How to Optimize Your Network for Cisco Telepresence Meetings

Smaller businesses have found many persuasive advantages to utilize video solutions and Cisco telepresence systems in their day-to-day business processes: as a promotion tool, as a point of contact for client support, and as a method of training their staff members. Within the company, Cisco telepresence and its utilization of video technology is achieving traction amongst small companies that wish to have face-to-face meetings without incurring the costs associated with travel. As beneficial as video can be, before you can effectively stream video broadcasts, you have to make sure the basic corporate network can accommodate the extra traffic and increased bandwidth requirements.

Decades of watching TV and movies have acclimatized us to have firm expectations from our video streaming experiences. We expect video to be seamless, uninterrupted and fluid, and the audio must be in flawless synchronization with the video we’re seeing. Unlike the Saturday morning cartoons we used to watch as kids in the ‘80s, we would like mouths to move along with the words being spoken, and we favor smooth motions. We get irritated if the streaming video we are watching fails to look right, and in many scenarios, we give will end up just giving up: We leave the program or we end the meeting short.

The fundamental issue is that the majority of small business corporate networks weren’t designed to provision support for video and Cisco telepresence deployments. Video traffic is extremely bandwidth demanding and can eat up more than its share of data, overpowering a small business corporate network. Think about this example: A solitary video stream eats up between 500 Kbps to 1.2 Mbps, and if it is an HD video stream, it can eat up as much as 4 Mbps to 7 Mbps.

Due to the extreme bandwidth necessary for a Cisco telepresence system deployment, your first task is making sure your corporate network has enough data bandwidth to accomodate streaming video and collaboration applications, like instant messaging. Can your corporate Internet connection accomodate streaming video, or does it produce a network bottleneck? The Cisco TelePresence Callway Line Quality Test Tool can allow you some prior awareness into the video streaming capability of your corporate Internet connection.

Advice for Boosting Your Corporate Network

Even though throwing more data bandwidth at the issue is one method of accommodating video streaming traffic, it’s not the only method of optimizing your corporate network for Cisco telepresence. You can boost your corporate network with a router that has inbuilt support for video streaming services, like the Cisco Small Business RV Series Routers, the Cisco 500 Series Secure Routers, or the Cisco 1900 Series Integrated Services Router.

Viewing entertaining videos on websites like YouTube and Facebook can eat up your corporate network’s data bandwidth, so you need to think about setting limits on network traffic produced by your company employees. You can either specify in your company’s acceptable use policy that staff aren’t supposed to access these websites on your corporate network, or you can add their website URLs to a URL filtering list in your router.

Second, you can use the Quality of Service (QoS) configuration settings on your router to allow video traffic priority over other kinds of traffic, like email, which can absorb some network jitters. And thirdly, check your router for IPSLA (IP service level agreements) configuration settings. Some more cutting-edge smaller business routers, like the Cisco 2900 Series Integrated Services Routers, allow you to set service levels for definite business-important IP applications like video streaming.

Finally, if your Cisco telepresence system doesn’t provide you with a great user experience, it won’t be put in use, and therefore it won’t assist people to meet and cooperate. But using the right Cisco router, your small business can effectively stream video to even the most impatient of viewers.

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Cisco Telepresence is Becoming The New Voice in Business

Bringing Cisco Telepresence to the Whole World

Cisco is fixated on quickening the pace of adoption for Cisco’s telepresence across all assorted industries, and organizations of all shapes and sizes located all over the the globe.  Cisco’s method and emphasis is evidently successful, as we’ve been witness to an explosive trend of global acceptance of Cisco TelePresence and incessant market share growth. We can see this trend in the lately circulated market share reports which prove that Cisco Telepresence is the clear Number One player with a whopping 52% of the video collaboration market share. This jump in Cisco telepresence’s market share underlines Cisco’s capability to extend its technology and knowhow to a wide variety of new clients, including small to medium sized businesses (SMBs). Cisco possesses the requisite wide range of endpoints, deployment models and interoperability to allow the concept of Cisco Telepresence everywhere for everyone to become a reality.  Cisco is witness to a momentous explosion of growth from customers who are new to Cisco telepresence and now understand the value Cisco can bring and the flexibility to meet their distinctive managerial requirements.

Empowering Deeper and More Diversified Installations

Cisco Telepresence users have complete faith in the power of telepresence and are driving even more deeper installations into their organization, taking it from the conference meeting rooms to the desktop. They’re beginning to realize the power of Cisco Telepresence as a transformative force for their organization, and they believe that Cisco has the wherewithal to supply a complete video architecture which scales, enhances asset/resource and bandwidth productivity to help reduce the Total Cost of Operations (TCO).

Many specialists and veterans of the video industry have attested to the fact that there is no other experience as realistic, spontaneous, unified, and accessible as Cisco TelePresence.  I also visualize a certain value to our customers as Cisco offers not just video, but also Cisco telepresence as a component of the unified collaboration architecture which positions people at the core of how they communicate, work and carry out business.  Cisco is striving to make video “The New Voice” by enabling a video call experience as simple and natural as a regular phone call.  I personally think that the recent Tandberg/Cisco assimilation is maybe one of the best acquirements in the industry and now that Cisco has completely integrated, it can deliver on Cisco telepresence like nobody else can and Cisco are well on our way in enabling video to become the new voice for everyone.

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With the Right Installation, Telepresence Will Not Trigger Any Security Alarms

A recent article published in a leading newspaper magazine reminds us, nevertheless, that to securely gather all of the advantages of Cisco telepresence, the government—or any other organization/entity—is required to ensure correct execution of the video technology behind Cisco Telepresence. Clearly, security apprehensions increase when multiple mobile devices connect simultaneously to a Cisco telepresence network.

The aforementioned article recognized the susceptibilities exposed in Cisco telepresence-equipped board and conference rooms, and consequently, on mobile devices, when enterprises and organizations do not install their connections behind a firewall or fail to set up their technology to fulfill their security requirements. Happily, the Cisco Telepresence technology itself is intrinsically secure, with numerous protection measures built into the infrastructure. It turns out to be, then, a case of investing informed Cisco telepresence users to correctly set up their systems.

So what should enterprises and/or organizations like the federal government do? First of all, embracing a solutions-based methodology assists safeguard protection by allowing controlled video traffic to navigate the firewall only to endpoints that exist behind the firewall. Just like an agency would not connect an unsecured PC to the corporate network, it should similarly make sure to secure any video endpoints—including mobile ones. Such a secured set-up retains a singular access point into the corporate network and makes Cisco telepresence simple to deploy and administer.

Government bodies depending on Cisco telepresence can also secure confidential information by correctly organizing their Cisco telepresence networks to adapt to their requirements. For example, agencies handling top-secret issues should screen incoming calls as tightly as possible by deactivating any auto-answering abilities.

Like all technologies, video conferencing and Cisco telepresence are only as protected as the corporate networks on which they are deployed.  The government accepts no risks in installing Cisco telepresence, as long as it installs and configures the technology correctly. Cisco works closely with other manufacturers to stick to industry wide commonly accepted standards and develop protected, user-friendly Cisco telepresence which can guarantee successful installation and provide singularly beneficial Cisco telepresence end user experiences.

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Capitalize on Cisco Telepresence Value for Federal Agencies

One might wonder: Has he really in actuality extended his viewing choices since getting the new system? Hmm … not really. First of all, he is scared of his new remote—it is way too complicated. He also usually finds it to turn the system on.

Those of us who decide to invest in Cisco telepresence do not have to suffer from this technological perplexity. Nor would they wish to miss out on the technology’s advantages, particularly after making such a huge monetary investment. Nevertheless, as a Cisco representative pointed out at their Federal Cisco TelePresence Users Forum, a plethora of Cisco telepresence clients have found it difficult to exploit the potential of their newly deployed systems. They had difficulty reforming their workplace cultures to communities which are able to adopt video as the dominant method of communication.

The Cisco representative spoke about a few of the ways federal agencies can circumvent the hindrances some organizations have faced and inculcate flourishing Cisco telepresence networks inside their offices. His list touched upon the below mentioned stratagems:

1)      Training and Support: Supply all possible agency users with the right tools they will require for success, such as all-inclusive system knowledge and established understanding of the available technological utilities. Deploy support systems and broadcast their accessibility to eradicate any user threats.

2)      Incentivize initial adopters: Encourage Cisco telepresence use all over the agency by recognizing and broadcasting the constructive results experienced by the initial employees to efficaciously utilize the technology.

3)      Enabling a Cisco telepresence-dependent setting: Minimize travel costs and budgets. Deploy HR rules, regulations and policies necessitating some Cisco telepresence use.

4)      Screen, measure, and report: Assess the technology’s performance and communicate successes and prospects.

5)      Remain flexible: Make modifications when required, and seek assistance from technology providers. Don’t allow the system to stop functioning for you when there might be a simple solution to the issue.

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Disentangling Educational Budget Crunches via Cisco Telepresence

In a comparable dismal state as California, Minnesota’s state government has borrowed $2.2 billion from its public academic institutions to conclude a government shutdown. The state has still not been able to set a date by which to repay the academic institutions back.

California and Minnesota reveal the unsteady states of the education budgets of numerous states across the country. With each succeeding year academic institutions make larger and larger cuts, stuff more students into jam-packed classrooms, and lay off more members of the faculty.

As the economy finds it difficult to recover, academic institutions need an instant solution. With Cisco telepresence, school districts can make one-time investments which supply all of the paraphernalia required to take pupils anywhere in the universe— even other planets included. The cost of a Cisco telepresence installation pales in comparison to the money required to construct Riverside’s Hillcrest High School, and it necessitates no continuing monetary investments to rollout, modify, improve, and extend programming. Cisco Telepresence technology takes students places that tight field trip budgets may not allow, and it brings students to classrooms where they gain access to courses which their schools don’t have the means to offer.

It looks in like, in today’s modern economy, school districts are unable to afford not having deployed Cisco telepresence connections. The technology exists to keep the education sector afloat, to keep students learning by educating them with the material they require to learn to become resourceful, logical, proficient contributors to society. We know that funds are in tight supply, and it’s due to this tightness that educational financing requires a new course, with ground-breaking investment choices that further enhance educational excellence. Investing in Cisco telepresence leads to instant, considerable educational returns on investments (ROIs) which continue for many years to come.

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Cisco Telepresence Experience Rated by Four Top US Universities

This partnership comprises members from George Mason University, James Madison University, University of Virginia and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and has been dubbed 4-VA. The 4-VA’s objectives are commendable and determined at the same time: To make higher education in the country more inexpensive, enlarge the quantity of degrees awarded in the state of Virginia and reinforce participant educational institutions–independently and cooperatively.

Nearly a year after commencement, the association has made some major progress in its undertaking to transform Virginia’s higher education system via the utilization of modern day collaboration technologies.

How were they able to accomplish this great feat? The root of their triumph was the capability to leverage physical and virtual assets available across all four university campuses. Via Cisco TelePresence, participants can simply share educational and academic resources over high-definition (HD), real-time video that produces a life-like setting.

The immersive experience was dubbed a “transformative technology” by these 4-VA participants, and fairly so!

Via Cisco TelePresence the 4-VA has revolutionalized Virginia’s higher education. With the use of video, the participants have augmented research partnerships, shared instructive infrastructure and become empowered to tap into exclusive know-how no matter the locality of professionals. Now, pupils are able to meet using Cisco telepresence for progressive Chinese and Chinese business language lectures, proving that while they may be physically detached they can still get the best learning experience in real time.

Content with the development and the Cisco telepresence expertise, the 4-VA is hoping to enlarge its utilization. They are even developing a distance education pilot project targeted at community college alumni in countryside areas that will concentrate on technology modernization and private enterprise.

In this modern digital age, the employment of collaborative technologies like Cisco telepresence will become more and more crucial for the delivery of higher education all over the world.

To learn more about how Cisco TelePresence assisted the 4-VA leverage assets and resources to enhance educational tools, check out this video.

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