InfoComm Conference Highlights Recent Quantum Improvements in Videoconferencing Technology

I am in the process of finalizing a report on Telepresence and HD videoconferencing, and have followed the developments made at this month’s InfoComm conference with great interest. At InfoComm, many suppliers made important product announcements that (1) broaden the reach of telepresence or HD video conferencing experiences, and (2) effectively reduce the price of HD videoconferencing. Combined, they substantially improve the value of videoconferencing to business customers. I expect both of these trends will accelerate over the upcoming 12-18 months. This is very good news for enterprises, medium and even small businesses, because many of these developments will increase the value and usability of videoconferencing. Well over 230 product announcements were made at InfoComm. I’ll highlight just a few to illustrate my points:

Polycomm’s OTX 300 announcement. Polycomm expects this 1040p room-based system to use roughly 50% of the bandwidth required by many other 1040p systems (see http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-newsroom/polycom-otx-300-debuts.aspx ). This High Profile/AVC product is targeted to bandwidth-constrained organizations who don’t have the budgets to remodel for telepresence rooms, but want some of the same ‘immersive’ benefits. Such companies plan to improve the quality and quantity of in-house collaboration they engage in –particularly for intra-company communications. In addition to being targeted to existing Polycom HDX installations, likely early target markets are highly distributed organizations, for example, companies in retail, banking and insurance. 

HP’s announcement expanding the Halo line. HP’s Halo managed telepresence service is one of the bar-setting experiences at the high end of the market. But the experience comes with an equally high price, one that most companies can’t afford. HP has been expanding its ecosystem - for instance, it has a longstanding agreement with Polycom and also had a multi-year alliance with Tandberg. But Cisco’s recent acquisition of Tandberg made it important for HP to seek new partners. One such company is Vidyo, which makes a range of products from software-based solutions that support 720p conferences on HP TouchSmart PCs to high-end 1440p multipoint room-based systems (that run on HP servers). I don’t expect this to be the last of HP’s partnership announcements, but it demonstrates the importance of (1) not rely exclusively on in-house products, and (2) offering a broad product line that supports videoconferencing across a range of user environments.

Teliris and Lifesize introduce new HD-desktop based solutions.  Although these are not the first on the market, nor are they the least expensive, they demonstrate just how quickly adaptive coding technology can disrupt the industry (both companies employ internet-friendly scalable video coding technology). My main point of interest is this: The list prices of these new products are 50-70% less than some introduced by competitors just last quarter.

Vidyo’s multipoint pricing announcement. Over time, many companies find that they are using multipoint videoconferences much more frequently than originally anticipated. Today, businesses report the average number of endpoints per videoconference is 3 or more. Traditionally, multipoint conferences require the employment of multipoint control units (MCUs) Depending on the vendor or service provider, this can be expensive, because prices are based on the number of ports required at peak, or consumed per conference. More recently, some scalable video coding companies offer products that can significantly reduce the need for MCUs. Vidyo is a case in point.  Earlier this month, it announced that its customers would no longer have to pay for both ports and endpoints-- substantially decreasing the entry price point for multipoint videoconferences (without a Vidyo router, intra-company multipoint calls). Since this new price model is based on endpoints, IT managers can easily budget for it. 

This is all great news. What’s the “gotcha”? In a word, interoperability. Single-vendor -based solutions like those from Lifesize, Polycomm or Vidyo are great for use on an intra-company basis, where at least in theory IT policies can be enforced. But companies also use videoconferences for inter-company calls. For instance, one large service provider reports that 21-25% of the videoconferences it conducts are between its company and other companies.  Establishing reliable inter-company videoconferences on a direct company-company basis can be difficult, particularly if the conference participants employ different videoconferencing vendors/specifications, or use different transport carriers. Long term, organizations like UCIF and others hope to resolve a number of these interoperability issues (see http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/ucif-important-steps-forward-but-learn-from-history.aspx , http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/uc-interoperability-now-has-a-champion.aspx , and http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/more-than-uc-standards.aspx). But we are in the here and now. That’s one reason that some companies like Teliris and HP offer soup- to- nuts managed telepresence/videoconferencing services. To tackle these issues, some businesses buy their own bridging products, but this ultimately can’t solve all interoperability problems. For example, MPLS interoperability, especially in the US, is virtually non-existent. This makes it difficult for companies who even use the same vendor’s videoconferencing product to directly interconnect. A working solution to both the inter-carrier and inter-vendor/standards interoperability conundrum is to employ a third party video exchange service (see below).

Telepresence and HD videoconferencing exchanges gain momentum. With these services, all videoconferencing participants ‘meet’ at the exchange, which can support a wide range of videoconferencing standards and carrier services. If you don’t want to spend money on buying one or even multiple instances of bridging equipment, these services are no-brainer. Related InfoComm announcements include providers (1) broadening their own portfolios and (2) interconnecting with other exchange providers. As an example of the first point, AT&T introduced its multi-vendor HS/SD Telepresence Exchange Service earlier this month (Cisco Telepresence, Tandberg and Polycom HD/SD units). This reservation-based service is available to AT&T videoconferencing service customers and their invited guests. As to interexchange-provider connectivity, one notable component of a wide ranging agreement between Glowpoint and TATA Communications is the interconnection of their video exchange services, which expands the pool of companies/sites their customers can videoconference with. I expect more of both types of announcements from both carriers and independent service providers in the months ahead.  

My recommendation: Videoconferencing technology has taken critical and quantum leaps forward in the last two years, and I expect these types of innovations will accelerate over the next 6-18 months. If your company’s videoconferencing business case didn’t provide a suitable ROI last year, try running it again in a few months with updated prices and use cases. Evaluate current generation adaptive coding technology—its price points, its use of non-QOS based WANs. Interoperability can still be a challenge, so before you plunge in, analyze current and prospective use cases to understand how much you’ll need to conference with other companies, and thoroughly research potential solutions.