VideoConferencing Products-I

Video conferencing can be done using a desktop computer or by using

independent units. So the cost for a professional solution can be from a few

lakh rupees to Rs 50—60 lakh, depending upon the setup. Some of the players

selling their solutions include Tata Telecom, Visionaire India and Godrej Prima.

Their solutions range from desktop video cameras to end-station units,

multi-conferencing units and even gateways.

POLYCOM ViaVideo



This camera is meant for desktop video conferencing, and complies with the

H.323 standard, meaning it will work on any IP-based network. It can therefore

be used on an office network or the Internet. For the latter, you need

sufficient bandwidth to get the best results from it. Its manual specifies this

as 32 kbps or above, but what’s actually needed is at least 128 kbps to get

workable quality.

The beauty of the system is its ease of installation, minimal configuration

requirements and user-friendly operation. A first look at the device gives the

impression of a regular webcam, but there is much more hardware inside! It has

signal processing and memory hardware to capture and encode the video. It uses

its own processor, namely the Philips TriMedia 1300, which takes the entire

processing load off your PC. A webcam on the other hand, is just a video

interface to the PC, and takes all the processing power from the PC. The

ViaVideo does not use anything else from your PC except your network/Internet

connection and some bit of resources to support the interface to the conference.

The camera has a slider on the front near the lens aperture, which doubles as

a power switch, and for closing its shutter. A blinking LED shows the camera’s

status (‘software not running’, ‘ready’ or ‘in call’). Plus, it has

a focus wheel and a powerful microphone, which connects to your sound card’s

mic-in socket through the supplied cable. It connects to a PC through USB, and

draws its power from a separate 7.5-12 V DC power adapter. The camera’s

software has to be installed before hooking it to the system.

The installation is straightforward and runs on Windows 98/2000/Me. It also

needs DirectX 7.0 or above, MS NetMeeting and ODBC support and will install them

if not already present. If you use it on the Internet, you can register it with

an ILS (Internet Locator Service) server or the PolyCom Global Address Book

server. Other users can use this address book to call you. The software also

calibrates the camera for the ambient light conditions after half an hour of

operation.

We tested the camera on our local 10/100 Mbps LAN. It can connect to the

remote host either manually using an IP-address or by using the global/local

address book. A neat feature of its dial-pad let’s you select the connect

speed in kbps. This can be useful if you’re connecting over limited bandwidth.

A 64 kbps connect gave us acceptable audio quality but very pixilated and jerky

video.

At 128 Kbps, however, the audio was completely break-free and the video

resolution improved. However, the picture became jerky at the receiver’s end

if there were rapid movements in front of the camera. Finally at 384 kbps, both

audio and video were smooth and of good quality. Another good thing we noted was

that the audio and video were in complete synchronization with each other during

all calls. Once a call goes through and connection established, the experience

is very much like a videophone. A docked GUI that looks like a TV remote lets

you control the speaker volume, remote microphone gain, PIP option and snapshot

button.

More from Tata Telecom



Besides the ViaVideo camera, the company also deals in PolyCom end-station

units and MCUs from Lucent Technologies. The end-station units’ range, known

as the ViewStation range, has several models, differing in various factors like

the bandwidth support, standards, etc. For instance, there are end-stations that

support H.323 standard, and are therefore suited for use within a network over

IP. The ViewStation 4000 is a rack-mountable video conferencing codec, which can

be used over an IP based network or ISDN.

It supports multi-point conferencing of up to four sites, and can connect

multiple monitors and microphones if need be, as in large meeting rooms. It

supports voice-activated switching, and chair control, which moves to camera to

quickly move to multiple speakers in a meeting room. There are about eight

different ViewStation models, the cost for which ranges between Rs 3-12 lakh per

unit. The MCU consists of a H.323 and H.320 gateway to convert internal IP based

calls to ISDN. The MCU consists of a base unit, and the ports. The base unit

costs Rs 15-17 lakh, which comes with a few ports. Additional ports cost between

Rs 3 to 5 lakh.