New Webisodes Spotlight Consumers' Connected Lives

There’s not a day that goes by when people aren’t using some form of communication technology. Whether it’s the computer to check e-mail, or a mobile device to download the latest song, technology plays an increasingly important role in our lives.

 

And Cisco Systems, Inc. is showing people exactly how through a series of Internet videos. The Webisodes are part of Cisco’s (News - Alert) so-called “Digital Crib” series, show how tech-savvy people use technology and their home networks to live a connected life.

 

The latest videos show take viewers inside the homes of electronic dance music DJ Paul van Dyk, TreeHugger.com founder Graham Hill, and Lastminute.com co-founder Martha Lane Fox. Each three-minute videos explores the hosts’ media-enabled homes and how their home networks help them in their everyday lives.

 

The Webisodes, available here, are designed to highlight how Cisco’s various technology solutions can help people lead a “connected life,” the company said. Viewers can go behind-the-scenes to see how the Internet and consumer technology keeps people connected, whether at home, work, or on the go, Cisco said.

 

At home, residential customers can use Cisco’s technology to watch TV shows on demand, play online games, make VoiP calls, or answer video calls on TV. At work, Cisco’s solutions can help employees conduct face-to-face conferences using telepresence or instantly communicate using text or chat features. For those on the go, users can download the latest tunes, watch a TV program on a train and share photos with family and friends.

 

In one Webisode, van Dyk talks about how a fast Internet connection in his home let him collaborate with other artists without physically being in the studio.

 

“It’s very vital to be connected to your audience,” van Dyk said in the Webisode. “You find people all over the world who love music, and because of the Internet and the technology behind it everybody can be part of it.”

 

Meanwhile, Lane Fox, who founded Lastminute.com, an online travel agency and e-tailer, said in the Webisode that technology will be “just as important as having goods roads, or having a great transport system.”

 

“ It’s so fundamental I think in how people will be running their lives and the access it gives to run your life to be able to be anywhere and upload anything and capture anything and put it in a place where it becomes central,” she said. “It will become that important.”

 

The latest videos follow a previous Cisco series, which features videos from the homes of NBA basketball star Shane Battier of the Houston Rockets, video blogger Meghan Asha, and video artist Lincoln Schatz.

 

 "Cisco Digital Cribs videos continue to provide compelling and unique examples of how consumers are using their home networks to enable a connected life," said Ken Wirt, Cisco's vice president of consumer

 marketing, in a statement. "The network is the platform for a new age of compelling, connected consumer experiences, and the Digital Cribs videos show what that really means."

 

In other news, Cisco recently announced a fleet of new products and services designed to improve productivity and help users boost their competition. According to TMCnet, Cisco expanded the Cisco Small Business and Cisco Small Business Pro portfolios to include than 100 purpose-built products.

The announcement comes a year after Cisco launched a suite of new solution bundles for the Cisco Smart Business Communications System for the Asia Pacific market. That system, TMCnet said, enables SMBs to gain access to information anytime and anywhere.