TeleSuite Debuting Midmarket Tool
TeleSuite Corp., which offers life-size videoconferencing solutions, late last month announced the development of a new solution specifically designed for midsize companies and regional offices. The solution features smaller conferencing rooms with compressed technology that allows for high-quality audio and visual transmission.
The new technology is making its debut in Scandinavia. TeleSuite Scandinavia AS is planning to install four Enterprise 200 Series systems in four cities in the region.
The product features advanced technology that compresses audio and video for purposes of transmission, while progression-scan digital cameras allow images to be transmitted via basic T-1 high-speed Internet lines without the need to translate digital streams into analog streams.
This prevents choppiness of picture and sound, said TeleSuite CEO Tom Jackson. The tool also allows for the inclusion of up to five locations in a single conference.
The core technology for the product costs about $80,000, Jackson said, and the cost of engineering a TeleSuite conference room varies, based on size and specific need, but tends to run between $50,000 and $75,000 each.
Full-room, life-size screen videoconferencing is the stock in trade of TeleSuite, whose officials bristle at the word "videoconferencing," believing it sells short the technology. The company has had erratic spurts of growth over the years and now counts as clients several large companies, including AOL Time Warner, PricewaterhouseCoopers and GlaxoSmithKline. TeleSuite also is among mega travel management company Rosenbluth International's suite of corporate travel solutions.
TeleSuite earlier this year built a room at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, reviving a program to build rooms in hotels.
Though recent external factors, including terrorism, war and concern about severe acute respiratory syndrome, generally translate into business for videoconferencing providers, Jackson said some aspects of the industry are changing.
"The big TMCs know the dew is off the rose and business travel is changing dramatically, and now they must think about how to support their customers' needs," Jackson said. "A few years ago, when the economy was there, it was the responsibility of the travel executive to find ways to more effectively meet and to cut travel costs. Now, CEOs just cut travel, which they believe they can do without hurting sales and marketing efforts. We have to talk to executives about how we can support specific business ventures and look at global execution."