Through the Looking Glass:
The Way We’ll Work Tomorrow, Today

Ken Davison, Vice President of Marketing for Magor Communications Corporation

Today has never looked more like tomorrow at Magor Communications Corporation (Magor) in Ottawa, Ontario. Magor has engineered a simple, easy to use, and affordable technology for remote collaboration that is nothing short of magic. Its HDWorkPlace visual collaboration solutions are improving the way people work, without changing how they work.

Imagine if one of the walls in your office, cubicle or conference room was really a kind of “looking glass” through which you could make high definition (HD) on-demand audio-visual connections, not only with the physical offices and conference rooms of anyone anywhere in the world, but also with their desktops and electronic files, as well as their white-boards, presentations, flip charts and other collaboration tools.

This vision of a magic wall (the word “Magor” is Roman for “wall”) stirred the imaginations of Chairman Sir Terry Matthews and Executive Vice President of Product Development Dan Rusheleau when they founded Magor in 2007. Now clients are raving about the experience created by integrating commercially available cameras, servers and display screens with innovative audio-bridging devices and software solutions that facilitate virtual connections that mirror in-person collaborative meetings.

With simple mouse-clicks, participants can access subject-matter experts and crucial information sources in HD video from the comfort of their own offices, without the need to go to a dedicated room or to build a complex, expensive dedicated network.

“You have discovered the Holy Grail,” one thrilled Magor client said about the point and click simplicity and unique ability to work over non-engineered networks like the Internet.

The Magor HDWorkPlace systems can feature one, two or three large-screen displays that offer crisp, life-like images of the people with whom you are meeting, along with audio that is incredibly sharp, no matter how far a participant is sitting from a microphone.

Furthermore, with HDWorkPlace, participants are in complete control over their own visual experience. With simple mouse-clicks, they can choose which people or shared collaboration materials they want to focus on. They can zoom in or out on speakers or their white-boards, pull up desktops, files or presentations on a whole screen or parts of a screen, or share control of files with other participants.

The look and feel is much like that of having people right outside a window to your office, and unlike video-conferencing technology, speakers appear to be looking at you no matter where you are sitting in a room, and their lip movements are in perfect sync with their words. There are also fewer static interruptions, recovery times for rare glitches are measured in milli-seconds, and there are no annoying screen refreshes or lengthy re-start procedures typically found with traditional video conferencing systems.

Ken Davison, the Vice President of Marketing for Magor, says that “there is a huge ‘wow’ factor” whenever a prospective client witnesses the actual performance. He adds that, from its inception, Magor was dedicated to a philosophy that “we study how people actually work and how they want to work, and then we engineer a solution to fit those desires and to minimize the need for training and support.”

This philosophy is a cornerstone on which Sir Terry Matthews and the Wesley Clover International Corporation have successfully founded or funded more than 80 technology companies, including Newbridge Networks, a worldwide data networking leader.

The philosophy is also responsible for the engineering of a system architecture that requires minimal training to operate. “A user can become proficient in a couple of days,” says Davison, noting that Magor does offer a relatively short on-line manual for tech support that is nothing like the thick manuals for some teleconferencing operations.

“Our peer-to-peer architecture also allows participants to be seamlessly added or dropped while a meeting is in progress, without disturbing other participants,” he adds. “This unique capability means that Jim can call Bob with a question, Bob can decide that Jim really needs to talk to Frank to get the answer, Bob can bring Frank into the discussion, and Bob can then drop off the call, leaving Jim and Frank to collaborate.”

Davison explains that the “secret sauce” is the patented and elegant software engineering that facilitates delivery of audio and video data in tighter “packets” that can travel across lower bandwidths using ordinary Internet access. “The interoperability of our systems with desktops, iPads, smartphones, and Web-based systems, and the lack of any need for a dedicated transmission line are totally unique,” he says.

“Companies are being forced to run leaner and each knowledge-worker must wear multiple hats. They must handle frequent interruptions, be able to answer crucial questions and make quick, informed decisions. When workers have all their desktop and office materials at hand, and can access subject-matter experts as they need them, they collaborate better,” Davison adds, noting that telecollaboration not only reduces trips out of the office, but enables more intra-office meetings without having to move to a central location.

Davison is also ecstatic about Magor’s newest big-fish client, Christie, a global leader in visual technologies that makes display systems for movie cinemas, operational control rooms, and training simulators used by fighter pilots and other aviators. “This (Christie) is a billion dollar company that sees the value in both our peer-to-peer architecture and advanced collaboration capabilities,” he says.

Davison says that clients who utilize Magor HDWorkPlace systems can realize benefits far beyond the cost savings associated with reduced travel expenses. He points, for example, to the results of a white paper published by international growth consultants at Frost & Sullivan, which is available at http://www.magorcorp.com.

Among other things, the white paper notes that the velocity of collaboration is a key component in modern productivity, and it depends heavily on whether collaboration tools are actually utilized because of relative ease of use or ignored.

Frost & Sullivan concluded that a modern telecollaboration process possessing the qualities associated with Magor systems would offer productivity gains from:

• Collaboration that occurs more easily, more frequently and with greater speed;
• Collaboration that enables viewing, sharing and editing of files and applications;
• Collaboration that is wider, occurring among more participants using more collaboration tools in more locations at once.

But the most amazing part of Magor’s innovation just may be its cost. While teleconference systems can involve hundreds of thousands of dollars in up-front technology investments, and $10,000 or more in monthly fees, the Magor HDWorkPlace solutions can be installed for $20,000 to $50,000 and require no dedicated lines, monthly system fees, or so-called “white-glove” support services.

“We think that is an unmatched value in the marketplace,” says Davison.

He credits his lawyers at Burns & Levinson with providing value to Magor as well, particularly citing the work of partner Len Gold for his assistance in the company’s first round of external financing. “Len is not just a lawyer, but a good and flexible partner who adds value by facilitating key contacts for us in addition to doing very good legal work.”