Our telepresence setup
Infrastructure
video conferencing setup
SHOW HN2010
How HN took it
2 positive, 2 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 5 critical, out of 10 comments about the project. Thread score -0.14.
Idea: 2 for, 3 againstPerformance: 0 for, 2 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Cheap commodity-hardware alternative to expensive telepresence
From 2 comments
This is almost exactly what I was going to recommend setting up at our company. Yes, a Mac Mini to an LCD TV isn't the most thrilling of tech articles, but I've been very keen to…
Legion on HNExactly! The brand name solutions are great, but provide little flexibility, and aren't very startup friendly. The total for our solution came in under $3k, and we'd be looking…
jsatok on HN
Objections
Fidelity is poor and usage drops after novelty wears off
From 1 comment
Yeah, I feel like a lot of distributed startups have had these 'video portals' going at one time or another. I know we have. Generally use drops off (in favor of standard…
j_b_f on HN
Underwhelming: just a computer and monitor, nothing novel
From 2 comments
I don't mean to be critical, but I am underwhelmed. From the initial picture, I was expecting a homegrown alternative to Cisco's Telepresence which, is actually quite awesome, if…
bmelton on HNYeah, totally pointless post. Buy it, plug it in, install the software. Great.
AlexMuir on HN
Bandwidth costs may be high
From 1 comment
I hope the video codec can cope with this, or else this is going to eat a lot of bandwidth for nothing.
jhrobert on HN
Requests
Explain how it replicates Cisco/Polycom quality cheaply
From 1 comment
So just say you use Skype with a big screen TV. I opened the link expecting to see how you replicated Cisco/Polycom telepresence using off the shelf products at a fraction of the…
nanijoe on HN
Questions
Whether Kinect video chat works on computers
From 1 comment
Has anyone used Kinect's video chat? Does it work with computers or is it like the PS3 where you have to have another PS3 to have video? I'm really surprised no one has tried to…
mikedanko on HN
How well whiteboards work over video for remote workers
From 1 comment
Related: anyone experimenting with telepresence for remote workers, where most of the team are still in the office? -- Have someone bring a laptop with webcam into a conference…
joshwa on HN
Alternatives named
Cisco telepresence and UMi
From 2 comments
You want start-up unfriendly? The Cisco full out 'telepresense' system with 3 1080p cameras. At max settings, Cisco's literature tells you that you're using ~20Mbit/s (including…
icegreentea on HN<cisco plug> There's the $600 version that uses your existing TV also. Imagine this may be closer to what startup's could use. Monthly subscription of $25…
trout on HN
Polycom systems
From 1 comment
That's exactly our feeling. I've seen the Cisco/Polycom systems, and they look great, but they're also a lot more expensive, and for what we (and many other startups) need, the…
jsatok on HN
Skype
From 1 comment
So just say you use Skype with a big screen TV. I opened the link expecting to see how you replicated Cisco/Polycom telepresence using off the shelf products at a fraction of the…
nanijoe on HN
FaceTime for Mac
From 1 comment
Might want to install FaceTime for Mac as well ...
callmeed on HN
Telepresence robots
From 1 comment
Telepresence robots are getting pretty easy to build now. http://samratjp.posterous.com/look-ma-im-controlling-a-telepresence-robot Wouldn't it be cool to have one of those for…
albertsun on HN