Details on Presentations and Exhibiting - click here

  

Keynote Speech

 

From Teleconferencing to Telepresence

Making Virtual Meetings Work For You

Hal Josephson is President of MediaSense

·  A brief history -- thirty years of tele-meetings - what will meetings be like 30 years from now

·  Best practices -- developing valuable tele-skills - enhancing human communications with tele/presence

Presented by Gary Thom, President, Delta Information Systems &

Thomas Smith, Program Director, University of Wisconsin

·        The bulk of installed systems are H.323 compliant, how can H.323 work with SIP and other standards and protocols

·        How does the ITU H.323 and SIP standards support advanced audio and video features

·        What are the common problems in videoconferencing networks

For more on University of Wisconsin - Department of Engineering Professional Development Programs - click here  

Next generation tele/presence or tele/conferencing will combine all the known forms of teleconferencing as well as emerging concepts such as AI-artificial intelligence, expert systems and blackboard systems.  That is, next-generation tele/presence will become more like virtual reality (aka Wii) rather than simple video or other traditional technologies.  Today, the four major types of teleconferencing technology are: audio, audiographic, video, and computer teleconferencing. These can be combined or used separately in order to accomplish the particular task of the conference.  In the simplest teleconference, 

(1) audio teleconference, individuals use telephone handsets or headsets at their own desks or they meet in a conference room equipped with hands-free teleconference sets.  Their verbal interaction with other meeting participants can be enhanced with additional

(2) audio-graphic equipment, for example, an electronic blackboard or slow-scan (still-frame or freeze-frame) television, web conference, desktop sharing, which allows graphic information to be transmitted as part of the teleconference. 

The most technically sophisticated teleconference system is (3) full-motion video television where interaction among the participating sites, enabling the teleconference participants to see each other as though they were in the same conference room.  Given the prominence of Cisco over the past few years as one of the leading providers of tele/conferencing systems along with Polycom, a few words on their product concept is worth mentioning.

Immersion - Though not invented by Cisco, this concept as used in video tele/conferencing has been proven to increase participation, reduce distractions and mitigate or even negate the role of technology in the conversation.