We hope you enjoy reading the premier issue of Telepresence World—a new magazine featuring articles, updates, and news about telepresence technology and the array of applications for which it is and could be used. Telepresence has the potential to radically alter how we do business, explore our surroundings, educate our children, and relate to the world around us. In the coming months we will be bringing you information about telepresence from authors that will include technology vendors, designers, physicians, corporate executives, lawyers, artists, and others who are currently utilizing or have fresh ideas on how to use this new, impressive tool. If you are still unclear about what telepresence is or what it has to offer, please check out our “Telepresence 101” introduction to the technology. In each issue we hope to present to you an interesting mix of topics designed to stimulate your own ideas on how the use of telepresence could fit into your long-term strategies and goals. And, of course, don’t forget to plan now to attend the Telepresence World 2007 Conference that will take place at the University of San Diego in California, June 4 - 6, 2007. The first conference of its kind anywhere, Telepresence World 2007 will feature dynamic speakers and stunning telepresence demonstrations geared towards executives and decision-makers like yourselves for whom knowledge is key.
Why Now?
The current telepresence revolution refects the confuence of several key rapidly advancing technologies. The wide-spread deployment of high-speed internet with improved bandwith, the development of powerful computer processors and high-defnition video, and advances in compression technology and digital cameras have all contributed to the successful evolution of a new, interactive meeting model that is far superior to the traditional (and underwhelming) “TV & camera on a cart” method of video conferencing. At the same time, a number of external factors have also come together topromote the revolution: the spiraling fiscal and environmental costs of travel; the need to balance work with personal life in an increasingly chaotic world, and the realization that the missed “opportunity cost” resulting from time spent waiting at the airport, on the tarmac, and even for a taxi, is counter-productive.
Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me
The implications of this new technology are staggering - already physicians can perform surgery in front of students who are located thousands of miles away (and even take questions in the operating room); Hollywood directors can go over storyboards with staff in a London studio without leaving their offices; and private investors in New York can have an impromptu meeting with brokerage administrators in Arizona by popping into one of several public “TeleSuites” available at the venerable Waldorf Astoria.
Industry leaders such as Cisco, Hewlett Packard, Polycom, Teliris and others have invested large amounts of time and money into product research and development. All are committed to improving, perfecting, and standardizing the experience for broad implementation. Their efforts have not gone unnoticed--Business Week recently proclaimed Cisco's new TelePresence system one of the best new products in 2006.
In 1899, HG Wells published When the Sleeper Awakes, a novel about civilization 200 years in the future. In it, he envisioned a new paradigm for communicating with the global populace:
all over the world myriads of myriads of people, packed and still in darkened halls, will see you . . . .And you will hear their shouts reinforcing the shouting in the hall. . . And there is an optical contrivance we shall use. . . You stand in a very bright light, and they see not you but a magnifed image of you thrown on a screen--so that even the furtherest man in the remotest gallery can, if he chooses, count your eyelashes.
In this and subsequent issues, through case studies and in-depth articles, Telepresence World will show you that the future is now...