HD Teleconferencing
This one is not usually considered a core IT function in many large corporations and is often in the domain of facilities management along with electrical and data wiring. Thats only because the revolution in video conferencing has been so rapid. IT has not caught up. Yet.
5-8 Years ago, the state of the art in video conferencing would be small rooms filled with a couple of rows of seats and a large screen with a smart board and a few mics in the ceiling. The pictures would be grainy and the refresh rates too slow to convey any non-verbal cues. The audio and video feeds would frequently get out of sync. Often one came away from a video conference thinking it was not worth the trouble and the participants would have been better off just using a dial-in number. After all the first 10 minutes would be consumed by setup related issues.
Things have definitely changed. Invention is often spurred by the right circumstances. The circumstances were certainly very conducive to development of hi fidelity video conferencing. Several factors came together at the same time: (1) In the post 9-11 world, the prospect of travel with the long wait times in airport security lines and ever diminishing amenities in the air meant executives were far less likely to want to travel. (2) In the recession that followed right after 9-11 and the dot.com bust corporate finance departments suddenly became very aggressive in their efforts to control costs and sought every opportunity to minimize expenses including travel expenses (3) Gas prices rose very quickly during the last decade (4) Communication bandwidth increasingly became a commodity and prices fell very quickly. (5) network equipment capable of supportinbg true Quality of Service (QoS) became more easily available and indeed commonplace. (6) HD became mainstream as a video format with industry wide availability
All of these favorable conditions created the right environment to foster rapid innovation in the videoconferencing world. Some of the early leaders in the HD Video Conferencing world included Tandberg, Radvision and Polycom. Cisco has since acquired Tandberg and markets its products under the Cisco Telepresence line.
Although the initial costs of setting up a high end HD conference are quite high (likely to be in the 6 figures for a medium sized room) the cumulative savings in travel expenses can create ROI that are quite attractive.
The HD video stream along with very low initiation times and advanced camera, mic and speaker placement that come together in a telepresence suite goes a long way toward creating an environment where the participants forget they are in a video conference and not face to face for the duration of the call.
2011 is a key transitional year for this technology in large corporations. With the improving economy, financial leaders at these companies are more likely to greenlight capital expenses this year, allowing legacy ISDN based videoconferencing setups to transition into full telepresence suites.
This one is not usually considered a core IT function in many large corporations and is often in the domain of facilities management along with electrical and data wiring. Thats only because the revolution in video conferencing has been so rapid. IT has not caught up. Yet.
5-8 Years ago, the state of the art in video conferencing would be small rooms filled with a couple of rows of seats and a large screen with a smart board and a few mics in the ceiling. The pictures would be grainy and the refresh rates too slow to convey any non-verbal cues. The audio and video feeds would frequently get out of sync. Often one came away from a video conference thinking it was not worth the trouble and the participants would have been better off just using a dial-in number. After all the first 10 minutes would be consumed by setup related issues.
Things have definitely changed. Invention is often spurred by the right circumstances. The circumstances were certainly very conducive to development of hi fidelity video conferencing. Several factors came together at the same time: (1) In the post 9-11 world, the prospect of travel with the long wait times in airport security lines and ever diminishing amenities in the air meant executives were far less likely to want to travel. (2) In the recession that followed right after 9-11 and the dot.com bust corporate finance departments suddenly became very aggressive in their efforts to control costs and sought every opportunity to minimize expenses including travel expenses (3) Gas prices rose very quickly during the last decade (4) Communication bandwidth increasingly became a commodity and prices fell very quickly. (5) network equipment capable of supportinbg true Quality of Service (QoS) became more easily available and indeed commonplace. (6) HD became mainstream as a video format with industry wide availability
All of these favorable conditions created the right environment to foster rapid innovation in the videoconferencing world. Some of the early leaders in the HD Video Conferencing world included Tandberg, Radvision and Polycom. Cisco has since acquired Tandberg and markets its products under the Cisco Telepresence line.
Although the initial costs of setting up a high end HD conference are quite high (likely to be in the 6 figures for a medium sized room) the cumulative savings in travel expenses can create ROI that are quite attractive.
The HD video stream along with very low initiation times and advanced camera, mic and speaker placement that come together in a telepresence suite goes a long way toward creating an environment where the participants forget they are in a video conference and not face to face for the duration of the call.
2011 is a key transitional year for this technology in large corporations. With the improving economy, financial leaders at these companies are more likely to greenlight capital expenses this year, allowing legacy ISDN based videoconferencing setups to transition into full telepresence suites.
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