Videoconferencing

View Tech in Camarillo says it will join All Communications Corp. in Hillside, N.J., in the first quarter of next year. Officials said the proposed merger will create a large videoconferencing and network systems integration company, with a presence in all regions of the United States and a growing base of international clients. "The combination will take advantage of some dramatic synergies," said S. Douglas Hopkins, View Tech president and chief executive.

Not only is Jerry Seinfeld well versed in the mysterious vanishing bee situation, he claims to know the root cause. "The thing is," Seinfeld says in a hushed voice at DreamWorks Animation in Glendale, "we're not even supposed to talk about it. But DreamWorks is behind all that. It's a publicity stunt. We vacuumed out all the hives all over the world. We're just trying to get bees in the news! Free publicity is the way we look at it." As if Seinfeld and DreamWorks need any free publicity.

Professor Socorro Marcos, a department head at Monterrey Technical Institute, was chatting recently with two postgraduate students. Julio Larios asked her to serve on his thesis committee, while Juan Carlos Cielo Flores had questions about a paper's final draft. During these discussions, Larios was in Honduras, Cielo Flores was at his office in Peru, and the professor never left her desk at the Monterrey Tech campus in this northern Mexican city.

Cisco Systems Inc. on Monday unveiled a videoconferencing system that transmits life-size images, setting up a rivalry with Hewlett-Packard Co. The TelePresence Meeting system, designed to enable companies with hundreds of employees and multiple offices to have face-to-face meetings, will boost customers' productivity and reduce travel costs, said Marthin De Beer, a Cisco vice president. The product may reach annual sales of $1 billion in five to seven years, he said.

Cisco Systems Inc. on Monday unveiled a videoconferencing system that transmits life-size images, setting up a rivalry with Hewlett-Packard Co. The TelePresence Meeting system, designed to enable companies with hundreds of employees and multiple offices to have face-to-face meetings, will boost customers' productivity and reduce travel costs, said Marthin De Beer, a Cisco vice president. The product may reach annual sales of $1 billion in five to seven years, he said.

Unicare, a subsidiary of WellPoint Health Networks Inc., has contracted with View Tech Inc. in Camarillo for a videoconferencing system and related service offerings valued in excess of $800,000. The View Tech systems will be deployed at key Unicare corporate and regional sites as well as district sales offices.

A new 110-seat videoconferencing auditorium at Cerritos College may not transmit any classes until next semester, but the $500,000 project could be available for rental by private groups next month, officials at the Norwalk campus said Wednesday. The project, funded mostly by a grant from the state Department of Energy, is expected to feature a 10-foot-by-10-foot video monitor, an overhead document-enhancing camera and microphones at each seat in the stadium.

Not only is Jerry Seinfeld well versed in the mysterious vanishing bee situation, he claims to know the root cause. "The thing is," Seinfeld says in a hushed voice at DreamWorks Animation in Glendale, "we're not even supposed to talk about it. But DreamWorks is behind all that. It's a publicity stunt. We vacuumed out all the hives all over the world. We're just trying to get bees in the news! Free publicity is the way we look at it." As if Seinfeld and DreamWorks need any free publicity.

Hewlett-Packard Co. on Monday jumped into the business of providing the technology -- and building the rooms -- for large companies to hold virtual face-to-face meetings regardless of the distance between participants. HP's Halo Collaboration Studio offers a nearly immersive environment where people can see each other, talk and collaborate remotely as if they were in the same room. The underlying network, built and serviced by HP, minimizes delays and never crosses the public Internet.

New subsidies and insurance regulations in the 2010 healthcare law are expected to bring coverage to millions of uninsured Californians starting next year. The newly insured are likely to put a bigger strain on the healthcare system, particularly in their demand for primary-care doctors, of whom there are already too few in many parts of the country. That's why trained medical professionals who aren't physicians, such as nurse practitioners, want more freedom to deliver the care they're capable of giving than state rules allow.

Hewlett-Packard Co. on Monday jumped into the business of providing the technology -- and building the rooms -- for large companies to hold virtual face-to-face meetings regardless of the distance between participants. HP's Halo Collaboration Studio offers a nearly immersive environment where people can see each other, talk and collaborate remotely as if they were in the same room. The underlying network, built and serviced by HP, minimizes delays and never crosses the public Internet.

View Tech in Camarillo says it will join All Communications Corp. in Hillside, N.J., in the first quarter of next year. Officials said the proposed merger will create a large videoconferencing and network systems integration company, with a presence in all regions of the United States and a growing base of international clients. "The combination will take advantage of some dramatic synergies," said S. Douglas Hopkins, View Tech president and chief executive.

Professor Socorro Marcos, a department head at Monterrey Technical Institute, was chatting recently with two postgraduate students. Julio Larios asked her to serve on his thesis committee, while Juan Carlos Cielo Flores had questions about a paper's final draft. During these discussions, Larios was in Honduras, Cielo Flores was at his office in Peru, and the professor never left her desk at the Monterrey Tech campus in this northern Mexican city.

Unicare, a subsidiary of WellPoint Health Networks Inc., has contracted with View Tech Inc. in Camarillo for a videoconferencing system and related service offerings valued in excess of $800,000. The View Tech systems will be deployed at key Unicare corporate and regional sites as well as district sales offices.

A new 110-seat videoconferencing auditorium at Cerritos College may not transmit any classes until next semester, but the $500,000 project could be available for rental by private groups next month, officials at the Norwalk campus said Wednesday. The project, funded mostly by a grant from the state Department of Energy, is expected to feature a 10-foot-by-10-foot video monitor, an overhead document-enhancing camera and microphones at each seat in the stadium.

More than two dozen Compton teachers are receiving Internet and videoconferencing training through a nonprofit partnership aimed at increasing classroom computer literacy. Huntington Beach-based Educate the Children Foundation and Student and Native American Partnerships, headquartered at Nashville's Vanderbilt University, began offering the training last week at Enterprise Middle School.