locustreign

MS's previous enterprise offering in this space was the SMART Room System for Lync. It worked really well...as long as your collaborators were also on Lync. No standards based video conference connectivity, and good luck if you tried to use the system for an external collaboration/training/demo (pick your flavor of WebEx, Google Hangouts, etc.). With Lync being absorbed into Skype for Business I hope they will approach these new offerings with less of a silo type mentality. The tight integration with a Surface looks great, but what happens when someone brings in an iPad?

You grew up very close to me and I'm still playing D&D! I don't mind the suburbs at all, I'm very content having access to Los Angeles (with a bit of a drive) and then not have to worry about where to find parking at night when I get home.

Depending on your flavor of WebEx, the cost is roughly $100/mo.

After one year you are a bit ahead with the Chromebox (~$1200/WebEx vs $1000/Chromebox) but I totally agree with your questioning of hangouts as a proven tool in an enterprise environment. Dedicated Cisco telepresence is in the magnitude of $15k to $150k depending on the feature set.