WHITE PAPER
e/pop Multipoint IP Video Conferencing Technology
Foreword
This is a white paper on e/pop multipoint video
conferencing technology. It was written for IT staff,
e/pop trial evaluators and those interested in
multipoint video. The paper starts with introductory
material on communications technology, followed by a
timeline of the video conferencing industry and the
drivers behind the growing popularity of the latest
IP-based solutions. The paper then expands in detail on
how e/pop works and why it is better for certain types
of applications. The introductory material is
vendor-neutral, while the sections on e/pop are, of
course, product specific.
Executive Summary
The increase in complexity of products and services,
coupled with rising travel costs, is dramatically
increasing the business interest in video conferencing,
particularly where online meetings can improve sales and
replace hard cash travel expenses. The latest generation
of software and TCP/IP-based video conferencing products
(IP video) are expanding beyond the traditional
boardroom applications to line employees and businesses
of all sizes.
WiredRed’s e/pop product is one of the best examples of
this new breed of software. e/pop excels at getting
users connected and delivering a fluid rich media
experience that combines mixed audio, video, and
desktop/application sharing. It uses cost effective,
industry standard peripherals, and is easy to install,
activate, maintain and secure.
Related Documents
This paper introduces IP video technology and general
information on how e/pop works and why it is better for
certain applications. For implementation-specific
details, refer to the Administrator’s Guide, Data Sheet,
Systems Requirements and Typical Configurations
documents all available online, or simply contact
WiredRed for assistance. For more information on network
routing, please refer to the Real-Time Routing
Architecture™ white paper.
Outline
Introduction to Multipoint Video Conferencing
Technology
The Growing Popularity of IP Video v.
Traditional Video Conferencing Hardware
IP Video
Will Win The Desktop – But Which Products Are Best?
e/pop Web & Video Conferencing – How Does it Work?
Overview
- High Level Design
- Low Level Design
- Getting Connected – The e/pop Real-Time Routing
Architecture™, a Built-In VPN
NAT, Firewall & Proxy
Traversal and Over 50 Additional Steps Invisible to
the User
The User Interface – The Web Browser &
Office Metaphor
- Security
- Audio/Video Codecs
- Industry Standard Audio/Video Peripherals
- e/pop IT Friendly Implementation
- The e/pop Design – Why is it Better For
Certain Applications?
Exhibit A – Web & Multipoint Video Conferencing
Evaluation Criteria
Introduction to Multipoint IP Video Conferencing Technology
So far, 2006 has seen a big increase in web and video
conferencing activity. Last year Logitech announced that
they shipped 25 million webcams, and all types of video
devices became prominent on TV commercials and consumer
online services. This was followed by a record hurricane
season in the south, a record cold-snap in the
northeast, and then months of fuel price increases and
terror-related travel restrictions. All of this sparked
renewed business interest in video conferencing, a
technology that has been kicking around since the 1965
World’s Fair.
However, the latest technology is very different than
the videophone demonstrated in 1965. The latter was
little more than a matched set of TVs and video cameras
with hardwired cables running in both directions (full
duplex). The following decades saw the development of
hardware-based, video conferencing end-points. These
devices – now often referred to as “traditional” or
“hardware-based” video conferencing – were typically
very expensive, and they required one or more dedicated
phone lines (or network routes in the 1990s), and in
some cases, specialized video-switching equipment as
well. Though expensive and limited to boardrooms and
other fixed-site locations, they worked and saw good
duty for several decades.
Today, there are a few more options. We have traditional
video conferencing hardware as described above; plus
IP-based video conferencing software and services; and
web conferencing online services, many with some video
capabilities. In addition, there is a long list of
consumer services that offer 1:1 or peer-to-peer video
calling, and the media industry that offers streaming
video and playback on-demand. Consumer peer-to-peer
services and streaming media are completely different
from business multipoint communications. WiredRed
Software and this paper are focused on
business-to-business conferencing, where several users
are often behind their own firewalls and require
full-duplex connections.
Before proceeding further, listed below is a short
glossary. These are not strict engineering definitions,
but rather less-precise terms as used in the industry.
They are presented below in topic, not alphabetic order.
Highly Abbreviated Communications Primer
Simplex – a transmission path capable of transmitting
signals in only one direction.
Half-duplex – a transmission path capable of
transmitting signals in both directions, but only in one
direction at a time.
Duplex – a transmission path capable of transmitting
signals in both directions simultaneously. This is often
called full-duplex.
Synchronous – happening, existing, or arising at
precisely the same time. In communications synchronous
refers to a low latency or no delay, full-duplex
transmission path. This is also called real-time, and in
human terms means cell-phone (1 or 2 tenths of a second
or better) connection speeds. Under ideal conditions,
synchronous should be better than the human threshold of
perception, or 33 milliseconds (the time between frames
at 30 frames per second).
Asynchronous – the opposite of synchronous. A connection
type that is not real-time, such as email and streaming
video.
Store-and-forward – a term used to describe mail, email
and other forms of communications where information is
relayed, stored and forwarded to intended recipients. It
is asynchronous, meaning not real-time.
Streaming media – is media that is heard or viewed while
it is being delivered, and generally refers to computer
networks and digitized audio and video. Examples include
video playback-on-demand and IP TV applications.
Streaming media uses large buffers resulting in
high-latency connections (several seconds to several
minutes). Streaming is not real-time, and there is no
return audio/video communications path.
Broadcast (1:many) – a media or connection type between
one transmitter and many receivers such as radio.
Multipoint (many: many) – also called multiparty, this
refers to communications between several participants.
Unlike broadcast and streaming, it is generally
understood to mean synchronous and full duplex. All
participants can transmit and receive at the same time.
Video Conferencing 1980-2000
Traditional video conferencing – as described in the
introduction above, this term generally refers to
hardware-based, fixed-site video conferencing equipment,
popular for boardroom applications in the 1980s and
1990s. In particular, the term “traditional” is attached
to devices that require dedicated phone lines, or more
likely in modern times, dedicated network routes; or
otherwise, if there are more than two end-points
involved, specialized video switching equipment (see
also MCU / MUX below) is required.
End-point and video end-point – these terms refer to the
“instrument” or device at the end (terminus) of a
connection. The term has grown in popularity because of
the increasing awareness that the end-point is just
that, an end-point, and that the most difficult aspect
of ad-hoc conferencing is establishing the connections
between multiple parties, especially business users
behind separate firewalls and proxies.
Video MCU / MUX – also known as multi-channel units,
multiplexers and switches, these are specialty circuit
switching devices that are dedicated to connecting video
end-points. Sales of these devices have generally
slowed, as video is increasingly encapsulated in TCP/IP
packets and sent over existing general purpose,
packet-switched networks such as the Internet and
existing private networks.
Video Conferencing Today
IP video
This term is an abbreviation for TCP/IP, or
Internet-based video conferencing. It is used, in
particular, to distinguish newer classes of video
products that are capable of ad-hoc conferencing over
existing networks and the public Internet, something not
possible (without specific routing hardware) with
traditional video solutions, at least not between
business users behind separate firewalls.
IP conferencing
Same as above, but includes web
conferencing capabilities, such as presentation and
desktop sharing, as well as voice (VoIP) and video over
IP.Rich media conferencing – A term coined by leading
industry analysts to describe the above. |
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The Growing Popularity of IP Video v. Traditional Video
Conferencing
While interest in all-things-video has indeed been
increasing, everyone in IT knows that breaking loose a
purchase order is entirely another matter. But sales
industry-wide have been going up too, so there is
something more than simply general interest going on.
The drivers behind sales and deployments are a bit more
pointed: the increasing complexity of products and
services require visual communications among frontline
staff, not just the boardroom; and globalization,
decentralization and partnering have led to widely
distributed offices and the need for more alternatives
to expensive and increasingly painful travel. This is
especially true for recurring travel between the same
locations.
Make no mistake, boardroom video conferencing systems
are here to stay. Indeed, this market category appears
ready to go upscale, with new entrants such as HP Halo
and LifeSize calling their systems “telepresence”. These
systems feature multiple, life size flat-panel displays,
dedicated DS-3 (45 Mbps) lines and cost $50,000 to
$200,000 per end-point to start.
But IP-based solutions are growing more than twice as
fast as traditional video conferencing hardware. Why?
Because from a technology perspective, modern IP-based
web and video conferencing solutions have several
advantages.
First and foremost, IP video does not require dedicated
lines. It can reach anyone with a PC and an Internet
connection, leveraging existing network investments to
boot.
Secondly, many IP solutions use standard,
inexpensive
video peripherals widely available anywhere in the
world. The latest IP solutions also allow multiparty
conferences, not just limited two-party or four-party
meetings. Lastly, they allow participants to communicate
almost as if they were there in person, with sight and
sound, along with PowerPoint™ presentations, application
and desktop sharing. They are not limited to video-only
sessions.
So it appears the industry is evolving to a point where
we will see ultra high-end systems such as telepresence
for film studios and Fortune 100 company boardrooms,
traditional video conferencing solutions for their
fixed-site installed base, and a completely new category
of IP-based desktop video conferencing applications. The
latter covers a wide variety of applications including
sales, training, project management, continuing
education, telemedicine and general online meetings
available to anyone with a desktop PC and Internet
access.
IP Video Will Win The Desktop – But Which Products Are
Best?
The future for IP video is bright. Moore’s Law says
desktop PCs will only get more powerful, ditto on
bandwidth availability. On the other hand, display
technology is already close to human limits. We know the
human eye cannot distinguish more than roughly 24
million colors (i.e. 24 bits deep and 72 dpi at
reasonable distances), and only a few sound-effect
editors in Hollywood can distinguish between an audio
event in one video frame versus another (at 30 fps) . As
CPU power and bandwidth proliferate, all products will
soon be up against these same human limits.
What sets conferencing products apart in the future will
be: 1) the ability to successfully connect users across
their existing networks and the public Internet; 2) the
ability to mix audio, video and desktop sharing in a
fluid, lifelike manner for multiple participants; and 3)
total cost of ownership. Of course, there will be other factors too, such as ease
of use, IT friendliness, additional security and web
services integration points (where needed), and customer
fit. See “Exhibit A” for a more comprehensive list. None
of these factors will matter much if users cannot get
connected, experience poor results, or the system cost
is prohibitive.
e/pop Web and Video Conferencing – How Does it Work?
Overview
This section is of course specific to the e/pop product,
so is not vendor-neutral. We do however, present this
material in matter-of-fact form, calling out subjective
items where appropriate.
What is e/pop? e/pop is a multipoint IP video
conferencing technology. The terms IP and rich media
conferencing apply too, or simply web conferencing for
short. It covers a full-suite of desktop sharing, web, VoIP and multiparty video conferencing features. It is
available in both on-premise software and
hosted service
forms of delivery. It was designed for
business-to-business applications, providing secure
connections for up to 500 users in a single large
session, or multiple smaller online meetings totaling
500 users or less per server (license limits apply,
contact WiredRed for details regarding multi-server
installations).
How does it work? e/pop works by providing all the
software and routing components required for a
successful video conference. It takes advantage of the
increasing power of desktop PCs and industry standard
webcams to manage multipoint video in real-time (this
used to require custom hardware). e/pop gets everyone
connected via existing networks and the Internet using
participants’ browsers and standard URLs. It uses a
secure, fifth generation routing technology to connect
all users, even if they are behind separate firewalls
and proxies. Then as further described below, e/pop
applies a long list of techniques – a single TCP/IP
connection between client and server for all data types,
multithreading, inline assembly, SMP, MMX extensions and
more – to increase the speed of compressing, mixing,
transmitting and displaying rich media data types (data,
VoIP, video). e/pop emphasizes connection success and
mixed data type performance, which makes it especially
useful for day-to-day online meetings, multipoint video
and anywhere video is mixed with application and desktop
sharing.
The following sections provide more details on e/pop
major components and how they work together. |
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High Level Design
Like most modern software products, e/pop is designed
around0 a modular, high-level architecture. e/pop is a
distributed, client-server system, using TCP/IP
connections between browser-based clients and the
conferencing server (on-premise or hosted). e/pop uses
ports 80 and 443, the industry standard ports for web
services. It optionally uses a short list of additional
ports WiredRed has found effective for conferencing with
external participants (contact WiredRed for more
details). e/pop never uses broadcast, UDP, or
peer-to-peer protocols. For security reasons,
connections are always established by users going out
their firewall to connect to a server. The system never
attempts to connect outside-in, and there is no
peer-to-peer, nor any other protocols or connection
types that attempt to access desktops directly. The
diagram below highlights the major functional components
of the e/pop system.
Low Level Design
Except for the routing components (see below), the e/pop
low level design is largely beyond the scope of this
white paper. However, the following points are
exceptional. All e/pop client and server software
components are multi-threaded and re-entrant. e/pop
maintains separate threads for the user interface,
various applications (web, VoIP, multipoint video), send
and receive buffers and so on. There are several
components such as codecs, display capture drivers,
compression, mixing etc., that use in-line assembly
language to enhance speed. Client components take
advantage of SSE and MMX processor extensions, now
commonplace in laptops and personal computers. In
addition, all e/pop software is symmetric multiprocessor
enabled (SMP). If it is running on dual or quad
processors, it will automatically use the additional
processors to enhance performance. Simply view the task
manager to see multiple CPUs in action. These are
examples of the depth of technology required to deliver
a fluid conferencing experience, especially where
simultaneous desktop sharing and multiple videos are
involved.
Getting Connected – The e/pop Real-Time Routing
Architecture™, a Built-In VPN
A great deal of e/pop uniqueness is related to its
history and the underlying Real-Time Routing
Architecture on which e/pop is based. The Real-Rime
Routing Architecture was developed starting in 1998
specifically for multi-office communications. The early
customers of e/pop were in banks, hospitals and
government organizations where secure communications
over existing networks were paramount requirements.
Initially, this routing platform was used for
inter-office pop-up messaging, and later, remote
control, application sharing and multiparty VoIP,
followed by web and IP video conferencing. All the
connections were between multiple users behind separate
firewalls (i.e., on dynamic, private IP addresses).
This little piece of history is relevant here because it
highlights three characteristics of the Real-Time
Routing Architecture that are very important in
conferencing: 1) With more than eight years of
development, five generations and thousands of customer
installations running over NATs, firewalls, proxies,
private networks and the public Internet, e/pop achieves
over 95% success in establishing on-the-fly connections
with new users. It achieves virtually 100% connection
success on private networks. The routing architecture is
extremely good at getting users connected. 2) The above
includes security as an integral component with a proven
history, rich feature set and integration points. 3) And
most importantly from a quality point of view, e/pop is
very good at mixing desktop sharing, web, VoIP and video
data types for the best possible conferencing experience
(given relevant bandwidth and/or IT administered limits
at the server).
Note: As a technical aside, the latter point is
extremely difficult if not impossible for other products
to achieve using separate protocols or separate
connections for each data type. There is simply no way
to get the mixing, signaling and timing control needed.
This history also helps explain the difference in design
philosophy between e/pop and other products originally
intended for webinars and classroom presentations. In
e/pop, everyone in a meeting, should the host allow it,
is a full-fledged meeting participant with the ability
share materials, speak and be seen on video. The ability
to transmit information is not limited to the original
presenter. As such, e/pop works very well for routine
meetings, by far the vast reason for the majority of web
conferences taking place today.
In summary, the routing architecture can be described as
a built-in VPN. In communications parlance, it provides
a virtual channel over existing TCP/IP private networks
and the Internet. The channel is synchronous
(real-time), multipoint, full duplex and secure. This is
very different from previous generations of rich media
products that were broadcast (1:many, 1-way) and
streaming (1:many, 1-way, and not real-time). For more
information, please refer to the Real-Time Routing
Architecture document.
NAT, Firewall & Proxy Traversal and Over 50 Additional
Steps Invisible to the User
As noted in the Overview section above, e/pop users
always connect out their firewall to the conferencing
server, there are no attempts at direct access to a
desktop PC. In addition, e/pop uses a single TCP/IP
connection for all data types including desktop sharing,
web, VoIP and video. These design characteristics alone
provide e/pop with its network address translator (NAT)
and firewall traversal capabilities. Products designed
for classroom LAN-based or consumer peer-to-peer
applications typically cannot connect business users
over the Internet because the overwhelming majority of
business users are behind a firewall.
Proxies are a much more complex topic. Proxies are
essentially a network cache or a temporary storage for
web page traffic. They became popular in the late 1990s
as a way to reduce traffic for redundant web pages and
increase security by eliminating direct connections
between a desktop PCs and the public Internet. This was
especially true in larger networks and government
installations. Today, proxies have a more complex
feature set, and some products such as the Microsoft ISA
Server™ are a combination firewall and proxy.
Proxies can be a challenge for conferencing products and
services because they “break” the real-time connection
between a participant and the conferencing server.
However, e/pop is specifically designed to support users
behind proxies. e/pop observes all the industry
standards for marking packets (application type, time to
live values, etc.), and it supports all the leading
proxy standards. This includes proxy auto discovery (WPAD),
auto configuration (PAC), connection support (SOCKS4 and
SOCKS5) and http/https tunneling support. e/pop will
automatically pick the fastest connection type available
for each user.
The bottom line: the ability to connect to a video
conference should be painless and seamless for the end
user. If a user can browse the web, they can participate
in an e/pop web and video conference. Of course, the
proxy is still doing its job, users connected through a
proxy may experience a delay as the proxy is
intercepting and processing all web traffic. Under most
circumstances it is far better to connect and finish
your online meeting, even if a bit slower, than not
connect at all.
Exhibit A, at the end of this paper suggests some tests
for validating proxy support.
There are still many more steps to a successful
connection. IP conferencing solutions must consider the
operating system, Internet Explorer, ActiveX settings,
or Firefox and Netscape plug-in settings, user admin
rights, disk access rights and more. Many of these
considerations defeat conferencing users, especially in
larger networks and “hard lock-down” environments. It
should be noted that this may not apply to your network,
but it may apply to your intended conference
participants. In conferencing, it is not just your
network settings that are relevant, but also the
settings of those you intend to meet with online.
In the case of e/pop, it considers all these variables
and more. Over 50 steps are taken to establish the best
two-way connection. In all cases, e/pop favors the
connection alternative that provides the fastest
real-time performance. If a user can browse the web,
they can meet online using e/pop. In a worst-case
scenario, such as a hard lock-down PC behind a proxy,
the user may have to download the browser conference
components for each meeting (instead of once), and the
proxy may slow down their connection, but they can still
participate in the web and video conference.
Exhibit A suggests some tests to replicate common
scenarios on your network and especially on the networks
of your participants.
The User Interface – The Web Browser & Office Metaphor
The overriding design of the conferencing client user
interface is that of simplicity and routine use in the
office. The client uses both browser and Office
metaphors; anyone familiar with browsing the web and
using URLs or any Office application should have no
trouble using e/pop. The product was intended to be
immediately useful and familiar, reducing training
requirements and helpdesk calls.
Security
The topic of security is worthy of a dedicated white
paper itself. Security was a major design requirement
from end-to-end, including in the now fifth generation
routing architecture.
e/pop provides all the industry standard security
protections for products in this class. In addition, it
provides a rich set of features for higher levels of
security for sensitive applications.
For typical installations, customers can configure their
conference server to use HTTPS or TLS/SSL3 (Secure
Socket Layer 3) encrypted connections, or make this an
option for their conference hosts to decide.
Most importantly, e/pop is available as on-premise
software and hosted service. For maximum control, the
customer can opt for on-premise software and install the
product on their server. With control over physical
security, the customer maintains strict access to server
hardware and event logs. In addition, the customer can
run e/pop conferences entirely on their own private
network.
For sensitive applications, the customer can configure
e/pop to use their own security certificates and/or
public key infrastructure (PKI). Detailed settings
include SHA or MD5 hash for signing; RC4, IDEA, DES,
3DES, AES, RSA for encryption, with key lengths from 40
to 4096 bits.
Examining the real-time routing stack and the paragraph
above, the detailed reader will note that e/pop uses
one, and only one, connection between client and server.
All the data types – web conferencing, desktop sharing,
VoIP and video – go over this connection. There are some
products that use different protocols for each
application. For example, one for PowerPoint sharing
(https), another for desktop sharing (T.120) and so on.
This has the potential for creating security problems
when one protocol (or connection) is secured, but not
the other. With e/pop, either the connection is securely
established for all data types, or not, in which the
connection sequence fails. There is no mixed mode that
makes some data types secure, and the others not. Please
contact WiredRed for additional information on this
topic.
Audio/Video Codecs
As noted, e/pop uses a modular design. It is “codec
agnostic,” and uses a variety of audio and video coders
and decoders (codecs) that can be “snapped” in or out.
At the time this document was written, over 20 codecs
were available to e/pop, with the following subset used
in the standard product: custom MPEG4 for video (H263
and MPEG4 available); and 3GPP, AMR WB and GSM for
audio. These are WiredRed implementations of industry
standard algorithms, with the best selected for optimum
results with standard peripherals in noisy environments.
These codecs were implemented within the e/pop
framework, so that e/pop can maximize the speed, CPU
utilization and data flow (timing) between the
application, codec, mixing (data, VoIP, video), buffers,
and the TCP/IP routing mentioned above. The
implementation was highly optimized for speed.
Industry Standard Audio/Video Peripherals
One of the greatest benefits of modern IP-based
conferencing solutions is that they use industry
standard audio and video peripherals. Using
off-the-shelf video components generally means improved
reliability because higher volume hardware manufacturing
processes are used, easier replacement and contingency
plans as hardware devices can be found virtually
anywhere in the world and are readily swapped out and
replaced, and most importantly, off-the-shelf devices
are far less expensive and more cost-effective.
e/pop supports all Windows USB 1.0 and 2.0 (recommended)
webcams. In addition, e/pop can support any direct video
input with a Windows DirectX (v8.1 or later) device
driver supplied by the manufacturer. This means almost
any
video input can be mated to a video capture card,
and the result shared in an e/pop conference.
e/pop IT Friendly Implementation
Referring to the high-level design above, note that
there is no server software install-time dependencies.
e/pop includes all the software needed in one executable
set, including real-time routing components (built-in
VPN), conference server, run-time database, and run-time
web server. The installation wizard will complete the
install in just a few mouse clicks. As a benefit of
encapsulating all needed software, the on-going
maintenance burden is dramatically reduced and totally
eliminated for hosted service customers.
In addition to the security features already described
above, e/pop also includes several user, feature, and
bandwidth controls. The controls allow IT staff to
control access, use, routing, and bandwidth consumption
so they can optimize e/pop for their own environment.
The overall intent of these administrative features is
to make e/pop easy to install, maintain and secure.
The e/pop Design – Why is it Better For Certain
Applications?
Through a combination of prescient design and
marketplace evolution, there are several aspects of
e/pop architecture that make it better for certain
applications.
The real-time routing platform, with eight years of
refinement, is extremely efficient at getting ad-hoc
users connected over their existing networks and the
public Internet. This is very useful when conferencing
with new users every day. There are no requirements for
participants to install custom software, session border
controllers, MUXs, MCUs, and so on.
Another aspect of the real-time routing platform is the
detailed controls over mixing multiple data types (web,
VoIP and video) over one connection. e/pop is especially
good at desktop and application sharing in multipoint
video conferences. Very few products achieve this level
of fluid, real-time response for all parties in a
conference. This makes e/pop very useful for day-to-day
meetings, and in particular, online problem solving
sessions that otherwise would require an in-person
visit.
Because e/pop is fully encapsulated in one executable
set, and as noted above, uses one connection for mixed
data types, it is ideal for applications where ease of
installation, maintenance and especially security are
concerned.
Lastly, e/pop uses existing networks and industry
standard audio and video peripherals. Webcams by
Logitech, Creative Labs, Sony and others produce the
same native resolution as legacy video conferencing
hardware, but at far lower cost. This makes e/pop better
for applications where price/performance and reasonable
cost are required.
Summary
The increase in complexity of products and services
coupled with rising travel costs is driving increased
business interest in video conferencing. The financial
benefit is moving select meetings online in order to
increase the reach and frequency of sales, training, and
inter-office meetings, while reducing hard cash travel
expenses.
Moore’s Law, more CPU power and better Internet
connections are powering a new breed of IP-based video
conferencing products. Unlike previous generations of
technology, IP conferencing uses cost-effective video
peripherals, reaches anyone with a desktop PC and an
Internet connection, and requires no advance
installation work for the meeting participants. Video
conferencing is not just for the boardroom anymore.
These new capabilities are creating new applications for
video conferencing among small and mid-sized business
and line staff in organizations of all sizes.
Thanks to ever increasing desktop display technology,
video conferencing vendors will soon reach the limits of
human audio/video perception. At that point vendors will
compete among themselves based on their ability to
connect on-the-fly participants, deliver a high-quality,
fluid conferencing experience with mixed audio, video
and application sharing, and on total cost. Note: See
Exhibit A for other factors.
WiredRed’s e/pop product is one of the best examples of
this new breed. It includes a full-suite of web, VoIP
and video conferencing features. e/pop works by
providing all the software and routing components needed
for successful conferences; and uses existing networks,
the public Internet and standard PCs for cost
effectiveness. e/pop is IT friendly, available as
software (easy install, single executable set) or hosted
service, along with security and user controls. The
mechanics of how e/pop works – the emphasis on
connection success (firewall and proxy traversal), one
TCP/IP connection for all data types, and high-speed
compression and mixing – make e/pop especially good at
everyday meetings and anytime multipoint video is used
with application and desktop sharing.
Exhibit A – Multipoint Video Conferencing Evaluation
Criteria
General
Is the product full-featured with web (PowerPoint,
document, application and desktop sharing, annotation,
white boarding and more), VoIP and multipoint video
conferencing?
Is the product available as on-premise software,
service, or both?
Is the product designed for online meetings where
everyone can participate and share anything on their PC
on-the-fly including video in real-time? Or, is the
product designed for formal webinars and presentations
(with pre-processed material)? Can the product do both?
Connection Success
Can the product support 10 or more people in the same
meeting with everyone behind separate firewalls? Behind
separate proxies? Over the public Internet? On a private
networks between LAN segments and network address
translators (NATs)?
Suggested test for IT/technical staff: Activate a
Microsoft ISA server. Test with users “behind” this
combination firewall and proxy. Test with default ISA
settings. Test with and without the Microsoft ISA client
installed (many sites do not install the client
component). Repeat this test with Squid Proxy. This
proxy has no client, and supports http v1.1 only. Keep
in mind these scenarios may not exist on your network,
but are likely to occur on your participants’ networks!
Can the product support 10 concurrent users all in one
conference (or several smaller conferences totaling 10)?
25? 50? 500? Can the product support multi-server
installations?
Can new participants join a conference without
installing a fat client or other pre-requisites (JVM)?
Does it support Internet Explorer, Netscape and Firefox?
A Windows auto-run client?
Superior Multipoint Video with Application and Desktop
Sharing
Can the product select from multiple video devices?
Easily change size, quality and frame-rate on-the-fly?
Change all video participants to low, medium or high?
Does the product have an easy to use play-all feature?
Can the product display multipoint video and desktop or
application sharing at the same time? With good, fluid
results?
Does the product support MMX and SSE processor
extensions? Dual, Duo-Core and quad processor support (SMP)?
Easy to Install, Maintain, and Secure (IT Staff)
Does the product have one server executable set /
installation wizard? Is the product free of software
pre-requisites and maintenance dependencies (including
web server, database, and interpreters such as JVM)?
Does the product offer industry-standard SSL3/TLS
encryption? Can it use the customer’s Certificate? Can
it integrate with the customer’s PKI? Does the product
use one TCP/IP connection per participant? If not, are
all the connections and protocols secure?
Easy to Use (Network Users)
Does the product employ easy to read, industry standard
URLs? Does the product follow common browser and
office-style layouts for immediate usability (and less
training)?
Industry Standard Audio/Video Peripherals
Can the product use popular, off-the-shelf webcams and
conference room cameras? Industry standard audio gear?
Can the product use a video capture card and accept any
S-video input?
Other – APIs, Customization, Outlook Integration,
Bandwidth Check …
Can the customer create custom conference server welcome
pages, including logos, color schemes and text?
Does the product have a .Net/XML web services API for
portals and custom applications?
Can the user start meetings directly from any Office
application, Outlook, and/or send Outlook Calendar
invitations?
Can the meeting host verify a participant’s PC is within
specifications? Has sufficient bandwidth for video?
Can the sys admin set user and feature controls to limit
desktop sharing and video?
Please contact WiredRed for the Excel version of this
exhibit.
Worldwide Sales Offices:
Americas & Canada
WiredRed Software
Corporate Headquarters
Tel. +1-858-715-0970
United Kingdom
WiredRed UK Ltd
Chichester, West Sussex
Tel. +44 (0) 870 224 0415
France
e/pop France
Tel. +33 (0) 492 95 2830
Tel. 0825 828 932 (in France)
Contact Sales
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