halo: life-size conferencing & collaboration

More news from the day job...

Fig 1. Halo Conferencing Studio (click for larger photo)

HP introduced on Monday a first-of-its-kind collaboration studio for simulating face-to-face business meetings. Brought to life in partnership with DreamWorks Animation SKG, the HP Halo Collaboration Studio enables people -- whether located across a country or across the world -- to communicate with each other in a vivid, face-to-face environment in real time. The offering significantly increases team effectiveness, provides faster decision-making capabilities and decreases the need for travel.

We've been working on this in the lab for quite awhile, so I may be biased. Nonetheless, the Halo conferencing environment is nothing short of incredible. You know how you always cringe when you have to sit through a videoconference? Not any more. Encountering your remote colleagues across the table at life size, in high definition, with good lighting and superb audio, is a qualitatively different and better experience than any conferencing system you have ever used. Did you look at the high res picture? It's not faked or doctored, that's the working system.

Okay, at $500K per room plus monthly network fees it's expensive enough that you can't have one in your cubicle yet. But your CEO is going to want this, count on it.

[more on halo at hp.com]

Posted by Gene at December 12, 2005 09:34 AM