There is no presence in TelePresence

By Tsahi Levent-Levi

Categories: Technology

July 24th, 2008

There’s no presence in TelePresence. And you know what? There’s also no “unified” or “communication” in UC (Unified Communication).

These are just new buzzwords in VoIP town. They are there to replace “video conferencing” and “convergence.” Besides the fact that they are more of the same (maybe better), there’s nothing new under the sun.

TelePresence

TelePresence is simply better video conferencing. It has higher resolutions (1080p instead of 720p, or CIF if you refer to legacy systems), higher bitrates and multiple screens/cameras/speakers. Other than that? It’s just better user experience for BIG bucks.

While we’re at it, there is no presence in TelePresence as a requirement. Presence is the basis of UC, but it’s not required (or present) in today’s telePresence solutions.

Unified Communication

Another charm: UC is convergence in disguise. In the past everyone was talking convergence – any network, any device, any anything. We had a bunch of servers doing a lot of interworking between different standards and networks, trying to allow us to communicate seamlessly with everyone. UC takes it a bit further, by adding additional aspects in the enterprise – voicemail handling in our email client, presence keeping track of where we are so those servers will hunt us down more easily, etc. But essentially – it is still interworking between different networks and standards.

UC doesn’t really need VoIP. It needs presence as its basic building block. UC doesn’t really need communication – just presence, and it won’t be unified – it is spread thinly onto different networks.