For companies looking to cut travel costs for large corporate meetings, telepresence manufacturer Polycom is now offering its 26 business centers around the world for daily rental. Intended to be more immersive than video conferencing, Polycom telepresence facilities include high-definition visual and audio gear designed to make users feel as if they're communicating with people in the same room—even if they're actually in another facility across the country.
Polycom's West Coast flagship is located in Santa Clara, California, and last week the company showed off its new 8,900-square-foot East Coast flagship in New York. In addition to facilities near Boston, Washington, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and in Toronto, it also has venues in Brazil, England, France, Germany, Israel, China, Australia, and Japan.
The spaces are fitted with large displays integrated into a prefabricated wall, hidden cameras, ceiling-mounted microphones, and high-fidelity speaker systems. Complete with boardroom tables and chairs, these rooms also offer built-in computer screens, Internet connections, and electrical outlets. Polycom's on-site technicians can prepare calls linking multiple locations and set up the system if the presentation or meeting requires sharing documents. In New York, the room seats 16, but other locations can hold 28 people.
The business centers also have training rooms where users are seated classroom-style—25 in New York—and other rooms with computer desktop displays, video phones, or triangular conference phones.
