News from the Video Conferencing Front

Tandberg and HP have announced they're deepening the interoperablility between traditional video conferencing and telepresence. In a press release today, the companies note That HP will expand its support for all video conferencing solutions on the HP Halo Video Exchange Network, while at the same time develop more telepresence solutions; and Tandberg will develop more telepresence endpoints, as well as the management tools necessary to support a mixed video conferencing environment.The news is hardly earthshaking, but it's headed in the right direction: Interoperability is key these days.Separately, Tandberg announced availability of a new video phone (shades of the World's Fair?) and what it calls "instant telepresence"--which, by my definition, isn't telepresence at all. The phone is cool, but it begs the question: who's it aimed at? Not knowledge workers--given the screen size, I'd think a PC screen would work just as well. And let's face it... that's where communications is headed.