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.

For many years, we’ve questioned the prevailing method for deploying video conferencing gear. Essentially, most enterprise systems are put outside the firewall, exposed on the public Internet, and given a static IP address for making and receiving calls. Advantages are numerous to this approach: It avoids many of the issues for traversing corporate (and home) firewalls and for overcoming NAT (network address translation from private to public addresses in real-time), and it offers a simple IP address for dialing and being dialed.

But this is also highly risky. It basically takes an important communication tool and window into company conference rooms and opens the rooms up to those outside who could relatively easily hack in, take over systems, and even as the article reported, potentially eavesdrop on highly sensitive conversations.

Placing enterprise systems outside the firewall has always confounded me. In the voice over IP (VoIP) world, it’s common practice to place phone systems behind the firewall. Sophisticated mechanisms have emerged to both protect and open up voice communications with the outside world (after all, what good is a voice system that can’t connect with others outside your company boundaries?).

Video has often been treated differently. IT managers would routinely say that it’s not a problem because… well… it hasn’t been a problem. Coming from the same IT managers who take security very seriously in other realms, it’s curious.

Opposite but also problematic is other major approach taken in the video conferencing industry: Putting video systems behind the firewall and letting NO ONE else reach them. This works okay if you are only interested in speaking with people within your own company and for larger companies, a case can be made that internal communication is the first problem to solve. Compounding the problem is that calling others in the video space often requires pretzel-contorting custom opening of firewall ports, special configuration, and interoperability issues.

Fortunately, there is another way. At Vidtel, we believe we’ve solved this problem through our Vidtel Connect service. Business customer can put their video systems securely behind their own corporate firewall and overcome NAT while also being publically reachable with a simple email-like calling address. Vidtel’s solution is based on a large service provider and enterprise customer approach for VoIP but is uniquely adapted for video conferencing. Adaptations include a tremendous effort around auto device configuration and interoperability between video devices at other companies. Best of all, through our cloud service companies can have this solution for about the same price as a phone service, without investing tens of thousands of dollars in network infrastructure and on top of that a savvy video specialist to run it all.

Today’s article was a wake-up call to the world’s companies running video conferencing: Put your systems out on the public Internet at your peril. Enterprise video devices will need to follow a similar path as the VoIP world. IT professionals will need to both secure video conferencing systems behind the firewall AND at the same time make it more open for others to call (it is a communication device after all). So, IT people: What are you waiting for?

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.

~Lately my inbox has been bulging with congratulations on hiring industry veteran Brian Coulter as VP of Sales. Brian brings quite a unique blend of service provider, video conferencing, telecom, big company, startup and channel sales experience to us. He’s already hitting the ground running with our channel program, the heart of our sales strategy. Plus, he’s a nice guy. We’re thrilled to have him.

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.

Small-medium enterprises are beginning to demand a more affordable approach to enterprise-level video conferencing, one that doesn’t require a lot of upfront expense and IT overhead.  Resellers focusing on meeting the managed services, audio-visual communications and VoIP needs of their customers are looking around for ways to meet this demand. A few forward-thinking companies are forging partnerships to deliver such services.

As an example, Vidtel and RealLinx, a national provider of managed broadband, voice and internet security for the small-medium enterprise market, today announced a distribution agreement today to market Vidtel’s hosted MeetMe Video Conferencing Service for multi-party conferencing to RealLinx national customer base of hosted voice business customers and service providers.

For about the same price as the maintenance costs on multi-party video conferencing infrastructure alone, Vidtel has developed an affordable hosted video conferencing service targeted to the SME market.  Meeting participants simply dial into the Vidtel bridge (same as they would with a standard audio conferencing bridge). Vidtel’s service is an any-to-any solution, whereby a wide range of devices can connect in the Vidtel virtual meeting room, from enterprise-grade video conferencing equipment (e.g., Cisco/Tandberg, Polycom, LifeSize, Sony) to consumer-grade technologies (Skype and GoogleTalk).

In discussing the Vidtel service, Gabriel Diaz of RealLinx said, “The Vidtel hosted service is an excellent complement to our hosted solutions for the small-medium enterprise market. To date, the SME market has been underserved by video conferencing solutions targeted to their needs so we look forward to filling that void with this solution.”

The Vidtel MeetMe Video Conferencing service will be commercially available in Q4 2011 through RealLinx service providers or directly from RealLinx.  Although many resellers are still in the dark about hosted cloud solutions for video conferencing, as more and more find about it, similar partnerships will emerge.

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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.