1 March 2010. Cisco has announced the availability of the Cisco HealthPresence™ platform at  the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference in Atlanta tthis week. HealthPresence creates new, streamlined clinical encounters by integrating two technology innovations: Cisco TelePresence™ and Cisco® Unified Communications.

Cisco HealthPresence is planned to be available beginning March 2010 in markets across the United States, Canada and Europe. It is classified as a Class I medical device by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Cisco HealthPresence can be deployed in permanent facilities or mobile units.

To evaluate patients in an interactive and highly participatory way, Cisco HealthPresence arms clinicians with essential tools, including:
(1) Cisco TelePresence units in clinical and patient locations.
(2) Medical devices located at the patient`s end unit: a general camera for external observation, ear-nose-throat camera, digital stethoscope, and a vital signs device to capture blood pressure, temperature, pulse rate, and blood oxygen levels.
(3) Cisco Vitals Software, which captures physiological data and streaming high-definition video feeds, sending them to the clinical team with a high degree of security.
(4) Integrated voice, video and data capabilities that collect patient medical information for transmission among multiple health care providers or between a single doctor and patient before, during and after telemedicine consultation.

Cisco`s custom software offers highly secure encryption technology to protect the privacy and security of patient data exchanged in distance communications between patients and caregiver staff.

With High-Definition video, clear audio and connected medical devices, Cisco Health-Presence supports collaboration and personalization at a high level. Patients in HealthPresence encounters can see images and listen to sounds from a variety of diagnostic devices, such as digital stethoscopes, actively participating with what clinicians see and hear.

As we have reported earlier, Cisco began HealthPresence trials in 2008. Cisco HealthPresence was piloted by the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG). Patients have described how the immersive video experience, along with the real-time transmission of physiologic information, draws them into the medical encounter. At the same time, clinicians report more effective patient management with HealthPresence.

Cisco says HealthPresence addresses four key health care delivery challenges:
(1) Capacity (the scarcity and productivity of clinical expertise);
(2) Collaboration (for one patient with many clinicians, many providers with many providers, and many patients with many patients);
(3) Information exchange (the ability of participants to share and view vital health information);
(4)Personalization (engaging patients in ways that make them more active participants in consults)

Equally important, HealthPresence allows multiple members of a patient`s care team to simultaneously participate in consultations, creating new ways to deliver and coordinate care.  With HealthPresence, primary care physicians and specialists, care managers and rehabilitation therapists, family members, and caregivers can all participate in treatment and care planning.

Dr. Michael M. Siegel, vice president and medical director, Molina Healthcare, Inc.
“ For Molina`s medical offices, Cisco HealthPresence eliminates the need for clinicians and patients to be located in the same physical location. Our facilities are now able to reach a much wider and highly dispersed patient base, in order to provide the appropriate care."

1 March 2010. Polycom is demonstrating an end-to-end integrated voice, video and application solution for the healthcare industry at tthe HIMSS10 conference and exhibition this week. Polycom healthcare solutions work in tandem with key healthcare applications to deliver improved patient care, streamlined communications and workflow, enhanced productivity, and significant and immediate ROI for healthcare providers. Polycom is at Booth No. 6201,

Ron Emerson, director of Global Healthcare Markets for Polycom, said: "We provide a wide portfolio of solutions and services that meet healthcare providers' needs, and we're accelerating efforts with Polycom Open Collaboration Network (POCN) partners to offer our customers fully integrated end-to-end solutions that can help improve patient care and enable organizations to achieve greater efficiencies."

The healthcare industry faces significant challenges, including healthcare provider shortages, an aging population with more than 70 million baby boomers in the United States, limited financial resources, remote and medically underserved areas, and rigorous continuing education requirements for certified healthcare professionals.

To address these issues, Polycom provides unified communications (UC) solutions for the healthcare industry that address workflow, clinical needs and requirements for maintaining the highest level of patient care and privacy while optimizing resources. Polycom's solutions for healthcare offer flexibility, scalability, durability, and mobility, all of which are key requirements in the medical industry.

"Polycom plays a pivotal role in creating a connected healthcare environment," said Andrew R Watson, M.D., MLitt., medical director for the Center for Connected Medicine and vice president at UPMC. "Their work in telemedicine, conferencing, and other forms of communication fundamentally transforms the way providers see patients and interact with one another. Polycom's technologies bring real cost efficiencies into the system while, also enabling high quality care."

The Polycom demonstration at HIMSS10 a real-world scenario where a hospitalized patient communicates with healthcare providers both in the hospital and remotely via Polycom systems. Remote physicians are able to assess the patient, prescribe treatment and confirm that the course of treatment is being followed.

One example is a telestroke scenario where Dr. Deborah A. Jeffries, Polycom director of healthcare markets, will evaluate the patient via video from one of two separate consultation areas. The technology solution highlights include:

Market-leading Polycom HDX (tm) telepresence systems leveraging the industry's first delivery of H.264 High Profile video compression to deliver HD video from just 512 kbps for premium quality patient assessment, remote consultations, medical education and healthcare administration (including the Polycom Practitioner Cart (tm) HDX) at a fraction of the average cost across the industry.

The Polycom Converged Management Application (tm) (CMATM) Desktop for flexible, PC-based video communications supporting up to 720p high definition video for the sharpest images and most accurate patient assessments.

Polycom's market-leading SpectraLink® wireless telephones featuring innovative SIP integration with Rauland-Borg's Responder® 5 Nurse Call system and Stryker's Smart Bed Monitoring for seamless communications between nurses, patients as well as bed status alerts.

"We're excited to be a part of the Polycom Connected Health demo at HIMSS10," said Andrew Diamond, M.D. "Our innovative phone-centric solution for medical records, e-prescribing, and multi-office audiovisual communications seamlessly integrates with the open platform of the Polycom VVX 1500. Integrations such as this open up the market for new and innovative ways of communicating within the healthcare industry."

All products featured in the Polycom connected healthcare demonstration are available and shipping today. 

25 February 2010. Aware, Inc. a global provider of imaging and biometrics software, will demonstrate standards compliance and interoperability of its medical image sharing products as a participant in the HIMSS10 Interoperability Showcase. The Showcase is part of the HIMSS10 Annual Conference & Exhibition taking place in Atlanta from 1-4 March 2010.

Aware will demonstrate its AccuRad ImageShare™ Platform, a standards-based solution for fast and efficient compression, streaming, and viewing of images in electronic health records (EHR) in cross-enterprise health information exchange (HIE) systems. Its client and server components enable users with fast access to diagnostic-quality images across multiple enterprises over constrained networks.

“Participating in the showcase allows us an opportunity to demonstrate the compliance and functionality of our solution by interoperating with other standards-based products from a variety of vendors,” said Patricia Katzman, strategic marketing, medical software at Aware.

“Healthcare and IT professionals will see that products are available today that enable access to patient image data across local, regional, and national health information exchanges to support meaningful, secure use of electronic health records.”

The HIMSS10 Interoperability Showcase offers a realistic look at complex healthcare scenarios where different organizations and agencies incorporate interoperability into their products. These scenarios use the standards-based Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) framework and Specifications of the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), recognized and accepted by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Visit the HIMSS Interoperability showcase at HIMSS10 Booth #233.

Aware Inc.’s AccuRad ImageShare Platform is comprised of AccuRad ImageShare Workstation and AccuRad ImageShare Server, which can each be used independently, or together as a comprehensive, turnkey client/server solution. It is built upon Aware’s established AccuRad SDKs, including J2KSuite, and JPIPStream. It achieves interoperability and performance by utilizing DICOM, WADO, the web services advantages of the IHE’s XDS-I.b Profile, and the advanced features of JPEG2000 compression and JPIP streaming to enable users with fast access to diagnostic quality images across multiple enterprises over constrained networks.

The AccuRad ImageShare Platform successfully passed testing at the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) North American Connectathon 2010 event in Chicago.

Find out more about Aware’s AccuRad ImageShare Platform at HIMSS10 Booth #6050.

25 February 2010. Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) has launched TelePresence in Pakistan. PTCL offers public Cisco Telepresence studios for hire in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. These studios with the special conference table can seat up to six people per location and incorporates video monitors to create a virtual table of up to 30 participants.

These conferencing centres will be able to connect to Middle East, Europe, and North America and to any other Cisco Tele Presence suites around the world.

The PTCL Tele Presence ensures efficient end-to-end life size meeting experience by providing fully managed and scalable services over PTCLs global network.

PTCL allow customers to come in and rent its Tele Presence studio on an hourly basis, without having to invest in the expensive technology, thus increase productivity through more interactions and less travel.

In addition to the PTCL-operated Telpresence studios, PCTL offers a Managed Service for high-usage customers, whereby PTCL offers to build and equip a studio at the customers premise itself.

Naveed Saeed, SEVP Commercial at PCTL, said that PTCL Tele Presence is a giant leap ahead in Multi-media conferencing technology. Our aim is to provide our customers with the most updated and sophisticated communication technology and also provide them with the best solutions possible which serves all their business needs by increasing productivity through more interactions and less travel.

Also last week, The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) announced that it will allow all the Directors of the listed and unlisted public companies, whether in Pakistan or abroad, to participate in the Board of Directors’ meetings through tele/video conferencing.

Previously this was allowed only in emergency situations. Furthermore it would not be essential for the companies to secure the tele/video recording of the proceedings of the meetings as reuired previously. Minutes of each meeting approved by all particpants were required, the same as for an in-person meeting of the Board of Directors.

2 March 2010. AT&T is providing Accenture with a platform that allows it to collaborate via Telepresence with clients, suppliers and others under a non-exclusive agreement between the two companies.

 Accenture is gaining access to the AT&T Business Exchange, an inherent feature of the AT&T Telepresence Solution that allows multiple companies in different locations to connect to one another using Cisco TelePresence systems.

Accenture already has 50 rooms around the world equipped with Cisco TelePresence. The locations, which Accenture refers to as “Telepresence rooms,” are widely used to facilitate meetings between employees in remote locations.

With access to the AT&T Business Exchange, employees are now also able to link with parties outside of Accenture for business-to-business video conferencing.

Frank Modruson, chief information officer, Accenture, said: “Our Telepresence rooms are already very popular with employees. Now that we’re open for business on the AT&T Business Exchange, we expect usage to grow exponentially as employees seize the opportunity to communicate with clients, suppliers, partners, and other external constituencies. We look forward to benefits, such as stronger relationships, quicker decision making, and improved supply chain.”

Accenture rolledout its Telepresence rooms less than two years ago as part of its “Collaboration 2.0” program.  Accenture has realized significant payback, saving millions in travel-related expenses, eliminating hours of tiring travel for its employees, and reducing carbon emissions.

Accenture expects those benefits to be amplified now that the AT&T Business Exchange extends the program to outside constituents.

“Accenture has been widely recognized in the industry as one of the early adopters of Telepresence, and we are proud to welcome them as an anchor tenant on the AT&T Business Exchange,” said Joe Lueckenhoff, senior vice president, business product management, AT&T Business Solutions. “We look forward to continuing to provide Accenture with solutions that extend their global collaboration efforts.”

The AT&T Business Exchange is integrated into the AT&T MPLS-enabled network, utilizing a high availability, fully-redundant architecture.

More than 50 companies are connecting with one another via hundreds of AT&T Telepresence Solution and Cisco TelePresence sites worldwide, via the AT&T Business Exchange.

The AT&T Business Exchange also allows Accenture to establish direct connections with more than 1,000 other Cisco TelePresence meeting endpoints deployed worldwide for either intra-company or inter-company meetings.

26 February 2010. BT is to offer national health service (NHS) Trusts in England and Scotland a national videoconferencing service over N3 VPN, the secure national broadband network it has built and is managing for the NHS. The service will be available from June 2010.

The new service will be managed by the company's conferencing unit, BT Conferencing, and promises to take the complexity out of NHS Trusts running their own videoconferencing services.

Within the NHS, videoconferencing services have tended to be set up on a local basis, often for use inside a specific Trust which is then responsible for booking and scheduling calls and managing the bandwidth and infrastructure.

With the N3 Video Conferencing Managed Service, all this is taken care of by BT as all the necessary infrastructure is built into the N3 network. This offers NHS significant savings in terms of set up costs, as well as making it much easier to set up video calls internally as well as to other Trusts around the country.

It is anticipated that the new service will increase the use of videoconferencing across the NHS by making it easier to use and maintain, while at the same time making it more cost effective to operate.

It is also expected to encourage more innovative use of the technology and help keep NHS costs down and improve productivity by cutting the time staff spend travelling to and from meeting at the same time as reducing CO2 emissions.

Len Chard, NHS Connecting for Health N3 programme manager, said: "Videoconferencing has huge potential to save the NHS money and make it more efficient both in clinical and business terms. The new managed service will take away a lot of the hassle in running and using videoconferencing, making it easier to use and maintain, at the same time as reducing costs. This is expected to increase usage and encourage greater innovation. We have already seen examples of this in a number NHS Trusts where videoconferencing is available.  The greater take up can only open up more exciting possibilities."

The work of multi disciplinary teams, where groups of experts gather to review and diagnose patient scans and pathology, is being transformed by the advent of video conferencing. Case meetings can now take place via video links offering huge benefits for patients who can have their case reviewed by a number of experts instead of just one.

BT completed the N3 network in January 2007. It is one of Europe's largest Virtual Private Networks with more than 43,000 connections throughout England and Scotland. It provides the foundation for other frontline applications which simply could not function without it. It supports, for example, the complete transfer of a patient's complete GP record in the fraction of the time it used to take. It is also helping the NHS to make efficiency and quality improvements. The N3 network has now been voice enabled, making it possible for NHS Trusts to converge their voice and data over a single network - reducing the cost of internal phone calls and calls to mobiles.

John Abbott, BT's chief executive of N3, said: "In some Trusts we are aware that the complexity of running a videoconferencing service has been a barrier to greater usage and the equipment has ended up hardly being used. That's where the N3 BT Conferencing service has the advantage. It solves these issues by making it easy to set up calls within a Trust as well as to other Trusts. As a common service across the NHS, Trusts will be able to easily set up video conference calls with each other using an online booking system. This will allow users to book meetings remotely and simply walk into the room when the meeting is starting."

The service, available from June this year, will work with most Trust's existing systems and will be supported by a free online and telephone helpline. Trusts can sign up for the service today and place orders for terminal equipment.

26 February 2010.  Ammex Corporation., one of North America's leading industrial and medical products suppliers, has selected VidyoConferencing (tm) to connect its company's international offices and departments that span multiple locations with HD multi-party video communications.

Ammex provides merchandise to over 20,000 customers, including the U.S. Government and Fortune 500 companies. Ammex Corporation was founded in 1988 and is based in Tukwila, Washington

Ammex has offices in three countries that heavily interact with each other on a daily basis. Their number one requirement was that they needed to use the system via the Internet. It needed to be a very high quality audio and video and to provide an easy to-access experience for multiple conference participants.

Ammex evaluators had already tested, considered and rejected other systems when they discovered Vidyo's "next generation" videoconferencing solution, built on a completely new, paradigm-shifting architecture.

Chris Van Vladricken, Director of Information Technology at Ammex Corp.,  said “We chose Vidyo, because it works seamlessly over the Internet with amazing error resiliency and low latency, was our clear choice. We're already seeing significant ROI from reduced travel expenses. We needed a technology that our staff could use with ease, without needing to rely on IT, and Vidyo allows us to communicate face to face with any customer when needed.”

“... Vidyo allows us to include a customer or company that doesn't have their own video conferencing solution in an enterprise-quality experience. All a person needs is a PC or a Mac with an Internet connection, webcam and USB headset, and we can send them a link to participate in a video conference."

"Videoconferencing needs to meet a high quality threshold, and be accessible to anyone, whenever they need it, wherever they are, just like personal communication devices for voice," said Marty Hollander, Senior VP Marketing at Vidyo.

"Only Vidyo delivers those capabilities. For companies such as Ammex, that must reach and support their customers in remote locations, Vidyo provides an unequalled personal telepresence experience, which means award-winning video and audio quality on point-to-point and multipoint conferences, whether you're using a desktop, a laptop or a room system."

Vidyo's unique architecture, built from the ground up, is the first in a new generation of software solutions that leverages the H.264/Scalable Video Coding (SVC) video compression standard. H.264/SVC enables a video stream to be broken into multiple resolutions, quality levels and bit rates. Utilizing this capability and Vidyo's intellectual property, VidyoTechnology™ offers unprecedented error resiliency, eliminating the central component of legacy video conferencing -- the Multipoint Control Unit (MCU) -- and replacing it with a distributed architecture using an application layer router.

Because Vidyo's solution is based on software, it can easily be expanded, upgraded, and customized for customers' individual Enterprise and vertical market video conferencing needs. Vidyo's product line spans a full range of potential applications, from the VidyoDesktop (tm) with personal telepresence capabilities on a PC or a Mac to the VidyoRoom (tm) that encodes and decodes HD-quality video at up to 60 frames per second. Vidyo solutions can be used by everyone in a company, whether from the office, home or while traveling, via general IP networks, including the Internet.

2 March 2010. Seattle Science Foundation (SSF) is using With the help of LifeSize High-Definition video conferencing solutions to promote international collaboration among physicians, scientists, technologists, engineers and educators from around the world.

Using videoconferencing, SSF is creating a virtual medical world where doctors from around the globe meet and exchange cutting-edge ideas, technical knowledge and practical information.

Launched in 2006, SSF takes a different approach to medical education and research. In addition to a wide variety of courses, conferences and meetings, SSF offers physicians and specialists a truly unique opportunity to advance surgical training, practice new surgical and endovascular techniques, and refine innovative medical devices.

Using a combination of LifeSize® Room™ and LifeSize® Express™ HD video systems, SSF provides an ideal venue for medical collaboration. The foundation’s state-of-the-art facility enables medical professionals to visualize surgical processes in simulation and cadaveric settings, as well as conduct medical device proof of concept and product testing.

Joanie Block, chief operating officer for Seattle Science Foundation, said: “We have been very pleased with the quality of the LifeSize units. When you are working with delicate tissue, even the slightest degradation in picture quality can really hinder the experience for remote users. With the tremendous HD quality of the LifeSize units, everyone feels as though they are in the same operating room.”

Colin Buechler, senior vice president of marketing at LifeSize Communications, said: “This is just one example of what LifeSize envisions as the potential of HD video conferencing – the opportunity to promote world-changing ideas through better communication.”

A complete case study detailing the Seattle Science Foundation’s experience with LifeSize high definition video conferencing systems is available for download at:
http://www.lifesize.com/VideoConferencing_for_SeattleScienceFoundation.

1 March 2010. Digital Video Enterprises, Inc. (DVE) has unveiled to the public the much anticipated DVE Immersion Room (tm). This amazing meeting experience displays HD 3D holographic appearing images of people for the ultimate in ultra-realistic Telepresence/videoconferencing.

The DVE Immersion Room has been a highly-guarded secret during development and has only been seen by industry insiders before the public unveiling. DVE says that it incorporates several generations of technology beyond the Telepresence/videoconferencing technology offered by firms such as Cisco, TANDBERG and Polycom. 

The DVE Immersion Room(TM) enables life-size images of people seen standing and walking about in the 3D physical space of the meeting room. Further, the Room displays 9-foot wide volumetric 3D images appearing to float in mid-air.  The effect does not require special glasses to be worn.

The DVE Immersion Room(TM) is based on an extensive patent portfolio of augmented reality telepresence that places real-time images of people inside the middle of the room. Also of note is the inclusion of hidden cameras that aim through the image for natural eye contact.

"Consumer and legacy business telepresence mounts cameras above the display so people appear to look down while conferencing. DVE's product line, from the desktop to the DVE Immersion Room(TM), ingeniously hides the camera behind the image for real eye contact," stated Jeff Machtig, DVE co-founder.

DVE technology usesa third party codec. DVE creates Real Telepresence from the following Telepresence and Videoconferencing systems: Cisco, HaiVision, Lifesize, Polycom, RADVISION, Skype, Sony, TANDBERG, Vidyo.

 DVE has also announced that the DVE Immersion Room has won the Frost & Sullivan 2009 Global Conferencing Telepresence Product of the Year Award. 

Paul Waadevig, Principal Consultant at Frost and Sullivan, said:
"The Award was determined after a thorough review of the competing telepresence solutions and the DVE Immersion Room clearly has set a new standard for the potential realism of telepresence communication. The whole point of Telepresence is to simulate a meeting where people forget about technology and get down to business. The Immersion Room is a breakthrough in simulating face-to-face meetings that, literally, makes the users forget they are not all in the same room."

The Telepresence market is predicted to reach revenues of $4.7 billion worldwide by 2014, according to a recent report by Frost & Sullivan. DVE claim that the DVE Immersion Room is now the recognized leader in providing the ultimate Telepresence experience in this market.

DVE has videotaped the DVE Immersion Room during a live conference so that the public can now share in this amazing 3D experience. The video can be seen at:
 http://www.DVEtelepresence.com.

Considerable download bandwidth is required to view this as it is 720p High Definition video that has been streamed.

3 March 2010.  TANDBERG’s PrecisionHD USB Camera and Profile Series HD Videoconferencing systems have been recognized by the prestigious iF (International Forum) Product Design Awards during a ceremony at CeBIT, the world's foremost tradeshow for the digital industry.

The TANDBERG products were selected from among 2,495 nominations. The TANDBERG PrecisionHD USB camera received a coveted Gold Award (a Design Oscar), bestowed on the best 50 entries, and the Profile Series received an iF Product Design Award in the audio/video category.

Snorre Kjesbu, TANDBERG SVP, Endpoint Product Division, said: "The PrecisionHD USB Camera and the Profile Series are products of a truly collaborative process among designers and engineers spanning several countries. This distinction from the iF Product Design Awards council is a validation of their hard work and innovation.We are very proud to be chosen for this honor from among such a large group of worthy nominations."

The annual iF Design Awards cover all areas of product design and have served as a platform for design-relevant innovations since 1953. Recognized as the most prestigious international product design awards, the iF Awards provide a renowned and reliable indicator of outstanding quality in design. Judged by distinguished experts, the best products receive an iF seal of outstanding design quality. The best of the best are awarded with an iF Gold Award, known as the "Design Oscars."

The PrecisionHD USB Camera is the first High-Definition videoconferencing camera designed to provide the optimal experience for mobile and PC video communications in a business environment. It is the only webcam to offer 720p High-Definition with 30 frames per second for business-quality video communications and is fully optimized for TANDBERG Movi and Microsoft Office Communicator R2.

The TANDBERG Profile Series delivers a range of completely integrated, High-Definition video conferencing systems that are fully interoperable with any standards-based video conferencing or Telepresence system as well as unified communications platforms such as Microsoft Office Communicator.

Each system is designed for a consistent user experience and offers 1080p HD on high-quality large screens ranging from 42" to 65" to maximize team collaboration from any room environment. The flexibility and intuitiveness of the Profile Series helps drive the benefits of group video collaboration throughout the organization.

The PrecisionHD USB Camera is currently featured in the iF product design award exhibition, open to the public each year from March through September 20010 at the Hanover exhibition center in Germany.

For more information about the PrecisionHD USB Camera and the Profile Series, visit: www.tandberg.com.

2 March 2010.  MeetingZone has kaunched new collaboration portal that takes ease of use and self-service functionality of its audio and web conferencing services to the highest level.

“After eight years of record breaking growth, MeetingZone is once again raising the bar as to how collaboration solutions are delivered,” explained Tim Duffy, CEO for MeetingZone.  “Our new collaboration portal will help to drive widespread adoption of conferencing and collaboration simply by making the benefits delivered by cost effective solutions easily accessible and easy to use for everyone.”

“We have spent the last year carefully looking at the audio and web conferencing and collaboration requirements of our existing and potential customers and analysing the perfect user journey around MeetingZone’s website, which enables them to locate and operate all of our key functions in a simple elegant way,” explained Tim Duffy.   

At Meeting Zone, users are now able to quickly plan, activate, monitor, manage and control collaboration sessions themselves with a few simple mouse clicks. By making it fantastically easy for users to manage their own accounts, review activity in real time, and provision new users, the company has given more control and in a very accessible fashion.

Conference Control is one of the key features of MeetingZone’s new conferencing portal.  Conference Control enables users to quickly set up or join an integrated conferencing and collaboration session, view participant names, e-mail addresses and company names, record the conference, lock conferences and collaboration sessions, switch to screen sharing or presentation mode, mute and un-mute participants, hold group or one-to-one chat sessions via an Instant Messaging function, hold Q&A sessions and much more. 

MeetingZone first raised standards within the collaboration marketplace on its launch in 2002 with the introduction of its cost effective innovative services, revolutionary billing system and its unfaltering focus on customer service.  

MeetingZone worked closely with the UK’s No 1 digital agency, Enable Interactive, on the design and build of its new website.  

MeetingZone is one of the world’s largest independent conferencing and collaboration service providers and offers customers a high performance, low-cost personalised audio and web conferencing service. With operations in Europe and North America, MeetingZone’s HQ is located at Thame, Oxford.  The company was formed in 2002 by Steve Gandy and Tim Duffy, who collectively have over 30 years experience in the technology and telecoms sector. MeetingZone’s customers include many of the FTSE 500 companies in the financial, retail, IT, pharmaceutical and legal sectors.  For more information please visit:  www.meetingzone.com

(1) The national broadband plan of Federal Communications Commission in the United States  includes an initiative to equip 100 million U.S. households with 100 megabits-per-second service by the year 2020, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski told attendees at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) conference held in Washington, D.C. last week.

The FCC is to deliver its national broadband plan, a directive of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), to Congress in March 2010.

In a speech entitled, “Broadband: Our Enduring Engine for Prosperity and Opportunity,” Genachowski outlined the so-called "100 Squared" project, set a 90 percent broadband adoption target by 2020, and, in pitching for “broadband testbeds,” praised Google Inc.’s recently announced plan to experiment in a select number of communities with fiber-to-the-home service at speeds up to 1 gigabit per second.

He said that a wide ranging broadband initiative was critical to “unleash American ingenuity and ensure that businesses, large and small, are created here, move here, and stay here.”

Genachowski called the implementation of ultra high speed broadband throughout the country an “imperative,” tying it to an array of priorities, including job creation, economic growth, innovation, investment, education, health care, energy efficiency, public safety and the “vibrancy of our democracy.”

He noted the United States’s lagging rate of broadband adoption, pointing to research that places the U.S. as far back as 16th in the world with “roughly 65 percent” of householdshaving broadband, a significant departure from Singapore’s 88 percent and South Korea’s 95 percent adoption rate.

Genachowski noted that “more than 20 countries already have broadband plans and are pushing to capture the jobs and economic advantages that broadband enables.”

In making his case for broadband’s economic impact, Genachowski said that limited Internet access in the U.S. among low-income, minority, tribal communities, rural households and the unemployed has resulted in “leaving millions behind.”

Genachowski said that the FCC’s plan will include other recommendations for broadband, such as:
- improving the already successful E-Rate program for Internet connections in classrooms and libraries;
- modernization of the FCC’s rural telemedicine program;
- deployment to accelerate smart grid technology;
- development of public and private partnerships to increase Internet adoption;
- freeing up a significant amount of spectrum for licensed and unlicensed use;
- methods to lower the cost of build outs; and
 - creating an interoperable public safety network.

Source: www.itchannelplanet.com

 (1) AVI-SPL and PGi based in Atlanta, Georgia, a leading provider of meeting and collaboration solutions, have made a strategic alliance to provide tailored video conferencing solutions to organizations worldwide. As a part of the arrangement, AVI-SPL, the largest global integrator of audio visual systems and services, will offer its customers PGi`s award-winning PGi audio, Web and event-collaboration services.

PGI customers include more than 50,000 companies and nearly 90% of the Fortune 500. Every month, 12 million people around the world use PGi`s advanced solutions and next-generation platform to meet, work and collaborate. PGi is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with operations in 24 countries worldwide.

PGi helps companies demystify the technology and determine what they need to get out of their meetings and then matches them with the right solution be it audio, web, event or now video conferencing.

By joining forces with AVI-SPL, PGi is now able to offer its customers an extensive suite of video conferencing solutions, including hardware, design-build, infrastructure, network and services. The alliance between the two allows customers to easily find any video meeting technology they need, from desktop computer cameras to Telepresence.

 David Guthrie, CTO, PGi, said: "Video is top of mind with our customers and speeds up decision making in a more competitive business climate.  ...  By working together with AVI-SPL, we will be able to help our customers select the right kind of video conferencing to suit their needs."

Likewise, this new venture expands AVI-SPL`s capabilities to offer PGi audio, event and web collaboration solutions to the AVI-SPL installed base of enterprise customers with revenues of $420 million.

 AVI-SPL CEO, John Zettel, said: "The synergies between our two companies make this new relationship significant with PGi adding video to its portfolio and AVI-SPL now providing audio, event and web conferencing solutions. We share a strong customer focus and have already begun working together to an overwhelmingly positive response."

(2) RTS Unified Communications with HQ in New York has won Telepresence Certification from Polycom as a provider of audio/visual (AV) integration for customized immersive telepresence solutions. The certification enables RTS to leverage a new line of highly adaptable immersive Telepresence solutions, Polycom Architected Telepresence Experience(TM) (Polycom ATX) 300, to help organizations customize immersive tTlepresence for their specific application and space requirements.

John J. Pepe, CEO, RTS Unified Communications, said: "We are very excited to offer our clients a full range of AV / IT services. Our clients clearly have an increasing interest in Telepresence and visual communication as a whole; this partnership enhances our ability to meet customer needs."

RTS Unified Communications is an industry-certified leading provider of design, engineering, project management, installation, service and support for AV/IT clients. Its core strengths include telecommunications, infrastructure, audiovisual, security and information technology services including a complete after care support and service model.

The company is headquartered in New York and has offices in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Colorado.

(1) Verizon Business has been named Global Service Provider of the Year, North America, by Polycom Inc., a global leader in telepresence, video and voice communications solutions. The award, given in conjunction with the 2010 TEAM Polycom, the company's annual partner conference, recognizes Verizon Business for its outstanding sales performance and excellence in meeting customer solution, service and support needs.

With 30 years of experience delivering conferencing services, Verizon uses its global IP network to provide a wide array of advance collaboration and mobility tools to large-business and government customers around the world,

Many of the world's largest businesses and governments - including 96 percent of the Fortune 1000 and thousands of government agencies and educational institutions - rely on Verizon's professional and managed services and network technologies to accelerate their business.

(2) BT Conferencing  now offers interoperability between the video conferencing systems of Cisco, Polycom and TANDBERG, as part of the company's managed service offering, BT One Source.

Aaron McCormack, CEO of BT Conferencing, said: "BT has successfully deployed this interoperability service for several large multi-national customers, enabling them to use a mixture of different endpoints in a video meeting. We also currently operate this service within BT's internal  video estate. Our goal is to help our customers maximize their investments in video technology by allowing them to collaborate with partners, suppliers, customers and others around the globe."

BT One Source includes Engage Meeting Manager, BT's universal customer interface that allows customers to operate different manufacturers' products, creating a seamless, automated customer experience. BT customers can use Engage Meeting Manager to initiate a video call between Cisco TelePresence systems and traditional TANDBERG and Polycom video systems with a simple point  and click.

BT's managed video conferencing service also includes an Engage Tracker tool which helps organizations quantify the return on investment (ROI) of their video conferencing estate by tracking travel cost savings and carbon emission reductions resulting from video usage.

BT Conferencing, a global leader in offering fully managed video conferencing services across multiple vendor platforms, provides customers a complete solution within their enterprise or business-to-business (B2B) to external business partners via BT's Global Video Exchange.

BT has installed more than 500 immersive telepresence rooms around the world by technicians certified to install equipment from Cisco, Polycom and TANDBERG. BT currently has more than 25,000 video endpoints and 400 multipoint control units under management and support.

(3) Regus has opened immersive Polycom RPX Telepresence suites in Paris, Frankfurt and Manchester based on Cable&Wireless Worldwide’s Managed Video Conferencing (MVC) solution. The facilities are part of C&W Worldwide and Regus’ joint initiative to implement market-leading High-Definition Telepresence suites at Regus’ premier global business centres using Cable&Wireless Worldwide’s MVC solution, announced in April  2009.

“The demand for immersive telepresence in Regus business centres worldwide is yet another point of validation that visual communication is becoming a mission-critical business tool, and will be ubiquitous within two to three years. Regus customers will now be able to take advantage of Polycom’s immersive telepresence experience in a natural, ‘across the table’ way and be as productive and efficient – just as if they were in the same room,” said Andrew Hug, Vice President Telepresence Business Development & Sales Consulting EMEA at Polycom.

“They can connect with Regus facilities, their own offices or with their customers, vendors and partners anywhere in the world via telepresence. Polycom’s open standards approach allows this to happen seamlessly.”

All Regus telepresence and videocommunication suites can be booked at anytime and from anywhere in the world through a sophisticated online booking tool including global real-time meeting room and telepresence/VC availability at: www.regus.com.

(4) ACT Conferencing has signed Grupo ACT (Asesora y Consultora Tecnologca) in Mexico as its newest channel partner in the region. Grupo ACT, founded in 2002, provides telecommunications and IT solutions to corporations, educational institutions and government agencies.

Grupo ACT is now able to offer new collaborative services, such as on-demand audio and web conferencing, reserved audio conferencing, webcast and web conferencing, and video conferencing to its existing customers as well as to market the use of these collaboration tools to potential customers in the region.

Jorge L. Toledo Patrn, managing director, Grupo ACT, said: 'In addition to broadening our product offering, this partnership ensures that our new collaboration services are of the highest quality and reliability ' something our competitors cannot claim.'

“Grupo ACT was an attractive partner for us as they already carry a solid reputation in the region and service a variety of organizations spanning several vertical markets,'”said Marina Bogard, chief sales and marketing officer, ACT Conferencing.

ACT Conferencing is headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado, with operations in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore and the U.K.

(1) The Mayo Clinic, GE Healthcare and Intel Corp. plan to test a system that monitors elderly patients in their homes as a way to cut down on hospitalizations and emergency room visits. Mayo Clinic says the one-year study will involve 200 high-risk Mayo Clinic patients over age 60 who receive care in Rochester. Half will be monitored and the remainder will receive usual care.

In the study, Mayo says patients will measure their vital signs such as blood pressure, pulse and weight, and respond to questions specific to their diseases on a daily basis, with all data reviewed by the clinical care team to assess the patient for signs and symptoms suggesting clinical deterioration. In doing so, Mayo hopes it will lead to early medical intervention. They will be able to monitor their health data electronically or view the patients through video.

This research study further illustrates GE Healthcare and Intel's commitment, announced in April 2009, to jointly market and develop innovative technologies for independent living and chronic disease management and to extend care from the hospital to the home. The two companies plan to invest $250 million over the next five years for the research and product development of home-based health technologies. In addition, GE Healthcare is selling and marketing the Intel Health Guide in the United States and the United Kingdom.

(2) The Australian Medical Association Queensland (AMAQ) has presented the State Government with a plan to improve efficiency in the state's health system. The plan calls for extra orthopaedic and trauma wards to stay open overnight and on the weekends. It also wants a greater use of telemedicine, and surgery teams flown to regional hospitals instead of patients being flown out.

AMAQ president-elect Dr Gino Pecoraro said: “What we're proposing is that we use the money that has already been allocated. This is money that is already out there, we just want to use it better to get the maximum benefit for our patients."

The Queensland Government says it talks frequently to AMAQ and similar ideas have been a priority for some time. Queensland already makes extensive use of Telemedicine.

Here are top ten tips for choosing the right webinar, webcast or web event solution for you; they come from meeting.ie in Ireland:

1.Simplicity is key! Talk to an independent vendor that will help you to choose webinar software that matches your needs. Many solutions are over loaded with features and functions that can make them complicated to use.

2.Cross platform is important! The more platforms (Windows, Mac OS) and browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari) the software can deal with the higher the chance is that all your participants can connect across the country or the world.

3.Try it out first!  Join a demo with the solution you are looking at and see how your experience is as a participant. Watch out in particular how easy it is for you to join that demo. If you like it and it looks and feels good, your participants are going to like it too.

4.Make sure you can be heard! Try the audio options available (conference call and VoIP or telephone conference only). Check the quality of the audio and how easy it is to use.

5.Recording makes your event go a long way! Make sure the solution provider has a hosted recording solution. ...  It is then simple to re-use your recording in Emails, websites or newsletters.

6.Video is good! Don’t be shy, look for good video capabilities for your webinar. Having a live video feed of the presenter makes your web event personal. ...

7.Think clearly and brainstorm with your team about what you want to achieve in the webinar and how will you get there.

8.Don’t let the price of the solution dictate your choice. Make your decision based on what fits your needs, where you feel you will get the support you need and what was good when you tried it.

9.Flat Fee solutions are they way to go as they are efficient as you flex your meetings. ... Conference calls, hosted recording or other features may be charged separately based on usage.   

10.Practice makes perfect. Run sessions with colleagues and people that you know before you go live with the real event.

Find out more about easy-to-use webinar and web events solutions on their website:
http://meeting.ie/2009/08/services-web-events/

(2) Business Expert Webinars (BEW) based in Minneapolis has announced the launch of Business Expert Webinars OnDemand. They have over 70 courses in their on-demand library designed to enhance the skills of business professionals. Virtual business training course topics include: social media, sales, leadership, management, business development, business strategy, customer service, business etiquette, trade shows, and many more.

A common shortcoming of many on-demand programs is that they do not provide a means to communicate with the presenter. Business Expert Webinars OnDemand includes an email chat function so that participants can ask questions of the speaker to ensure they learn the presented concepts.

To review the Business Expert Webinars OnDemand library, visit:
www.BusinessExpertWebinars.com/ondemand

(1) Marketing intelligence firm comScore Inc. recently reported that nearly 178 million U.S. Internet users--representing 86.5 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience--viewed a record 33.2 billion videos last December. This underscores the growth and popularity of online video.

(2) The Telepresence market is predicted to reach revenues of $4.7 billion worldwide by 2014, according to a recent report by Frost & Sullivan.

(1) The importance of audio will be emphasised when Professor Paul Moore gives his inaugural professorial lecture at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland on 3 March called ‘We Have No Earlids: Sound Technology and Auditory Culture’. It will argue for a major re-evaluation of the importance of sound in framing meaning and cultural identity.

Professor Moore, who is Chair of Creative Technologies, will say sound is the forgotten medium of contemporary academic study; the subservience of sound to the visual is even more surprising with all the affordable and accessible digital creative technologies in the new media environment. In his lecture, he will use a range of sound recordings and samples to show how technology has opened up new possibilities for the re-imagining of the ways in which sound can be used to make and represent meaning.

He will argue that "Much of the terminology now associated with so-called new media can be directly linked to the birth of sound studies and sound technology. "

Take a list of the terms most often associated with the digital space. Immersion / interactivity / cyberspace / telepresence / virtuality. Each has its birth in the invention of the telephone, the phonograph and the radio," he said. Sound is important.

(2) Vaddio, the leading manufacturer and OEM distributor of specialty PTZ cameras and high-end camera control systems, is now shipping the new UXHD CrossPoint, a dual input, dual output video format converter and scaler for HD-SDI and analog video signals.

President of Vaddio, Rob Sheeley,  explains: “As our AV integrators migrate further into camera systems that incorporate HD-SDI video distribution, there is still a need to support analog video equipment such as projectors, monitors, computers and video-playback devices that dont support SDI. The UXHD CrossPoint takes care of this by providing a scalable analog input and output that can support HD component video (720p/1080i/1080p), SD composite and S-Video, as well as RGBHV computer resolutions up to 1920 x 1200.”

Sheeley adds, “On the input they select what analog format and resolution they need, while on the output they select the required SDI output. For the output side they select what analog format and resolution they need, while on the output they select the necessary SDI output. What used to require multiple convertors in the past can now be done with one unit.”

Q1 2010

10 - 11 March 2010 at Olympia, London, UK
UC Expo 10
Nick Sheppard, Director, Unified Communications, TANDBERG, will speak on 10 March at 14.30 on "Telepresence Productivity for Everyone". Nick will share his vision of unified communications and show how business-quality video enables organisations to increase staff productivity whilst simultaneously improving employee work-life balance.
More at: http://www.ucexpo.co.uk/

25 March 2010 from 08.30 to 10.30 am at mvision’s Telepresence Suite in Central London
Telepresence Forum demonstrating TANDBERG Telepresence T3.
You will hear from leading experts on how telepresence is driving a broader agenda within organisations, by improving overall business performance.. There is a complementary breakfast too.
For an invitation e-mail: dyoungerwood@mvision.co.uk

28 - 31 March 2010 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain
Cisco Networkers Bahrain 2010
Cisco will host its industry-accredited Networkers for the first time in the Middle East.
Aimed at training, education and networking, the event, themed, Knowledge is Power, has been developed in collaboration with the Bahrain government Meet more than 2000 key technical and business decision makers s from across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Meet more than 300 of the world’s renowned experts who will be available to answer all your questions about technology.

Q2 2010

19 April 2010 at the Steigenberger Hotel, Berlin, Germany
Wainhouse Research - A pre-event meeting - The CSP Summit
CSP Summit will focus on the needs of Collaboration Service Providers and will include presentations by industry experts
Register at http://www.wainhouse.com/berlin2010

20 and 21 April 2010 at the Steigenberger Hotel in Berlin, Germany
Wainhouse Research sixth annual European conference - the Collaboration Futures Summit
The Wainhouse Research Summit has become known as the premier conference and networking opportunity that brings together top enterprise managers, analysts, and industry experts.
Register at http://www.wainhouse.com/berlin2010

22 April 2010 at Reston, Virginia, United States
The Inter-Company Telepresence and Videoconferencing Conference and Working Group.
The program is hosted by The Human Productivity Lab who recently published The Inter-Company Telepresence and Videoconferencing Handbook. It explains how your organization can create an inter-company telepresence and videoconferencing program to cut costs, improve individual and organizational productivity, and accelerate time-to-market advantage.
More details and to register at: http://www.telepresenceoptions.com/conference.php

9-11 June 2010 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
InfoComm 2010 
About 900 exhibitors will showcase A/V technology including: integrated display, projection, audio, conferencing, lighting and staging, digital signage and communications system solutions. InfoComm 2010 will also feature new special exhibits addressing sustainability, 3D technology and camera production. Attendance expected to be 32,000 visiitors.
Additional information is available at: www.infocomm.org