Cisco Collaboration Day Demos

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During the keynote at the Cisco Collaboration Summit in San Francisco, held Nov. 9 to 11, CEO John Chambers wanted to make very clear that the networking company thinks video is absolutely important for effective collaboration.

Along those lines, Cisco Systems released a number of products and technologies to make video more accessible for users — whether those users are in the office, on the road or working for a trusted partner. In addition, video is designed to be easier to use for one-on-one contact or group encounters, as well as for asynchronous information dispersal mechanisms like wikis or blogs.

At the summit, Cisco’s representatives demonstrated many of the new capabilities on stage:

Video 1 (which is part one of two) demonstrates Cisco’s ability to deliver a platform that fosters enterprise online communities, allows users to establish communications from within those communities and allows users to post, view or search video content. Using Flip video cameras, users can upload media directly into the community or a conversation via a PC or an iPhone.

Video 2 (part two of two) shows individual users joining a telepresence session using various hardware and software, and injecting documents and recorded video into the call, and demonstrates the promised future ability for WebEx users outside the corporate network to join the same telepresence session.

Video 3 demonstrates Cisco communication capabilities working across a range of devices (BlackBerry and iPhone, for instance, plus their integration with Microsoft Office Communications Server and Cisco’s various desktop solutions — moving calls between various devices to show how the session is maintained even though the presentation capabilities of the different devices vary. Cisco also unveils its new desktop wireless IP Phone.