Video Conferencing: Next Gen Communication

Globalization is happening fast and communication technologies are helping eradicate geographical boundaries. Video is gaining importance due to cross-cultural engagement between employees and organizations. As per Frost&Sullivan survey, the videoconferencing market in 2005-06 touched Rs 65.6 crore and is likely to grow at a CAGR of 24.9% till 2011.

As convergence brings voice, data, and video onto the same network, new technologies are rewriting the rules of collaboration. In the past, videoconferences in particular have been difficult to set up, challenging to use, and frequently unsatisfying in their ability to replicate in-person meetings and the benefits of face-to-face interaction.

To improve this situation, companies are working on new technology that delivers a unique, in-person experience over the converged network. "Conferencing solutions are becoming more and more integral part of the corporate strategy of the enterprises at all levels, be it tele-presence solutions or the basic desktop conferencing," says Lars Ronning, president, ANZ, NSEZ and India, Tandberg.

With the onset of 3G videoconferencing as well as increasing popularity of software-based solutions and interest in enhanced collaborative tools, the markets are providing vast opportunities for growth as videoconferencing is increasingly offered as part of the product mix by various solution providers.

"While developments in telemedicine, distance learning, and e-Governance are also likely to contribute to the spread of video as part of unified communication solutions, there is strong evidence that point-to-point, standalone videoconferencing solutions are expected to all but disappear, as the shift to IP accelerates and vendor partnerships continue to drive the convergence landscape," says Yugal Sharma, country manager, India and SAARC, Polycom.

Growing in India

The growth of the overall Asia Pacific videoconferencing endpoints markets are expected to be led by the corporate sector, where converged voice, data, and video solutions are likely to have their strongest appeal, primarily as productivity tools for knowledge workers. The videoconferencing market in India offers great potential for growth too. There is a growth explosion expected (30% for the next two years) in the medium-term, beyond which growth rates will stabilize at 22%. Growth is witnessed not only in the large enterprise segment; but even small and medium businesses are adopting videoconferencing solutions, recognizing the vast benefits they offer. Notable developments in recent months include prominent mergers and continued progress in migration from Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) to Internet Protocol (IP) Network. In the coming years, factors like cost of ownership, maintenance of infrastructure, and general perception that people had about conferencing as a luxury and a hassle is slowly dying. "With the introduction of the concept of high definition, videoconferencing is likely to gain momentum and we really see this growing at rapid pace." Minhaj Zia, business development manager, Unified Communication, India and SAARC, Cisco. Also with the wide scale adoption of ICT technologies and high definition solutions, we are heading toward a bright future.                                                                                                  

Videoconferencing Spreads

Videoconferencing as a technology has now started moving out of conference rooms. The industry is now gradually moving from group systems to desktop videoconferencing systems. Apart from large enterprises, small and medium enterprises are also adapting videoconferencing solutions. Enterprises today are looking forward to leading edge technology, flexible conferences, flexible deployment, common management suites, highly scalable solutions, secure VoIP conferencing, embedded multipoint options and more in videoconferencing solutions. Videoconferencing, therefore, spells power of integration, bringing some inherent advantages within your reach. With 3G coming in, another evolutionary step is from desktop to mobiles being able to communicate wherever you are. Home Office solutions are also picking up significantly. We are offering 4-5 solutions for Home Offices and this is being mainly driven by increased emphasis on work life balance and to get information on the go. According to K Shivashankar, country manager, LifeSize India, "Conferencing is absolutely moving out of the business world and into the home. The optimal form factor is still to be determined as cost and ease-of-use will be critical components, but the idea of having high definition videoconferencing as an essential day-to-day communications element for the consumer is only a matter of time."

Business conferences and decision-making options depend critically upon the availability of information at the right time. In order to save time, business meetings are increasingly being conducted over telecommunication networks with the help of videoconferencing. Conferencing solutions provider offers a richer and more intimate communication environment, which makes interaction of any sorts convenient, effective and easy.

Technology Shift

Technologically, a massive migration is happening from circuit-switched ISDN transmission to packet switched IP networks. IP promises easier management, lower costs, higher bandwidth calls enabling higher quality audio and video, and integration to corporate IT mainstream. This technological shift has also lead to easier deployment of videoconferencing solutions. Other than that improvement in video systems in terms of price, performance and feature richness, new recommendations from ITU to make IP connectivity between different network providers standardized, standard data collaboration tools such as H.239 have all taken videoconferencing to new heights.

The Challenges

Despite its inherent technological and cost advantages, videoconferencing over converged network faces certain challenges that impede its growth. In India, the biggest challenges were regulatory restrictions imposed by the Indian government and interoperability issues that result from lack of standardization. Moreover, there is lack of education and low awareness on the business benefits of conferencing solutions. Factors like cost of ownership, maintenance of infrastructure, and the general perception about videoconferencing as an item of luxury could possibly impact growth of this market. "At present, most of the enterprises connect via ISDN. However, Internet based connections are increasing in popularity and many public rooms have come up in India, which allow these conferencing over IP network. Having said this, bandwidth issues at the backend need to be addressed to ensure that full benefits of videoconferencing can be availed," says Shivashankar.

Fortunately, broadband is fast becoming all pervasive in India and looking ahead IP-based networks will play a critical role in advancing the broadband penetration in the country. Bandwidth availability and the price of bandwidth will also be driving adoption of videoconferencing. India is a growing economy and there is immense competition among the companies. Pressure to be more productive at lower costs, short time to market and being able to reach people are pertinent for the companies to gain competitive edge, and these requirements are driving adoption of videoconferencing in the country.

 After a decade of languishing in the dark corners of the communication market, telepresence emerged as the most promising conferencing trend in 2006. After the launch of HP's Halo, Cisco launched its Telepresence Meeting System solution along with Polycom's real presence solutions RPX series. These solutions added a new meaning to two-way interactive visual communication and exceeded the boundaries of traditional videoconferencing system. Interest of fortune 500 companies in high performance immersive visual communications that are highly reliable and easy to use has given a much required take off to the telepresence segment, despite the high initial costs and operating costs of such systems.

Reality Bites

In some cases, these products use a room-within-a-room environment along with life-size images, and high-definition resolution with spatial and discrete audio to create a live, face-to-face meeting around a single 'virtual' table. These systems use the standard IP technology deployed in corporations today, and run on an integrated voice/video/data network. Such systems support high-quality, real-time voice and video communications with branch offices using broadband connections. They also offer capabilities for ensuring quality of service (QoS), security, reliability, and high availability for high-bandwidth applications such as video, particularly high definition video, which can require 1Mbps to 5Mbps, depending upon the resolution.

Telepresence is a videoconferencing experience that creates the illusion that the remote participants are in the same room. There are four key elements that are kept in mind for generating this experience; these include high quality audio video, simplicity, high reliability and environmental excellence.

"Polycom truly believes that India is a ripe market for a space that is worth around $3 bn worldwide as per various research agencies. Potential applications would span across areas like boardroom meetings, corporate conferences, high-end surgeries, operation theaters, education and distance learning etc," says Yugal Sharma of Polycom.

Telepresence solutions are designed to deliver an all-immersive experience and typically require 4-24 Mbps of high performance and high QoS IP bandwidth. That usually means a dedicated network is required.

As more and more organizations join effective visual collaboration networks, the utility, value, and RoI of being connected to these networks grow, creating the same potential for exponential growth that characterized telephony and the Internet.

Over the next decade, virtually every Global 5000 Company will adopt a technology allowing them to interact with people, no matter how far away, as if they were in the same room. The technology is called telepresence, and a variety of Fortune 1000 organizations already started using it, reporting both satisfaction and a strong RoI.

Future Scope

"Videoconferencing is moving beyond corporate to the government sector, judiciary, distance learning, entertainment and telemedicine," says Shivashankar. There is an increased use of videoconferencing systems for interviewing candidates, interaction with relatives settled abroad, reviews and meetings, product launches, press conferences and auditioning actors. Videoconferencing promises applications also in healthcare, education, and government segments, as prices for hardware and bandwidth reduces and awareness about the technology spreads in the market.

Gone are the days of extended travel, waiting in long airport security lines, travel delays, inflated travel budgets and lost productivity. As organizations become more diverse in business applications, acquisitions and mergers become more common and multi-national work forces become the standard, decision makers are looking for ways to make communicating among their knowledge workers easy.

Collaborative technologies will enable business partners to easily switch back and forth from web, video and audio conferencing to see and hear each other and to share documents and information in real time. Today's enterprises are also looking forward to leading edge technology, flexible conferences, flexible deployment, common management suites, highly scalable solutions, secure VoIP conferencing, embedded multipoint options and videoconferencing solutions.

Today, networks are becoming increasingly scalable and enterprises are realizing the benefits of having all the applications on the network. The real impact of videoconferencing technology can only be realized when the user's experience is close to natural face-to-face meeting, and telepresence in this respect has already started revolutionizing room based videoconferencing services.

India will be one of the biggest markets worldwide for videoconferencing solutions. The enterprise user is getting financially stronger and as now they care competing globally, they need to be more productive and lower the costs of videoconferencing solutions.

sonias@cybermedia.co.in

Sonia Sharma