The real barrier to videoconferenci...

The real barrier to videoconferencing take-up has been the bad user experience. At least that's the view of Mark Roberts, director of business progress to maturity for Polycom Network Systems, a company which bears videoconferencing networks and end-units. "People tried it in the past and then didn't bother again," he says. "This was mainly because the quality wasn't upright enough, they suffered with unreliable connectivity, and the fact that a whole s were difficult to set up operate and maintain."

Another uncertainly facing videoconferencing is for what cause well it can compensate for a face-to-face meeting. If, as in the past, the experience is unsatisfactory then the price of an air fare might actually be a more cost-effective proposition.

IP video boom?

The perception of videoconferencing today is of a poor quality 'head and shoulders' image of undivided or more people on a small cover - 'a postage stamp meeting' as Mark Tractenberg, chief technology officer of video meeting company, Teliris, describes it. He points to the of the present day York Times a few weeks ago, which pictured a videoconferencing meeting between the president of the US, George W Bush, and a number of high-level colleagues across the US, using a 4-quadrant split sieve into which 17 people were 'all squashed like sardines'.

He believes the real value of videoconferencing will be in creating the 'meeting experience' as closely as possible. "What tribe want out of videoconferencing is to replace the actual ne to travel," insists Tractenberg.

It is veritable to say there has been a change in attitude towards the necessity to travel, particularly since the affairs of 11 September in recent York. The decline in travelling and the increased awareness of security has l to greater interest in videoconferencing.

Tractenberg claims since October 2001 Teliris, which has popularly installed 13 video conference plans over the eight months it has been in operation, has had to accelerate its business plans by way of 6-8 months, while there has been a four-fold increase in customer enquiries.

Ray McGroarty, PictureTel Corporation, a manufacturer and developer of videoconferencing solutions (formerly acquired on Polycom in October), adds that there has been a strange surge labelled 'telecom travel' as senior business leaders recognise the ne to communicate with clients and colleagues in a radically different way. PictureTel also estimates that videoconferencing usage has risen by way of 25-30 per cent in modern months.

Revenue for service providers

For DSL-based service providers, IP videoconferencing could put forward potential new revenue streams. "ISPs have a tremendous network of fibre being laid in the clod at the moment. They ne paying customers to use that bandwidth, stimulate business and drive returns says Phil Sewell, managing director, Global VideoCom, which specialises in videoconferencing.

He claims a videoconferencing application can chew up to 15 times the amount of bandwidth a straightforward connection to the internet does. Service providers will be able to justify the competitive price by means of megabyte by offering high-quality reliable end-to-end connectivity for videoconferencing services.

"Simple connections to the internet do not take a high horizontal of performance. With videoconferencing, service providers will have to confirm and demonstrate that they are offering real Qo because it will be obvious on the state of the image and audio if they're not," argues Sewell.

Andrew Davis, a consultant with Wainhouse Research, a company which monitors the videoconferencing market, adds: "There is more motion among service providers to furnish services that are video centric. For example, if ISPs are quick they could turn videoconferencing into a greater income generator by selling premium services to proceed alongside it, such as fixed IP addresses, Qo and firewall protection "

Davis also insists that, "Service providers are the 'hope' for the videoconferencing market because they have the capability to address the unreliability of the network which is generally letting the equipment down."

Security and the complexity of the IP network are critical issues generally facing the market. Providing an infrastructure for reliable point-to-point and multipoint communications is a tough challenge.

To allow businesses to entirely leverage the benefits of video throughout the H.323 standard (videoconferencing throughout packet networks), new technologies are being incorporated into conferencing bridges and gateways. For example, as Dave Gallagher, VP of business progression in a continuously ascending gradation Polycom, explains, "Every ISDN line has its be in possession of unique and public telephone number that can be dialled with a high grade of connection success from any other ISDN line in the world. With IP, your correspondent may not know their IP address, may not be willing to divulge it, or may have a private address that has no meaning to the public internet, making it inaccessible."

A conferencing gateway can assistance this situation by allowing its IP resources to be controll by dint of a gatekeeper. That gatekeeper, a device responsible for routing and addressing calls, can then effectively way both incoming and outgoing H323 traffic destined far your talk using simple aliases such as 'Myendpoint'.