Description

Cisco Systems offered consumers a new way to keep in touch, bringing its high-definition TelePresence videoconferencing technology to home TVs.

Transcript

Cisco Brings TelePresence Into Homes\ Nick Barber: Cisco systems offered consumers a new way to keep in touch bringing its high definition telepresence video conferencing technology to home tvs. Marthin de Beer: Umi Telepresence is about you and me connecting in new ways like in your living room. Nick: The system works with a consumers own TV using a camera on top a consul unit and a remote. It will cost $600 when it goes on sale next month and users will also pay a monthly subscription fee of $25. People who don’t have Umi can participate in conferences via Google video chat with lower quality. Cisco is making a big push for videos since its first telepresence systems were introduced 4 years ago now it claims that more than 1 million people use Cisco telepresence system on a daily basis. Marthin: Video is the most powerful medium of all and if the experience is right it changes behavior and it can change the way people work, live, play and --. Nick: Umi requires a broadband connection of 1.5 mega bits per second both up stream and downstream to have a 720P video conference and 3.5 megabits per second for 1080p. In a demonstration at the launch event in San Francisco in which reporters talk to a Cisco employee the image quality was excellent. The Umi camera unit has 5 microphones to capture high quality audio from all participants. The camera can pan across the room tilt up and down and zoom in on objects who want to show friends. Umi can be ordered now and goes on sale next month n best buy magnolia stores in the U.S. Early next year Verizon will start offering the product in service to its home broadband subscribers. With reporting by Steven Lawson, I’m Nick Barber IDG News Service.