Business Services in the Home

As video communications becomes pervasive, businesses and consumers are increasingly looking to augment in-person meetings and interactions with lifelike video experiences. With today’s announcement, Å«mi users in the home will be able to connect with businesses over telepresence, paving the way for innovative new video services such as distance learning, tele-health, virtual professional services and community services.

Expanded Å«mi Product Line

Key to today’s announcement is the extension of the Å«mi product line, making home telepresence experiences available to more consumers. Å«mi is a first-of-its-kind, easy-to-use consumer product that delivers a high-quality, immersive video calling experience that goes beyond just seeing the people you talk to. The expanded portfolio includes:

Cisco Å«mi Connect, a free HD calling client for PC and Macs (currently in trials);
Cisco Å«mi 720, a new product that delivers an immersive telepresence experience with lower broadband requirements, which will be available at $399;
Cisco Å«mi 1080, the original breakthrough telepresence offering for the home now available at a reduced price of $499.
The service fee for Cisco Å«mi 1080 and 720 is now $99.00 a year, or $9.95 a month. There is no service fee for Å«mi Connect for PC and Mac.

Å«mi 1080 and 720 include an HD camera, a console and a remote. Unlike video chat, Å«mi telepresence was specifically designed for the living room and group-to-group conversations, delivering a truly immersive and lifelike video experience that fits into every home, automatically adjusting to lighting conditions and background noise to provide the most natural communications experience possible. Both Å«mi 1080 and 720 products offer optical zoom and automatic pan and tilt to deliver close up and room size experiences.

Å«mi 1080 and 720 connect to any existing HD television and broadband internet connection to deliver a high-quality, HD video calling experience in the home. The new Cisco Å«mi 720 requires less bandwidth, 1.5 mbps upload and download speeds which are readily available across most of the U.S. Both versions of Cisco Å«mi intelligently adapt to the quality of the broadband in the home.

Sharing Video Experiences

In addition to its immersive and lifelike experience and incredible ease of use, Å«mi also offers HD recording and sharing on FaceBook, Flipshare and You Tube. In the case of a missed call consumers can leave video messages for one another. Both recorded videos and messages can be retrieved from a PC, Mac or smart phone. In addition, with Cisco Å«mi telepresence, users can also place and receive video calls from anyone with a computer (PC or Mac), webcam and Å«mi Connect or Google Video Chat.

“With today’s announcement, Cisco is continuing to deliver innovative, market-leading video and telepresence solutions that enable consumers to connect and transact with businesses from the comfort of their home,” said Marthin De Beer, senior vice president, TelePresence, Emerging Technologies & Consumer Business, Cisco. “By offering a range of video solutions – from high-end Cisco TelePresence for business to the free Cisco Å«mi Connect product, we are extending our leadership in telepresence and driving the pervasive use of HD video.”

Å«mi for Service Providers

Today’s announcement gives consumers, businesses and service providers the industry’s widest choice of high-definition telepresence video communications options. Verizon will be launching Å«mi for its FiOS network this year. In addition, Å«mi is in field trials with service providers in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

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