The first thing you notice about HP’s new SkyRoom technology is that there’s no room, and that’s the point of the product.
SkyRoom is not Halo, nor is it any other telepresence video conferencing solution. What HP (NYSE: HPQ) is trying to do with SkyRoom is open a new market for videoconferencing on the low end.
The technology, developed by HP Labs in conjunction with the NASA Mars rover, is a software solution that will be featured for free on Z Series workstations or for $169 per seat license that can be used on any Core 2 Duo hardware platform running Windows Vista or 7. SkyRoom is currently for four users and offers live, real-time collaboration or instant face-to-face meetings with no subscription fees.
According to Maria Del Rio-Arbuckle, category business manager, workstations and commercial displays for Hewlett-Packard Canada, SkyRoom is superior to Internet offerings such as Skype or Live Meeting because those lack security and have low quality video.
In this video feature, Del Rio-Arbuckle tells CDN about its channel plans.
