Executives often spend much of the year flying around the world to attend meetings. Their health, family life and work-life balance suffer, while they struggle to make their time productive in hotel rooms and VIP lounges.
At the same time, the company spends a small fortune on airline tickets, hotel rooms, transfers and daily allowances. Time and money could be better spent by using Cisco's TelePresence system.
TelePresence, distributed globally through Tata Communications with public rooms in 44 countries worldwide, including Hong Kong, is available for public use at Compass Offices' Central Building business centre.
Called 'collaborative' or 'immersive' communication, the system can bring in as many as four locations for an international meeting, creating the feeling of a lifelike situation.
Three cameras alternately show the high-resolution, life-size picture of the person speaking, whether several people participate from the same two offices or four different offices. Three screens next to each other show the speaker and other participants. With a built-in soft light behind the screens, the system provides advantageous lighting. The high-definition video, CD-quality audio and immersive environment provided make it easy to focus on the meeting.
'We find meetings are more productive over TelePresence than other methods like conference calls. Participants can't hide if they are not paying attention or don't understand something, so we all communicate much more effectively,' says Cassie Standen, systems and marketing manager of Compass Offices.