On October 13th, 2008, NC State and Cisco unveiled the Cisco TelePresence video conferencing facility at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Engineering Building II on Centennial Campus. The gift continues the longstanding research relationship between Cisco and NC State University. For details on the donation and unveiling, please read NC State University Breaks New Ground in Virtual Research Collaboration.
What is Telepresence?
The Cisco TelePresence University Connection enables university researchers to increase the frequency of "in-person" collaboration with colleagues at other universities, helping speed new developments and improve ongoing research collaboration. Cisco TelePresence is a virtual meeting solution that breaks down the barriers of distance by creating a lifelike virtual meeting experience where participants feel as though they are sitting in the same room though they may be thousands of miles apart. Through the Cisco TelePresence University Connection program, companies and individuals who have access to one of the many Cisco TelePresence rooms installed worldwide or who are located near a Cisco TelePresence Public Suite will be able to meet face to face with top researchers.
Cisco TelePresence delivers real-time, face-to-face interactions between people and places in their work and personal lives using advanced visual, audio, and collaboration technologies. These technologies transmit life-size, high-definition images and spatial discrete audio. Now it's easier than ever to discern facial expressions for those crucial business discussions and negotiations across the "virtual table."
Who can use the Telepresence?
All NC State faculty and staff are welcome to reserve the unit. While the unit has been donated to encourage research, there are a number of other potential uses -- student recruiting by corporations or academic units on other campuses; discussions between administrative units (ECE Director of Graduate Studies at Purdue talking to his counterpart here); etc. Currently, we do not allow undergraduate or graduate students (this includes TAs and RAs) to reserve the unit.
The Telepresence unit is located within Engineering Building II on Centennial Campus -- additional details will be provided to those with an active reservation.
Who can I connect to?
The Cisco TelePresence University Connection program is a research initiative funded by Cisco that provides selected universities with Cisco TelePresence System endpoints and services so that groups or individuals can meet around a virtual table. Cisco is currently working with a number of universities to implement a Telepresence facility on their campuses.
Currently Online Coming Soon Cornell University Georgia Tech Johns Hopkins University University of California at Berkley MIT University of Wisconsin at Madison Purdue University Stanford University University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) University of California at San Diego (UCSD) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
In addition, we're able to communicate with any of Cisco's corporate locations across the globe -- almost 300 Cisco TelePresence rooms in 40 countries and 129 cities.
Can I call other companies?
Yes, and no. While there are plans to allow these units to connect to units owned by the various private corporations throughout industry and government agencies, Cisco is working out the logistical elements involved in expanding the service to allow this. We hope to announce this option in the first half of 2009.
Unveiled on October 15, 2008, Cisco TelePresence rooms are available on a pay-per-use model to businesses and organizations of all sizes seeking ways to increase the number of face-to-face meetings and collaboration with key partners, suppliers and customers while reducing costs and delays associated with travel. Public Cisco TelePresence rooms are available immediately at the Cisco TelePresence Suites in Santa Clara, California, and in Boston, London, and major cities throughout India, including Bangalore and Mumbai.
How do I make a reservation?
Reservations are limited to NC State faculty and staff. Simply click the "Make a Reservation" link above, authenticate, and then provide all of the requested information. Once completed, a request will be sent to the central scheduling system for all of the Telepresence units. You'll receive notification once the meeting has been confirm by room coordinators on both ends and will be able to monitor all of your reservations by clicking on "My Reservations" in the menu above. You can check for the availability of the room on the NC State end by clicking on the "Room Schedule" link above.
Scheduling Requirements:
- In this phase of the program, only point-to-point calls are supported. In near future (2009), we will support multipoint capabilities also.
- We strongly discourage ad-hoc calls and require that all TelePresence meetings be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance.
- The Telepresence Service Desk is staffed with live agents between the hours of 6 AM and 6 PM PT to assist with scheduling meetings and to provide support during calls, if needed. Thus, we advise that TelePresence meetings be conducted during this time when support is available. In addition, the key to the room will be available for pickup from the ECE receptionist -- the latest this person will be available is 6pm.
Information for other Telepresence Room Coordinators:
Room coordinators for other Telepresence units throughout the world are asked to check the available online schedule before scheduling any calls involving our unit. Once making the reservation, please use the following contact information to assure our online schedule is up to date and to avoid any potential conflicts: