Video Calls Within The Walls (and outside too)
By Dave Brown
The telephone alone doesn't cut it anymore for corporate information workers. Most of us also show fax numbers and e-mail addresses on our business cards. Some of us are adding video numbers. Futurists have long predicted the advent of the integrated desktop computer, where all of these media come together on a single screen/microphone/speaker system--the "picturephone."
The picturephone idea has been around since 1964, when AT&T demonstrated its setup at the New York World's Fair. Since then, the practical deployment of such a product has been frustrated by the high cost or spotty availability of adequate telecommunications bandwidth. For the home-visit market, where the an
alog plain old telephone system (POTS) reigns, smooth TV-like video may never be possible. But in the office, particularly in newer enterprise campus buildings with good network wiring
, picturephones--now often called videophones--are arriving. And it looks pretty good.
 To view the Report card.
These implementations will increase productivity, enterprise planners believe. Widespread deployment of low-cost desktop systems are supplanting group or room-based systems in many organizations. Applications of the desktop-based technology vary greatly, depending on an organization's culture. Short interoffice consultations with a co-worker four floors up can be handled with a video call. If that co-worker has an open-camera policy, you can see whether she or he is free to talk. Small group meetings or collaborations can be organized quickly with no ne
ed to find a conference room.
The videophone concept has great appeal, but full integration with the traditional telephone won't happen soon. The H.323 Internet Telephony Services standards suite has been ratified and is backed by many big players, including Cisco Systems, Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. We're already seeing manufacturers claim H.323 or H.324 extensions to their product lines, but large-volume delivery dates are still six months to two years away.
This review focuses on readily available systems for organizations that reside in central campuses or tall buildings. To run benchmark tests on Corel Corp.'s CorelVIDEO, Datapoint Corp.'s MINX Networked Video System (NVS) and Incite's Conversational Media, we visited working sites. For Intelect Visual Communications Corp.'s LANscape and C-Phone Corp.'s C-Phone Videoconferencing System, tests and interviews were coordinated via videoconferences and e-mail.
Test Patterns
We tested the video delivery systems with the Network Computin
g video codec benchmark, a four-minute VHS source tape originally produced for our feature on H.320 standards (see "Bytes, Camera, Action!" at techweb.cmp.com/nc/ 703/703f1.html). Every frame has a visible sequence numbe
r. The tape contains a variety of short program clips: some easy, some hard on typical audio and video compression codecs. One clip shows a man jumping on a trampoline. The most diabolical sequence has the camera zoom in slowly on a black-and-white checkerboard pattern. Another challenging clip features a rotating pinwheel pattern. By recording a video system's output and determining the frame numbers that were regenerated, we measured picture qualities and transmission rates.
We found that the products tested actually are video-delivery systems that can be used as videophones. They're also excellent platforms for viewing video-served training programs, for security monitoring or for letting the troops sit at their desks during the CEO's state-of-the-enterprise address.
To obtain the tr
ansmission bandwidth necessary for acceptable video presentations, the products from Corel, C-Phone and Datapoint use independent pairs in an enterprise's unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) building wiring. The others, from Incite and Intelect, ride on the enterprise data network, anticipating eventual deployment of switched and Fast Ethernet or ATM technologies to break present-day bandwidth limitations.
Of the products tested, only Incite Conversational Media (which is, not surprisingly, designed by a PBX manufacturer) uses the desktop speakerphone as a primary audio transceiver whether or not video augments the call. Corel, C-Phone, Datapoint and Intelect present their products as desktop videoconferencing systems with self-contained or independent add-on microphone/handset/speaker devices separate from the telephone. If you're designing a toll-free call center, there's only one good solution: Incite. If you don't have modern building wiring and need to run everything over the enterprise's data LAN, consider
Intelect. If higher-quality video delivery is your primary goal, Corel, C-Phone and Datapoint have good solutions.
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