video conferencing – Onlignment Archive

Interoperability Matters

Despite the increasing use of web conferencing, instant messaging, and social media tools in the workplace, email shows no sign of disappearing. There are plenty of arguments for and against email, but it has one very big plus that most other systems don’t have; no matter which email system you’re using, you know it’s interoperable with everyone else’s email system.

Imagine if GMail users could only email other GMail users, or if you could only email other people inside your organisation. Of course, it would take away most of the benefits of using email. It works because everyone adopted the same set of standards, and although there may sometimes be inconsistencies with style and formatting, you know you can usually rely on the message being delivered.

The same can’t be said for web conferencing and telepresence platforms, and it’s easy to understand why the platform vendors like to keep things closed; they usually work on a per seat licence basis that wouldn’t stand up to a more open model. It’s hard to imagine email (or the telephone, mobile phones or text messaging) becoming as commonplace as they have, if the user was tied to a particular vendor, software, hardware or network.

I’d like to see this same open approach to standards applied to web conferencing, because I’m sure that it would increase overall adoption. It seems to me that the budget decision to invest in this kind of platform must be easier to justify if you can demonstrate more opportunities to use it.

Things may be heading in the right direction. When Cisco aquired Tandberg, they announced that they would be adopting their own Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP) and that they would open source it, a commitment that they recently delivered on. It allows interoperability between Cisco and Tandberg telepresence systems, as well as any third party system that supports it. At the moment that’s limited to Cisco’s own Webex Meeting Centre, and Microsoft Office Communicator, but let’s hope that other vendors adopt the same standard, rather than introducing their own.

Virtual meetings as the first choice?

cc licensed flickr photo
Here in the UK the snow continues to fall, and yet another face to face meeting is cancelled. I had a quick chat with the other person involved and we’ve now arranged to hold the meeting at the same time as originally planned, but via Skype. Simple.
So why didn’t we just do that in the first place?
As someone professionally involved in virtual communication and collaboration, I regularly look for oportunities to do things online rather than in person, and yet it surprised me how many times in the past year I’d met with people face to face when maybe it could have happened virtually.
I think we tend to assume that certain types of meeting and event should happen in person, and as a result we don’t consider all the options.
Going forward I’ve resolved that for myself, virtual options will be the first I consider. That doesn’t mean I don’t intend to do anything in person (far from it), but where the inconvenience of travel, time and location outweigh the benefits of meeting in person I think it’s right to question doing it any other way.
What I’d really like to know is what you think.
Are there any particular circumstances when we shouldn’t even consider doing things virtually? I’m thinking about this in the context of meetings, interviews, training activites, conferences and any other event where the default behaviour is to do it face to face.
Similarly I’m thinking of the whole range of virtual solutions from VoIP to Telepresence, whatever is appropriate.
So why don’t we just consider doing things virtually as the first option?

Tandberg Shareholders Hold Out For More From Cisco

We recently reported on the news that Cisco had acquired Tandberg, the Norway based video communication business, but it seems they may decide to drop their bid.
Less than 10% of Tandberg’s shareholders accepted Cisco’s $3 billion offer. Cisco have now extended the deadline to 18th November, but have said that if its offer is not accepted by the required 90% of Tandberg’s shareholders, it will withdraw.
This may just be sabre rattling on both sides, but considering that the current offer is a premium of nearly 40% on the current share price, it’s a remarkable show of confidence by Tandberg’s shareholders.
Cisco CEO John Chambers has expressed confidence that the deal will go through, and has reminded Tandberg’s shareholders that they have already walked away from other deals this year where they couldn’t get the pricing right. Bearing in mind that one of the deals they walked away from was with LifeSize, recently acquired by Logitech, and that Tandberg has a 40% share of the video conferencing market, they may not find it so easy to walk away from this deal.

Logitech buys LifeSize

It was announced today that consumer peripherals maker Logitech has bought LifeSize, a video conferencing business based in Austin, Texas.
Logitech is one of the biggest players in the PC peripherals market, producing a wide range of webcams, headsets and microphones, as well as mice, keyboards, and music and gaming equipment.
This is definitely one to watch. If Logitech employs their consumer knowhow to make video conferencing a more affordable option, it has the potential to turn it into a more mainstream tool. Indeed, in their press release they suggest that it is their intention to make video communication as common as voice only communication.
The full press release can be read here.

Cisco Acquires Tandberg

Cisco today announced the acquisition of Tandberg, a Norwegian video communications company. Tandberg offer a range of hardware and software solutions from personal video conferencing through to high end Telepresence solutions, as well as network and content infrastructure tools and professional services.
According to their press release “This proposed acquisition would combine TANDBERG’s best-in-class telepresence and video conferencing portfolio with Cisco’s world-class collaboration architecture and network capabilities.”
This is a significant acquisition for Cisco, that clearly indicates a belief that there is a growing market for virtual communication technologies.

3D video conferencing

Brings together a number of news items about 3D video conferencing.

George Siemens laments how video conferencing doesn’t provide you with all the visual cues you would like:
“It’s tough presenting to a conference when you, as the presenter, lack visual cues. Sure, you can see the people seated around tables, you can see the layout of the room, but if it’s a larger group, you miss the important communication signals of eye contact, raised eyebrows…or people falling asleep. Video conferencing with smaller groups does allow for transition of greater detail (a smile, confused look), but it doesn’t allow for eye contact. Contact is with the camera. Tracking eye movement is important for feeling connected with others.”
George points to this video about ‘HeadSPIN: A One-to-Many 3D Video Teleconferencing System’. According to the blurb, “This installation presents a 3D teleconferencing system that enables true eye contact between a three-dimensionally transmitted subject and multiple participants in an audience. The system is able to reproduce the effects of gaze, attention, and eye contact not available in traditional teleconferencing systems.”
This week’s Economist also picked up on the potential for applying new 3D imaging technologies to video conferencing. In 3D – It’s nearly there, the Economist reports how Accenture “has equipped two non-adjacent rooms at its research centre in Sophia Antipolis, France, with cameras so that a wall-mounted screen in each one serves as a window into the other. It is now using 3-D displays to allow people to ‘share’ objects and data between the two rooms.”
The article also describes the Eyeliner projection system devised by Musion, a company based in London. The system “projects high-definition video onto nearly transparent screens made of very thin foil, in a modern updating of the old ‘Pepper’s ghost’ stage illusion. The effect, for viewers a few metres away, is a lifelike, full-sized 3-D moving image of a person that appears to float in space, without any visible screen.” Apparently. the technology has been used by Al Gore, Bill Gates, Prince Charles and other celebrities to appear on stage at conferences without being physically present. See the video.
Sell those BA shares while you can.