Frost & Sullivan: Telepresence at a Turning Point With New Opportunities for Service Providers and Systems Integrators

LONDON, April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- The unique benefits offered by telepresence - further highlighted by the enforced ground stop of European aviation in April - has attracted growing interest and increased sales. However, rapid development in the capabilities of videoconferencing systems and Internet protocol (IP) networks over the last three years is creating alternative means to deliver these highly valued benefits. Videoconferencing products and custom solutions will more frequently present the value proposition of the immersive-user experience, thereby creating further opportunities for service providers and systems integrators.

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New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.conferencing.frost.com), Telepresence Global Market, estimates the market value of $396.2 million for 2009, and forecasts this to reach $825.9 million in 2015. The visual collaboration endpoints covered in this research are both ready-built telepresence room solutions, and kits of telepresence component parts that are used by third parties to construct customized telepresence room solutions.

"The effectiveness of the latest technologies and the impact of the global economic downturn are impelling businesses to re-assess visual collaboration such as video telephony, videoconferencing and telepresence as viable solutions to facilitate reduced operations costs and create new sources of productivity. The volcano ash clouds from Iceland are just the latest in a long line of issues that have impacted business travel," says Frost & Sullivan Principle Analyst Dominic Dodd. "Telepresence in particular, has played a pivotal role over the last two to three years in helping build greater awareness and in re-focussing executive-level attention on visual collaboration."

Telepresence offers a unique proposition that can deliver effective and reliable visual communications. Its development and growth in popularity parallels advancements in other forms of visual collaboration, notably the rapid emergence of high definition videoconferencing and managed service, which together, will eventually challenge the telepresence space.

Visual collaboration is also an essential component of unified communications (UC). The technological and industrial structural changes, which are still playing out, are part of a process of fully integrating all forms of visual collaboration into the wider UC portfolio of products and services.

Despite the rising awareness about the benefits offered by immersive telepresence solutions, the combined impacts of the recession and the increasing power of high definition videoconferencing are causing prospective buyers to move more cautiously. Additionally, the majority of telepresence systems continue to rely on significant network bandwidth and quality of service management to perform up to their maximum potential. Globally, reasonably priced and accessible network and managed services remain patchy.

"There is growing opportunity for visual collaboration in general – being driven by an irresistible combination of technological developments and increasing customer need," explains Dodd. "While telepresence can uniquely offer a number of attractive customer benefits, there are concerns about the cost and availability of the network required to support it, and also how effectively it may work with other parts of a customer's video estates."

Visual collaboration endpoints are expected to fare well in the long term. Although the product format by which immersive telepresence is delivered is likely to change, the overall demand for its unique features and benefits will continue to grow. The emerging custom telepresence solutions segment is expected to gain further importance over the next three to four years with several opportunities for systems integrators, visual collaboration applications developers and managed services providers.

"While the latest research indicates that the market for today's ready-built systems will ultimately reach its upper-limit within the next five years, it also shows how growth demand for the immersive experience can accelerate as it is fed by other product sets such as high definition videoconferencing and custom telepresence solutions," concludes Dodd.

If you are interested in more information on this study, please send an e-mail to Joanna Lewandowska, Corporate Communications, at [email protected], with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, company e-mail address, company website, city, state and country.

Telepresence Global Market is part of the Conferencing & Collaboration Growth Partnership Services programme, which also includes research in the following markets: unified communications, visual collaboration and conferencing services. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

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Telepresence Global Market

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan