On video-conferencing

Bernard Leong writes about some Cisco video conferencing hardware:

the Cisco TelePresence 1000 (made for the home user – we are told the price is US$79K) and the Cisco TelePresence 3000 (made for companies – and the price is US$299K)

How many home users are willing to shell out US$79K for a video-conferencing kit? Why not just use Skype?

I was watching some TV earlier, and Oprah uses Skype. She brought on Jennifer Aniston’s two dogs, and Owen Wilson from Maui. Full screen (some large-ish TV). Clear. Powered by Skype.

Apparently, Oprah has been doing this for a while. I think Cisco isn’t going too far with their TelePresence stuff for the home. Can’t imagine many a business (SME-sized) wanting such an expensive system, either.

What about open source video? Video over SIP? Don’t really see anything being as mainstream as Skype (which does audio and video, just fine, despite being proprietary).

One Comment

  1. While it is tempting to use skype, it is closed and proprietary. I have been avoiding it all this while. My 2cents.

    Harish


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