PALO ALTO, CA — Hewlett-Packard today unveiled its new, low-cost videoconferencing tool, less than four months after company executives first introduced the idea.

SkyRoom, a new suite of hardware and software, aims to bring real-time collaboration to companies of all sizes, including video, voice and document sharing.

The product aims to bridge the gap between high-end technologies like Halo and Telepresence, which offer nearly lifelike interactions between attendees spread around the globe, and free tools that lack many much-needed features for business meetings.

SkyRoom allows up to four people to meet at once using a standard business network; at a cost of $149 per seat, HP says the technology costs less than one round-trip flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

SkyRoom consists of a videocamera, pictured at right, and a suite of software tools to bring together participants and allow for full desktop sharing. And the interaction in the teleconference is limited only by the host's computer; the SkyRoom technology allows employees to share data and images from programs that may not be available on all attendees' machines.
HP's technology seeks to capitalize on the growing interest among businesses of all sizes to cut costs and reduce travel-related greenhouse gas emissions by embracing virtual meeting technologies; companies like Tandberg and Deloitte hope to save money and cut emissions through virtual meetings technology.

But despite widespread demand, high-end solutions also carry high price tags: Cisco launched a TelePresence platform for SMEs in 2008 that retailed for $33,900, putting it out of the reach of many budget-strapped businesses.

For now, HP's SkyRoom is only available for Windows machines; for more details, visit HP.com/go/hpskyroom.