HP Ireland unveils Halo collaboration studio

Imagine being in the same room with colleagues from Tokyo or Los Angeles – so close you could reach out and touch them - without being there.  

It’s not science fiction. It’s global face-to-face communication in an HP Halo Collaboration Studio. Travel time is zero.

HP has chosen its Irish manufacturing facility in Leixlip as one of the company’s main European locations for its network of Halo collaboration studios. The growing list of HP customers for Halo studios includes Advanced Micro Devices Inc., PepsiCo Inc. and Novartis AG.

Whether across a country or across the world, Halo users – make that Halo-ers –  are able to see and hear one another's physical and emotional reactions to conversation and information as it is being shared. Engineering, management and production teams can work together on projects as if they were in the same room.

At the launch, An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, T.D, said, “Knowledge and innovation are key to our continued success as an economy and the Government has invested heavily in R&D in recent years.  HP's main focus is on innovation and I know that it too invests heavily in R&D on products and services where it believes it can lead and make a unique contribution.  The HALO Room clearly demonstrates HP's success in this field.  What we are seeing here today is a leading solution from HP that brings a new dimension to productivity and worldwide collaboration.”

Unlike any other communication tool on the market today, the HP Halo Collaboration Studio is a precisely designed broadcast studio that contains all the components necessary to enhance business communication.

To connect via Halo, organisations purchase at least two Halo rooms set up for six people each. There are three plasma displays in each room that enable participants to see those they are collaborating with in life-size images. The rooms come equipped with studio-quality audio and lighting and participants use a simple on-screen user interface to begin collaborating with just a few mouse clicks.

An intricate software control system ensures Halo rooms work easily and seamlessly together. The control system also provides precise image and colour calibration, so participants see each other as they appear in real life. HP ensures a 24x7 Halo connection and its services include network operations and management, remote diagnostics and calibration, concierge, service and repair.

Participants can easily share documents and data directly from their notebook PCs with individuals in other rooms using a collaboration screen mounted above the plasma displays. The rooms also contain a high-magnification camera that enables individuals to zoom in on objects on a table, revealing the finest of details and colour shading, and a phone that opens a conference call line to those not in one of the Halo rooms.

“Innovation is a critical part of our strategy and the launch of this HP Halo Collaboration Studio in Ireland is a key part of this. Halo will fundamentally change how we run our business, no other technology can come close to bringing people together and accelerate business the way Halo can,” commented Mr. Lionel Alexander, Vice President/Managing Director, HP (Manufacturing) Ireland.