As part of the fun at InfoComm which begins in Las Vegas this week, TANDBERG announced a new personal telepresence product called, cleverly, T1. Touting it's Scandanavian design roots, the company tried to align the product with clean lines, simple UI and elegant packaging that brings to mind their cultural neighbor brands such as Dansk, Bang & Olafsson and IKEA.
But it's 65" of personal. That's a lot of personal. My desktop system is 24" which is terrific for giving me the illusion of a solid face-to-face. The press release speaks of the electrical needs of the product requiring less electrical energy than 'expected.' I'm not sure what that means, but it's probably related to the standby method typical of modern monitors.
I'd prefer to learn about the engineering features of the platform, instead of the cultural integrity of its design goals. How much bandwidth does it consume?
The company also announced the new Codec C90 Telepresence Engine which enables 1080p and supports as many as 12 HD video inputs, four HD video outputs and a built-in audio mixer with 16 audio inputs and 8 audio outputs, which makes it ideal for boardroom and auditorium implementations. The T1 and the C90 are planned to be shipping in October 2008.
