Huawei Ghana has said as part of its new innovations to bridge the digital divide, it would showcase its telepresence demonstration truck in Ghana in October this year as a precursor to introducing tele-conferencing in country.

Officials of Huawei Ghana told Adom News, via an email, the truck would go on a two-country road show to Nigeria and Ghana, adding that it would arrive in Ghana on Friday, October 1, 2012 and stay on till October 5, 2012 before returning to China.

The truck would be showcased at the La Beach Hotel in Accra between 9am and 5pm every day, the officials said.

Meanwhile a write up from Huawei Ghana said 'the Demo truck gives live demonstration of equipments ranging from IT (information technology), IP (internet protocol) and Unified Communications.'

This, according to Huawei, would offer its numerous clients across its footprints, the opportunity to practically experience new technology to support efficient operations in their businesses.

'Huawei's road show will be stopping in Ghana to offer businesses the opportunity to witness, feel and experience new technologies that will help build business profitability,' it said.

Meanwhile, Huawei has already donate and installed telepresence equipment, including 55-inch ultra-slim LCD screens, at the Castle, Flag Staff House and six government regional offices as part of the e-governance project it is undertaking in Ghana.

This is to virtually link the presidency with the regional offices to make e-governance effective through tele-conferencing.

But the technology is yet to go commercial in Ghana; and the coming of the demo truck is intended to herald the commericialisation of Huawei's telepresence technology in Ghana.

The company said it has already started negotiating with some banks in Ghana to adopt the technology at their branches and cut travel time and cost for meetings.

The statement said Huawei telepresence solutions could be deployed in four major sectors; solutions for remote command and decision-making, remote consultation, remote judicial proceedings and intelligent building multimedia.

It said Huawei's enterprise telepresence comes with an immersive experience, ease of use, network adaptation, system stability, security, reliability and hierarchical service with role-based management, adding that they can be deployed in headquarters and large branches, so that unified management, intelligent conference scheduling and hierarchical role-bases management can be achieved.

'It comes in 40in, 46in, or 55in ultra-slim LCDs, supporting three installation options (Wall mount, Floor mount, Wheeled or fixed) and users can use tabletop HD video endpoints, videophones, mobile pads, and PC clients to communicate "face-to-face" with virtual teams anywhere at any time,' the statement said.

Huawei said its telepresence system provides customers with a truly rich, live interactive face-to-face communication experience, thus reducing costs, improving work efficiency, and saving on human resources/labor.

The statement quoted Market Research Firm, International Data Corporation (IDC) as reporting that market for telepresence systems in 2007, was estimated at $72 million in sales (not including the many sites manufacturers installed for their own use), but it is to reach over $1 billion during 2012.

It noted that true to IDC's predictions, today telepresence is becoming more familiar thanks to companies like Huawei technologies, Cisco systems, HP, Polycom, Teliris, and other entries in the telepresence market.

'Huawei has been devoted to video communications research and development since 1993. Leveraging its years of expertise in video communications, Huawei provides industry leading end-to-end telepresence products and solutions, such as a telepresence service platform, immersive telepresence products, room telepresence products, desktop telepresence products and personal telepresence products,' it said.

Story by Ghana/Samuel Nii Narku Dowuona/Adom News