Tennis By Telepresence

What to do to distract everyone from the pain of a giant restructuring?  Find a new way to publicly demonstrate your coolest technology of course!  Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) today said that its telepresence technology will be featured at the 2011 Rogers Cup.  The womens and mens tournaments will be held simultaneously in Toronto and Montreal, respectively, and Cisco’s telepresence will be there to help players, journalists, and fans interact with each other as if they were in both locations.

The media rooms at both venues as well as the Tennis Canada booth and Rogers Connected Zone will have the technology enabled, while players will have the company’s EX 90 with touch screen interface in the players lounges.  All this for post-game interviews and a few ultimate fan experiences?  That’s what demos are for I guess – certainly we have already seen that TV journalists love this stuff.

I do wonder if in a few years they will be able to make telepresence reproduce the actual fan experience, allowing more than just a lucky few to sit in the front row at the 50 yard line at the Superbowl, for instance.  Or perhaps to allow referees and umpires to work remotely!  Oh wait, nobody to complain to – that might not fly I suppose.  Ok, just interviews for now I guess.

If you haven't already, please take our Reader Survey! Just 3 questions to help us better understand who is reading Telecom Ramblings so we can serve you better!

Categories: Telecom Equipment · telepresence