other collaboration systems.
In an example of the growing trend toward collaboration among
telepresence and videoconferencing providers, Juniper Networks and
Polycom reported that they have agreed to share resources to help
improve the reliability and quality of the technologies.
Cisco said the five applications it unveiled this week, are
examples of how collaboration can help drive wider acceptance of
telepresence.
The five applications range far and wide and demonstrate the
versatility of telepresence. For example, an application called The
Classroom of the Future is designed to bring Cisco's Telepresence
offerings into lecture halls and corporate training rooms while the
Cisco TelePresence Streaming Service can deliver webcasting and
recording services to various access points including desktops,
mobile devices, and social video systems.
The Cisco TelePresence Active Collaboration Room combines
virtual meeting experiences with collaborative applications like
WebEx on virtual whiteboards.
The Cisco TelePresence Remote Demonstration Center showcases new
products and solutions virtually, eliminating the necessity for
many onsite demos. Rounding out the new applications is the
all-important Cisco TelePresence Live Desk, which provides help
desk support.