Palo Alto, Calif. ? Hewlett-Packard Co. on Monday jumped into the business of providing the technology – and building the rooms – for large companies to hold virtual face-to-face meetings regardless of the distance between participants.

HP’s Halo Collaboration Studio offers a nearly immersive environment where people can see each other, talk and collaborate remotely as if they were in the same room. The underlying network, built and serviced by HP, minimizes delays and never crosses the public Internet.

Developed in partnership with DreamWorks Animation SKG LLC, the rooms are targeted at large corporations that are looking to cut down on the amount of time and money spent flying people to different locations. Each room costs roughly $550,000, with an $18,000-per-month fee, though the charges vary with the number ordered.

The idea originated in the aftermath of the 9-11 terror attacks, as airlines cut back on flights, airports ratcheted up security and travel became more of a time-consuming headache, said Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation’s chief executive.

“We found ourselves with the inability to move creative talent around to sites we have around the country,” he said. “It actually put a damper on our ability to have the right people at the right time.”

DreamWorks Animation helped design the details of the rooms and will receive a royalty. Other financial details between the two companies were not disclosed.

From left on the monitors are Porter Novelli employees Eric Allen and Lisa Peterson; Hector Ruiz, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. chairman and CEO, and Vyomesh Joshi, Hewlett-Packard executive vice president of Imaging & Printing Group; and Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, and Alyson Griffin, of HP. They appeared during a virtual conference Monday with Hewlett-Packard employees in Palo Alto, Calif.

In HP’s rooms, up to six users in one location sit at a table and face their colleagues, who appear on three 50-inch plasma screens. Video cameras are located in holes near the screens so it appears that people are looking into the eyes of their colleagues when talking.

The system is controlled with a standard computer mouse, and the rooms can be hooked up so that meeting participants can access the Internet or the corporate network via the laptops they bring with them.

On Monday, HP named two customers: PepsiCo Inc. and chip-maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc.