Starwood Hotels to launch Telepresence rooms

Published: 03/07/2009 - Filed under: News »

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Starwood Hotels is partnering with India-based Tata Communications to launch Telepresence rooms worldwide.

Tata Communications’ Cisco-certified Telepresence network provides high-definition conferencing facilities with superior audio, video and environmental qualities that allow participants to meet virtually in person.

“Starwood has made a name for itself as an innovator in the hotel industry, and it is crucial that we continue to evolve our meetings offerings to address the needs of today’s consumers,” said Christie Hicks, senior vice-president, global sales, Starwood.

With the partnership, public Cisco Telepresence rooms will be rolled out by year’s end at five Starwood-branded hotels – Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers, Sheraton on the Park Sydney, Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, The Westin Los Angeles Airport and W Chicago-City Center.

In the near future, Starwood plans to introduce Telepresence rooms at its properties in key markets including Brussels, Paris, Hongkong, Singapore and Tokyo.

“We believe that public Telepresence rooms are the key to increasing the accessibility of telepresence beyond major company offices to their wider ecosystem of users – customers, suppliers, remote workers and business partners,” said John Landau, senior vice-president, global managed services, Tata Communications.

“Using managed Telepresence services is ‘better than being there’ and helps companies hold more productive meetings without incurring travel and time costs. More team members can participate in meetings and collaborate around the world.”

Later this year, Tata Communications intends to launch its Global Meeting Exchange Service that will support business-to-business sessions between any Telepresence rooms subscribed to the service, regardless of the network service provider or if the rooms are public or private.

Currently, Tata Communications boasts operational public rooms in India (Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi and Gurgaon), London and Boston.

For more information, visit www.tatacommunications.com/telepresence and www.starwoodhotels.com

Sandy Goh