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Telepresence Entrepreneur - Array Telepresence's Herold Williams Rides Again!

Oct 13, 2015

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One of two cover stories in the Summer 2014 issue of Telepresence Options Magazine. A profile of telepresence Entrepreneur Herold Williams, the founder of Array Telepresence and the inventor of Equal-i Technology.
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  • YOUR GUIDE TO VISUAL COLLABORATION

    TELEPRESENCESUMMER 2014 THE TELEPRESENCE IS DEAD, LONG LIVE TELEPRESENCE ISSUE VISUAL COLLABORATION

    Ciscos Susie Wee and Arrays Herold Williams are about to

    CRANK TELEPRESENCE BACK UP TO 11

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    TELEPRESENCE ENTREPRENEUR HEROLD WILLIAMSRides Again!

    Herold Williams is the quintessential entrepreneur, telepresence or otherwise. Array Telepresence is the 20th company he has started since he was 21 and his second telepresence venture. He has never worked for anyone other than himself. He is 64 years old now and remains sharp, creative, and focused and hes about to revolutionize telepresence yet again!

    Profile and Interview by Howard S. Lichtman, Publisher, Telepresence Options. In the spirit of full disclosure, Herolds longtime friend and business partner in Array Telepresence and thus uniquely positioned to tell his story.

  • 8 www.TelepresenceOptions.com Summer 2014 9

    Herold understands the human body in a telepresence setting with an architects eye and an inventors passion. He knows exactly how many degrees youll turn to look at someone in front of a conference table, right down to the individual pivots of your neck (25 degrees), torso (25 degrees) and chair (25 degrees). He knows how to seat you so that whether youre tall or short, you wont be off his preferred vertical eye-line of 46 inches from the ground by more than one or two inches, making you both seem and feel more natural on video. He can tell you the specific horizontal and vertical gaze angle from the camera in every major telepresence group system from each specific seat. Then he can tell you the specific percentage from each specific seat that Array is better.

    Williams consulted with DreamWorks on what became HP Halo. He also created the worlds first surgical telepresence environment at Barrow Neurological. But hes mostly called the father of the telepresence industry for his revolutionary 1998 invention of TeleSuite, the worlds first commercially successful life-size telepresence environment. When the rest of the videoconferencing industry was focused on miniaturizing equipment and getting the cost out of the $25,000 videoconferencing codec, Williams went in the completely opposite direction, creating room-sized environments costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that

    replicated the human factors of participants: life-size images, fluid motion, superb acoustics, concealed eye-line cameras, and a seamless 16-foot video wall. The system achieved usage five to ten times that of traditional videoconferencing, and big, name-brand companies like 3COM, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Cigna, GlaxoSmithKline, and AOL-Time Warner began buying dozens of systems. HP and Cisco quickly copied his split-table environmental telepresence approach and telepresence went from zero to the speed-of-light with an estimated 10,000 multi-camera, multi-codec telepresence group systems connecting the globe today.

    Williams and the TeleSuite team also created one of the worlds first managed Video Network Operations Centers to keep in check

    all the multi-vendor IT gear under the hood of any telepresence environment.

    Polycom bought Destiny Conferencing, which held the intellectual property, customers, and manufacturing capability for the TeleSuite from David Allen, Williamss business partner, in 2007 for $57 million. Williams had been diluted out of the company by then and saw very little from his revolutionary work. Yet he never got telepresence out of his system, always noodling with the big idea of how to create cost-effective telepresence environments in

    regular conference rooms using existing videoconferencing codecs. By 2011, he had the time, a friend helped him secure some strategic funding and he launched Array in stealth to revolutionize things again.

    Arrays R&D lab is in a non-descript, two-story building in West Chester, Ohio, almost halfway between Cincinnati and Dayton. Williams desk faces the pastoral serenity of the woods seen through an entire wall of windows along the back. A fascinating assortment of tech, low and high, fills the rest of the room: Different-size tables in various stages of assembly, videoconferencing systems, flat-panel displays, curved displays, and the tools and machinery required to manufacture precise components from scratch on-site.

    Williams has been hard at work on Array for three years, designing and building prototypes for camera housings, board enclosures, and display stands. Williams and Array are the videoconferencing industrys equivalent of Jessie James and Monster Garage, except it is a kinder, gentler grandfather slicing, dicing and pro-modifying visual collaboration environments while inventing his own tech for added horsepower. When Williams wanted to test curved displays before they were announced over a year ago, he and Bryan Hellard, his senior engineer and long-time collaborator, disassembled a 55-inch flat-panel display and fashioned the LED LCD innards into a curved wooden frame they built themselves just to test the effect. When he realized the logistical challenge of demonstrating Equal-i on the road, he designed and built a fascinating feather-weight, full-size portable conference table that, when fully assembled, weighs about the same as a Cannondale racing bike and folds up into a shipping case smaller than a tuba.

    But dont mistake Williams for just an inventor that likes to tinker. He has the business acumen you would expect from someone who has raised and deployed hundreds of millions of dollars in capital

    and whose intellectual property has sold for 8 figures. From little old West Chester, Ohio where Herold can stay involved with his kids and grandkids Array is connected to the world. The company is a true virtual organization using visual collaboration to connect up a rapidly-growing high-quality team. Tier-one engineers in Grass Valley, California who cut their teeth building highly-available video platforms for the broadcast industry. Lens designer in Boston, productization experts, channel sales, business development, and contract manufacture in Denver, management and marketing in Northern Virginia, and product management in Connecticut.

    Telepresence Options sat down with Williams when he was visiting Northern Virginia for an Array Open House event in McLean outside of Washington DC.

    TELEPRESENCE OPTIONS (TPO): How did Array Telepresence come about? What was the impetus of the idea?HEROLD WILLIAMS (HW): The years that we spent trying to get TeleSuite accepted in the market were somewhat frustrating because we were a small company with technology and concepts that were before their time. We were able to prove highly immersive telepresence and we got quite a few Fortune 100 companies interested in the concept. However, we constantly found that after there was buy-in of the value proposition, the implementation problems began to manifest themselves immediately as companies started to understand the costs in physical space and room remediation around creating a 400+ sq. feet required for the

    split-table approach of the TeleSuite.

    We constantly had the same objections and questions from our clients executives, managers and employees and it went like this: We love what telepresence does for us. We love the fact that you

    The TeleSuite Video Network Operation Center (Circa 2006) was spun out as Iformata Communications when Polycom bought Destiny Conferencing and recently acquired by AVI-SPL. Williams, on-screen (third from left) in an early TeleSuite, circa 2002.

    TOP: The view into the worlds first telepresence surgical educational environment at Barrow Neurological Institute.RIGHT: The surgeons view into the neurological surgery classroom.

  • 10 www.TelepresenceOptions.com Summer 2014 11

    ARRAY TELEPRESENCES EQUAL-I TECHNOLOGY

    So whats the Big Idea?

    Probably the biggest knock against immersive telepresence has been the cost in gear, bandwidth and physical space. Enter Herold Williams and Array Telepresence. The company has developed a revolutionary Dual-Camera and Image Improvement Processor called Equal-i. This technology perfects the videoconferencing scene in any room with an elongated table. It also works with any videoconferencing codec that accepts HDMI or HDCI camera inputs in use in an estimated 2,000,000 conference rooms around the world.

    Array conceals the Dual-Camera between two displays at eye-level, each camera head capturing half the participants at the table. An Image Improvement Processor (IIP) filled with FPGA and dedicated geometry-warping chips in between the camera and videoconferencing codec perfects the scene by bringing the farthest participants up close and personal. This increases the amount of pixels on the farthest participants

    face by six and a half times that of a standard Pan-Tilt-Zoom videoconferencing camera. The size of farthest participant is Equal-i-zed to the size of the closet participant. Being able to center the camera at eye-level between the displays improves vertical eye-line and enables stand-up capture. Meanwhile, pulling the farthest participants up-close-and-personal creates a more across-the-table meeting format. The IIP powers dual displays that use a single codec to combine scenes from both camera heads into one for the trip across the wire. The Equal-i IIP on the other side splits them back across dual displays, doubling the screen real estate with no impact on network bandwidth. If you dont have an Equal-i set up on the other end, the site receives a cropped and stacked version of two rows of four to six+ participants depending on the size of the table. Though you lose the effect of dual displays, you still end up with a better experience than a PTZ camera because the facial features are more discernable.

    Most multi-site meetings involve three locations, which is where Equal-i excels. Powered by the speedy and thorough FPGA chips, the system crops and stacks incoming and outgoing images before handing the scene to the videoconferencing codec. With a second codec it can marry three Equal-i systems in telepresence multi-point, creating global round tables with each of the screens displaying half the participants in each remote location. Throw quad displays and video walls into the mix and it gets even more interesting.

    THE ECONOMICSThe product is a dream come true for Pro-AV and systems integrators. Refreshing an existing videoconferencing system (or building a next-generation Equal-i room from scratch) drives a lot of associated spending. The camera and the IIP cost $13,995, making it feasible to cost-effectively upgrade and refresh dozens, hundreds or even thousands of systems in the larger organizations that use video.

    Array launched Equal-i at InfoComm in June and is gearing up to deliver systems this fall.

    The view from a standard Pan-Tilt-Zoom videoconferencing camera showing the enormous virtual distance. The Equal-i 2S Dual-Camera brings the farthest participants up close and personal, improves the eye-line, meeting format, and powers dual displays using a single videoconferencing codec.

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    feel like youre really meeting with someone face-to-face, but cant you do that in our regular conference room? Cant you do that with the videoconferencing gear and conferencing tables we already own? The unfortunate answer was always no. It was always in my mind that something needed to be done to create an immersive experience in a regular conference room and the value and utility that would provide.

    TPO: Whats the pay-off for the companies that upgrade their telepresence and visual collaboration capabilities?HW: What we proved at TeleSuite was that if you improve the human factors of the experience, people will use it a lot. During a time that the average usage of videoconferencing was around 15 hours, per endpoint, per month we had TeleSuites averaging 150 hours a month. We knew that we were on to something. It was a matter of getting enough scale and getting enough systems out to build a company.

    Getting back to the conventional conference room, theyre nearly all the same because of architectural best practices. Theyre typically elongated rooms, with a width that is probably in the range of 25 percent narrower than the length. Theres typically an elongated table, seating a number of people in two rows and perhaps one person on each end.

    They continue to be that way. There are some changes afoot to reconsider that shape and size, but essentially there are about 2,000,000 conference rooms out there today with HD video conferencing endpoints at the end of an elongated table. The industry has tried to solve this problem with robotic cameras that triangulate on whose speaking but in many ways it makes the problem worse. Nothing breaks a sense of immersion like obvious cameras panning, tilting, and zooming in the front of the room or a constantly changing perspective on the other side. They have their uses, notably distance learning with big classrooms but youre not going to feel like youre in the same room with someone if the

    Bad Robot is there as well.

    Our goal was to overcome the lack of immersion and leverage the overwhelming uniformity of the conventional conference room with its boat-shaped table and create an experience that rivals and exceeds the quality of the only viable alternatives to improve the videoconferencing experience: the $300,000+ multi-camera, multi-codec group systems: the Polycom RPX, the Polycom OTX, Teliris Express and VirtuaLive, DVE Immersion Room, the Cisco TX9000 series. That uniformity has been the videoconferencing industrys biggest obstacle and we just completely flipped it into a strategic competitive advantage.

    When I say our $14,000 Equal-i System added to an existing codec produces a scene that exceeds the quality of these $300,000 systems, I dont just make the claim lightly. The resulting image is measurably and demonstrably better. Better eye-contact, less horizontal gaze angle, concealed camera, stand up capture, less real estate, less bandwidth, and a better around-the-table format for local interaction.

    TPO: What were some of the complexities that you had to overcome to develop Equal-i?HW: One of the biggest concerns was what type of architecture would we implement? Would it be PC-based? Would it be software? Would

    it be dedicated hardware? We knew that we had to build our own camera because we were revolutionizing what a videoconferencing camera is, what it does and where it goes.

    We are creating an entirely new class of products in visual collaboration that we call: Image Improvement. Yes, we build a camera, but what were really about is improving the scene before we hand it to the videoconferencing codec for the trip across the wire.

    Were doing very sophisticated image improvement and equalization, custom algorithms applied to the images in order to improve the scene and create improved multi-point experiences. In order to avoid even a single frame buffer and to keep additional latency nearly non-existent, we decided on dedicated hardware using FPGA programmable chips, geometry

    processors, all married into a fabric of high-speed hardware.

    TPO: You had to build a lot of your own parts. You had to machine the camera yourself. Can you give me some background on what thats like and some of the complexities involved?HW: There were no real comparables out there, so we were not taking another piece of hardware or a codec and redesigning it and making it slightly better. This was new, clean sheet of the paper approach to these issues and so to answer the question, what were the biggest complexities? It was figuring out how to do it! Typically cameras are designed and built for mass production, so you have the advantage of essentially all of the methods that are out there to marry pan-tilt-zoom lenses to camera boards and camera sensors. What we were doing was something quite different. We had to work with custom optics and integrate them tightly with our camera in order to marry the experience to the Image Improvement Processor. Creating the dual-camera required very intricate and precise machining and tolerance for the camera heads. We had to design lens, rapidly prototype parts some using

    Most people dont know it but the worlds first com-mercially-available H.264 HD Video Codec was built by Herold Williams and Dr. Stephan Wenger in 2004 and delivered 2048 x 768 across a 16 foot video wall and could connect TeleSuites in five separate cities together using IP multi-cast.

    3D printing, and much custom fabrication using a network of world-class US-based contract manufactures that are gearing up to move from prototypes to real production.

    TPO: What does the technology road map for Equal-i look like? Whats next?HW: We are already working on a single screen system that uses dual cameras set up on the right and left hand side of the display at eye-line.

    We are also identifying even more advanced and higher resolution sensors to 4K and assessing 4K to be able to meet 4K when it lands in the board room and conference room. We see extraordinary efforts by the consumer television manufacturers around 4k and getting the cost out of 4K displays. We think there will be an interesting play as companies refresh their meeting rooms and consider 4K displays rather than 2K and so we really want to be ready to embrace 4K as codec manufacturers start to marry their solutions with displays that are already available today at great prices.

    We will be continually evaluating how our system can be enhanced over time, what we really want now is serious feedback from end-users on how our current feature set meets their needs. We will also be looking to work with innovative visual collaboration designers that will inevitably create solutions that value-add the

    product over and above what we can do ourselves.

    TPO: Whats next for Array in the short term?HW: The thing that I am most excited about is the ability to show Equal-i off to the Pro-AV and System Integration community at InfoComm in June. We are giving telepresence back to the integrators with a high margin product that drives a lot of associated spending. We are also giving architects and videoconferencing room designers a sharp tool to dramatically improve the quality of their rooms cost-effectively.

    Now that we are no longer operating in stealth, we are starting to talk to potential partners and vendors interested in integrating Equal-i into their offerings. We are talking to enterprise customers that are interested in upgrading dozens and hundreds of rooms to Equal-i for a fraction of the cost of alternatives using the video-conferencing gear they already own. And we are starting to experiment with how the Equal-i System can be integrated into existing telepresence environments and with different display technologies: projection, curved displays, video walls. We think we might be able to help improve a lot of the visual collaboration environments like Oblong Mezzanine, Prysms Collaboration Wall and Ciscos Spring Roll.

    We are also working on a single-screen system that uses two cameras: one on each side of the display at eye-level that cross-fire to capture the other side of the table. This shines for a number of growth areas in videoconferencing: Team Tables, where the existing paradigm of putting a PTZ camera or webcam on top of a display where the participants are only 4-5 feet away is a wholly unworkable methodology. The upcoming Equal-i 1S will allow for eye-line capture and will provide the best experience anywhere. The other important trend we support is larger displays. Our

    capture-from-the-edge-of-the-display-at-eye-line approach works better than a PTZ because you are getting a more head-on view of the participants across the table. The bigger the display the better quality perspective for a head-on capture so the technology scales nicely as the price on 80, 90 and 100+ inch panels continues to drop.

    Even though Equal-i will work with any elongated table we have reference designs for a number of optimal tables that both optimizes the Equal-i experience and moves data to 21-inch displays between each participant where fine detail is more easily read. We plan on adding additional environmental telepresence options in 2015 at equally revolutionary price points. That should keep us busy for a while. TPO

    A prototype of the upcoming Equal-i 1S Team Table which places one eye-level camera on each side of a single screen display. The bigger the display (80, 90, 100+ inches) the better the capture perspective when shooting crossfireacross the Team Table

    ABOUT THE AUTHORIn the spirit of full disclosure, Howard S. Lichtman is a Board Director, Investor, and C2O at Array Telepresence, president of the telepresence and visual collaboration consultancy Human Productivity Lab and, coincidently, publisher of Telepresence Options. Since he has known Herold for over a decade, was vice president of business development at TeleSuite and has been intimately involved with Array he couldnt think of a better person to write a profile of Herold and conduct this interview.

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    CONCEALED CAMERA STAND UP CAPTURE SMALLER FOOTPRINT LESS BANDWIDTH PERFECT VERTICAL EYE LINE USE YOUR EXISTING ROOMS AND FURNITURE POWER DUAL-DISPLAYS WITH SINGLE CODEC AND A SINGLE BIT STREAM WORKS WITH ANY CODEC THAT ACCEPTS AN HDMI OR HDCI CAMERA INPUT

    BENEFITS EXECUTIVES LOOK BETTER BETTER VISUAL INFORMATION: BODY LANGUAGE / EXPRESSIONS INCREASED MEETING PRODUCTIVITY MORE USAGE =LESS TRAVEL IMPROVED ROI ON VIDEO INVESTMENT

    Traditional Video Conferencing Rooms

    vsArray

    Telepresence

    Array Telepresence is changing visual collaboration with its breakthrough technologies the Equal-i 2S dual-camera and Image Improvement Processor (IIP). Array enables immersive telepresence in existing rooms that far exceeds the quality of both traditional videoconferencing and $300,000+ telepresence group systems.

    Array Telepresence is Measurably Better:

    [email protected] 800.779.7480

    The vie w from a sTandard PTZ camera wiThouT array

    arrays equal-i 2s dual-camera imProving The image and sPreading The scene over dual disPlays using a single videoconferencing codec

    Visual Collaboration Architects, System

    Integrators & The Pro AV Community...

    Array is giving telepresence back to the integrator!

    The worlds 2,000,000 HD videoconferencing rooms stand ready!

    Our revolutionary Equal-i dual camera technology and Image Improvement Processor(IIP) allow you to

    cost-effectively elevate traditional videoconferencing rooms to telepresence-quality environments that exceed

    the immersive experience of 3-screen group systems from Cisco and Polycom in less space at 1/20th the cost.

    Our system allows you to deploy solutions that you design and you install that meet your clients specifics needs.

    Our reference designs will get you started creating amazing immersive environments.

    We cant wait to see what you create with

    EquAl-I SInglE SCrEEn TEAm TAblE

    EquAl-I ThrEE SCrEEn 8 SEAT TAblE

    EquAl-I duAl SCrEEn 8 SEAT TAblE

    EquAl-I duAl SCrEEn 12 SEAT TAblE

    [email protected] 800.779.7480

    Equal-i reference designs for Visual Collaboration Architects

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    TELE

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    Equal-i Technology

    Equal-i Technology enables telepresence quality in traditional conferencing rooms using your existing videoconferencing codec.

    Overview

    Up Close and Personal

    Better Eye-Line

    Concealed Camera

    Across-the-Table Format

    Improved Multi-Point

    Stand-Up Capture

    Single-Screen Version

    Low-Cost

    Better Horiz. Gaze Angle

    Use Your Existing Codec

    Use your existing furniture

    Key Features

    W ArrayTelepresence.com

    C Array Telepresence

    $ $13,995

    Address7593 Tylers Place Blvd.Suite 102West Chester, OH 45069

    Phone800-779-7480

    WebArrayTelepresence.com

    Equal-i is the name of Array Telepresences patent-pending image improvement algorithms, dual-camera and Image Improvement Processor (IIP) that dramatically improves the scene for telepresence-quality experiences using your existing videoconferencing codec in any standard conferencing room. The system is designed to work with standard elongated conference room tables and boardroom tables.

    For dual-screen systems the Array Equal-i 2S dual-headed camera is concealed at eye-level in a 1 inch space between two displays (Curved or flatpanel. Video walls are feasible as well) and then the camera and space are concealed with a cover.

    The Image Improvement Processor (IIP) sits between the specially-designed dual-camera and the videoconferencing codec. It is running Arrays custom image improvement and equalization algorithms on high-speed FPGA and geometry warping chips that dramatically improve the scene from two separate cameras each

    capturing the room before sending it to the videoconferencing codec for compression.

    On the other side of the videoconferencing call, the Equal-i IIP receives a single videoconferencing stream from its codec and splits the stream into two different high-definition streams allowing a single codec to power dual displays.

    The resultant experience is measurably superior to 3 screen telepresence environments from Cisco and Polycom that cost $300,000+ for 1/20th the cost.

    The farthest participants are brought up close and personal increasing the pixel count on their faces by 6.5Xs that of a PTZ camera while Equal-i-zing their size to that of the closest participant.

    Vertical eye-line is improved by ~13% over PTZ, meeting format is improved to a more across the table feel, stand-up capture is enabled, and the system powers a wide-format dual-display using a single codec with no impact on bandwidth.

    The Equal-i 2S easily and affordably transforms a traditional videoconferencing room into an effective immersive telepresence environment for $13,995.

    Overview

    Fraction of the Cost of Traditional Systems

    Improved Immersive Experience

    Increased Usage

    Improved Return on Investment

    Compatible with existing systems

    Easy to Deploy

    Key Features

    The Equal-i 2S is Array Telepresences revolutionary dual-camera and Image Improvement Processor (IIP) that dramatically improves the experience of traditional videoconferencing systems in regular conference rooms with regular furniture.

    Integrates with Existing SystemsThe Equal-i 2S plugs into any videoconferencing system that accepts an HDMI or Polycom HDCI camera input.

    The Equal-i camera replaces or augments the pan-tilt-zoom camera that came with your codec and is concealed between dual displays at eye-level.

    Between the camera and your videoconferencing codec sits our patent-pending Image Improvement Processor (IIP). The IIP works at high-speed to improve the image before it is sent to the videoconferencing codec for the trip across the wire.

    The farthest participants are brought up close and personal, eye-line is improved, meeting format is improved, stand-up capture is enabled, and the IIP powers dual displays using a single codec.

    Effective Multi-PointThe Equal-i 2S enables effective multi-point Example: With 3 Equal-i 2S locations with dual 65inch displays using 8 seat tables you can Crop & Stack and show up to 16 participants in two rows across both displays . Using 12 seat tables and 80inch displays the total rises to 24 participants.

    While the Equal-i 2S will power dual displays using a single codec, adding a 2nd codec will enable telepresence multi-point with of each remote room (4-6 essentially life-size participants from each remote site) visible on each screen in a global roundtable format.

    W ArrayTelepresence.com

    C Array Telepresence

    $ $13,995

    Equal-i 2S Dual-Camera and Image Improvement Processor

    Address7593 Tylers Place Blvd.Suite 102West Chester, OH 45069

    Phone800-779-7480

    WebArrayTelepresence.com

    TELEPRESENCE OPTIONS | SOLUTION SNAPSHOT TELEPRESENCE OPTIONS | SOLUTION SNAPSHOT

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    TELEPRESENCE AND VIDEOCONFERENCING CATALOG

    76 TELEPRESENCE OPTIONS CATALOG www.TelepresenceOptions.com

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    W ArrayTelepresence.com

    H West Chester, OH

    F 2011

    S Privately Held

    S Telepresence Rooms

    S Appliances

    S Immersive Virtual Experiences/ Other

    S Cameras/Furniture/Peripherals

    S AVI-SPLS MCW Technologies

    Industry Categories

    Herold WilliamsFounder and President

    Howard S. LichtmanBoard Director & C2O

    Andy HowardBoard Director

    Doug HowardBoard Director

    Bryan HellardDirector of Product Engineering

    Key Executives

    Resellers and System Inegrators

    Array Telepresence

    Array Telepresence is transforming visual collaboration by creating innovative solutions to the big problems of quality-of-experience, affordability, and deploying quality video in conference rooms with elongated tables.

    Array Telepresences President and Founder, Herold Williams, has been at the forefront of immersive telepresence since its inception. Williams was the inventor of the TeleSuite, now called the Polycom RPX after Polycom bought the technology in 2007.

    Williams now stands ready to once again propel the industry forward with his latest innovation: Equal-i - a revolutionary, patent-pending telepresence dual-camera and image improvement processor (IIP) with the ability to turn a traditional videoconferencing codec into a life- size telepresence environment for $13,995 and the cost of an additional display.

    The Equal-i camera and IIP work with any videoconferencing system that takes an HDMI or Polycom HDCI camera input. The camera is concealed at eye-level between dual displays and the IIP dramatically improves the scene before handing it off to the codec for the trip across the wire.

    The farthest participants are brought Up Close and Personal, the amount of pixels on the farthest participants are increased by 6.5xs that of a PTZ, the eye-line and format are improved, and the IIP powers large format, dual-displays using a single videoconferencing codec with no impact on bandwidth or video network infrastructure.

    The solution is superior to three-screen telepresence environments from Cisco and Polycom costing $300,000+ on a variety of fronts: Better eye-line, concealed camera, stand-up capture, better horizontal gaze angle, less-bandwidth usage, and unlike the split-table approach of three-screen environments, Equal-i fits into regular size conference rooms and is an excellent format for local meetings vs. everyone facing the same direction.

    This combination of low-cost, ease-of-use, and easy deployability means organizations can now cost-effectively upgrade dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of traditional videoconferencing rooms into immersive telepresence environments for a fraction of the cost of the existing alternatives.

    Improved human factors translates into additional usage, and end-user satisfaction which equals an improved ROI on your existing video investment. Just as important: Key executives are more visible and look better when communicating with partners, vendors, customers, analysts, and the press.

    The company has additional innovations in the pipeline including a solution for large-format single-screen displays, 4k resolution and corporate board room solutions using quad Equal-i processing.

    The company is actively signing up resellers, systems integrators, and Pro-AV partners to begin upgrading the worlds 2,000,000 sub-standard HD videoconferencing systems.

    Address7593 Tylers Place Blvd.Suite 102West Chester, OH 45069

    Phone800-779-7480

    WebArrayTelepresence.com

    TELEPRESENCE OPTIONS | COMPANY PROFILES

    ARRAY TELEPRESENCEReference Design: Surround Presence - Highly Immersive Telepresence Environment

    Reference Design: Highly Immersive 8 Seat Environment with lighting, acoustics, matched environmentals, integrated data collaboration, Bring & Fling, ceiling-mounted visualizer, interactive whiteboard, collaborative PC and the Array Equal-i 2S camera to improve the scene.

    ARRAY TELEPRESENCEReference Design: Front Display System & Integrated Rack

    This reference design for a front system to ideally position the Array Equal-i-2S Camera and support Dual Displays from 55-80 inches is one of several available from Array for Systems Integrators. Options include: Equipment rack and cable management, storage, and lighting. The company is interested in talking with furniture manufacturers that are interested in licensing compatible solutions optimized for Equal-i.

    ARRAY TELEPRESENCEReference Design: Array Collaboration Table - 8 or 12 Seat Options

    The Array Collaboration Table Reference Design is a table shape and data collaboration configuration optimized for: Equal-i Technology and the Equal-i 2S Camera. Assumption: Data moves from the 2nd front display that will now be used for immersive telepresence to 21 inch data displays between each participant in the table where fine detail is also visible. BYOD participants would be enabled by various Bring & Fling wireless data collaboration options. Other Data Collaboration Options Include: Interactive whiteboards and ceiling mounted visualizers. Display Options range from 55inch flat or curved panels up to 80+ inch flat or curved panels supported by mounts or a front display system for which we also have a reference design. Quad-screens, video walls, front projection, rear projection, interactive touch screens, and other display technologies are all feasible. Array is interested to talking to high quality furniture manufacturers about producing furniture solutions optimized for Array.

    ARRAY TELEPRESENCEReference Design: Array 8 Seat Collaboration Table From the Front

    An image of the Array 8 Seat Collaboration Table - Reference Design