Madrid, 17 May 2012 – Cisco has announced that the Garaia Innovation Centre, situated in Mondragón, belonging to the Network of Technological Parks of Euskadi and the APTE (Association of Technological Parks of Spain), has inaugurated the first public telepresence room in Spain within the private sector, based on the Cisco TelePresence® platform, which will allow the businesses of Euskadi to connect with partners, clients and suppliers located anywhere in the world. The activity of the Garaia Centre is totally oriented to R&D businesses, universities and technological centre, promoting an innovative culture and acting as a meeting point.

This new service of the park, in pay-as-you-go format, is open to the entire corporate fabric of the Basque Country, with particular attention to organisations active in the four technological parks of the community (Zamudio, Miramón, Miñano and the Garaia Centre), and has a clear objective to thrust the corporate activity forward.

This service was put into action today by means of a virtual meeting that made it possible to connect interlocutors located in the Garaia head office (Mondragón) with the Cisco offices in Madrid, London and Shangai (China). The participants held a face-to-face conversation with high-quality sound and high-definition video equipment, in an uninterrupted experience of total immersion.

Major keys of the announcements

• The Cisco TelePresence platform, which uses Garaia's IP network, re-creates meeting rooms, thus bringing together participants located far from each other in a real way, as though they are actually present in the same place, which gives important benefits:

• The organisation of the meetings is as simple as making a phone call, and the controls of the room are totally transparent and intuitive.

• Innovative ‘plug and play' collaboration tools can be used, with the possibility to record the session on high-quality video or share a PC desk situated on the other side of the world by means of the Cisco WebEx® tool.

• Participants can be connected with up to 48 locations at the same meeting.

• Unitronics was the Cisco Gold Certified Partner in charge of integration at the Garaia head office of the Cisco TelePresence System 3000, designed for a room of up to six seats with all the equipment (including network sockets, data and supply in the table).

• This system -consisting of three 65-inch plasma screens- offers high-definition video resolution (1080p) and high-quality audio, as well as advanced connectors based on standard that give great flexibility and integration with telepresence rooms, auditoriums, meeting rooms and applications for education and telemedicine.

• Unitronics will also be in charge of supporting, updating and maintaining the Cisco TelePresence system, as well as dealing with monitoring and technical support.

• The head offices of Garaia and the Cisco offices in Madrid, London and Shangai (China) have been connected through the network of Tata Communications and the Intercompany Cisco TelePresence service based on the  Cisco TelePresence Exchange System architecture, which makes it possible to use telepresence to meet with other organisations that also have telepresence technology or through public telepresence rooms, regardless of the supplier of telecommunications services.

• Tata Communications has already deployed public Cisco TelePresence  rooms -at its own offices, in hotels of various chains such as Taj Hotels and Starwood, airports, business centres, etc. in order to offer this service in approximately 30 cities by means of the pay-as-you-go procedure for use by executives who travel all over the world, people who work remotely or commercial partners.

• There are over 1,000 Cisco TelePresence rooms located in the offices of Cisco all over the world that can also connect with any other public or private room that has a telepresence system based on standards.

Declarations of support

• Andoni Gartzía, managing director of Garaia

"As the first public telepresence room of the Basque Country and one of the first in the whole of Spain, this service will allow our corporate fabric to collaborate much more efficiently with working teams located in any part of the world, thus reinforcing our objective to promote innovation."

• Jesús Mansilla, director of Medium and Small Businesses in Cisco España

"Thanks to working closely with the major world operators, Cisco is putting into practice its idea of a global Cisco TelePresence network. The combination of reliable and safe Telepresence services between businesses, and access to the public Cisco TelePresence rooms is making it easier for organisations to expand their operations in line with increased productivity".

• José Antonio Montes, commercial director of the Northern Area in Unitronics

"Telepresence has pushed ahead enormously over the past few years, and it is now well established as a safe and highly advanced collaboration system that makes it possible to replace travel and live meetings, with the consequent reduction in terms of costs and CO2 emissions. Participating in this project has been a pleasure for us  and we congratulate by the fact that this first virtual meeting driven from Garaia has been an unqualified success. We hope that this innovative formula can be passed on to a larger number of businesses and institutions".

Additional resources

• Further information on Collaboration of Cisco
• Further information on the Cisco TelePresence System 3000
• Access to the photographs of Cisco TelePresence in Flickr
• Social networks: Cisco Collaboration Community, Cisco Collaboration and Video Blogs, @CiscoCollab and @TelePresence on Twitter, Cisco Collaboration and Cisco TelePresence on Facebook.

On the Garaia Innovation Centre

The GARAIA Innovation Centre is a project that supports innovation activities. It is led by the private initiative of Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa, the support of the scientific knowledge of Mondragon Unibertsitatea, the research of the Ikerlan Technological Centre and the backing of various public institutions:Vasc Goverment, through SPRILUR, Gipuzkoa Foral Deputation and the City Hall of Mondragón. Its objective is based on the promotion of innovation by making contact in a single space with suppliers of scientific knowledge (universities and technological centres) and those requesting innovation (R & D units of the businesses).

For further information, go to www.pologaraia.es.

About Unitronics

Unitronics Comunicaciones, S.A. is the leading Spanish solution provider in the field of Technology Information and Communication, specially in the areas of networks, security, unified communications, video-conference systems and solutions, and telepresence. The services provided cover the entire technology cycle, from diagnosis and consultancy to rendering remote managed services, and including the design, implementation and integration of solutions. Unitronics is present in major companies of the private sector, the public administration, as well as in telecommunications operators being Inova a major shareholder.

Unitronics has also holds the following certifications: ISO 9001 (Quality Management System), ISO 14001 (Environmental Management System), ISO 27001 (Information Security Management System) and IS0 20000 (IT Service Management System).

For more information: www.unitronics.es.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the world leader of Internet networks which is transforming the way in which people connect, communicate and collaborate. For further information on Cisco, go to http://www.cisco.com or http://www.cisco.es

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