Tandberg launches Tandberg Experia

Vendor jumps on the telepresence bandwagon

Videoconferencing (VC) vendor Tandberg has jumped on the telepresence bandwagon with the launch of its own telepresence offering, Tandberg Experia.

Last week, CRN revealed that Polycom aims to steal a march on rivals Cisco and Hewlett-Packard (HP) with its RealPresence Experience telepresence room (CRN, 5 February).

Tandberg Experia is a bundle of existing Tandberg technology, with an additional control system and Tandberg-designed software that is interoperable with other Tandberg VC products and alternative vendors’ systems.

“By placing Experia on an existing or managed network and making minor room adjustments, an executive’s conference room can be transformed into a telepresence studio,” Tandberg claimed.

Asked how the launch of Tandberg Experia will fit into the alliance Tandberg signed with HP last month to make their telepresence and VC portfolios interoperable, Paul Gullet, Tandberg’s president of EMEA, said: “Experia enhances HP’s Halo Collaboration Studio. Halo is very much a whole-room, immersive system, whereas Experia is adaptive.”

Sam McMaster, managing director of Tandberg VAR Questmark, said: “Telepresence is the very tip of the VC pyramid, but it is a shallow tip. Telepresence won’t become a big part of the VC market, but it will raise the profile of VC to executives. This will help VC to filter through at all levels within businesses.”

Polycom unveils its RealPresence Experience