"This is about the next wave of productivity," said John Chambers, president and CEO of Cisco, speaking through TelePresence yesterday from the company's headquarters in San Jose, California.

He said Cisco aims to grow TelePresence into a US$1 billion business in about three years.

Cisco has advanced technologies and new businesses capable of generating revenue of over US$1 billion in five to seven years that now account for 22 per cent of its revenue. But Chambers said TelePresence could achieve these figures in a shorter period of time as it is the "most exciting thing" he has seen during his three decades in the industry.

TelePresence is an Internet protocol-based meeting system the first to meet the international high definition standard of 1080P picture quality.

The two initial versions, TelePresence 1000 and 3000, allow two people or 12 people to talk into a 65-inch plasma display and are sold at US$79,000 and US$299,000.

Initially the products will mainly target large enterprises, government organizations and healthcare institutions.

Chambers said the system allows people to work, live or play together face-to-face although they may be thousands of kilometres away.

Cisco estimates TelePresence will bring the firm a saving of up to US$100 million, or 20 per cent of its travel expenses, every year, while the cost to install the system is about US$50 million.

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