Blue Jeans aims to make telepresence bridging a comfortable fit

Telepresence interoperability and inter-networking are receiving a lot of attention lately, which must be a reflection of the video conferencing sector's recent success. Not so long ago, telepresence seemed like a neat, but expensive idea, and interoperability issues were something early buyers decided they would think about in the future, when they really discovered a need to bridge systems--audio conferencing early adopters probably felt the same way many years ago).

Well, the future is here, and so is the latest company tackling the interoperability issue: Blue Jeans Network debuted this week with a cloud-based software platform that acts as a bridge between the conferencing systems of companies like Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), Polycom, Lifesize and others. The company is following similar-minded approaches from the likes of Fuzebox in trying to integrate disparate video conferencing systems.

Blue Jeans Network, whose platform has been trialing since earlier this year, sets up virtual meeting rooms through a Web interface, and allows users on different video devices, including mobile devices, to check in and converse face-to-face. Even non-video callers can participate, so I guess you can say it also provides a bridge to the audio conferencing era.

For more:
- here's the Blue Jeans Network release
- see this GigaOm post

Related articles:
Fuzebox recently launched a multi-party telepresence gateway
Island hopping has been one of the main hurdles to broader telepresence usage