Cisco TelePresence System 500 - video conferencing device
Mfg # CTS-500
CDW # 1700344
| UNSPSC 43191500
Know your gear
Cisco TelePresence System 500 offers the same experience of three-screen meeting room solutions, but with a smaller footprint. This gives individuals the flexibility to join large, multi-location group meetings, or host intimate, remote one-on-one meetings from the personal office.
Enhance your purchase
Cisco TelePresence System 500 - video conferencing device is rated
4.20 out of
5 by
5.
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Juan Francisco Ramirez Farro from
A highly configurable solution that performs well
What is our primary use case?
I use this solution in the field.
What is most valuable?
The configuration is a valuable. It allows me to set the protocol services. This allows me to deliver quality services. With Cisco TelePresence, it is easy to establish communication and performance and the resolution is good.
What needs improvement?
The calling features can be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have 11 years of experience with Cisco TelePresence.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Cisco TelePresence is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. The deployment takes almost one to two hours. I have two administrators and 10 licenses for the owners and users.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is expensive, therefore I rate it an eight out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
It is easy to use, so I would rate Cisco TelePresence a nine out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-08-21T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Ikbel Zammit from
It has good ticket tracking and integration
What is our primary use case?
TelePresence allows our customers to have a quick meeting while traveling and still be effective. It saves time and money.
What is most valuable?
Ticket tracking is the best feature.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
TelePresence is scalable. If we want to scale with this kind of deployment we can add a conference in the DMS.
How are customer service and support?
Cisco service is good. The internal processes and support are all very good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Zoom is good but not in the same way as TelePresence. It is more integrated and has some collaboration features that Zoom doesn't. You can use the same tools that you have in the office.
How was the initial setup?
We all have IT experience, so can deploy it easily on any kind of equipment. We don't have any problems.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Cisco TelePresence seven out of 10. If customers want something stable that doesn't fail easily, I recommend TelePresence.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2022-04-05T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Shankar Raju S M from
Responsive support, reliable, and integrates well
What is our primary use case?
We are using Cisco TelePresence for board meetings.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Cisco TelePresence are the basic standard features and the ease of use. Additionally, the configuration and integration are exemplary.
What needs improvement?
The price of Cisco TelePresence overall should be reduced.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco TelePresence for approximately three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Cisco TelePresence has been stable during our meetings.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have found Cisco TelePresence to be scaleable. We are able to scale up the number of members on a call.
We have eight locations that are using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Cisco TelePresence is very good, they are responsive.
I rate the support from Cisco TelePresence a four out of five.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have not used another solution similar to Cisco TelePresence.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Cisco TelePresence was easy.
I rate the setup of Cisco TelePresence a four out of five.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Cisco TelePresence license is expensive and should be reduced. There is only a cost for the license and it is annually.
I rate the price of Cisco TelePresence a four out of five.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Cisco TelePresence a nine out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-06-08T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
AdamBrenner from
A scalable solution that needs some improvement in pricing and stability
What is most valuable?
Telepresence's most valuable feature is keeping highly paid employees, such as executives, on the ground instead of wasting time flying around the world. So if you have the right telepresence plan and form, it's not just the video cameras and the systems behind them, it's the way you lay out your meeting room.You can have multiple offices interconnecting in a single meeting, and it looks like everybody's in the same big conference room together because the telepresence yields such a fantastic amount of clarity.
What needs improvement?
The tool is expensive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for the last one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is not a stable solution. Cisco's operating system sucks. Their bug reporting is one of the worst in the network world.
So users have to suffer before Cisco fix finds a problem. In comparison, the competitors look for problems before bringing their customers down. That's the biggest problem I've had with Cisco.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. Users generally have to work with the camera equipment and the positioning in the room to get the best effects.
What was our ROI?
I have seen Return on Investment and it can be seen very fast.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I will rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2023-06-03T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer2078835 from
Reliable and stable for large-scale virtual events or conferences, handling over 50 endpoints but lack certain collaboration features, such as the ability for participants to join from other software
What is our primary use case?
TelePresence is similar to a computing server but more complex. For example, endpoints or devices (components) need to be registered first on the VCS (virtual control server) or call manager. It uses licenses first of all.
Then there's another appliance called TB Conductor, which handles routing, and the TelePresence server acts as a bridge for participants joining exchanging ITP or SIP communication. That's how it works.
I typically used TelePresence for team meetings or client interactions. I used to work in a bank with over a thousand branches, each with endpoints. We used it for team meetings instead of physically going to locations. It worked for interactions, trainings, and all those things.
How has it helped my organization?
We used TelePresence for large-scale virtual events or conferences. We had weekly meetings with over 50 endpoints, and it worked fine. It was reliable, stable, and good, even though complex. The more resources you give it, the better it works.
I would rate the ease of integration of Cisco TelePresence with other communication tools a ten out of ten, with ten being easy to integrate.
We integrated it with the Call Manager.
What is most valuable?
It didn't have many features. We only used video call indexing.
We used high definition, 1080p, but again, it required license purchases. For example, with three licenses (TP licenses), each allowing one 1080p screen, if I had six participants, I'd need to lower the resolution to 720p or lower to accommodate more participants. More licenses meant more cost.
What needs improvement?
There can be some features to enhance the collaboration. For example, with 50 participants using physical devices, some might want to join from other software like Teams, Link, or Skype. That wasn't possible unless we bought more licenses.
That was the main problem with TelePresence.
Cisco Meeting Server (CMS) seems to address that. With CMS, I can send you an invite, and you can just join through it, making it much easier than TelePresence.
For how long have I used the solution?
I used it for three years , and then we migrated to CMS because TelePresence was end-of-life, complicated, and had issues. They wanted us to migrate to the Cisco main server, so it's separate.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It was stable. So, I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
For the scalability, I rate it a seven out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
We had a support contract, but we didn't use it much. Like, we used to Google it out and try to resolve the problem ourselves.
But we had a support contract, and we used it a little bit. For example, we had some issues regarding the physical server. So we opened a case with that. But usually, we try to do our own thing by ourselves.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using legacy MCUs. One was an MXP; it was either the MXP 9000 or 9900.
The reason for switching was primarily due to larger-scale needs. We were expanding, and our video conferencing needs grew. We wanted to upgrade our technology, so we moved to Cisco TelePresence.
For example, the Meeting Server is a single-server solution, meaning everything runs on one machine. This can be a single point of failure. Conversely, Cisco TelePresence uses three servers (MCU, TMS, and VCS), so the cost might be higher initially, but redundancy is improved.
How was the initial setup?
I would rate my experience with the initial setup a three out of ten, with ten being expensive.
It was complex with badges and certificates. Too crazy.
What about the implementation team?
Three people were involved. Three people were involved in the installation process and the configuration and everything.
The deployment took a week. Deployment is the installation of the servers and everything.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2024-02-17T00:00:00-05:00