Press release
Pioneering collaboration software leapfrogs freeware offerings, enables instant face-to-face meetings with full desktop sharing
HP today established a new category in videoconferencing with the introduction of HP SkyRoom - affordable, high-definition videoconferencing software(1) that offers live, real-time collaboration for instant face-to-face meetings with no subscription fees.
HP SkyRoom is based on breakthrough video and image communication technology developed in HP Labs, the company's central research arm. Elements of this technology were used by NASA's Mars rovers to transfer high-resolution images back to Earth. HP SkyRoom is the only videoconferencing tool to offer real-time collaboration for up to four people over a standard business network for $149 - less than the cost of round-trip airfare from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Until now, companies have had few options for videoconferencing - expensive enterprise telepresence systems or Internet freeware tools that strip out the subtleties of human interactions and don't allow for the sharing of rich media content such as video and computer-aided design manipulation.
HP SkyRoom will be included as a standard feature - at no cost - on select HP business desktop and mobile workstations and for free for a trial period on many upcoming HP premium business PCs and notebooks. HP SkyRoom can be used on workstations or PCs from Dell, Lenovo or Sun that meet minimum technology requirements. Companies now have the power to change the economics of travel and reduce their carbon footprint while preserving the value of personal human interaction.
"Finally, video meetings with genuine eye contact and natural human interaction are as easy as starting an instant messaging connection," said Jim Zafarana, vice president and general manager, Workstations, HP. "It takes business productivity and collaboration to a completely new level when we can connect people around the world in a day via HP SkyRoom and let them get home to family dinner and bedtime stories - without the wear and tear of travel."
With HP SkyRoom, users can share any type of application supported on their PC or workstation, including office documents, streaming video and interactive 3-D applications:
- Digital content and engineering teams can collaborate on sophisticated design concepts, allowing tremendous flexibility and performance for sharing content and visually rich human conversations.
- Production houses can preview animation clips to dispersed teams for live, instant feedback.
- Financial teams spread across the world can run live models for discussion and collaboration.
Using HP SkyRoom is as easy as beginning an instant message conversation. Users simply click a contact to connect, which quickly initiates a live SkyRoom session. Another click shares the desktop or rich media content, and participants are instantly collaborating. During an HP SkyRoom session, information is transferred at a rate four times faster than the blink of an eye.(2)
HP SkyRoom is the culmination of three years of research to design video and image compression algorithms by HP Labs into a customer-centric implementation by the HP Workstation team, which designs professional-quality solutions in collaboration with industry-leading brands around the globe.
The breakthrough innovation behind HP SkyRoom comes from the combination of high-definition, multiuser videoconferencing and a sophisticated capability to share display information more securely than with actual transfer of data and processing functions.
HP SkyRoom's video engine enables all participants to see the presenter's display and each other through a multiway videoconferencing session. The video engine is multithreaded to take advantage of the power of today's multiprocessor and multicore processing technologies.
HP SkyRoom's image engine gives remote users a view of the host presenter's desktop and its applications as if they were using a local machine. It enables the display of 2-D and 3-D graphics, full-motion video and multidisplay on a system that only has a 2-D graphics card.
The HP SkyRoom software on the presenter's system monitors and updates only changes in screen appearance - not the entire display - then compresses and encrypts the information before sending it to the participants, where it is decrypted, decompressed and updated. In this way, network traffic is greatly reduced, latency and bandwidth requirements are reduced, and the need for dedicated networking hardware is eliminated.
Minimum requirements for HP SkyRoom
To run HP SkyRoom on any vendor PC, minimum requirements are Intel® Core 2TM Duo 2.33-GHz or equivalent processor with 2 GB RAM, a webcam and Microsoft Windows® XP or Vista®. Minimum network requirement is a broadband network with a minimum transfer rate of 400kb/second. HP SkyRoom must run over a corporate VPN to connect to systems outside the local firewall.
Pricing and availability(3)
HP SkyRoom is available worldwide preinstalled at no cost on the HP Z800, Z600, Z400 and xw4600 workstations. Select premium business PCs and notebooks due out from HP in the coming months will include a 90-day trial of HP SkyRoom, which will be available for purchase thereafter. Customers using current HP workstations, desktops, notebooks or non-HP systems can purchase HP SkyRoom for $149 at www.hp.com/go/hpskyroom.
For an optimal quality experience that beta testers have said makes their own environment fall away as they feel present and immersed in the conversation, HP recommends users also purchase the HP SkyRoom Standard Accessory Kit for $119, which includes a high-resolution webcam and headphones. HP also offers a kit with speakers as an alternative to the headset.
More information is available at www.hp.com/go/hpskyroom.
