DC08-152 April 30, 2008
BT demonstrates inter-company telepresence service at Cisco Expo
Service available to global organisations in September 2008
Today, BT (LSE: BT.A; NYSE: BT) performed a groundbreaking demonstration highlighting inter-company TelePresence connectivity at the Cisco Expo 2008 in Berlin, Germany. The occasion was also used to announce that BT will have global business-to-business services available to customers by September 2008.
The demonstration showcased a life-like TelePresence call between the headquarters of the Media-Saturn Group, a BT client, in Ingolstadt, Germany, and Wolfgang Lux, Managing Director Media-Saturn-Holding GmbH, who was located at the Cisco Expo presentation forum in the Estrel convention center, Berlin, Germany.
The Media-Saturn Group has been a first mover to use BT Unified Communications Video (UCV), which is based on Cisco TelePresence. In early 2007, Media-Saturn chose BT Germany to deploy and manage UCV, and has subsequently rolled it out to locations in 15 countries throughout Europe.
Wolfgang Lux, Managing Director Media-Saturn-Holding GmbH, who opened the first public inter-company Telepresence session during his presentation at the Cisco Expo in Berlin, said “We have been using this technology for more than a year now. The innovative character of TelePresence has enhanced our internal, especially cross-border communications and shortened the distance between the countries. Furthermore it helps us, saving costs and it will allow us now to include our external business partners in our video conferences. BT and Cisco are our dedicated partners in this area. Media-Saturn is cutting edge in the electronic retail business in Europe and we always strive for excellence in everything we do. This is what we expect from our international partners as well.”
This demonstration reinforced BT’s ability to deploy the Cisco TelePresence service in multiple theatres around the world and to support inter-enterprise B2B communication from a Cisco TelePresence room to a BT-provided TelePresence room.
Chris Dedicoat, President, European markets, Cisco said "Inter-company Cisco TelePresence will help companies transform their business models and relationships with customers, suppliers and partners. Today's live call illustrates just how soon this service will be available."
Aaron McCormack, Chief Executive Officer of BT Conferencing said “Our announcement today is another demonstration of BT’s commitment to the video conferencing market. In December of 2007, BT announced the development of its inter-company B2B service based on Cisco TelePresence, which has generated lots of excitement in our customer base. Now the service is proven to work and we are preparing for commercial launch. Our recent announcement regarding our intended acquisition of Wire One Communications will significantly enhance our service wrap for Cisco TelePresence services.”
Wire One Communications, a market leader in video communications, was the first to commercially launch a managed concierge service for Cisco TelePresence and has successfully deployed services for 8 global customers with over 30 TelePresence systems in 7 countries across North America, Europe, and Asia. Their fully-managed TelePresence solution, available today includes full video “concierge” capabilities.
