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HP and DreamWorks Intro 'Lifelike' Collaboration

December 12, 2005

HP and DreamWorks Animation have introduced a distance collaboration system for realistically�simulating face-to-face�meetings remotely.�Today this announcement crossed the TMCnet news feeds:

HP Unveils Halo Collaboration Studios: Life-like Communication Leaps Across Geographic Boundaries; Collaboration Studio Fosters Global Face-to-Face Communication, Decreases Need to Travel and Increases Productivity

According to today's release, the Halo technology was originally developed to help the DreamWorks team working on the Shrek 2 animated film. DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg is quoted describing the inception of the system:

"In 2002, while we were producing Shrek 2, we realized that DreamWorks needed face-to-face collaboration between key creative talent in different locations. We weren't satisfied with the available video conferencing systems, so we designed a collaboration solution that would fulfill our needs. HP took the system and turned it into Halo."

Halo is a broadcast studio designed specifically for business communication. To implement Halo, you'll need to shell out $550,000 each for two Halo rooms in separate locations,�able to seat six people each. Each room uses three plasma displays able to produce life-size images of the collaborators on the other end. Video is transmitted via a dedicated high-bandwidth�HP Halo Video Exchange Network.

Here's an image that gives you some idea of the user experience of HP Halo:

The system includes document- and data-sharing and high-magnification cameras capable of zooming in on any object in the other room for closer examination (we assume that participants will use this capability courteously and only�for appropriate purposes).

Today's release says that HP itself has 13 Halo rooms. PepsiCo has rooms in its three main headquarters in Chicago, New York and Plano,Texas.

AB -- 12/12/05




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