Video Conferencing is hot. White hot. It’s in the news and its all being driven by the big boys.
HP
Cisco
Polycom
More and more news about the space keeps pouring out all over the place.
Here are some stories that have caught my eye.
Los Angeles Times-Using a video camera to monitor elderly folks from a far. Having a mother who is 86 and now living in a retirement community, but not in assisted living or anything like that, this one hit home the right way.
New York Times-college students leave the family nest to go to school. Issues with firewalls on campus seem to cause problems, and yet Skype busts through them, when other programs don’t.
The Korean Times refers to a company called Omega that has executed a reverse merger into a Nevada shell and is coming out with an easy to user video conferencing solution for the masses.
Reuters out of the UK has a story about Polycom’s new HD Desktop solution. Okay, but where’s the on the go solution? From what SightSpeed’s CEO showed me last week (I’m a SightSpeed Advisory Board Member) their new SMB package is totally portable…and is the most cost efficient solution on the market (or will be when it launches in a few weeks.)
Last but not least is DesignTimes and their story about Cisco’s Telepresence. The cost of Telepresence even at the entry level is $80,000. At that price I can buy a sports car, a second home in an emerging market or just bank it. Sure the cost will drop over time, but where’s the bandwidth to support it coming from at the home level. Not in the USA any time soon at prices that won’t break the bank.