New Technologies in Video Conferencing

We look at the latest trends in video conferencing and how industries are making the most of these.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Print

Comment

Email

Digg

Del.icio.us

Reddit

Twitter

Video conferencing demand in India is on the upswing. According to a recent study done by Zinnov Management Consulting, the market for full HD video conferencing such as TelePresence alone would be USD 40 million by 2012. Given the fact that the current TelePresence market is about USD 7.2 million, we are about to witness significant growth in the next five years. Even the current slowdown has become a bliss for video conferencing vendors. As companies look at ways to lower their costs, cutting traveling costs and using video conferencing is on the top of the list of many. Another key driver for this growth is the current focus on green tech, as with video conferencing, companies can cut their carbon footprint. With vendors coming up with new technologies and customized devices for various verticals, video conferencing market is full of action. In this story, we look at a few technologies in video conferencing and take a look at how different verticals are using it.

High definition video conferencing
As the name suggests this form of video conferencing provides better quality then conventional video conferencing. But of course you would need HD capable equipment. Benefits of HD video conferencing include clear and crisp images. As the resolution of images transmitted is high, it can be stretched to a bigger screen without a drop in picture quality. Bigger screen means more number of people can get involved. Other benefit of this technique is that more information can be shared; ie in hospitals doctors can remotely check X-rays or MRIs of patients as the images are very clear. Moving from benefits to actual technology, SD (Standard definition) video conferencing is of 640x480 resolution; on the other hand HD video conferencing is of 1280x720 resolution. So, you can see more pixels mean more information.

The standards used in video conferencing before HD encoding/decoding were based on the common interchange format (CIF). ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union- Telecommunication Standardization Sector) has developed video standards H.261 and H.263. H.261 supports QCIF (quarter CIF) and CIF formats while for high resolution 16CIF (defined in H.263) is used. H.264 is a new breakthrough standard in HD video conferencing which will allow interoperability of different products from multiple vendors.

Two important aspects of video conferencing are visual and audio accuracy. Visual accuracy can be achieved with high resolution images as mentioned earlier and devices that can capture and reproduce these images. Conventional HD camcorder is not a great option for HD video conferencing; instead image sensors specially built for conferencing should be used. The other equally important aspect in video conferencing is audio quality and audio video synchronization. Now there are two criteria for acoustic realism: input and output quality. Here input quality, as the name suggests is quality of sound capturing devices. To maintain high quality audio transmission, usage of good quality multiple microphones that are properly directed is a must; while the other important issue is transmission frequency range. Output quality constitutes high quality speakers and proper synchronization between audio and video signals with echo and noise cancellation.

A simple three party conference showing 3D capturing for life like experience

Video communication management
With increasing demand for video conferencing and wide implementation, the need for proper management of video communication is high on priority. As video conferencing is used in critical areas like medical field, the reliability is becoming more important. There are several aspects to video communication management, namely bandwidth management (most important), meeting scheduling and support for ever increasing users and their devices. There are several solutions (eg LifeSize Control) available that can be used to cover all these aspects; most of them have simple browser based interfaces. Some other key criteria to keep in mind before going for a video conferencing solution are: an open and extensible platform, security, multi-vendor compatibility and efficient management features.

Mobile video conferencing
Video conferencing is used by various companies for faster and convenient meetings. A typical video conference is room based utilizing a video multimedia conferencing unit. These systems are quite expensive and they have other problems too. Conferencing using a mobile could be a far cheaper solution. By utilizing the emerging 3G technology along with appropriate video gateway devices, mobiles can be used as video terminals. This, when deployed with QoS enabled IP networks, can give a quality comparable to the existing ISDN-based solutions. The plus point is that it would be a great return on investment as compared to an ISDN based solution. Not only this, it will also move the conferencing from room-based to desktop or 3G mobile based conferencing.

GIPS (Global IP Solutions) have built a Video Engine based on Windows which will support P2P video calling and multi-point video conferencing on mobile phones.

Tandberg Profile 6000 MXP

3D video conferencing
Moving from 2D HD, the future of video conferencing is 3D video conferencing. This technique will guarantee natural representation of all participants in virtual space to enhance quality and efficiency. There are various approaches to accomplish 3D video conferencing.

Shared virtual table environment (SVTE) concept is used to reproduce 3D representation of members in shared virtual space. To achieve this, multiple video cameras are used to capture different angles of participants. All these images are then grouped in a virtual environment; this gives the participants the feeling that they are sitting across a table. Two SVTE approaches are Tele-cubicle and VIRTUE (virtual team user environment). The difference between Tele-cubicle and VIRTUE is that the former is simple, multiple screen usage while the latter is an extension of a working desk in front of the screen to virtual conference desk.

Public video conferencing rooms
Cisco and Tata Communications have built public video conferencing rooms around the globe to cut travel costs. These rooms will be available at Taj Hotels for rent and will constitute state-of-the-art TelePresence infrastructure. This is a great step, making video conferencing a service open to all, especially those who cannot afford such infrastructure. With rent ranging from $299 to $899, and capacity varying from one to eighteen persons, this is a great option for organizations that are geographically spread across the world.

Video conferencing in different verticals
Let's look the adoption of video conferencing by different industries.

1. Education
Many educational institutes and training companies have already started using video conferencing to provide training to students, especially those that engage subject matter experts based out of the country. Here again there are two models: one is educational institutes deploying video conferencing in their premises and the other is where the institute collaborates with a video conferencing service provider and use their equipment as well as space to give training to students. This is used by institutes providing distance learning. A common example in India is Reliance Web world which offers courses in collaboration with institutes like XLRI etc and many of their trainings are provided through video conferencing.

Mobile video conferencing setup

Since education is a huge market and with video conferencing gaining popularity, vendors are coming up with products specifically meant for students as well as teachers. These devices are largely desktop based video conferencing solutions and portable video conferencing devices. The portable video conferencing devices also support WiFi so that users can use it from any location.

From end user perspective, distance learning through Video conferencing gives students a chance to receive training from subject matter experts, whereas in the traditional educational model it's just the local teachers who provide training. As students get to interact with different experts, this also gives them the opportunity to get in touch with them later through email. This opens a whole range of new opportunities for students, especially for those in rural areas which otherwise was not possible in the traditional form of distance education.

2. Healthcare
Use of Video conferencing in health care has been growing at a brisk pace. In our previous articles, we spoke about how video conferencing being used to provide remote diagnostics and for conducting surgery. Another emerging trend in health care is TelePractice. One such example that we came across is providing speech therapy through TelePractice. Here, the complete speech therapy course is provided through video conferencing. The technology is of great help to patients who are in rural areas where specialists are hard to find.

Vendors are now coming up with olutions customized for various industries such as this Tandberg Intern MXP

3. BFSI
Banking industry is another area where usage of video conferencing is on the rise. As most banks have branches across the country, with some even having branches across the world, video conferencing helps to cut costs but also increase collaboration between employees of different branches, as well as quick resolution of issues. Most banks in India use video conferencing for their internal communication; however in US some banks have deployed video conferencing to provide services such as Video Tellers. Another new trend in this sector is to train employees through video conferencing, as this allows top management to train new employees; and at the same it gives them other obvious benefits such as savings in man hours.

Security of video communication
A lot of times the content of a video conferencing call can be critical from a security point of view, for eg, video conferencing amongst directors of company on future strategies or video conferencing used by defense establishments. To secure this communication, one needs to understand different elements of video conferencing security i.e. physical security of the meeting room, data security and network access control, connection security and content security. To secure content, among all the approaches on trial, the traditional approach of encryption is more popular. For encryption there are dedicated devices in market such as Polycom Security Firewall Traversal. Some of the encryption algorithms used in these security devices are 56-bit DES to 128-1bit AES. These devices take care of intrusion detection, provide firewalls and also access vulnerability. To implement video conferencing security, there are laws by countries such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the United States for security of client data (including video conferencing). For authentication, there are three kinds of approaches: tokens, IP address authentication, and referrers; one may use any one or a combination of these approaches. Another point to keep in mind while implementing video conferencing security is switching between secure and non-secure mode of operation. There is no point of implementing multiple security layers if the content of a meeting is generic in nature.

Polycom Video Border Proxy

This is a NAT/Firewall traversal solution from Polycom that can work with any existing firewall. It can combat security threats posed by traversal methods and is largely meant for companies with multiple locations. Besides security, other features of this product include optimization of video quality, shortest path routing and traffic shaping. It is also compatible with the H.460 standard which means mobile and home users can also securely connect and use video conferencing without needing any onsite hardware

Piyush Dhingra, Sandeep Koul and Swapnil Arora

Page(s)   1