The Halo Collaboration Studio system from Hewlett-Packard creates an environment that allows people to see each other, converse, and manage remotely as if they were in the same room.
The Halo room can accommodate up to 6 people seated around a table, facing colleagues across four 50-inch (127 cm) plasma screens. Cameras are positioned close to the screens to create the feeling that the speaker is looking directly at the person on the other side. HP has minimized transmission interruptions and avoided any impact on public Internet networks.
This collaborative product, developed in partnership with DreamWorks, primarily serves large corporations. It helps companies save time and costs associated with flying from one location to another. Each virtual room costs approximately $550,000, with a monthly fee of $18,000.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks, mentioned that the idea for this system began to take shape after the September 11 attacks in the United States. The event led the airline industry to drastically cut flights, resulting in chaotic security measures and making travel a significant challenge. Two major clients that agreed to utilize HP’s technology are PepsiCo and AMD.
However, video conferencing rooms are not a new product. Teliris, a company founded in 2002 in the UK, has also developed a similar model. “What Hewlett-Packard has just introduced is two generations behind our new product,” remarked Marc Trachtenberg, CEO of Teliris. “Teliris’s virtual room is more sophisticated technically, has more features, and costs half as much.”
