Once again, the holiday season is upon us. It's a time to reconnect with friends and family, share memories and relax.

Unfortunately, today's busy world prevents many of us from physically being together during this special time of year. But these days, the Internet of Everything is starting to be able to bring more people, things and traditions together through immersive mobile video and telepresence experiences.

Video Drives Experiences

Gone are the days of trying to capture memories with old-school video cameras. New waves of cloud-based, mobile, and video applications and machine-to-machine connections are documenting our lives in cool new ways. These are much more useable and sharable, and fun. These applications and connections are also contributing to the explosion of mobile data traffic. In fact, because mobile video content has much higher bit rates than other mobile content types, mobile video will generate much of the mobile traffic growth through 2017, according to Cisco VNI.

This growth is reflective of more people capturing, sharing and consuming video. And the possibilities for immersive video experiences are endless. Some holiday-friendly notions include:

• Bond with family via personal, social video. Earlier this year, YouTube co-founder, Chris Hurley declared the future of video will be social. Judging by the seasonal popularity of any Elf-related video this time of year, it's clear that is practically a truism. According to Business Insider, more users are discovering videos through social networks, helping drive personalized content that can be accessed anytime and anywhere. On the entertainment side, Cisco Content Delivery Systems are also making this possible.
• Keep an eye on things while you are away. Video surveillance is becoming tightly woven into the fabric of the IP network. Many of us are starting to DIY video surveillance at home for security, keeping an eye on the kids or even our pets. At work, physical security has moved from solely the domain of the safety and security department to an integrated application used by many groups. For example, Cisco Video Surveillance Manager (VSM) can help organizations monitor and control many environments and use that information for other applications like retail customer heat maps, or measuring traffic patterns in public spaces, hospitals or sports or entertainment complexes.

The Killer IoE App for the Holidays

Last week I read an interesting GigaOm article by Liron Shapira that discussed how IoE is essentially "annihilating time and space" as more devices, products and people become connected. More than ever, physical location is less of a barrier to share information and incite action. A key driver in this transformation is telepresence technology.

For years Cisco has offered our own internal telepresence rooms so employees and friends could connect with family and loved ones around the holidays. Lots of babies and grandparents, families spread across the globe and a few guys with broken legs got to see each other at the end of the year, courtesy of a Cisco office near them.

But what if you're far away from your family during the holidays, and still want to be at your parent's dinner table? Mobile phones provide video, and so can your laptop. But there are many new cool and more immersive ways too. A telepresence system that lets you control a robot like Anybots and Suitable Technologies' Beam could be a new way to interact and experience life when you can't be there in the flesh.

When it comes to surmounting the barrier of distance, the Internet of Everything can help. With telepresence and mobile video solutions more families can come together and create new memories.

How are IoE video experiences transforming your holiday season? Let us know in the comment section below or join the conversation,#IoE.