Breakout boxes:
See you on the cellphone
Web video sidelined for collaboration tools

By Keith Newman

New standards-based middleware and management software and a dramatic drop in the cost of bandwidth and technology suggest videoconferencing is about to join voice, as a powerful new business tool on IP networks.

The best features of high end videoconferencing systems are coming down to the desktop and the smarter features from web enabled systems are heading up to the boardroom and all points in-between.

All that’s missing is better quality control and broader adherence to standards to keep everyone in synch.

Being seen goes a long way to building trust and can deliver a competitive edge over the phone call or email. UCLA professor Albert Marabian, in studying which aspects of communication are most effective, found 55 per cent of what we send and receive comes from body language. Another 38 per cent is conveyed by tone of voice, and only 7 per cent from the actual words.

He reckons over half of the initial message comes through posture - the way we hold and move our arms, the position of our eyes, and other non-verbal clues. If there is a perceived contradiction between words and body language, body language always wins out.

If seeing is believing then alongside potential cost savings there’s a psychological advantage to be had if clients, customers and colleagues add video to their communications mix.

The videoconferencing market has moved on in leaps and bounds in the past couple of years steering further away from costly ISDN connections to IP and SIP (session initiation protocols) standards to ensure seamless linking between ancient and modern.

Previously installing a video conferencing system was a capital expenditure requiring a twice over from accountants and a board room sign off. Today the IT department can typically make that decision on its own as long as it can make the business case.

Simple mathematics come into play – if regular flights between Auckland to Wellington are required at $350 a return ticket then the monthly lease or purchase payments on a videoconference system might be a no brainer.

Only five years ago the dominant player in the market was PictureTel - board room systems sold for $40,000 and end to end solutions $100,000 - $200,000. Only the New Zealand Stock Exchange top 10, Telecom, the big five accounting firms and large multinationals could afford them. Today high end group systems sell for $10,000-$20,000, and are typically IP-based.

Smaller dedicated room systems are down to $3000 and desktop units are around $300. And its not just talking heads either, you can integrating electronic whiteboards, PowerPoint presentations, and share documents. It’s estimated that 50-60 per cent of larger companies in New Zealand are doing something with videoconferencing and even 3-4 person companies with remote offices are seeing the benefits.

The rationale for owning, leasing, outsourcing or bureau use has remained much the same over the past decade; the savings on flights and accommodation, conferring with clients and bringing geographically dispersed executives together to finalise multimillion dollar contracts.

The main players at the high end typically have a family of offerings that will serve the small to medium enterprise as well. These include Polycom exclusively through Asnet and its distributors which claim 60 per cent market share. Tanberg is a major player available from Canon, Cogent, Connect NZ and others and Sony also has a strong offering.

There are also the enterprise systems from Cisco, Alcatel, Nortel and 3Com for example which optimise networks and bandwidth use to deliver a high level of rich media collaboration and messaging

A discussion of videoconferencing can’t escape the inevitable banter about bandwidth. It’s clear the expensive one-time multimedia cure-all ISDN has well and truly been displaced by IP for inter-business links. For one thing IP has forced the cost of calling way down. While ISDN units have been relegated to legacy status that doesn’t mean the end of the line, newer systems still need to interoperate seamlessly.

An IP-based interface is much simpler than ISDN but still requires skills in programming routers and network hubs to ensure the video data gets from A to B efficiently without conflicting with other network traffic.

While any company that has geared its network for VoIP is technically ready for videoconferencing the missing component for many businesses is having the means to link a variety of legacy and lower end devices in to a conference.

Chris Stewart marketing manager for Asnet Technologies, says the industry is now moving into a post-ISDN phase, and even going beyond the initial IP approach to SIP. "What we are seeing is an evolution from the cumbersome 323 protocol stack for video conferencing over IP used by applications such as NetMeeting to SIP which picks up whatever protocol is required on the fly."

All Polycom products now are SIP enabled so they can work with internet, LAN, WAN or ISDN connections. For example a $200 Polycom desktop system could easy talk to the high end boardroom system as well as someone with a Messenger camera or an SIP enabled handset.

Another missing link he says is the gatekeeper or management software – the glue that knows about each machine and how to make them talk together.

Polycom with its videoconferencing systems and Microsoft with its expertise in desktop collaboration recently joined forces to look at the best ways to promote and deliver ‘presence’. For example Microsoft’s new Live Communications Server (LCS) can be configured to know the resources and products on a network and what they can do.

The concept of having a ‘buddy list’ made popular by Yahoo and MSN is beginning to have a major impact in the corporate world enabling you to instantly identify which resources each person has and whether they are currently available.

Stewart predicts the old instant messaging technologies will die as this concept of "presence" is adopted. Microsoft’s LCS Server may run with a corporate version of MSN Messenger including Hotmail and Passport. . "Corporations are wanting to bring that inside their organisations. It’s a great way to manage email and how a videoconference can run on a network," he says.

"Our new board room system when you install it on the LAN has a screen that pops up with the Yahoo buddy list which talks to the communications server to show who’s video enabled."

The convergence of such approaches points the way to a new integrated approach for videoconferencing technologies. It may not matter that an individuals system can only handle low bit rates for video as long as they can converse and maybe share documents.

Stewart suggests board meetings only occupy about 10 per cent of video enabled time. The bulk of use is inter-office or inter-business communications, showing slides or document sharing. Regardless audio remains the most important component. "Its cheaper for us to run a video call from Auckland to Wellington than it is to make a cellphone call."

Sony New Zealand’s videoconferencing product manager Geremy Brown, says the market is entering an era where IP networks are going to have to handle a lot of time critical data including VoIP telephones, IP surveillance, general video streaming and videoconferencing. "Managing this data is the new challenge that faces IT professionals. You need to understand what hardware lies between two IP VC units and how to properly implement quality of service to improve the quality and reliability."

For internal networks, that means being able to control quality of service (QoS). Sony VC units have a range of QoS features to help compensate for networks that cannot manage quality through their own technology. However that should not be seen as an excuse to avoid getting quality levels as high as possible on the network to ensure time critical packets don’t get delayed.

Brown says as the price is coming down (a two site Sony VC system can be installed for under $20,000) and for frequent users, the focus is moving away from outsourcing or bureau systems. "It is becoming more attractive to purchase in-house, particularly if a lot of calls are made and the company has front line user support."

Typically in the past videoconferencing has been controlled and managed from a single unit but more recently there’s been a move to have some functions such as data, isolated in a separate unit. "Our Data Solutions Box (DSB) for example allows easy connection of laptops, microphones or a projector into the VC system to simplify cabling and wiring requirements."

While some phones literally are VC capable he warns that IP screen phones for multipoint communication don’t provide the overview that a larger screen enables. "You want to be able to view all sites reasonably easily and a small split screen on an IP phone doesn't give the clarity to easily see all the participants."

He says the evolution of videoconferencing will piggyback on the growth of VoIP. "They integrate well together. I can see a greater interest in desktop video for everyday casual conversations rather than pre-planned special meetings."

Cisco is actively attempting to pull down the boundaries for video so it becomes as transparent and easy as a phone call. Cisco Consulting systems engineer, Arron Scott believes the last major hurdle is the inter-company use of IP to IP calls. "With the uptake of VoIP now at a runaway rate, we expect a move towards non-PSTN access between corporations. When IP voice calls can be seamlessly made between two companies, the addition of a video stream is a minor addition."

Cisco is more in the business of providing the infrastructure to facilitate video conferencing and indeed full multimedia communications, delivering conference bridges and gateways.

Its solutions are focussed primarily at multi-site corporations, as well as service providers who plan to deliver hosted solutions and ultimately outsourced rich media conferences.

Cisco routers can provide a central call control point, which can provide directory services to individual conference units. Its MeetingPlace application provides a fully interactive conferencing solution with scheduling, broadcasting, conferencing, and messaging applications using a single web based interface.

For example hundreds of users can simultaneously watch a broadcast from a videoconference unit, which may include a PowerPoint presentation, the presenter’s desktop, and the ability to interact via instant messaging, or bidirectional voice and video.

MeetingPlace seamlessly integrates with Cisco’s Conferencing Units, and its CallManager IP Communications suite for many to many video links. "By providing a centralised control point, we can merge multiple calls together, then play out the conference to many participants or locations.

3Com technology throughout enterprise networks acts as a key enabler for rich media business applications. 3Com embraces videoconferencing at part of its collaboration environment known as the 3Com Convergence Applications Suite. The IP Conferencing Module allows audio, video, and data services to be integrated. All users need to do is click to call and drag and drop to conference. The system has presence awareness and end to end SIP.

DSL can deliver but QoS is not manageable in the wide area unless you have a managed or virtual private network (VPN). Essentially once you link with DSL into the wider public world you are dealing with contestable data.

The limited DSL upstream speeds available in New Zealand can also be a major issue - if you have a capped service the volume of data will quickly push you into exorbitant per megabit charges.

Ideally you need 2Mbit/sec or more between sites although 512kbit/sec and 768kbit/sec links are often adequate. The more bandwidth the better although without guaranteed quality of service the end to end outcome will always be unpredictable.

True quality of service depends on having full control of the network and is not likely to be available in the wider world until next generation Internet and IP6 become mainstream or unless you have some way to better control point to point or point to multipoint connections.

Keith Block Telecom-owned Gen-i video conference team leader admits that some of Telecom’s customers who use videoconferencing over DSL suffer heavy packet loss which affects the quality of the connection. "Over time, this implementation will become more common when the bandwidth becomes available."

Telecom is still pushing corporate systems based around ISDN and wide area IP connections with a big thrust on fully managed outsourced services. Block says some customers who invested heavily in the technology were under using it due to a lack of support within their organisation and are now seeking a fully managed approach.

A growing number of customers, 90 per cent of them looking for an IP solution, are coming to Telecom to either sell them an in-house or a completely managed system. "There’s been a significant increase in customers wanting to adopt the technology over our IP network using the Telecom Bridge for external ISDN gateway services."

Internally Telecom currently has about 80 video conferencing system in-house including group systems in meeting and presentation rooms. In April Asnet installed 35 units on all the executive desktops. Users dock their laptops into a Polycom VSX 3000 dual purpose screen with a built in camera. When they want to have a video conference they make the call from the laptop across the network regardless of whether it’s an ISDN, DSL or internal IP network connection.

The system is used from team, project or customer meetings, one on one performance reviews, interviews and management planning sessions.

External customers are also showing a slight increase in desktop implementation, but due to the cost involved ($5000 - $10,000) there is still a demand for meeting room systems. "Over time we predict lower cost systems and the emerging software systems now available over IP will begin to dominate the market."

Telecom also provides videoconferencing services for over a decade ranging from bureau services across a network of 7000 rooms worldwide to multipoint bridging over ISDN, IP or a mixture of both.

Block predicts over the next two years, with the development of software based packages, the increase in bandwidth and quality of service, videoconferencing will not only become an invaluable business tool but possibly prove viable for a growing number of residential customers.

Lower prices, higher quality, smarter technology and a more informed buying community are taking the video conferencing market to a new crossroads.

For the moment most growth is coming from inside organisations rather than between businesses but as standards-based IP conferencing and collaboration systems gain ground more businesses will see the long term benefits of integrating video into their overall communications approach.

For some videoconferencing at the desktop and the IP screen phones are the only way to go while those at the boardroom level may be predisposed to the high end group conference where the images is so good that the all important body language can be read.

Is he nervous, perspiring, how does he cope under pressure, can we tell by the shape of his eyeballs whether he’s telling lies. How well does she present her case, can we trust her to pull off this deal?

In the bigger picture though the lack of affordable and manageable bandwidth remains a major obstacle to getting the body language message across – low bit rates, jumpy frames and blurry images can distort and jumble those first impressions. In other words bad moving images can distract from the business at hand and if the voice is also poor quality you may as well better to hang up and make a phone call instead.

No matter how you see it, converging elements of high end systems, the latest ‘presence’ software from the enterprise network and collaboration tools from the consumer internet market signal a revolution in the making.

ends

The poor cousin to videoconferencing, web conferencing, is gathering significant momentum not for its video component but because it allows collaboration and has no costly hardware or software setups.

Kevin Mackin, managing director WebEx Australia believes changes to IT infrastructure and cost effective internet bandwidth have placed web conferencing ahead of video conferencing. All that's needed is the internet and a phone.

He says Web conferencing has grown steadily across Asia Pacific over the past two years giving people the ability to communicate and collaborate with colleagues around the world in real time, from their own desktops. "It lets people work on documents together, download files from remote computers and share presentations, applications and video."

According to Mackin, hosted web conferencing solutions like WebEx also offer greater security. This year, the company began supplying the US Department of Defense with web conferencing applications to improve coordination between the military, business and intelligence organisations worldwide.

In New Zealand, the company has seen an increase in use from government departments in particular. Also pitching for government and corporate business in New Zealand is Genesys which offers a hosted audio and desktop web conferencing services.

However Alex Diep, Australian-based marketing manager for Genesys the video component is rarely used because of bandwidth issues and the fact many remote sites still have dial up.

"It’s more about practical business applications to drive the meeting and a lot of that is through the audio and what’s being presented over hosted applications like Word, Excel and interactive white board and slide show capability."

Genesys Meeting Centre which integrates with its teleconferencing needs dedicated rather than contestable bandwidth with prioritised traffic for video. It’s mainly used by head offices to communicate with remote offices. "If you already have a relationship with someone you don’t always have to see them to work with them."

Ends

The Hyperfactory, which devises wildly successful mobile phone-based promotional campaigns for a range of clients is finding cell phone video conferencing adds an important dimension to its international relationships.

Geoffrey Handley, marketing manager of Auckland-based The Hyperfactory says his Hong Kong team uses video calling all the time, even when roaming in different countries. "You can split the screen into quarters and video conference with up to four different people."

The uptake of 3G services on the year old Hutchison Hong Kong "3" network has been huge. Many businesses use video-calls every day to conduct remote discussions on the move.

"In April I conducted an important video-call strategy meeting from downtown Hong Kong with my brother Derek, who was in Sydney talking to advertising agencies. The delay on the call was less than a second, and we could sketch out visual ideas rapidly on pieces of paper, show them to each other, and discuss them straight away."

Derek Handley The Hyperfactory managing director used video calling from Sydney recently to show the Hong Kong office the Opera House. "And when a colleague was shopping in Wanchai for a flat screen for The Hyperfactory’s Hong Kong office he ‘video called’ to show me the available options."

Hong Kong operator plans have multiple components, including pxt, sms, voice chat and ‘multi-media’ download volumes. The latest addition is ‘video minutes’. You can buy a plan which comes bundled with 400 video minutes that can be used watch streaming video or for video calls. After using up your video minutes, you are billed around 80 cents per minute.

However, Derek warns there are limitations. "There are times and places where video calls are totally inappropriate, and there privacy issues to consider. For example, you want to be careful where and how you are video called if you are in a place or situation you shouldn’t be."

Also, he says video calling forces you to be on speaker phone, because you have to have the phone out in front facing your face, meaning everyone within earshot can hear your conversation.