PALO ALTO, Calif. — Hewlett-Packard Co. on Monday jumped into the business of providing the technology — and building the rooms — for large companies to hold virtual face-to-face meetings regardless of the distance between participants.
HP's Halo Collaboration Studio offers a nearly immersive environment where people can see each other, talk and collaborate remotely as if they were in the same room. The underlying network, built and serviced by HP, minimizes delays and never crosses the public Internet.
Developed in partnership with DreamWorks Animation SKG LLC, the rooms are targeted at large corporations that are hoping to cut down on the amount of time and money spent flying people to different locations. Each room costs roughly $550,000 with an $18,000 per month fee, though charges vary with the number ordered.
The idea originated in the aftermath of Sept. 11 as airlines cut back on flights, security was ratcheted up and travel became more of a time-consuming headache, said Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation's chief executive.
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"We found ourselves with the inability to move creative talent around to sites we have around the country," he said.
In HP's rooms, up to six users in one location sit at a table and face their colleagues, who appear on three 50-inch plasma screens. Video cameras are located in holes near the screens so it appears that people are looking into their colleagues' eyes when talking.
A fourth monitor, placed above the three, can be used to display the screen of a shared computer or an object placed on the conference table over a camera positioned in the ceiling.