"Be careful, you could find this something of a startling experience"
By Tony Hallett, 13 December 2005 15:40
Up to six users are at first confronted with a bank of plasma screens and a monitor above them, used for set up and collaboration during a Halo session.
The patents HP holds or has filed for are to do with colour and systems management. But in terms of operation, all controls are consciously kept very simple.
Photo: Tony Hallett
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Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. Roger Huffadine
Underwhelming - It looks like video-conferencing to me just like it always has been. Everyone still has to travel to one of these 'special' rooms. Before I left the industry in 2001 we had a development environment that would let people videoconference from video mobiles, video-conferencing suites, PCs and landline video phones - all at different locations and with different encoding. Sadly the industry took a dive and the team disbanded.
Why aren't Vodafone et-al offering video conference bridges to industry so that office based PC users can group with folk in the field who are using video mobiles? The technology exists and if we could do it 5 years ago it is simple to achieve today.
2. anonymous too
So, we have gone from 1x TV & camera and an ISDN2 (at 20K) to 4x plasma screens & cameras with megabit broadband (at 200K). All that is missing is for Trinny and Susannah to do a fashion make-over for the attendees.
I think I'll go and get a patent for the Halo2; it has 8x plasma screens & cameras with dedicated OC-48 bandwidth... comes in a choice of pastel shades, matching coffee cups (optional extra) and a make-up artist.
Ah, what am I saying, the CEO would rather spend the company's money on yet another VC system than bonus the workers- it'll be a runaway success.
3. John Rutter
HP says 'This is not a videoconferencing tool – it's in a separate class.'
But that's really all it is: a videoconferencing tool - albeit with a bit more thought to the aesthetics than usual.
I am sure this does provide a much better environment than single-screen solutions, but it does sound a lot of money for a conference room, a high-bandwidth network connection, a bunch of screens and some videoconferencing software...
4. Ben Gibbs
I think it would be better than a single screen and a single camera. I use international video conferencing on a dual-ISDN picturetel system about once a week and regularly over PC's. The PictureTel blows the consumer PC conferencing out the window easily and I'm sure a Halo system would kill PictureTel in the same way. Going to a much larger effective screen size and having the cameras well placed is bound to improve things. So, I'd say that this isn't exactly rocket science and also, I'd have to question the pricing - why so expensive? I suspect it's a very high-margin service, but one that the customers are willing to pay for because it cuts down on airfares and executive time wasting, not to mention jetlag.