A New Telepresence Supplier Debuts

Competition in the telepresence market has been intense as more companies look to the technology to streamline business processes and improve productivity. Vu Telepresence has become the latest vendor trying to grab a piece of that market.Vu Telepresence unveiled a telepresence product suite and three services. The Vu Master Control Unit, which is priced at $1,499, includes a Pan-Tilt Zoom Camera, Vu USB Speaker Tube and Vu USB Microphone. Another option is having companies use their own HD monitors and run Vu software on their PCs.

Two of the services are geared to different marketplaces. Vu TelePresence Pro supports up to five locations and is designed for home offices, individual practices, employee conferences, and remote workers. Vu Telepresence Premier, which costs $49.99 per month, works in larger settings, such as boardrooms, meeting rooms and classrooms. In addition, the vendor has announced Vu TelePoint locations, remote access conference suites fully equipped with Vu TelePresence technology. This capability is available in several major cities, including New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Irvine, Oakland and Boston.

Vu Telepresence's parent company is a key player in the display market in India. Moving into the telepresence space seems like a logical extension to its business. However, the vendor will face significant competition in this space. Large, well established companies, such as Cisco and HP, have targeted this market and view it as a key component in their future growth. Consequently, Vu Telepresence could have trouble gaining the attention needed to make its business model successful.