Cisco TelePresence, first introduced in October 2006, is a range of products developed by Cisco Systems designed to link two physically separated rooms so they resemble a single conference room, regardless of location.
Cisco documented the Telepresence concept and implementation details in the book Cisco TelePresence Fundamentals, [1] where the difference between Telepresence and Videoconferencing, prevalent at that point in time, is defined as quality, simplicity, and reliability.
These were the initial products:
They were designed so that the experience was as if local and remote participants were in the same room. [3] These products offer features including up to three 1080p flat panel displays, special tables, microphones, speakers, cameras, collaboration interfaces and lighting. [4]
In 2008 Cisco reported to have sold about 2,000 rooms, with about another 250 non-revenue (internal and philanthropic) units installed. [5]
Later, other products were developed that expanded the use-cases for smaller offices and Webex connectivity.
In 2010 Cisco acquired the Norwegian company Tandberg and integrated their products into the Cisco portfolio. [6]
Currently, a wide range of collaboration endpoints [7] and conferencing infrastructure products [8] is offered.
Tandberg was an electronics manufacturer located in Oslo, Norway and New York City, United States. The company began in the radio field, but became more widely known for their reel-to-reel tape recorders as well as cassette decks and televisions. The original company went bankrupt in 1978, after a sharp financial downturn. The following year, the company re-formed whilst their data division was split off as Tandberg Data, including the tape recording division, which reduced its scope to data recording.
Telepresence refers to a set of technologies which allow a person to feel as if they were present, to give the appearance or effect of being present via telerobotics, at a place other than their true location.
Webex by Cisco is an American company that develops and sells web conferencing, videoconferencing and contact center as a service applications. It was founded as WebEx in 1995 and taken over by Cisco Systems in 2007. Its headquarters are in San Jose, California.
Videotelephony is the two-way or multipoint reception and transmission of audio and video signals by people in different locations for real-time communication. A videophone is a telephone with a video camera and video display, capable of simultaneous video and audio communication. Videoconferencing implies the use of this technology for a group or organizational meeting rather than for individuals, in a videoconference. Telepresence may refer either to a high-quality videotelephony system or to meetup technology, which can go beyond video into robotics. Videoconferencing has also been called visual collaboration and is a type of groupware.
Radvision was a provider of video conferencing solution and enabling products for IP communication developers based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Radvision was acquired by Avaya in June 2012. Spirent Communications acquired Radvision's Technology Business Unit from Avaya in July 2014, to become Spirent Developer Tools Business Unit.
Poly, formerly Polycom, a part of HP Inc., is an American multinational corporation that develops video, voice and content collaboration and communication technology.
Rowan Trollope is an American business executive and technology entrepreneur. He is the former CEO of Five9, a publicly traded cloud software company whom Zoom announced their intent to acquire in July 2021 The deal was terminated by mutual agreement on September 30, 2021.
Scopia, within the computer networking and telecommunications fields, is a series of unified communications products that provide meet-me, videoconferencing and online collaboration. The Scopia products include the Scopia XT Telepresence, Scopia XT7100 Room System, Scopia XT5000 Room System, Scopia XT4300 Room System, SCOPIA XT1000 Piccolo,XT Meeting Center Room System, Scopia Firewall Traversal, Multipoint control units, Gateways, Scopia Control, Scopia Desktop Video Conferencing, and Scopia Mobile HD Video Conferencing. The Scopia products are developed and sold by Avaya and their Business Partner network.
Unified communications (UC) is a business and marketing concept describing the integration of enterprise communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, voice, mobility features, audio, web & video conferencing, fixed-mobile convergence (FMC), desktop sharing, data sharing, call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified messaging. UC is not necessarily a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.
Anybots Inc. is an American robotics company based in Santa Clara, California. It was founded in 2001 by Trevor Blackwell.
Lifesize is a video and audio telecommunications company in the United States which provides high definition videoconferencing endpoints and accessories, touchscreen conference room phones, a cloud-based video collaboration platform, and omnichannel contact center solutions under their CxEngage product line. Lifesize's headquarters is located in Austin, Texas. Its Europe, Middle East and Africa regional office is located in Munich, Germany.
Vidyo, Inc., founded as Layered Media, now part of Enghouse systems provides software-based collaboration technology and product-based visual communication products. The company's VidyoConferencing products are the first in the videoconferencing industry to take advantage of the H.264 standard for video compression, Scalable Video Coding (SVC).
The E20 is an entry-level personal videoconferencing system produced by the Norwegian company Tandberg.
The Tandberg C90 is a videoconferencing codec and telepresence engine produced by the Norwegian company Tandberg. It is used as the basis for Tandberg's telepresence solutions T1 and T3.
Mobile collaboration is a technology-based process of communicating using electronic assets and accompanying software designed for use in remote locations. Newest generation hand-held electronic devices feature video, audio, and telestration capabilities broadcast over secure networks, enabling multi-party conferencing in real time.
Librestream Technologies Inc. is a privately owned, venture capital–backed company based in Winnipeg, Canada. Librestream provides technologies that enable mobile and remote enterprise collaboration.
Cisco Prime is a network management software suite consisting of different software applications by Cisco Systems. Most applications are geared towards either Enterprise or Service Provider networks. There is Cisco Network Registrar among those.
StarLeaf was a global video conferencing and collaboration software company that provided cloud-based Instant messaging, meeting and calling for business users. StarLeaf enabled people to meet and collaborate from their desktop and mobile devices, as well as via proprietary StarLeaf and third-party meeting room systems. The company was headquartered near Watford, UK, with offices throughout Europe, the Americas and Australasia.