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Trends Watch

Tele-Presence: Pre-requisites, RoI and More

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PCQ Bureau
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With the progress in technology, video conferencing evolved as an alternative

medium of communication, although how effective it has been as a substitute for

travel is for all to see (how many times have you actually used it?). The

quality of images transmitted and received and the amount of jitter (accentuated

with poor bandwidths provided by underlying networks, still in their nascent

stages) and the overall quality of experience (a person is left fiddling around

with equipment more than he could focus on the actual conference) left a lot to

be desired. So, there was a clear case for technology to upgrade itself to high-res

equipment and ensure a seamless transfer of data across networks. Of course,

when you are talking business to the other party, you wouldn't want your

discussions to be held hostage by the quality of your equipment. Especially,

when in the middle of a critical deal, as even a slightly raised brow is enough

to draw suspicions!

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High definition video conferencing is a very hot area for communication

equipment vendors and there are a lot of solutions floating around. These

utilize all possible avenues and technologies that Internet has opened up. You

could look at high-def video and audio conferencing, instant messaging,

collaboration through whiteboards and chat and email; all these have been

combined and now form part of standard unified communications solutions.



Tele-Presence is a few notches above high-def video conferencing and includes
all these different collaboration channels to form one unique solution for

life-size corporate communication. The solution delivers a unique 'in-person

meeting experience' by ensuring that all the key elements of a physical meeting

are simulated. This means the emphasis is not limited to using high-def

communication equipment on high bandwidth network but also on other sundry

aspects such as the size of the video screens, tables, chairs, alignment of mics,

cameras, color of interiors across all interacting locations. First, let's look

at the technical requirements in more detail.

Technical requirements



Almost all Tele-Presence systems out there use SIP or H.323 as the standard

protocols for audio-visual communication. Out of these SIP of late has been the

standard of choice for most communication equipment vendors and it makes sense

to go with Tele-Presence equipment based on SIP to avoid incompatibility issues

in future. Apart from this basic requirement here's a list of other key

requirements:

  • H.264 video codecs to offer highest quality compression.
  • Native 720p and 1080p high-definition cameras with pan, tilt and zoom

    functionality.
  • 65” inch plasma screens.
  • Native 720p and 1080p high-definition encoding/decoding of audio/video

    signals.
  • IP-based conference phone with call scheduling and presence detection

    abilities.
  • Low-latency architecture and low bandwidth utilization to ensure

    error-free transmission of data.
  • Wideband advanced audio coding with low delay (AAC LD).
  • Multichannel spatial audio with echo cancellation and interference filters

    to eliminate feedback from mobile devices such as cell phones.
  • Ability to project whiteboarding, presentations, docs and spreadsheets,

    and play DVDs.
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The Tele-Presence systems run on integrated voice/video/data network over a

secure VPN tunnel. This ensures quality of service (QoS), security, reliability

and high availability. These systems are scalable in nature and bandwidth

requirements depend on the number of communication channels. This depends on the

number of participants per meeting. A typical Tele-Presence solution that

facilitates conference for six persons requires anywhere between 15-20 Mbps of

bandwidth. As collaboration is the USP of Tele-Presence systems, you expect them

to be compatible with IP-based phones and call-processing systems from other

telecommunication vendors. Also, integration with enterprise groupware solutions

(such as MS Outlook ) accommodates easy scheduling of meetings and access to

corporate information.



What Your Implementation Partner

Must Have
Telepresence provides a

fabulous end-user experience, but it's complicated and is actually a set of

collaborative applications from the same or multiple vendors. For eg,

integration with enterprise groupware such as Microsoft Outlook allows users

to schedule telepresence meetings in the same way they would send a calendar

invitation. Also, cameras are configured to focus on the speaker

automatically and participants do not need to manually adjust them during

meetings. The mics and speakers are optimally positioned within the

conference room to provide sound of the highest order of quality, without

any interference. For display, typically 65” plasma screens are used with

each screen big enough to comfortably accommodate two participants. A

typical conference room in an office would have the capacity to seat six

persons who would be able to 'meet' six people at the other location. The

arrangement of the tables and the overall interior décor including wall

color, upholstery, etc is designed such that all participants feel as if

they were seated in the same conference room.

The solution is actually a part of the wide

gamut of Unified Communications that include voice, video, data sharing

through whiteboards and might even include collaboration through IMs,

mobiles, etc. The technology requires services of the highest quality,

security and reliability for every meeting with a dedicated bandwidth of

about 15 Mbps per branch office. It's extremely critical to have the

deployments of the highest standards with the implementation partner having

expertise of such large scale deployments. Here's a quick checklist of what

you should look for while selecting your implementation partner:

  1. Determine the prospective sites that could

    benefit with telepresence.
  2. Check how far these cities are from each

    other. This would give an idea of the local skills of the prospective

    partner. Keep in mind that it is best to work with a single partner who

    can address your needs across all your sites.
  3. See the authorization certificate provided

    by the vendor of the telepresence solution. A global certification would

    reflect on the deployment experience of the partner and also help in case

    you have branches across different countries.
  4. The implementation partner should have

    deployed TelePresence for different industry verticals. This would show

    his understanding of requirements for different industries.
  5. Calculate the experience of the partner

    from the date he was certified. This would give you an idea of the

    technical expertise acquired by him over the years as a group and also the

    best practices adopted.
  6. Talk to some of the companies who've got

    the solution deployed from a particular implementation partner. This would

    give you an idea of how well the prospective partner was able to meet

    their requirements.
  7. Check if the prospective partner can

    provide complete lifecycle services for telepresence across the Plan,

    Design, Build, Deploy, Maintain and Manage stages.

RoI analysis



We've seen what Tele-Presence is all about and the minimum requirements for

deploying such a solution. However, the deployment costs are pretty steep and

the payback in the long term depends on how much and how well you use it. For

one, at current rates (a typical six-seater conference room could cost $300k per

office) only organizations that have large travel bills find it easy to create

the business case for adoption. But that's not the end of the story. There could

be other indirect benefits that might interest you. Here are some of the areas

where you are bound to benefit:

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1. Savings on travel and associated services: This is the most

tangible benefit of all and probably the most alluring one. Use of video

conferencing saw limited success but Tele-Presence is fundamentally different as

it conjures up the 'face-to-face' meeting experience in the virtual space. Sage

Research's findings on the usage of a particular Tele-Presence solution suggest

that an enterprise could save on travel by upto $3000 per executive per month.

2. Improved Collaboration amongst employees: One of the biggest

drawbacks of frequent travel by top-level executives is a reduced focus on

in-house activity. For a better part of the month, junior colleagues find their

boss' cabin deserted and run helter-skelter searching for guidance on critical

issues. Sage Research further states that around 78% of companies feel a

solution such as Tele-Presence would increase the quality of interaction amongst

headquarters and branch offices.

3. Employee productivity benefits: Frequent employee travel not just

costs a company monetarily but also causes a considerable wastage due of time

spent at airports, on road, checking in and out of hotels and the risk of missed

flights or delays. All this translates into loss of employee productivity.

Imagine attending meetings form the comfort of your office and the amount of

valuable time it would save for other more profitable activities.

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