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Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1The Desktop Video Conferencing (DVC) Value Proposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Desktop Video Conferencing Market Adoption and Enabling Trends . . . . . . . . . . 3Managing the Complexity of DVC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Global IP Solutions – an Engine to Drive DVC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
IntroductionVideo conferencing, in various forms, has been with us for many years, but has never shown as much promise as today.We are now seeing a favorable alignment of trends driving both supply and demand that translates into a promisingmarket opportunity, not just for having more cost-effective solutions, but for providing better ways to collaborate.
These developments hold true for all varieties of video conferencing, but in particular, desktop video conferencing (DVC).To date, this market has been limited due to immature technology which has produced poor end-user experiences.However, the underlying technology enabling DVC has evolved to the point where it can now deliver a quality end-userexperience. As good as this experience can be today, it will be even better in the near term with the advent of HighDefinition (HD) desktop video conferencing.
This white paper has been prepared to explain the value proposition behind desktop video conferencing, especially inconjunction with other solutions, such as telepresence. Supporting this is an analysis of the trends that create themomentum we believe will make desktop video conferencing as ubiquitous as PCs themselves, and even mobilephones in the years to come.
Finally, the paper outlines the complex challenges around desktop video conferencing, and the role that Global IPSolutions (GIPS) plays to enable a high-quality end-user experience. This applies not just to today, but beyond, asdesktop video conferencing moves forward to support enhancements such as HD and mobility.
The Desktop Video Conferencing Value PropositionDesktop video conferencing holds an inherent appeal on many levels. However, DVC is far from ubiquitous, despite the fact that the vast majority of people use a PC, both at work and at home. Today, most video conferencing activity occurs inthe business environment, often in a boardroom or conferencing facility. These video conferencing solutions are based onexpensive and complex technologies, and while delivering a high-quality experience, are not accessible to most employees.However, they certainly have distinct merits, and must be considered to fully understand what DVC has to offer, and whyits potential is just beginning to be realized.
Desktop Video Conferencing: Better Than You ThinkReady for Every Desktop Today and In High Definition Tomorrow
Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates
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We see DVC as sharing a continuum with two other basic forms of video conferencing—immersive and boardroom. All threesolutions can deliver a high-quality experience, but as one moves from left to right along this continuum, they generallybecome less complex, less expensive, more flexible and more accessible.
At the far left of the continuum is immersive video conferencing. This is the most sophisticated form of video conferencing,and is often called “telepresence.” Not only are the images life-size, but the visuals are very crisp—often in HD, theaudio is crystal clear, and the video is nearly flawless. However, to make this experience possible, these systems requirea highly customized, dedicated meeting room, and a completely managed IP link between locations. They are also verycostly to create, as well as support, and tend to be closed systems without the ability to connect to other solutions. Whileprice points will come down and interoperability will improve as these technologies become more mainstream, they willnot be affordable for most SMBs any time in the near future.
Moving to the middle of the spectrum, we come next to boardroom video conferencing. This is the middle groundbetween immersive and DVC, and represents the vast majority of the existing market. These systems are based largelyon conventional video conferencing technology, and the installed base is dominated by a handful of familiar vendors.The end-user experience is quite good, but even with HD, boardroom solutions fall short of the immersive experience.However, these solutions are adaptable to a much broader range of environments, and of course, the price points aresubstantially lower—but still a sizeable investment.
Finally, we come to DVC at the end of the continuum. While PCs are far more ubiquitous than these other video confer-encing environments, they have traditionally not been suitable endpoints, so to speak, for video conferencing. In thepast, DVC solutions forced tradeoffs in video quality, visual impact and IT demands versus cost, and for that reason thedesktop has not been viewed seriously as a home for video conferencing.
However, technology has matured to the point where the possibilities for DVC have become much more interesting,especially in terms of cost feasibility and the end-user experience. As this paper will explore, the DVC experience hasimproved substantially on all fronts, and offers exciting opportunities to extend video conferencing into many new areas.
In short, compared to other video conferencing solutions, the value proposition for DVC is based on three variables:quality, cost and flexibility. Today’s DVC solutions can deliver a high-quality experience, at an affordable price point,and across a wide variety of environments. Aside from complementing the other types of video conferencing solutions,DVC can be deployed in a host of scenarios that are simply not practical any other way.
To more fully illustrate the value proposition for DVC, Figure 1 below summarizes the salient comparisons with immersivevideo conferencing. While the latter clearly serves a niche for video conferencing services, DVC has a distinct set ofadvantages that make it a very effective solution for a diverse and expanding range of needs.
Immersive/Telepresence Boardroom Desktop Video Conferencing
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Figure 1. DVC and Immersive Video Conferencing Comparison Summary
DVC Market Adoption and Enabling TrendsBuilding on the value proposition for DVC, there are numerous enabling trends that will drive adoption over the nextfew years, and have already come into their own in 2008. Before discussing these, it must be noted that the overallmarket opportunity for DVC is substantive. In the absence of credible industry data specific to this emerging DVC market, some recent research reports will serve as a reasonable proxy of what we can expect from this market.
Feature Immersive VC Desktop VC Comment
Deployment Environment Dedicated room, and a highlycustomized environment.
Can run on any PC thatsupports DVC and has abroadband connection.
DVC is not location-dependentand can be used in many moresituations and environments.
Accessibility Both parties must haveimmersive VC and beinteroperable for the immersiveexperience. Sessions are alsolimited by the number of seatsat the conference table ortheater.
Most DVC solutions arestandards-based andinteroperable. They can alsodeliver a quality experienceeven if parties use differentvideo settings based onbandwidth availability. DVC isnot limited by the number ofseats in range of the cameras.
DVC is more flexible, making itaccessible to a much wideraudience, and as ubiquitous asPCs themselves.
Collaboration Feels very natural, and is easyto make eye contact to sharewith a group. Sessions lookand feel just like a real meeting,with multi-party attendance atboth ends.
Most sessions will be one-to-one or one-to-many, and lesseffective for getting two or moregroups to work together in real time.
Immersive is a more engagingenvironment for groupcollaboration, but Web-savvyusers can still collaborate verywell with DVC.
Productivity As with in-person meetings,immersive VC has a captiveaudience that will be morefocused on the task at hand.
Participants are usually usingDVC individually, and will bemore prone to multitasking ontheir PC or other devices. Also,with multiple parties, there aremore points of failure fornetwork connections.
Both solutions can be veryproductive, but it can be easierfor DVC users to lose focus andget distracted.
Cost Significant capital investmentrequired to acquire the systemand build the room. Ongoingsupport and network accessfees can be substantial.
DVC rides over existingbroadband, and the cost canbe nominal or even free.Network capacity may needupgrading to supportanticipated volume, but thiscost is relatively minor.
DVC is by nature very attractivecpst-wise, and an immersiveVC experience remains a high-end offering. The experience isless dramatic, but for many, thetradeoff is worthwhile.
Quality of Experience This is what you pay for withimmersive VC. The QoE isexcellent—life like, life size,great audio and HD video.
QoE feels more virtual thanimmersive, but is still verygood, and much improvedover earlier technologies.
The QoE versus cost tradeoff isnot as large today, and DVCoffers an excellent balance ofthe two.
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• Frost & Sullivan shows that the global market for video conferencing endpoints was $1.1 billion in 2007, andwill grow to $3.9 billion in 2014, which represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18%.
• Another Frost & Sullivan study on video conferencing services indicates that the North American market was$118 million in 2007, and will grow to $396 million by 2014, representing a CAGR of 19%.
• Data from In-Stat and Wainhouse Research on the emerging Unified Communications market shows global revenuesgrowing from $22.6 billion in 2007 to $48.7 billion in 2012. These figures include video conferencing and havea CAGR of 14%.
• Frost & Sullivan’s recent report on the fast-growing North American web conferencing market shows revenuesincreasing from $632 million in 2007 to $1.5 billion in 2012, for a CAGR of just under 16%.
These are but a few examples of how technologies and applications related to DVC are forecast to grow, and it is morethan reasonable to conclude DVC will follow a similar path. In fact, our view is that DVC will grow even faster thanthese examples for three specific reasons:
1. The impact of HD will accelerate DVC growth beyond what is expected in its current form. HD is feasible todayfor DVC, but not yet practical on most PCs. Just as HD has quickly become a market driver for immersive VC, aswell as home use for television viewing, the pattern will repeat itself for DVC.
2. Mobility is another promising frontier for DVC and will provide another layer of accelerated growth. As with HD,there is limited capability today for mobile video conferencing, but handsets are rapidly evolving and mobilebroadband is becoming a must-have service, thanks to the iPhone and other smartphone vendors who see themobile device as the primary communication device for many.
3. Finally, because DVC is not location-dependent, we envision considerable growth beyond the traditional videoconferencing base of the enterprise to both SMBs and the consumer market. This will help make the overall pielarger, and take DVC into new areas that other solutions simply cannot serve.
Supporting these forecasts and growth scenarios are a number of enabling trends, which are summarized in the following text table. Many of these trends are interconnected, but collectively create a very favorable environment forthe adoption of DVC.
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Figure 2. Enabling Trends for DVC
Managing the Complexity of DVCWhile there are many benefits of DVC, there is one reality that persists: the underlying technologies for DVC are complexand difficult for most solutions providers to develop themselves. The desktop environment presents a distinct set ofchallenges that immersive or boardroom VC do not have to face, a factor which has long prevented the adoption ofDVC. These challenges are briefly summarized below.
Technical Challenges for DVC
• Video quality is the starting point for a quality DVC experience. This requires real-time video as opposed tostreaming video, and with that comes a distinct set of challenges, especially when scaling to support a largenumber of users.
Better DVC solutions DVC technologies deliver a better quality experience, are easier to use, more accessible and moreaffordable. These issues are no longer a barrier for using DVC.
More powerful PCs Today’s PCs have greater CPU capacity to support applications like DVC, and with the advent ofdual-core and dual-quad-core processors, they will continue to improve and still remain affordable.
Better quality cameras A high-quality webcam is vital for DVC, and the caliber of offerings has greatly improved. Whether builtin to the PC or externally attached, webcams are now commonplace and affordable, with many nowsupporting HD.
HD video As HD becomes more commonplace, new applications will open up that could not be practicallysupported by other forms of VC. This would hold for any scenario where enhanced video makes theexperience come alive. Examples include call centers and product demonstrations in the enterprise,and for consumers, home shopping, virtual travel, social networking, interactive gaming, etc.
Greater availability ofbandwidth
Broadband adoption is becoming ubiquitous in both the consumer and business world. Equallyimportant is the shift occurring from ISDN to IP for data traffic, where video is natively supported. Toillustrate, Frost & Sullivan shows that only 18% of video conferencing activity was IP-based in 2004.This level more than tripled to 56% in 2007.
Adoption of UnifiedCommunications andon-demand VC
As the Unified Communications market develops, DVC will become integrated to make UC a morecomplete, real-time solution. Collaboration and conferencing are key value drivers here, and businesseswill recognize how DVC enhances the UC experience. Furthermore, on-premises software solutionseliminate the need for an external conference bridge. This removes a major barrier within the enterpriseto using VC, as sessions can be done on-demand rather than reserving the equipment in advance. VCnow becomes more accessible to end users and further empowers them to adopt DVC.
Travel substitute As businesses become more decentralized, the need to connect geographically disparate offices andworkers will grow. However, it is not always feasible to connect for a face-to-face meeting. And asissues such as rising travel costs, lost time and environmental concerns become more prevalent,video conferencing will become more popular. Immersive VC is an attractive alternative, but can onlyserve the high end of the market, because it is so expensive and requires a dedicated environment.As DVC continues to gain adoption, it will help play the same role throughout the enterprise.
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• Maintaining a consistent experience for the duration of a DVC session requires proper bandwidth management.This means controlling jitter, latency, lip synchronization and packet loss. Furthermore, DVC is more complexthan other IP-based applications such as VoIP (Voice over IP), since it must support multiple modes of real-timecommunications.
• Synchronization of audio and video communications is critical for a high-quality, realistic DVC experience. Thisalso requires bandwidth management expertise as well as the usage of codecs optimized for DVC.
• Ability to support a wide range of web camera devices on PCs. Camera quality is highly variable, and DVC solutionsmust be adaptable to provide a consistent visual experience across multiple end users, PC webcam configurations,as well as perform under adverse network conditions.
• Unlike the controlled environment of immersive VC, DVC can be used in a variety of settings, many of which willhave sub-optimal lighting conditions. DVC solutions must be flexible enough to accommodate for these variances,especially to support HD.
Global IP Solutions – an Engine to Drive DVCGlobal IP Solutions (GIPS) has long been regarded as a pioneer in enabling Internet communications, and DVC is amarket they are well-suited to address. The company provides a full range of media processing technologies that areused by software developers, hardware manufacturers and service providers around the world to create high-quality IP-based voice and video solutions. Two widely deployed examples are GIPS' iLBC (Internet Low Bit Rate) codec forVoIP, which is now a popular IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standard codec for narrowband speech algorithmsdesigned to optimize calls made over the Internet and WiFi networks; and the company’s proprietary video codec(LSVX) for real-time, two-way video.
Taken individually, these codecs provide industry-leading point solutions, but for DVC, more is needed to address allof the complexities outlined in this white paper. High quality of experience demands optimized pre-and post-multi-media processing to handle latency, jitter, lip synchronization and bandwidth management issues. A best-of-breedapproach could be used across various vendors to piece together a DVC solution, but our view is that the odds of suc-cess for such complex requirements are greater with an integrated offering.
GIPS offers such a solution in its voice and video engine products, and given the company’s long history and trackrecord of innovation in voice and video processing, there is a great deal of merit in considering them a leader in theDVC market. Not only does GIPS technology enable a high-quality DVC experience today, but it is ready to supportemerging requirements such as HD and mobility.
Global IP Solutions technology comprises four distinct platforms, and the real value-add for GIPS is how these are allintegrated to provide a comprehensive DVC solution for any end-user environment. GIPS VoiceEngine™ and VideoEngine™
platforms address client-side needs—from PCs to IP phones and mobile devices—while Voice ConferenceEngine™ andVideo ConferenceEngine™ are their server-side platforms, which provide scalable DVC support across the entire enterprise,as well as for service providers.
To further illustrate, the following are some key examples of how a best-in-class solution should address the complexities of DVC:
• Server and client-side components are tightly integrated, making it much easier to ensure a consistent, high-qualityvideo and audio experience across the entire enterprise, as well as for consumers.
About Global IP Solutions (GIPS)Global IP Solutions develops industry leading embedded media processing solutions for real-time communications on packet networks. Our broadrange of patented multimedia solutions are utilized by network operators, device manufacturers, application developers, internet service providers,infrastructure providers to overcome the inherent problems and general deficiencies introduced by wired or Wi-Fi networks such as delay, jitter,packet loss, clock-drift, acoustic and network echo. www.gipscorp.com
Global IP Solutions, Inc. Corporate Headquarters • 642 Harrison Street, Second Floor • San Francisco, CA 94107 USAPhone: +1 415 397 2555 • Fax: +1 415 397 2577 • Email: [email protected]
© Copyright 2008 Global IP Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. Global IP Solutions and the Global IP Solutions logo are registered trademarks ofGlobal IP Solutions, Inc. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective companies. All specifications subject to changewithout notice. WP/DVCBTYT/D/1008/PDF
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• Use of adaptive bit rate codecs and advanced automation techniques ensures high quality under all conditions.Issues such as jitter, packet loss and bandwidth allocation are dynamically addressed so end users do not have tomake their own adjustments, or try to become video and audio processing experts.
• Graceful degradation is a good example of this. When constraints appear for either bandwidth throughput or CPUcapacity, the video quality is automatically scaled back, but done so in a manner that is barely noticeable to theend user and allows the session to continue without interruption. This capability also allows enterprises or serviceproviders to host more sessions on their servers, making it easier to scale.
• Codecs must be engineered to provide the highest quality experience possible and minimize any compromises byCPU or bandwidth limitations. GIPS supports both proprietary and all the major industry standards and codecsfor both voice (iLBC, iSAC, G.711, 723, 729, etc.), and video (LSVX, H.263, H.264, MPEG-4, etc.), making thisa very flexible solution. The same is true at the end-user level, with support across all the major PC platforms:Windows, Mac and Linux.
• To better support the end user, GIPS has developed a library of profiles for the most commonly used webcamsand drivers. This allows them to automatically optimize the settings for each one, making DVC a simple, plug-and-play experience for end users, and is ultimately helping to drive the adoption of DVC.
GIPS offers the best of all worlds for DVC, and a deep understanding of the challenges of voice and video processingover IP networks, not just for DVC today, but HD DVC and mobile DVC tomorrow.
This is important for all touch points along the DVC spectrum: developers, enterprises, service providers and end users.Each share a common goal—to have a high-quality DVC experience—and they all know how difficult that can be. WithGIPS, they have a complete engine that handles all the complexities of IP communications, and with that, a clear pathfor allowing DVC to reach its full potential, not just at the desktop, but in the mobile world as well.
J Arnold & Associates, an independent telecom consultancy, produced this white paper. The contents herein reflectthe conclusions drawn based on general research about the video conferencing market, and GIPS technologies. Formore information, please contact us by email: [email protected].
For more information on Global IP Solutions, please visit www.gipscorp.com