Umi telepresence connects to an existing HD television and a broadband Internet connection.
Two separate announcements to cover in this edition: Cisco has launched “Umi” as a consumer telepresence service, and MegaPath is offering free Cisco phones coincident with some new enhancements to its VoIP service.
Two separate announcements to cover in this edition: Cisco has launched “Umi” as a consumer telepresence service, and MegaPath is offering free Cisco phones coincident with some new enhancements to its VoIP service.
Cisco has introduced Umi as an HD telepresence solution for the consumer market. Umi telepresence connects to an existing HD television and a broadband Internet connection. Cisco’s experience with enterprise-grade Cisco TelePresence is evident in this product, with the capability to support full motion 1080p HD quality video, reverting to 720p HD quality or even 480p SD if bandwidth isn’t available or if packet loss creates an unsuitable picture. The system offers both HDMI and optical audio connections, but audio quality will vary depending quality of the TV speakers or home entertainment system audio.
The unseen element of Umi is a cloud-based infrastructure that helps to differentiate this as a premium service. The “cloud” acts as a gateway with other videoconferencing services such as Google video chat; provides interoperability with and connectivity to post user-generated content on Facebook and YouTube; creates storage space for 100 minutes of video that can be forwarded to other devices/persons via mail (or alerted via text message); establishes an ecosystem infrastructure for applications such as distance learning; and could be used to offer multipoint video conferencing in the future. Umi will also eventually interoperate with Cisco’s enterprise TelePresence portfolio.
Umi will become generally available in the United States on Nov. 14. It will list for $599 plus a monthly fee of $24.99 for unlimited video calls, video messaging and video storage and will be sold in Best Buy stores as well directly from Cisco; Verizon will bundle Umi with its FiOS service in early 2011.
The new MegaPath (the result of the MegaPath-Speakeasy-Covad merger) has announced it is offering free Cisco SPA 303G IP phones for a limited time. Under the terms of promotion, new business customers who buy unlimited or global Hosted Voice calling plans and have at least five lines will receive the IP phones. The program is part MegaPath’s post-merger integration to offer common prices, products and promotions across all three company Web sites. The list price for the free phones is $135.
Coincident with the promotion, MegaPath is also enhancing its Hosted Voice features. New additions include:
* Push to Talk — a point-to-point intercom two phones in the same group.
* N-Way Calling — users can add up to 15 total call participants
* Hoteling: — users can log in as a guest on a host phone and use it as their normal desk phone, and
* Answer Confirmation– users can prevent callers from leaving voice messages on personal cell phones when using Find Me/Follow Me.
