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HISTORY: |
In the early 1980's, when VideoConferencing began to make
its mark on the business community, manufacturers were few,
networks were limited 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, PictureTel, VTEL, SAT are no longer the companies which
spring to mind when making a purchase. |
DESKTOP: |
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During the 90's, the PC desktop market began to emerge with introduction of ISA and PCI cards which fit inside Windows PC's. Picturetel, VCON, CLI, Mentec, Focus and Zydacron all came out with their offerings based on what was known as the Siemens reference design, but all carried the same flaw which made them difficult to introduce for widespread deployment. That flaw was that each installation required the PC to be opened up, spare ISA or PCI slot located (if available at all) and software loaded on to the PC, something that large corporations would not permit and an activity which required constant user support and maintenance. Although complete desktop kits were a fraction of the cost of the large, dedicated room systems that went before them, they never really established themselves and the two dominant desktop players, Polycom (with their ViaVideo) and VCON (with their ViGO) introduced replacement technologies in the form of desktop appliances. These USB devices were supposedly “plug and play” but again the requirement to load and maintain software onto individual PCs in a large workplace or across a wide number of sites proved to be an inhibitor. |
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Into the
new Millenium and even into 2008, Polycom and VCON (now
Emblaze-VCON) have remained the only real choice for quality
H.323 desktop videoconferencing. ViaVideo evolved into PVX
and ViGO evolved into vPoint. Now compatible with operating
systems XP and Vista, these products are “software-only”
relying on the user having a web-cam and using the processing
power of the PC to supply the engine for the encoding and
decoding in a way which is compatible with bigger room systems.
Because software is easily downloadable from VideoCentric’s
web-site, these packages have been much more accessible
that the previous two generations, and performance has grown
to almost match that of some of the meeting room systems
on the market. Emblaze-VCON’s latest version of vPoint
for example now operates at up to 4Mbps and supports HD
transmit and receive. The big flaws however are that without
an enterprise-wide management suite, installation of software
is still on a per-PC basis and configuration of the firewall
is necessary which is not something most users are sufficiently
knowledgeable or confident about, to attempt. Additionally,
even when PCs are configured correctly, users often find
that calls will fail due to the receiving party’s
PC being switched off, not running the software, or their
web cam has been unplugged from its USB socket. In general,
no “presence” information is available to the
caller to indicate who is ready to receive calls.
Popular point-to-point
web-cam solutions emerging on the market such as Skype,
MSN, Yahoo which do provide a level of presence, are still
regarded as lacking quality but their biggest drawback is
that they are not compatible with professional standards-based
systems limiting enterprise-wide deployment, VoIP convergence
and overall centralised management. New packages from Tandberg
(MOVI), from Polycom (CMA4000 and CMA5000) and RADVision
(Scopia Desktop) address these issues but building a network
to support them does rely on many other network components
and it is in this area that experienced companies such as
VideoCentric are able to advise and supply a complete solution.
The introduction of
the VIPE® service by VideoCentric is a step towards
making video as easy to deploy as signing up for a mobile
phone contract or opting for a “pay-as-you-go”
package. Short for Video over IP EverywheRe VIPER is an
internet-networked service which couples an MCU, a pair
of gatekeepers, an ISDN gateway, a desktop videoconferencing
server, a firewall manager, a scheduler, a SIP server and
a MS Outlook integrator into one package which can be rented
on a monthly subscription service. Provided the user, anywhere
in the world, has a Windows PC, a web cam and a headset,
he/she can click on an emailed hyperlink and instantly join
a multi-way conference with up to 11 other parties. Not
limited to desktop PC videoconferencing, the service also
allows professional H.323 boardroom systems and H.320 ISDN
VC users to participate and even mobile phones, POTS phones,
SIP clients, Microsoft OCS users or audio conferencing (starphone)
systems can join through full transcoding built into the
service. Out-of-date software is automatically updated the
next time a participant uses the service. Rental of a “virtual
meeting room” on the internet is simple and account
holders can invite any PC-Webcam user that has internet
access to join without them having to register with the
service or download any software in advance. The size of
the virtual room only dictates how many concurrent users
can be in the video chat room, not which ones are allowed
to be invited in. For example, over the course of a month
a virtual room for 4 may be used by tens or hundreds of
users with the permission of the account holder making it
ideal for recruitment, financial, housing agencies, remote
consultancy etc where individuals may have never video conferenced
before and may not require to do so again afterwards. VideoCentric
offers a free one week trial to any potential subscribers
and application form is downloadable from the main VIPE® page. |
Meeting
Rooms: |
2007-8 has started to see the phasing out of traditional “standard
definition” set-top devices and the introduction of
the latest generation of “high-definition” equivalents
in “two-part” form, i.e. the codec and camera being
separated from each other, permitting flatscreen wall-mount
systems to be minimalistic in nature, i.e. just the screen,
camera and microphone display.
Today, HD is the main consideration and the three leading
endpoint manufacturers, Tandberg, Polycom and Lifesize have
each produced a range of world class systems, all of which
are sold and supported by VideoCentric. In the sidelines,
Emblaze-VCON and Sony continue to produce new models, which
still have their place in certain applications and for those
on tighter budgets. VideoCentric is pleased to advise on these
and demonstrate accordingly to achieve the right balance of
price vs performance at the level of bandwidth that is appropriate
for a particular location. |
Telepresence: |
In addition to traditional meeting room systems, 2008 has
seen the introduction of many brands of TelePresence system
for the executive boardroom. TelePresence is form of videoconferencing
whereby the images of the persons at the far-end are lifesize
and positioned in such a way that eye-to-eye contact is maintained
when looking in different directions at different people around
the virtual meeting room table. The telepresence concept generally
relies on multiple screens, multiple cameras, multiple codecs
and a large room at each end equipped with suitable furniture
to create the lifesize experience. Systems introduced into
this market in 2007/8 include Tandberg Experia, Tandberg T3,
HP Halo, Teliris, Telanetix, Cisco TelePresence and Polycom
TPX and RPX. Because of the multiple codecs used within each
of these systems, they are not strictly standards-based, ie
you need the same system at each end. Owing to the physical
size of these systems, VideoCentric is not able to demonstrate
them at its own premises, but has access to manufacturer’s
sites where a full demonstration can be conducted and if required,
VideoCentric will take you on a tour of multiple systems allowing
you to choose the best one for your own executive environment.
Pricing of these “telepresence rooms” is at a
premium and only intended for the most serious buyers |
Personal
TelePresence: |
The concept of telepresence has recently been expanded from
the definition above, to include “personal-telepresence”
systems. Personal Telepresence is being adopted as a term
to explain executive meeting room systems that are designed
to operate in a standalone form, good examples being Tandberg’s
Centric 1700MXP high-definition system designed for the
executive desktop. The advantage of such systems is that
they only use a single codec and therefore are international
standards based meaning that video calls can be made to/from
other types of VC system, unlike true Telepresence systems. |
TelePresenter: |
TelePresenter is another extension of the TelePresence theme.
The Telepresenter suite of boardroom and training room solutions
is based on a single codec working with one large screen but
fitted with multiple camera so that participants can be “stacked”
vertically (like BBC’s “University Challenge”
program) or aligned horizontally for wide-room applications
or where participants cannot all normally be fit into a single
camera shot, e.g. in courtrooms where defendant, prosecutor
and judge are all physically separated from each other albeit
in the same room. TelePresenter by VideoCentric is controlled
by a PC-based touch-screen controller (VC Commander), making
it highly collaborative in VC mode, but also ideal for offline
presentations (powerpoint, excel or SMARTboard), when two-way
video conferencing is not required. Being based on a single
screen with single codec it has the huge advantage that it
is fully standards-based and customers may choose their codec
(Tandberg, Polycom, Lifesize, Sony, VCON) to suit their existing
corporate policy. Additionally the “single screen”
may be an HD data projector so at the end of a conference,
the boardroom can be “cleared” of items such as
projector, cameras, projection screen etc by automatically
retracting them out of sight, making for a much tidier appearance
than traditional, cumbersome telepresence systems. |
Video
Networking: |
Regarding video networking, the dominant players of the
1990s, VideoServer, Ezenia, Accord, GEC/GPT, BT and Avistar
have either been acquired or faded from the headlines and
have all been replaced by two dominant players RADVision
and Codian who’s technologies are demonstrated, sold
and supported by VideoCentric.
RADVsion is still independent and Codian has gone from strength
to strength with a world-class range of MCUs, Gateways and
Firewall Management systems. Codian was taken over by Tandberg
in 2008 although interoperability with every other manufacturer’s
systems remains priority in their roadmap. Polycom still
have their own competent range of video-networking systems
for which VideoCentric has gained specialist network accreditation
to install and support although this range is perhaps better
suited to a Polycom-only environment that a multi-vendor
one. Endpoints manufactured by Lifesize, Aethra and Sony
are supported by infrastructure products from RADVision
and Codian whereas Emblaze-VCON still develop their own
platform, the cost-effective, VCB.
Cisco is another name which often appears when considering
video MCUs and Gateways but their hardware is manufactured
in Israel by RADVision and so VideoCentric has been appointed
by RADVision to partner with Cisco integrators in the UK
to ensure complete H.323/SIP compatibility when Cisco Call
Manager products are to be integrated within a customer
environment. Cisco resellers therefore supply the Cisco
infrastructure and VideoCentric assist the integration process
and supply, install and support the endpoints regardless
of customer preference for Tandberg, Polycom, Lifesize,
Sony or others.
Perhaps the biggest issue facing organisations is security
of networks. Firewalls are designed to prevent packets traversing
them yet efficient video communication with public systems
requires them. VideoCentric specialises in getting this
right and has a range of solutions to offer. Ranging from
simple two port appliances (one port for the internal LAN
and one port for the public internet) to fully-managed and
secure firewall management servers which sit either side
of the firewall, VideoCentric can present and demonstrate
this at the highest levels. In considering a corporate video
network, this ought to be the starting point. |
Bandwidth
& Equipment Hosting: |
As multipoint applications grow and interconnectivity with
different network-types increases, the requirement for more
bandwidth also increases. Many organisations find this to
be a severe limitation as they are already stretched on their
own data provisioning requirements. To assist this, the better
VC integrators and resellers including VideoCentric are offering
equipment hosting services whereby the customer’s own
servers (MCUs, Gateways etc) are given rack-space at a data
centre equipped with 100Mbps or Multi-Gigabit bandwidth. This
allows the simplification of functionality at the endpoint
premises and makes for a much more scalable solution. Additionally
equipment is hosted at a point where it is most easily and
professionally serviced, where security is highest and power
back-up, air/moisture-filtering, alerts, alarms etc are installed
means that the equipment is best looked after, albeit still
allowing remote customer access for system administration
and user support. |
VideoCentric
is here to help: |
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. There is probably a good reason for
it. Through our detailed knowledge and experience and our
association with Manufacturers, 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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