

Show HN: Our telepresence setup - jsatok
http://blog.rypple.com/2010/11/video-portal-telepresence/

======
Legion
This is almost exactly what I was going to recommend setting up at our
company.

Yes, a Mac Mini to an LCD TV isn't the most thrilling of tech articles, but
I've been very keen to hear experiences of people using these sort of cobbled-
together from commodity hardware "ghetto Telepresence" setups.

Our needs (and budget) just don't fit with the more expensive all-in-one
solutions. And I imagine the quality of the cobbled-together experience can
vary wildly depending on the hardware configuration. So I was excited to read
about a setup that is working well for someone.

~~~
jsatok
Exactly! The brand name solutions are great, but provide little flexibility,
and aren't very startup friendly. The total for our solution came in under
$3k, and we'd be looking at about $15-20k for a brand name system providing
similar functionality.

~~~
icegreentea
You want start-up unfriendly? The Cisco full out 'telepresense' system with 3
1080p cameras. At max settings, Cisco's literature tells you that you're using
~20Mbit/s (including network overhead). The bandwidth costs alone would
bankrupt you.

But soooo nice.

~~~
bmelton
Cisco, much like Oracle, probably doesn't make that much money off of the
average startup. It might behoove them to wisen up somewhat and start
introducing some lighter-weight / lower-cost entries to the market.

That said, regarding the 20Mbit/s, never forget that Cisco sells networking
equipment. Cisco's point (and it's not a hard sell) is that teleconferencing
and network are so interrelated that you may as well buy it all from Cisco.

I will say that their 3-screen 1080p telepresence solution is fricking awesome
though. Lifelike. BELIEVABLE. And for Fortune 500 companies that are weighing
this sort of thing against the cost of flying three people from New York to
Tokyo for a meeting, it's not a bad value prop.

------
joshwa
Related: anyone experimenting with telepresence for remote workers, where most
of the team are still in the office?

\-- Have someone bring a laptop with webcam into a conference room? (poor-
man's anybots)

\-- How to deal with whiteboards? Camera? Shared drawing tools? Not satisfied
with what I've tried thus far. Would a 720p camera have enough resolution for
whiteboards?

\-- Making everyone work as if they were remote--campfire, webex, skype, etc.,
even if they are all in the same office?

(NB I'm moving overseas in a few months and I'm trying to figure out how I can
work closely with my team from 16000 miles away)

------
albertsun
Telepresence robots are getting pretty easy to build now.
[http://samratjp.posterous.com/look-ma-im-controlling-a-
telep...](http://samratjp.posterous.com/look-ma-im-controlling-a-telepresence-
robot)

Wouldn't it be cool to have one of those for every remote worker so they can
roll around the office and find people they need to talk to/point the camera
at whatever is needed. Plus you get a screen to do screen sharing onto.

~~~
samratjp
Glad you approve Albert :-) I really don't how I lived without this before.
This is definitely the coolest thing I've built.

------
trout
<cisco plug> There's the $600 version that uses your existing TV also. Imagine
this may be closer to what startup's could use. Monthly subscription of $25
<http://home.cisco.com/en-us/telepresence/umi/what-you-need> </cisco plug>

------
bmelton
I don't mean to be critical, but I am underwhelmed.

From the initial picture, I was expecting a homegrown alternative to Cisco's
Telepresence which, is actually quite awesome, if not really really expensive.

What I got instead was an iMac and a monitor.

~~~
matwood
There can be value in simplicity. Years ago I worked for a company that had to
do a monthly teleconference with its largest client. The setup and hardware
required was expensive and the experience wasn't even that great. It's a
testament to how fast technology moves when now anyone with a computer can
teleconference.

~~~
jsatok
That's exactly our feeling. I've seen the Cisco/Polycom systems, and they look
great, but they're also a lot more expensive, and for what we (and many other
startups) need, the value isn't there.

~~~
nanijoe
So just say you use Skype with a big screen TV. I opened the link expecting to
see how you replicated Cisco/Polycom telepresence using off the shelf products
at a fraction of the cost (Which is possible btw)

------
mikedanko
Has anyone used Kinect's video chat? Does it work with computers or is it like
the PS3 where you have to have another PS3 to have video?

I'm really surprised no one has tried to deploy some business apps for
consoles, I'd imagine it'd take off pretty well as it'd be a great excuse for
team building after hours.

------
jhrobert
I hope the video codec can cope with this, or else this is going to eat a lot
of bandwidth for nothing.

~~~
jsatok
We've found iChat to be pretty efficient. In iChat, there is the Bandwidth
limit options: <http://grab.by/7seD>

------
callmeed
Might want to install FaceTime for Mac as well ...

~~~
jsatok
I forgot about FaceTime. Thanks for the suggestion!

