Cisco boosts telepresence system with new collaboration features

IDG News Service - Cisco announced improvements on Tuesday to its Jabber IM, presence and video-conferencing product, as well as to its room-size "immersive" telepresence systems, as the networking giant continues to push its way into the workplace collaboration market.

Cisco plans to release at some point in the second quarter its first version of Jabber for the iPad and an upgrade of Jabber for Windows desktop and laptop PCs, as well as a new top-of-the-line telepresence system called TX9000, designed to improve upon existing Cisco products of this sort.

Jabber for iPad will let users communicate using voice, video, IM, presence and conferencing, using standards like H264, XMPP and SIP for interoperability with other systems.

Jabber for Windows features high-definition video, voice, presence, IM, desktop sharing and Web conferencing, as well as integration with Microsoft Office, and also uses standards like H264, XMPP and SIP.

Meanwhile, the TX9000 is designed to take Cisco's large telepresence systems from an immersive experience to one that also allows for what the company calls "high-intensity collaboration" for scenarios like sophisticated planning sessions, brainstorming, "war rooms," critical problem resolution and engineering design.

Among the new features introduced in the TX9000 is the ability to share content on the main telepresence screens, as opposed to only on the smaller one below them, along with "point and highlight" capabilities, white boarding and calling up data from multiple content sources, according to the company.

Also new is a simplified way to integrate WebEx online meetings with TX9000 sessions, and a simpler way to launch and manage TX9000 meetings using a touch-based user interface.

The TX9000 also features a new placement for its cameras, designed to enhance eye contact among participants while making the cameras less conspicuous. It doesn't require additional special lighting nor audio.

The TX9000 can provide video quality as high as 1080p at 60 frames per second, while requiring 20 percent less bandwidth than existing Cisco telepresence systems. The TX9000 can be used by six people, while the TX9200 model adds a second table for up to 18 participants.

Cisco also claims that system setup has been simplified, so that installation partners can complete a job in as little as two days. List price in the U.S. starts at $299,000.

Industry analyst Maribel Lopez from Lopez Research said Cisco now has a good portfolio of video communications across its products, which is important because video will continue to increase its importance in workplace communications and collaboration.

"Video will change over time. Most people think of it as face-to-face. While this is interesting, it doesn't take into account that video will be next-generation content. Today content means documents like PowerPoint and Word files. Tomorrow more content will be video. So video is more than just my tiny face looking at another tiny face on a screen while we share a PowerPoint," she said via email.