Industry Commentary: Cisco Video Conferencing & HD Telepresence
The following commentary is provided by WiredRed Software regarding recent
(January 2007) industry announcements, articles and news surrounding the Cisco
entry into the budding telepresence market.
 Of course Cisco and video conferencing are nothing new. Cisco has several
product lines dedicated to this application, including executive VC station
hardware, and their IP/VC products such as video multiplexers (MUXs). What’s
noteworthy is the latest major push by Cisco TelePresence joining HP Halo,
LifeSize and others in redefining the high-end of the videoconference market.
Last to market, but not to be outdone, Cisco announcements promote high-fidelity
surround sound, large flat-panel displays, full-screen video, real-time response
and a fully immersive, studio-quality conferencing environment. In a surprise
move, the details of some announcements proudly mention Cisco homegrown,
non-industry standard components.
This commentary explores this new product line and where it fits with respect to
the industry at large, competitors, alternatives, and the latest generation
IP-based video conferencing software products such as those sold by WiredRed.
What is HD telepresence?Telepresence can be loosely described as fixed-site video conferencing hardware
on steroids. Of course, high-definition (HD) is an important element. But the decisive quality that sets telepresence apart is studio
quality "immersion." The best telepresence products include a very precise, physical
build-out of the conference room very much like a movie or sound stage. This
includes camera, microphone and speaker placement, so that gaze angles are
reduced, and participants enjoy an actual-size display of all participants and full spectrum,
surround-sound-like audio. Indeed, these facilities are often referred to as
studios by vendors and the employees that are fortunate enough to use them.
Who is cinematic telepresence for? How much does it cost? Telepresence systems are very expensive, it is not uncommon to find pricing in
the range of $100,000 to $250,000 for each studio, plus monthly fees of $6,000
per site or more for dedicated bandwidth and on-going services.
The
characteristics of these systems –studio build-out, extreme price, immersive
quality – are defining an entirely new, uber high-end marketplace comprised of
record labels, film studios, oil company headquarters and so on. And at these
prices, yes, they really do deliver a cinematic experience. Who services
this new market? Which product is best? A good comparison would be to research
and physically experience Cisco Telepresence (IPVC), HP Halo, and LifeSize, and see
which one is better. All of these competitors are defining the new telepresence
market segment.
Market OverviewWith new telepresence systems creating a new high-end market segment, and IP
video adding a whole new set of alternatives for small-to-medium business, the
video conferencing (VC) market is enjoying a renaissance of sorts.
The general industry wisdom is web and video conferencing applications are going
up across the board. Often cited reasons include the ever increasing complexity
of products and services that require better visual communications tools,
decentralization, globalization, telecommuting and other factors that drive
multi-location team meetings. Add to this increasing travel costs, travel
restrictions, and time delays, and it’s no wonder the industry is experiencing a
growth spurt.
At the risk of over-simplification, WiredRed sees the general VC business
markets morphing along the following lines:
Telepresence – the new high-end
- Description: fixed-Site, complete audio/video studio build-out, requires
dedicated, high-bandwidth network routes (DS3+)
- Pricing: extreme, easily $100,000/site and up
- Pros: immersive quality, ideal for specialty, cost-is-no-object applications
- Cons: studio-to-studio only, no ad hoc conferencing
- Examples: Cisco HD Telepresence, HP Halo, LifeSize, and other competitors
Boardroom video conferencing hardware
- Description: fixed site, video conferencing hardware, dedicated network routes
- Pricing: complex, generally $50,000 and up including video MCUs/MUXs and all
hardware components required
- Pros: ideal for boardroom video conferencing
- Cons: cost, complexity, conferencing limited to like facilities
- Examples: Tandberg, Polycom, and other alternatives
IP-Based Video Conferencing Software
- Description: desktop IP-based video conferencing software
- Pricing: depends on vendor
- Pros: ideal for desktop video conferencing, low cost, uses browsers, desktop
PCs and depending on vendor, proprietary or PC-based audio/video peripherals
- Cons: depends on existing networks for video quality; products with
peer-to-peer, classroom, and local area network legacy struggle with
firewall/proxy traversal (e.g., NetMeeting)
- Examples: e/pop by WiredRed, see below, others
SPECIAL EXAMPLE: WiredRed’s e/pop software
e/pop is one of the fastest growing web and video conferencing products for
business. It is an excellent example of the latest IP-based conferencing
solutions.
- Description: secure, browser-based web, VoIP, and multiparty video
conferencing; runs over existing public and private networks
- Pricing: low cost, simple fixed-fee pricing (software or online service)
- Pros: excellent ad hoc conferencing with virtually any business PC worldwide
(firewall and proxy traversal); uses readily available audio and video
peripherals; secure SSL3/TLS conferencing, can even use the customer's
certificate and/or public key infrastructure; complete web conferencing/collaboration feature set; simple pricing
- Cons: depends on existing network for video quality, some sites may be
limited to low- and medium-quality video (note: software automatically adjusts
to mixed-speed connections)
ASP, Telco, and OEM
These specialized market segments are beyond the scope of this commentary. A key
issue here is whether the application is for business-to-business or consumer
communications. Commercial products require security, firewall and proxy
traversal, and multiparty conferencing such as that provided by e/pop; while
consumer applications can live with no security, 2-party limits and peer-to-peer
connections (which do not work between business users behind separate
firewalls). For more information and white papers on these topics, please
contact WiredRed directly.
Cisco TelePresence & Market SummaryThe recent Cisco entree into the emerging
HD telepresence market is wonderful.
Cisco’s market presence and the quality of their offering are galvanizing
attention, creating more awareness and possibly among the many factors spurring
real market growth industry-wide. We see the future of telepresence as bright.
After all, who doesn’t want to take a spin on the holodeck? As to the large
expense, generally over $100,000 per facility, and physical conference room
build-out, that’s all part of telepresence studio mystique and the select market
for this new class of product. As to the oft-cited criticism – homegrown,
non-industry-standard components – we disagree. For fixed-sites with dedicated
network routes, industry standards don’t matter. There is no claim to data
interchange. Moreover, at these prices all hardware, software and on-going
services are managed by the vendor anyway. They are paid to manage that
complexity for you and provide a turnkey studio.
We view the latest telepresence products and services as battling it out with
traditional video conferencing hardware vendors. The latter will get the brunt
of any overlap between telepresence and traditional video conferencing hardware.
It won’t matter much, because the entire market is growing, and much like email
did not make FAX machines go away, we’ll see VC hardware sitting in boardrooms
for a long time.
As an industry participant, we are most excited about the growth at the other
end of the market spectrum: desktop IP-based video conferencing systems such as
our own e/pop product. These systems are much more appropriate for the
small-to-medium size enterprise, affectionately known as the “big end” of the
market. The advantages of browser-based, ad hoc conferencing to any desktop
worldwide, over existing networks and use of standard PC audio/video peripherals, all
at reasonable fixed prices are very compelling (to the SME market) versus all
the other alternatives described above.
We are indeed enjoying the recent telepresence announcements, but we lament so
few people will benefit. With the power of Moore’s law and Pentium processors,
IP-based video conferencing software rivals traditional boardroom hardware – and
the latest generation of IP conferencing technology will take these benefits to
thousands of installations and millions of people worldwide.
For those researching video conferencing solutions of any kind, we encourage you
to look at software-based, IP video solutions too. If you have never experienced
a full-screen IP-based video conferencing session, you might be very surprised.
Schedule a Live IP Video Conferencing DemoClick here to schedule a Live Demo and see e/pop multiparty video conferencing
for yourself, right from your own desktop!
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