Netgear Lowers Costs And Raises Productivity
With Sony High-Definition Video Conferencing System
1080i HD Technology Makes Virtual Communications Effective on a Global Level
Faced with rising inter-office travel costs of up to $1 million per quarter, Netgear recently began rolling out a Sony high-definition video conferencing system across its organization.
A worldwide provider of networking products, Netgear is based in San Jose, Calif., with additional offices in 25 countries. Having globally dispersed locations can easily translate to high travel costs for shuttling employees between headquarters and their individual locations for meetings, training, customer visits and other business purposes. International separation also adds time zone differences, increasing the need for more effectively controlled communications.
The company was facing the same challenges that many global firms share: ensuring effective communications and increasing productivity, while still trying to reduce and control operating costs.
In late 2008, Netgear decided to implement the Sony PCS-XG80 HD video conferencing technology at its headquarters in San Jose and across several other campuses globally.
The results to date have been significant. Through the use of the two-way dynamic visual communications technology, company executives cite reductions in travel time and operating costs, as well as increases in employee productivity.
"Now, we are able to conduct a large portion of our business via video conferencing, while reserving travel for only the most critical business needs that require face-to-face meetings," said Poi Li, a senior network engineer for Netgear. "A feeling of openness and collaboration is created; allowing meeting participants who are separated by thousands of miles to interact with one another as if they were in the same room."
In addition to maximizing the system's superb image quality, the company is also working on expanding its capabilities to include use as an audio bridge and for web-based meetings.
He added that employees have found the system extremely easy to use and to set up, and that once people see and hear its image and audio quality, they are instantly converted into Sony devotees.
"We can significantly cut down unnecessary inter-office travel costs and make better use of our resources," he said. "When we started to look at video conferencing, we knew one thing: the technology that we implemented had to be high-quality and cost-effective, but still allows us to retain a human, personal touch within our organization."
The PCS-XG80 system is the industry's first 1080i HD video conferencing technology.
It combines up to 1080i resolution and a high frame rate of 60 fields per second to deliver superb live video quality and a very natural alternative to face-to-face meetings. Its backward compatibility gives users the option of connecting with HD video quality through the growing number of affordable high bandwidth connections or through standard-definition legacy systems over IP and/or ISDN. In an industry first, this new system also features BrightFaceTM, Interactive Annotation, and RF Remote functionality.
The PCS-XG80 system incorporates several functions and features of Sony's PCS-HG90 system. From PowerPoint™ presentations and animations to live DVDs, users can also seamlessly share PC data in HD at 30 frames per second. Dual stream functionality lets users send two separate parallel streams of live, HD information. Both live camera view and animated PowerPoint data, for example, can be displayed in HD on two different screens or projectors at a remote site.
Featuring six-site multipoint conferencing, users can call up to five other remote sites to simultaneously meet, with multi-language support for 20 different languages available through easy-to-navigate menus. Wide band stereo audio also enhances the overall meeting experience for users with crisp and clear sound.
The PCS-XG80 is available at a suggested list price of $8,999. It is available in the United States through Spire Global, Sony Electronics' sales and service arm for its IPELA® line of IP-based video conferencing endpoints and accessory products in the United States. Spire Global can be reached at 888-807-7473, by email, info@spireglobal.com or by visiting www.spireglobal.com.
