Interviews with Digital Media Thought Leaders
Business Quality Video Conferencing over the Internet (Part 1 of 2)
Podcast Video | Posted by Phil Leigh on March 7, 2008
If you would like to learn about a business-quality video conferencing unit based on standard PC architecture and only requiring the public Internet (wired or wireless) for transmission, this interview is for you. (Part 1 of 2).
Subject: Our guest today is Richard Ford who is the CEO of Vtel Corporation. His company makes a business-quality (standard H.323) video conferencing unit that is priced at $6,000. A less expensive unit based on Session Internet Protocol (SIP) is available for $4,000. Summary: Both units are significant for at least three reasons.
First, they only require the public Internet as the transmission channel. There is no need for the special telephone lines that are commonly used with conventional video conferencing systems. The Vtel units even provide good results over the 3G wireless Internet.
Second, since their designs are based upon standard Intel PC architecture they can double as PCs.
Third, the display monitor is a High Definition television from Olevia. Thus, the monitors can double as fully functioning televisions, or display monitors when the video conferencing units are used as PCs.
In Part 1 of this two-part interview, Richard Ford narrates a PowerPoint presentation that describes the company, its history, and the market opportunity.
Phil’s Take. The fact that Vtel’s units require nothing more that the public Internet is a material advantage. Too often conventional video conferencing systems are complicated and unreliable when unfamiliar endpoints are included in the conference. That means they tend to get used repeatedly by the same collection of endpoints thereby limit the true potential of video conferencing.
Also, since the Vtel design is based on the Intel PC, there could be material price breakthroughs in the years ahead. According to Wainhouse Research, every 20% drop in price leads to a 40% increase in units shipped.
Categories: Podcast Video
Tags: digital media, Internet Media, Internet video, Phil Leigh, Richard Ford, Video Conferencing, Vtel, Wainhouse Research
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Yep the quality seems very nice…I was in conferencing with clients on Vtel Standart H and there was smooth A/V exchanges …but yeah its cost seems too high compare to my http://www.rhubcom.com turbomeeting which provides equal communications & security features along with support to work remotely.