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About the Evolving Marketplace
 

In the early 1980's, when VideoConferencing began to make its mark on the business community, manufacturers were few and the cost and size of the systems demanded some long, hard thinking by prospective customers. As a result, the dominant players of the day, GEC, CLI, BT, VTEL, SAT are no longer the companies which spring to mind when making a purchase.

During the 90's, the industry was revolutionised by the introduction of hardware cards for installation in standard desktop PC's. Picturetel, VCON and Zydacron led the race and although still costly in comparison to most PC hardware, complete desktop kits were a fraction of the cost of the large, dedicated room systems that went before them.

Over time, several suppliers developed software versions of videoconferencing codec's, most notably Intel with the introduction of the Intel ProShare series. This combined both a hardware network card and a software videoconferencing codec.

Unfortunately, the power of PC's severely limited the capabilities of such products and eventually they were withdrawn leaving VCON as the clear leader at the desktop with Picturetel (rebadged Zydacron) and Sony (rebadged VCON) filling the rest of the sales in this sector.

Now, we have a much more diverse marketplace and a growing demand for video clips and streaming over the internet, software codec's are more common and some can be downloaded on the web for free. PC's are much more powerful, lending some semblance of usability to these products, although they still demand a great deal of the PC's resource and always will. The primary driver for such products is audio and video streaming, but you will see by reading on and examining our products and solutions that one-way streaming is much more effective if it is replaced by two-way interactive streaming, especially if that is also combined with traditional interactive conferencing.
A new breed of hardware desktop system has now emerged - the "appliance". Rather than cracking open the PC to insert a PCI codec card (something not permitted by many large organisations) a USB add-on is hot-plugged into the PC or laptop. Being able to be shared by a number of users its flexibility and price attractiveness are obvious. Business quality systems range from glorified web-cams at the lower end of the scale through to professional packages with lots of extra functionality and flexibility (eg. VCON ViGO).

Hardware codec's in the form of set-top devices have become the most popular SME business tool, ie. stand alone systems that connect directly to a TV and an ISDN or IP network. Having been introduced by Picturetel in the 90s the Swiftsite was ousted from its dominant position by the new market leader Polycom (Polyspan in Europe), who is itself now coming under pressure from new entrants Sony, TANDBERG and VCON. Large studio systems still exist, but are reserved for the large corporate buyer who is perhaps more interested in the finish of the fitted furniture rather than the actual capabilities of the technology. Flexibility and functionality are better provided by modern PC based systems or Set-Top Systems at less than 25% of the price.

Most notably however, another revolution has taken place in the market place - the explosion of the Internet and the predominant use of IP as a network protocol. The videoconferencing industry has not been slow to react, with the introduction of the H.323 protocol to transport video and audio media across packet based networks. Systems with this capability as well as traditional ISDN (H.320) are known as "dual-mode" offering the buyer the best level of future proofing. The features we take for granted in our telephone network today are simply not available in the traditional world of ISDN videoconferencing. PBX features such as divert-on-no-reply, receptionist answer and mailboxes are only available through Video-over-IP.

As the number of devices continues to grow, network management tools become more important and again, IP is the protocol of choice to achieve such control. Your Company will one day make the transition, sooner or later the evolution will happen and at that point you will reflect on your investment decisions of today. Don't be misled by those who say that it is too early for IP (they probably just don't understand it or maybe they are just trying to sell you something more expensive !). Let VideoCentric help you make the right choice of equipment and network connection. We have selected our vendors carefully and we have the knowledge and experience to guide you properly at a price that's affordable and competitive.

If you are already working with equipment that doesn't appear at first sight to be supplied and supported by VideoCentric, then still talk to us. Through our knowledge and association with Distributors and Resellers in over 50 countries worldwide, we'll put you in touch with the right Company for the best pricing and service whatever the product and wherever you are.

 

 
   
 
 
 

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Last modified: Friday, 30-Nov-2007 09:32:56 GMT