At FOSE, videoconferencing takes center-stage

Pancake makeup may be the new office essential as videoconferencing is becoming more popular than ever?and going high definition (HD).

New videoconferencing systems could be found all over the floor of this year's FOSE trade show being held in Washington. FOSE is sponsored by 1105 Government Information Group, the parent company of Washington Technology.

Cisco Systems Inc. had its TelePresence system on display, which promises to deliver a "just-like-you're-in-the-room" experience. The high-end video technology combines Hollywood-designed lighting and video quality that is supposed to catch every detail of conference participants.

The TelePresence Meeting solution has ultra-high-definition video and CD-quality audio. The Cisco TelePresence 1000 has a single 65-inch, 1080p high-definition plasma screen designed to support life-size images for two meeting participants. It is designed to be flush-mounted on a wall space in a small space like an executive office.

Polycom Inc.'s UltimateHD solutions including HD voice, video and infrastructure promise to deliver clarity, detail and fidelity for video conferences.

The Polycom HDX 9004 has 1280x720 resolution with more than nine times the video quality of Common Intermediate Format video. HD video capture is attained with the optional Polycom Eagle-Eye High Definition Camera.

The Codian MCU 4500 series is a conferencing bridge that delivers full-motion, high-definition videoconferencing while fully supporting conferences with mixed standard definition and HD endpoints. Older systems would "dumb" HD video feeds when just one standard definition video stream was part of a conference. Codian lets standard and HD be part of the same video conference.

The MCU 4500 is designed for telemedicine, distance learning and other applications which require high-definition telepresence.