If you thought 2011 was the year of mobility, get ready for 2012. IDC predicts more than 1.2 billion people will be mobile workers by the end of the year. And if “bring your own device” (BYOD) was buzzworthy last year, brace yourself for this year.  Already over the holiday season tablet ownership doubled from 10% to nearly 20%, according to the latest Pew Internet & American Life Project. If you’re not convinced yet that people are tablet-crazy, Deloitte predicts over 5 million tablets will be sold to people who already own one.

Despite corporate security concerns, infrastructure issues, regulatory compliance risks and IT management fear, tablet and smartphone sales are exploding and people are bringing these tools to work no matter what.  And maybe companies will demand you BYOD, if Ken Huss of ZDNet is right.

Or, maybe you’ll video conference from your device at home.

Sigma Designs is betting that consumers are no longer going to tolerate huddling around a PC once cost and usability barriers are removed. Here comes a suite with HD camera, console and remote control that will let you video conference from home. With Skype TV for the High Definition promising to flame the fire further for video conferencing and new entrants like Sigma Designs, mobile and at-home workers have more options than ever.

Either way, BYOD at home or in the office, and expect to see loads more mobile devices and at-home devices leveraged for easy, friendly video conferencing. At Vidtel, we like to see this; it keeps us in business weaving more and more video communication technologies together.

Polycom launched its new cloud offering, RealPresence Cloud, yesterday with great fanfare. This is significant as Polycom became the last of the 3 major video conferencing vendors to throw their full support behind a cloud offering of their own.

The RealPresence Cloud offer provides Polycom-based services without the need for network infrastructure (e.g., bridges, gatekeepers, session border controllers, gateways, etc.) on the part of the end users.

What’s different from the Polycom offer vs. their competition is that it clearly states it is a wholesale offer to be sold through the service provider community and not directly to end users. By contrast, the Cisco Callway service and LifeSize Connections services are sold directly to end customers potentially competing with their own service provider channel partners. This alternative approach is understandable from a Polycom point of view in that they have a much larger installed based of service providers on the VoIP handset side and have always feared not being seen as neutral.

Now that all three of the major vendors have launched their own cloud services, the idea of cloud video conferencing has rapidly moved from a good idea to a must-have mainstream service for the industry.

Having said that, I see a number of deep flaws shared by all three vendors in their collective approach.

For starters, all of them focus their offers around their own technology. The Cisco offer only supports Cisco equipment, LifeSize for LifeSize, and Polycom for Polycom. This worked reasonably well for these players when their sales were directly at small, largely internal-only deployments at the Fortune 500. But SMEs are going to want to speak with others outside their organization. And those other companies will have a mix of other solutions that might include the same equipment but also would surely include some that deploy the Big Three.

Additionally, many SMEs regularly use consumer-oriented video conferencing services like Skype and Google to name a few. In order to really make these cloud offers valuable, the network of potential called parties needs to extend from a handful of internal conference rooms to the billions of people who use their laptops, tablets, and smart phones (mostly on the consumer platforms like Skype) every day.

And finally, the pricing of these cloud services is still very similar to the “white glove” video conferencing vendors who target larger enterprise customers who are relatively price-insensitive when the boss is considering the option of Learjet or Telepresence room call. SMEs strive for the higher enterprise-grade quality these vendors can provide but are not willing to pay the same stratospheric prices.

Vidtel addresses all of these offering limitations through a vendor-neutral service that integrates the enterprise systems with consumer ones (like Skype and Google) at prices that are an order of magnitude lower than the big guys.

So thanks to Polycom and their fellow competitors for stepping up to the cloud world. We are thrilled to have you join the cloud party and make this a must-have for the mass market.

Just recently a research study reported that 50% of all mobile bandwidth is consumed by a measly 1% of mobile users, evidently with unlimited or very generous mobile data plans.

Wireless operators will need to step their game as more bandwidth consumption from mobile applications will be hitting hard. Today an estimated 40% of the mobile bandwidth consumption is from users watching video but what happens when more start mobile video calling?

If we add up the 600 hundred million smartphones on the market plus many millions of tablets, this represents a hefty number of mobile devices capable of mobile video conferencing.  Skype, Google, Cisco Movi, CounterPath Bria and LifeSize Mirial give the market lots of choices and Vidtel’s aim is to tie these all together with enterprise video conferencing, making mobile video calling that much more appealing.

Operators, are you listening? Gear up.

For too long, the small-medium enterprise (SME) market has effectively been squeezed out of business video conferencing with solutions that are either too expensive or too low in quality. Vidtel’s cloud video conferencing service is designed to change all that. To reach our target market, we are linking up with channel partners that already have SME relationships. We’re partnering with video equipment vendors, VoIP service providers, managed service providers and video VARs to re-sell Vidtel service.

Our channel program supports the sales of MeetMe, the any-to-any video conferencing service that provides SMEs with a flexible, cost-effective and high-quality middle ground.  With Vidtel’s MeetMe Video Conferencing Service, video conferencing vendors, AV integrators, VoIP providers and managed service providers can offer cost-efficient and predictably-priced hosted, any-to-any videoconferencing services that work with room-based systems and executive video systems using SIP and H.323 as well as desktop platforms, PCs, tablets and smartphones using Skype and Google Talk. MeetMe enables users to participate in multi-party, multi-vendor (e.g., Tandberg/Cisco, LifeSize, Polycom, InFocus, SONY, Google Talk and Skype) video conferences.

Vidtel’s channel program benefits video vendors, VoIP providers, managed service providers and VARs by providing additional sales opportunities with new and existing customers. Selling Vidtel MeetMe enables our partners to:

Expand the Customer Base

MeetMe is cost-efficient and eliminates one of small-medium enterprises (SMEs)’ biggest barriers to adoption: The steep upfront cost of video conferencing infrastructure. Vidtel’s cloud approach means that there are no upfront expenses on infrastructure, no maintenance expenses and no IT expertise needed. Companies that would have never considered business-grade video conferencing due to the lack of suitable products and services targeting the SME market can now get in the game.

Upsell to Existing Customer Base

VARs can upsell service to customers who already own room-based and executive video conferencing systems.  MeetMe’s compatibility with diverse video platforms and technologies means that customers can leverage their existing video investments by connecting with employees, business partners and customers that use what otherwise would be incompatible platforms.

Drive Complementary Sales

MeetMe’s device-, vendor- and platform-agnostic architecture, along with its cloud-based design and multiple pricing options, provide SMEs with a combination of flexibility, affordability and predictability that encourages wide-scale video conferencing deployments. The savings free up capital for investments in other areas, such as LAN/MAN upgrades and additional endpoints.

Vidtel’s MeetMe service is available in North America with expansion plans for Europe and Asia. To become a channel partner, contact channels@vidtel.com.

The video conferencing industry is undergoing dramatic changes and more than a few trends are at play. Here’s my top 10 list:

10. People are working from home more than ever (and still need to connect).

9. Companies continue to tighten travel budgets but expectations remain for high-quality collaboration.

8. People are starting to expect to connect from anywhere on anything.

7. Businesses will be integrating social networking to their customer touchpoints the more they understand it.

6. Cloud services are hot.  Why? The hosted model means not having to develop and maintain your own infrastructure, not worrying about obsolescence and saving thousands of dollars a month (with no upfront costs).

5. Smartphones and tablets are getting more video-enabled with better cameras and apps to support, fulfilling 8.

4. Quality is improving for products targeted to the middle market (see Mondopad and watch for new products in this space that are aggressively priced with category-killing features).  Products are getting easier to use and deliver better video and audio performance.

3. Prices of video conferencing products and services are plummeting downward (even telepresence products are now available in the $20,000-$40,000 range, competing with $500,000+ solutions).

2. The SME market is finally getting addressed, albeit with some ill-fitted offers ($20,000+ for products and thousands of dollars a month for service by some big players) and better-suited offers ($100s/month for cloud service from Vidtel).

1. Video conferencing usage is accelerating wildly with new entrants and the seemingly endless expansion of Skype.  Combined with Facebook adding Skype and Google+’s emergence, hundreds of millions of consumers are experimenting with video, becoming accustomed to it and finding it a more natural part of communications.

Result?  While it takes time for habits to change and adopting video is certainly no exception, Gartner anticipates the video conferencing industry to increase to about $8.6 billion in the next few years, ironically about the price Microsoft has agreed to paid for Skype.  No doubt, some of this volume will be the crossing of the chasm from consumer to business use.  Expect to see more demand for the vast middle market for any-to-any solutions that are cost-effective, high-quality and easy to use. Fulfilling this demand will take video conferencing into the mainstream.

By Mariette Johnson Wharton, VP of Marketing

With the accessibility of video conferencing and video chat at the desktop level, more and more business people are experimenting and gaining comfort with the technology. With this experience comes greater demand for ease of use, performance and interoperability.

No longer are small-medium sized enterprises willing to let only the big guys with special rooms purpose-built for video conferencing have all the high-quality video conferencing fun.  Fortunately, an emerging trend is the decreasing price of business-grade video conferencing devices.  The latest $20,000-$40,000 telepresence systems are dramatically lower, but still way out of reach for mid-sized and small companies. The 55-inch touchscreen-enabled wall tablet (Mondopad) announced last month by InFocus fills the void in the market with a sub-$6,000 pricetag. Now smaller companies do not have to get shut out of high-quality video conferencing because they can’t afford the equipment.

One issue people often don’t address is that even though the large enterprises spend a fortune on HD room systems, these pricey solutions are still primarily used for internal connections. It’s just too difficult to navigate the complexities of interoperability between proprietary systems and even standard systems (maddeningly, various vendors interpret standards differently).  Seamless connectivity presents tremendous challenges, from firewall traversal to interoperability between the multitude of video technologies (from consumer services such as Skype to executive video phones to room systems by various vendors).   Companies need session border controllers, SIP proxies, gateway servers and specialized know-how to pull it off.

Most companies have never even heard of the infrastructure required for weaving together video conferencing technologies and we don’t believe they should have to.  We agree with Martin Vilaboy:  The answer to widespread SMB deployment of business-grade video conferencing lies in a service provider solution “that can deliver affordable and robust hosted services”.  Our hosted (think SaaS model) video conferencing service puts our “secret sauce” for interop and our video conferencing server infrastructure in the cloud so the SMBs can access it as a monthly fee.  This means on-demand interop between everything from Skype and GoogleTalk to the Mondopad and Polycom, Tandberg, LifeSize, etc.  We made it as simple as dialing a phone for point-to-point connectivity or as easy as an audio conference call for a group video conference (just dial in).  This will allow companies of all sizes to finally experience high-quality any-to-any video conferencing between companies without IT hassles and exorbitant expenditures.

Telepresence, video conferencing, video chat…many different terms are floating around and as the technology is moving from the boardroom and consumer environment into the massive mainstream, more people are asking questions about what the different categories mean. Here’s an overview of video conferencing categories.

Overview

Telepresence, video telepresence, videoconference, video calls and video phone calls are all terms for real-time, two-way audio-video interactions at different locations but there are broadly two categories:

·Point-to-point video conferencing – two different locations

·Multi-point video conferencing – three or more separate locations

Point-to-Point Video Conferencing

Video conferencing or video calls between just two locations is called point-to-point video conferencing.  For connections between two endpoints, Vidtel offers Vidtel Connect.

Although a room-based (telepresence) system can certainly be used for point-to-point video conferencing, often web-based video communications software or desktop, “executive systems”, video phones or “media phones” are used.  Vidtel can support all types of these devices with Vidtel Connect.

Multi-Point Video Conferencing

For organizations with geographically dispersed branch offices and employees, video conferencing enables multiple locations to meet simultaneously.

Room-based (telepresence) video conference systems, video phones, and web-based video conferencing software are all used for multi-point video conferencing.  The Vidtel Meet Me Service supports video conferencing between all different types of systems.

Video Conferencing Equipment

Today video conferencing takes on many forms, from conference room-based systems to executive systems, video (media) phones, web-based or computer video conferencing software, tablets and video-enabled mobile phones.  Vidtel’s vision is to enable any-to-any video conferencing; that is, connecting from any type of video-enabled device whether from a Polycom VVX1500 Business Media Phone to a LifeSize Passport or a Google Talk user.

Room-Based Video Conferencing Systems

Room-based systems are housed in a conference room, sometimes dedicated only to video conferencing.  Generally these are used for multi-point video conferencing.

Cisco, LifeSize, Tandberg, HP and Sony produce telepresence systems, the highest-end videoconferencing systems.  Telepresence systems and service are characterized by:

• state-of-the art room designs
• high-definition video (30 frames per second or higher, 720 pixels)
• high-definition audio (far superior to standard PSTN audio)
• top-of-the line video cameras
• life-sized display images on 60+ inch screens
• high-end sound-systems and processors
• high-capacity bandwidth transmissions
• groupware, directory, unified communication systems and streaming/content management system integration
• integrated session recoding, including in some cases, shared data content
• $2,500-$500,000+ per room costs

Video conference room-based systems can include smaller screen systems and non-HD quality. On the other end of the spectrum,  “telepresence rooms” start at $100k per month. With this scenario, everything has to be managed from the bandwidth to lighting to the room furniture. Interoperability with other systems and networks is generally sub-standard.  Telepresence rooms  are super-premium experiences designed for a small and is “out-of-reach” of all but a select number of users at the very largest companies.

Wall Tablets

InFocus has created a new category of wall-sized tablets to be used in conference rooms. The Mondopad is retailing for just under $6,000 and features multi-touch collaboration and presentation applications, whiteboarding, the ability to share, view and control content remotely from PCs, tablets and smartphones. It allows for business-class, disruptively-priced cloud video conferencing through Vidtel.

Executive Video Conferencing Systems

Executive video conferencing systems generally refer to all hardware-based devices used by individuals on their desks and are typically around $3,000-$10,000 per endpoint.

Video phones or “media phones” also fall into this category, although the prices range from $300 to about $1500. Video phones are more apt to be used for both video and PSTN voice (i.e., regular telephone calling)..

Cisco/Tandberg, Polycom, Samsung/Radvision, LG/Lifesize, and Sony are the market leaders in executive systems or video phones.  Vidtel’s service works with all these vendors’ video conferencing equipment . These executive systems are characterized by:

• Integrated flat-panel screen, video camera, and microphone with phone interface
• Full-duplex (bi-directional) video and audio transmission capability
• High-quality video images from standard to high-definition
• Some enable groupware, directory, unified communication systems and streaming/content management system integration
• Some include integrated session recoding, including in some cases, shared data content
• $300 – $5,000 per device

Smartphones and Tablets

Video conferencing has been enabled in smartphones around the world for years and has recently become more widely available in the US through Android and iPhone4 devices.  Tablets will increasingly provide video conferencing. It was just announced that the iPad2 will incorporate Skype.

Web-Based Video Conferencing

Most video communication today involves a web cam and Internet connection.  Some variants remain free, including  Google and Microsoft, while others charge for multi-party conferences (Skype). Vidyo and Avistar are also web-based but not free.  WebEx and GoToMeeting are not free but include video in the subscription fees.

Vidtel’s aim is to incorporate the leading web-based video conferencing approaches into the Vidtel network for total interoperability between endpoints without any pre-configuration.

Web-based video conferencing involves:

• softphone” technology – either downloaded or browser-based software
• web cams
• microphones
• Internet connection
• $0 (hard to beat)

Personal video communication is most common with this technology, since it’s mostly free. Business organizations tend to seek a more reliable, high-quality experience and seek dedicated devices or HD quality for business transactions and meetings over video and are willing to pay something for better quality. ]]> http://www.vidtel.com/community/defining-todays-video-conferencing/feed/ 0 http://www.vidtel.com/community/addressing-the-middle-ground-in-video-conferencing/ http://www.vidtel.com/community/addressing-the-middle-ground-in-video-conferencing/#comments Wed, 18 May 2011 18:56:54 +0000 admin http://www.vidtel.com/community/?p=461 by Mariette Johnson Wharton, VP of Marketing

In the recent Video Conferencing Bucks Trend article, author P.J. Connelly identifies a vast untapped opportunity in the missing “middle ground”  in the video conferencing market.

Connelly points out the two predominant ends of the video conferencing scale: 1) telepresence, an enormous investment in facilities and hardware [that still, by the way, are primarily used for internal usage, not B2B communications] and 2)  “do-it-yourself” options such as Skype, which provide B2B capability at very low cost but compromise on security [and leave something to be desired as far as consistent quality].

The reality is that most businesses cannot afford telepresence and consumer-grade video conferencing doesn’t always cut it for business interactions.

Where is the middle ground, then? We started tackling this hole in the market when we started Vidtel as a cloud-based video conferencing service provider in 2008; these were exactly the issues that drove our approach.  We understood that the majority businesses cannot absorb high infrastructure costs, do not want to manage SIP proxy servers and session border controllers internally (if they even know what those are), need a secure solution, and simply cannot solve the thorny interop problems on their own.

We got that and that’s why we have built a hosted any-to-any service that deals with these problems head-on. Our price-disruptive service enables connectivity between SIP, H.323 and some proprietary video systems on any type of device – room systems, video phones, mobile phones, tablets, laptops – from different vendors) without requiring huge infrastructure investment and large fees for our customers.

At last, iPhone with both front and rear-facing video cameras…

FaceTime, the iPhone video chat app, coupled with Skype’s Nokia N900 video chat client, means mobile video should finally be going mainstream. GigaOm’s new report predicts 11 billion video calls by 2015.

Couldn’t agree more with Michael Roston’s description of iPhone 4 FaceTime’s shortcomings or rather, the failure of the network to support video conferencing.

While there were high hopes for iPhone 4’s built-in front-facing and back-facing video cameras for video chat, the reality has been disappointing. Although the camera quality is good, the service doesn’t work reliably over WiFi.

Roston points out “a really useful capability would allow you to video chat with someone not only on your iPhone 4 to their iPhone 4 or Mac, but to video chat with anyone over WiFi who has a program on their device that supports video conferencing”.

At Vidtel, we could not agree more.  In fact, our vision is to enable any video conferencing-capable device to connect seamlessly with any other.   Currently, we are working on connecting standard, proprietary video devices to each other over our network, accessible as a subscription fee.

Today, even standard video conferencing devices do not natively interoperate.  You would think this problem would be diminishing over time. In fact, the opposite is true, amplifying the need for a third-party such as Vidtel to launch a type of video conversion engine to seamless connect all standard video devices.  A video equivalent of the PSTN (public-switched telephone network or plain ol’ phone network) if you will.

Research Now released a recent survey of 1200 global business professionals on the topic of video conferencing. The study showed that most (79%) who use video conferencing are using consumer technologies such as Skype. The remainder (21%) use business-grade video conferencing systems from the likes of Tandberg, Cisco and Polycom.

Given that most are using consumer-grade video conferencing applications for business meetings, it’s not surprising that the majority (61%) reported quality problems such as video delay.

As high-quality dedicated video conferencing systems (available for as little $800-$1500) become more commonplace and as more service providers offer inexpensive video conferencing solutions (such as Vidtel’s Connect service), it’s only a matter of time before business-grade video conferencing takes considerable share away from consumer applications.

It’s no surprise either that the survey shows reduced travel expenses and improved quality of business communications are behind the video conferencing trend.  These are significant benefits and 40% of the survey respondents reported their companies will be deploying a video conferencing within the next 6-24 months.

Let’s just hope they spare themselves the aggravations of lower-quality solutions when high-quality, reasonably priced solutions are on the market today.  At Vidtel, we conduct our video conferences on Tandberg and Polycom dedicated video conferencing devices in the $800-$1500 range with TV-like quality.  Hardly any reason to travel any more, except for fun.