With travel budgets getting cut left and right, it’s unsurprising that conferencing has been increasingly popular. But what’s a bit on the surprising side is that telepresence – high-end, high-definition video “immersion” conferencing – is going strong.
Take British Telecom plc, for instance, which is adding Polycom Inc. telepresence to its managed services: “To be honest, we are seeing telepresence take off like crazy,” Jeff Prestel, general manager of the video solutions division at BT, told Telephony.
AT&T Inc. meanwhile reports ongoing interest and plenty of ongoing discussion for telepresence, which it launched last spring, as is Telanetix, a managed services provider.
Analysts are bullish: Gartner Inc. says world economic conditions will drive uptake of video telepresence in the next three years, with the travel industry losing out. In fact, high-definition based video meeting solutions will replace 2.1 million airline seats annually, costing the travel and hospitality industry $3.5 billion per year.
