I live about 10 min from Cisco and I've been in their $600k+ telepresence room more times than I can count. It's nice, but not a magical miracle solution. Even if the network and environment requirements for TP weren't outrageous (they are), it's not worth 100x the cost or even 10x. A well-architected OCS solution with high-quality audio/video can provide 99% the experience at a fraction of the cost.

I've participated in dozens of all-day OCS conferences and never felt out of touch with remote users. All in all, when used well, I think it's a great solution.