In an earlier post on Collaboration Loop, I noted that while demand for desktop video conferencing was weak, we were seeing significant interest in telepresence -- and seeing significant confusion.

Vendors of telepresence systems have a challenge on their hands – how to educate the market that telepresence is more than just prettier video conferences. Unfortunately, one has to actually experience telepresence first hand to understand what makes it different than traditional room-based video conferencing systems.

Telepresence is about more than video, it is the creation of a virtual reality environment that makes conference participants feel like they are in the same room. Telepresence systems are typically sold as entire rooms, complete with lighting, furniture, and acoustic details designed to reinforce this virtual reality environment. It isn’t enough to implement a high-definition video conferencing system with a large monitor to achieve telepresence, rather systems are carefully designed to give conference participants the feeling that they can easily reach out and touch the person on the other side.