Pay-per-use, high definition, video communications tool in Japan’s leading luxury hotel enables global business executives to meet colleagues, customers and business partners across a virtual table
Tokyo – January 27, 2011 – The Westin Tokyo, today announces the launch of state-of-the-art virtual meeting technology, in conjunction with Tata Communications and Cisco. The Westin Tokyo is the first hotel in Japan to introduce this high definition video communications technology.
Telepresence provides life-like, high-definition, conferencing facilities with superior audio and video, allowing participants to meet their colleagues, customers and business partners across a virtual table. Participants in Telepresence meetings will feel that they are in the same room together regardless of where they are individually located in the world. This creates the potential to improve business interaction through better and more frequent meetings and results in stronger customer relationships and accelerated sales cycles, delivering improved project management and tighter integration of remote offices.
Located in Central Tokyo, the public Telepresence room will link to the wider Tata Communications Telepresence network via the Tata Communications Global Meeting Exchange. The Exchange enables meetings to take place between any private or public room on its network; as well as rooms on the networks of Tata Communications’ Intercarrier-Exchange partners, BT and Telefonica, and the National Lambda Rail network, which links leading U.S.A. universities.
“Our public and private room network, together with our Global Meeting Exchange, supports our goal to facilitate as many connections for our customers as possible via Telepresence. We currently offer the widest reach for Global business-to-business meetings and range of connections, making Telepresence a truly global collaboration tool,” says Peter Quinlan, Vice President, Telepresence Managed Services, Tata Communications. “Both Global Meeting Exchange and our Intercarrier Exchange initiatives with other operators have been industry firsts. They have enabled us to continue to provide the broadest number of connections, regardless of service provider or operator.”
As part of this extensive business ecosystem, the Tokyo room will connect to public and private rooms throughout Tata Communications’ network and partner networks, spanning 29 locations across five continents. This network reach makes Telepresence a truly global collaboration tool.
“The launch of the new Cisco TelePresence meeting room at The Westin Tokyo is another example of Starwood’s commitment to innovation. It offers our clients an exciting new meeting solution that facilitates ‘face-to-face’ meetings in the same room, regardless of global location,” says Lothar Pehl, Regional Vice President, Japan, Korea and Guam Starwood. “As the world and the hotel industry grow increasingly more global, Starwood is continuing its legacy of innovation by looking at tomorrow’s travelers and really understanding, how they want to meet.”
The new Telepresence suite is part of a year-long partnership between Starwood Hotels and Tata Communications which covers custom-built Telepresence rooms in a number of the group’s global properties. Starwood unveiled its first in-hotel Telepresence meeting suites in early 2010 at The Sheraton Toronto, W. Chicago City Center and the Sheraton on the Park Sydney. These launches were then followed by the Sheraton Kuwait Hotel & Towers, The Sheraton New York Hotels & Towers, The Westin Los Angeles Airport, The Westin Georgetown-DC, Le Meridien Etoile Paris, Le Meridien Brussels, Le Meridien Munich, The Le Meridien Parkhotel Frankfurt, The Westin San Francis and The Sheraton Dallas Hotel.
“The partnership with Tata Communications is testimony to the innovations that Starwood Hotels & Resorts is pursuing for our global guests’ needs.” says Andreas Trauttmansdorff General Manager, The Westin Tokyo. “We are seeing an increasing demand to incorporate technology, virtual meetings and social media into our hotel’s meeting offerings. We are thrilled to now have a Telepresence room. Our hotel’s current meeting and conference facilities have been highly awarded over the years and this new addition will undoubtedly continue to position us as the corporate hotel of choice.”
The public room facility offers users who do not have Telepresence rooms within their company, access to this cutting-edge technology at an affordable hourly rate. Tata Communications currently has the largest global network of public Telepresence rooms and is present across five continents covering the USA, Canada, the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, India, The Philippines, Singapore and Australia.
Reservations for the Telepresence rooms can be made quickly and easily using the Tata Communications online portal, www.tatacommunications.com, with a convenient payment capability that accepts all major credit cards.
For more information about Starwood Hotels Telepresence Suites visit:
http://www.tatacommunications.com/telepresence/.
About Tata Communications
Tata Communications is a leading global provider of a new world of communications. With a leadership position in emerging markets, Tata Communications leverages its advanced solutions capabilities and domain expertise across its global and pan-India network to deliver managed solutions to multi-national enterprises, service providers and Indian consumers.
The Tata Global Network includes one of the most advanced and largest submarine cable networks, a Tier-1 IP network, with connectivity to more than 200 countries across 400 PoPs, and nearly 1 million square feet of data center and collocation space worldwide.
Tata Communications’ depth and breadth of reach in emerging markets includes leadership in Indian enterprise data services, leadership in global international voice, and strategic investments in operators in South Africa (Neotel), Sri Lanka (Tata Communications Lanka Limited) and Nepal (United Telecom Limited).
Tata Communications Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India and its ADRs are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. (NYSE: TCL)
www.tatacommunications.com
About The Westin Tokyo
A respite in the heart of one of the world’s largest cities, The Westin Tokyo offers personalized and instinctive service to meet the needs of business travelers, leisure explorers, events participants, and cuisine lovers. With 16 yeas of superb reputation, world acclaimed culinary expertise, award winning facilities, luxurious European style, and a signature Westin experience to rejuvenate the body and energize the mind we trust that you will soon feel renewed.
About Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with 1025 properties in 100 countries and territories with 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W®, Westin®, Le Méridien®, Sheraton®, Four Points® by Sheraton, and the recently launched Aloft®, and Element SM. Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.
About Cisco
Cisco, (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings), the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco’s trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information
Forward-looking and cautionary statements
Certain words and statements in this release concerning Tata Communications and its prospects, and other statements, including those relating to Tata Communications’ expected financial position, business strategy, the future development of Tata Communications’ operations, and the general economy in India, are forward-looking statements. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including financial, regulatory and environmental, as well as those relating to industry growth and trend projections, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Tata Communications, or industry results, to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from such forward-looking statements include, among others, failure to increase the volume of traffic on Tata Communications’ network; failure to develop new products and services that meet customer demands and generate acceptable margins; failure to successfully complete commercial testing of new technology and information systems to support new products and services, including voice transmission services; failure to stabilize or reduce the rate of price compression on certain of the company’s communications services; failure to integrate strategic acquisitions and changes in government policies or regulations of India and, in particular, changes relating to the administration of Tata Communications’ industry; and, in general, the economic, business and credit conditions in India. Additional factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from such forward-looking statements, many of which are not in Tata Communications’ control, include, but are not limited to, those risk factors discussed in Tata Communications’ various filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Tata Communications is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, updates or alters its forward-looking statements.
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