Category Archives: Video Conferencing Equipment
2012
Top 10 Telepresence Posts of 2011 From The KBZ Communications Blog
It’s the first week of 2012, which means it’s the perfect time to take a look back on some of the most popular posts of the past year from the Telepresence & Video Conferencing Blog. Let’s recap the most commented, read, and shared telepresence posts of 2011 and see what trends and interests dominated the industry over the course of the previous 12 months.
10. Use of Video Conferencing Surges Toward Widespread Adoption
This post from September was one of the first that we put together charting the growing evidence that video conferencing was about to reach the tipping point in terms of mass adoption. Driving this trend were the lowered costs of telepresence technology, improvements in mobile video conferencing, and increased interest in having employees telecommute at least one day per week across a wide range of different industries.
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2011
Videoconferencing Professionals LinkedIn Group Roundup – July 2011
Most Popular Discussions for July, 2011
When it comes to LinkedIn groups focused on the video communications industry, Videoconferencing Professionals offers some of the most intriguing and lively online discussions. Andrew Milich, vice president of operations at Face to Face Live got things going this past July by asking a somewhat divisive question in the world of videoconferencing: which is better, software or hardware codecs? Group members posted their personal preferences and experiences with both technologies, with the general consensus being that the best codec solution is the one that matches the specific application and needs of its users. That being said, Wayne Tow, product marketing manager at AverMedia Information, Inc. (@waynetow) posted that the dedicated resources and features offered by hardware codecs often make them more suitable for large, dedicated rooms, while software’s niche would seem to be personal videoconferencing. This sentiment was echoed by others involved in the discussion.
Bob Snyder, editor-in-chief of Channel Media Europe, also attracted a lot of attention this month when he asked group members how he could set up a public demonstration comparing between 10 and 12 different desktop video conferencing systems. The goal was to show, in an unbiased fashion, the relative strengths and weaknesses of each platform by focusing on a few simple metrics. Eric Shellswell of Telus, Adrian Dixon of Adnexus Communications (@adneXus), and Hong-Quan Yue, an electrical engineer, all offered excellent criteria for how to judge the effectiveness of each video conferencing solution. Many other members provided additional input, including a long list of suggestions regarding which vendors should be represented in the trial.
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2011
Cisco Video Collaboration Guide: Four Steps to Understanding the Possibilities of Video for Your Organization
Many businesses are interested in adopting a telepresence strategy or expanding the role of the video conferencing technology that they are already using within the organization. It is not always clear, however, what the best course forward is in selecting which areas of a business can benefit the most from video communications. To help provide decision makers with a resource that they can turn to when pondering these questions, Cisco has published a white paper entitled “Cisco Video Collaboration Guide: Four Steps to Understanding the Possibilities of Video for Your Organization.”
The “Cisco Video Collaboration Guide” starts out with a brief overview of the impact that video conferencing technology can have on a business’s practices and bottom line. It then quickly delves into the benefits offered by telepresence, including the ability to move faster and make decisions more quickly across an organization, the opportunity to more readily access experts within a company regardless of where they might be located geographically, and the way that video communications can create a tighter-knit group of co-workers and allow those employees to achieve a better work-life balance. Each positive aspect of video conferencing technology is backed up by a real world mini-case study.
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2011
Telepresence Tech Tip – VCS Expressway and the Dual Network Interface Option
Users of Tandberg Video Communications Server (VCS), deployed with Expressway, often ask when they should be specifying the Dual Network Interface option for their telepresence solutions. This option exists specifically to protect the security of TCS users who are uncomfortable with the idea of implementing a firewall DMZ, or who cannot go this route due to the technical details of their network setup.
In the simplest terms, the Dual Network Interface option should be selected by every client who is not willing to expose the Expressway directly on a public internet connection. As mentioned above, alternatives to the Dual Network Interface option include the use of a firewall DMZ. However, if the DMZ solution makes use of a private IP address scheme, the Dual Network Interface option will still need to be implemented.
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2011
Telepresence Tech Tip – Upgrading TANDBERG “C” Series Codecs
The TANDBERG, now part of Cisco “C” Series of Codecs offer excellent high definition video conferencing and telepresence at resolutions of up to 1080p. Upgrading a TANDBERG “C” Series codec is a relatively simple and straightforward process, made up of only a few easy-to-follow steps.
The upgrade software itself is available from the Tandberg FTP site, and this software needs to be accessible to whatever PC that you choose to perform the upgrade from. This means having it available on the local hard disk or on a network share with the necessary access permissions configured.
Watch a video of this codec upgrade, presented by KBZ Technical Services Manager, Shamus Doyle.
2011
Mobile Video Conferencing Expands Through Next Generation Smartphones
The idea of mobile video conferencing might seem lifted out of the plot of Star Trek to some, but the movement to bring video communications to devices such as smart phones is well underway. Both the iPhone and Android mobile phones have seen a flurry of internal and third-party software development that has led to some recent interesting breakthroughs in personal mobile video conferencing.
The two greatest limitations to the development of portable video conferencing, hardware and bandwidth, have been in large part overcome by advances in phone and network design. The advent of 3G mobile networks has dramatically improved data transfer speeds to the point where real-time digital video data is finally feasible, and with 4G networks slowly rolling out across the country, mobile video conferencing continues to expand in terms of the quality and features it can offer. At the same time, phone manufacturers have been able to cram ever more powerful chips inside handsets, along with accessories such as miniaturized video cameras that face the mobile device’s user – a critical part of providing a video conferencing experience.
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