Video killed the conference call

Sunday Business Post - Communications 2008 Supplement - June 22 2008

Aware of the importance of non-verbal cues in communication, more firms are harnessing the power of video, writes Dermot Corrigan.

The idea of video phone-calls may have a certain science fiction ring to it, but internet protocol (IP) technology is enabling businesses to provide inter-office video communications in an affordable and uncomplicated manner.

Oliver Hunt, unified communications specialist with Cisco, said most organisations using IP networks for their voice and data traffic already had the capability of hosting video calls.

"Video is very much being bundled in as part of the IP product," said Hunt. "From Cisco's point of view video is just another medium from a conferencing perspective. People think bringing video across the network might bring the whole thing to a standstill, but if you are just using a traditional webcam on the top of your PC, or built-in to your desktop, it puts no real strain on the network."

John Crowley, director with Diacom, said many organisations were rolling out video conferencing capability to allow colleagues based in different locations to communicate more meaningfully with each other.

"If 55 percent of communication is determined by non-verbal cues, like tone of voice and body language, how many important details are you missing in an email exchange or teleconference?" said Crowley. "Face to face communication is more personal, builds higher trust, reduces confusion, and makes people more accountable for their actions. That is why the ability to communicate via video is the driving force behind much of the IT convergence we are seeing today."

Many larger companies now use video conferencing technology that enables management to communicate effectively with staff, according to Eoin Gallagher, senior solutions consultant with Cable & Wireless in Ireland.

"Within corporates the demand is very strong as you can get regular weekly updates from your chief executive, who could be located anywhere in the globe, using a video conferencing solution in each regional office," said Gallagher.

Hunt said it was not just big multinationals that were interested in the practical use of video over IP technology.

"We have seen uptake across all sectors and verticals, everything from SMEs to the larger enterprises, and also in the public sector," he said. "For example we have worked with people from the learning hospitals in Dublin, allowing clinicians to set up ad hoc conferences on the fly and share images such as X-rays via video. Collaboration like that, from desktop to desktop, is becoming fairly standard."

Paul Hourican, managing director of PFH, said that many companies were making a business case for implementing video over IP systems that eliminated the requirement for expensive and time-consuming travel.

"Given the security implications of travel and associated costs, coupled with the fall in bandwidth costs, this is becoming more and more attractive for companies as an alternative to business travel between sites and indeed customers" said Hourican. "The return on investment is very compelling with systems, in some cases, paying for themselves with the savings from a single international business trip."



Investment
Hunt said organistions that had successfully rolled out converged IP networks already should have already found that video traffic does not require significant further investment.

"If you have put your voice over your data network, it is likely that you will have gone through that process and investment already,” he said. “You will have upgraded your network and have quality of service. Rolling out other applications on top of that is relatively straightforward."

Hourican said the recording hardware required to enable video conferencing depended on the quality of call experience sought.

"If you are having a one to one conversation, then a web camera or internal camera in your laptop, should be sufficient," he said. "If you have two or three people involved in the meeting then you do need the plasma screen version with good quality cameras and microphones. Equipment costs go from less than €3,000 up to €6,000 or €7,000 if you are putting in a good quality product."

Organisations who want to ensure good quality video conferencing will generally require a software solution that enables the video calls, according to Hunt.

"The cost is dependent on the numbers you need, the type of solution you go for," said Hunt. "If you have made an investment in the core IP infrastructure, most vendors will give you the option to either buy a collaboration tool or point solution.”

After that, all actual IP video-calls, just like IP voice calls, are free, unlike traditional per-minute costed ISDN video calls, according to Crowley.

"With an ISDN network, you will have local and long distance charges involved," said Crowley. "Video users switching from ISDN to IP can reap as much as 50 per cent savings as soon as deployed."


Challenges
Crowley said network settings generally had to be tweaked as video over IP required plenty of bandwidth.

"You may wish to restrict the bandwidth for certain users or applications, but allow higher bandwidth for your most critical video meetings,” he said. “You will want to choose a solution that allows you to adjust the bandwidth or one that automatically balances the bandwidth based on the application."

Hourican said users relying on public, contended broadband networks to carry their video traffic could have occasional problems with call quality.

"When you are going over broadband at the moment you cannot guarantee that you will get enough quality, therefore the end of your meeting might be not as good as you hoped," he said.


Future
Hunt said most video calls up to now had been between branches of the one organisation, however video conferencing with customers and clients was about to take off.

"As the technology becomes more mainstream and people get more comfortable and familiar with it, they will use it to communicate with clients and customers," he said. "For example, we have a legal firm which has deployed one of our video conferencing solutions to interact with their clients. If they are working on a particular case, they can set up a video conference and view documents together and make changes in real time."

Gallagher said other major vendors were introducing easy to use technologies that would bring video calls into every day use going forward.

"This is where things need to go," he said. "Products like Microsoft OCS (office communications server) will lead us towards a place where you can have a video IP session into another company that you have no real relationship with, just the same as making a traditional phone call."

Hunt said individuals were comfortable with video now, due to the popularity of developments such as mobile-phone video cameras and YouTube.

"We all heard ten years ago that video was going to be the killer internet application, and the reasons that did not take off was quality and usability," he said. "What has changed in the last 18 months is that people are using video in their personal life, nearly every website they visit has video content, so when they do go into the workplace, they expect to have the option of using video as a form of collaboration. That, combined with broadband availability, means that video collaboration will become very much mainstream in the next couple of years."