"Video conferencing is inevitable, but so is the day when the sun flames out and consumes the

earth. Which will come first?", Stan Gibson, 1999

Audio/Video/Data Conferencing

Bret MatthewsData Connection

Audio/Video/Data Conferencing

• Data Connection Background

• What Is It?

• Historical Development

• Who Uses It – And Why?

• Predicting The Future

Data Connection Background

• Software Development• Communications protocols + Higher-level services (“Middleware”)• Packaged Solutions• Supplier to Major Industry Players, Service Providers and End Users

• History / Numbers• Founded in 1981• Straight line growth• ~240 people• £21.5M Revenues + £7.3M Profit

• Products• MetaSwitch• H.323, SIP, T.120, SNA, ATM, SS7, MPLS, …• Messaging and Directory• Voice Access to Email, WWW, Content …• Conferencing

• DC-MeetingServer• Microsoft NetMeeting, DC-Share for Unix• ITU-T Standards Participation – e.g. T.128

Conferencing – What Is It?

• Video/Audio Conferencing• Video and Audio – “talking heads”• Telephone call “on speed”

• Collaboration• Data

• Share Applications• Whiteboard• File Transfer• Chat

• On-line interactive meetings

• Multipoint over local and wide area• Potential Markets

• Home/Consumer• Vertical (e.g. Banking Kiosks)• Corporate

• But depends on• Bandwidth

• e.g. audio requires 5-64 kbits/sec, video requires 150 - 500 kbits/sec

• Latency• Infrastructure

Traditional Videoconferencing

Desktop Conferencing

A Conferencing-Enabled Network

PublicISDN

Network

ISDN (H.320) Videoconferencing

Room System

PublicSwitched

TelephoneNetwork

Telephone Telephone

H.323 Gatekeeper IP Phone

IP Network

NetMeeting

DC-Share for UNIX

DC-MeetingServer

Firew all

Java-enabled W eb brow ser

H.323 - PSTN Gatew ay

H.323 - H.320 Gatew ay

Historical Development

• First Sightings• Jetsons, 1962

• AT&T PicturePhone – debuted World’s Fair 1964, available 1970, $160/month

• Compression Labs, 1982, $250,000 system, $1000 per hour to use

• Group (Room) Systems (early-90s onward)• Small Market

• Tens of thousands of pounds per unit

• Single purpose hardware and software

• PictureTel, VTEL, BT, TANDBERG

• Desktop (Personal) Systems (mid-90s onward)• Huge potential market

• Runs on standard hardware costing £1000 or less

• Proprietary islands of interoperability

• Data Connection, Polycom, Microsoft

• Key Developments (late-90s)• Standards: T.120, H.323

• Internet / Web conferencing

Historical Development

• Standards• H.32x

• H.320 : ISDN 64kbps x n• H.324 : PSTN <28.8kbps• H.323 : non-QoS LANS = Internet?

• T.120• T.122-T.125: MCS/GCC multipoint infrastructure• T.126: whiteboard• T.127: multipoint file transfer• T.128: application sharing• T.134/140: chat

• H.323/T.120 clients• Microsoft NetMeeting for Windows – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/netmeeting/

• Netopia for Mac – http://www.netopia.com/software/tb2/index.html

• Data Connection for UNIX• Sun Forum – http://www.sun.com/desktop/products/software/sunforum/

• SGImeeting – http://www.sgi.com/software/sgimeeting/

• HP Visualize Conference – http://www.hp.com/visualize/fyi/bissue/july99/newprods.htm

• IBM AIX• DC-Share for Linux - http://www.dcshare.com

Conferencing – Who Uses It?

Conferencing – Who Uses It?

• Hewlett Packard• Conferencing servers in the US, Japan, Australia, Europe, and Singapore. • Over 100,000 on-line meetings and 12 million minutes of conferencing per month• Increases teamwork among dispersed employees • Saves time and money - between $275,000 and $400,000 per month

• Budget Rent A Car• Virtual classroom between three training labs in Illinois and 127 remote workstation sites across

the U.S. • Usage has grown steadily, reaching approximately 400,000 minutes in Jan 2001 • Training costs have dropped from $2,000 per trainee to $156 • More employees are being trained, from 60% to 99% • Employee performance as good or better than with traditional training • Return on investment (ROI) achieved in 6 months

• Merrill Lynch• Servers located in the US, UK, Australia, Japan, and Singapore• Enterprise-wide deployment, with over half a million minutes per month of usage• Saves over $1 million per year

• See www.latitude.com/stories

Conferencing – Market Status

• How big?• The conferencing services market is projected to approach $14 billion

worldwide by 2005, representing a 38% compound annual growth rate over the 2000-2005 time period. (IDC: July 2001)

• Home Market• Low Bandwidth (traditionally)• Chat + Audio?• Mix of “GrannyPhone” + IRC/Chat + “Adult”• Audio/Video is poor to appalling over Internet

• Vertical• Very limited deployment• Value-add over proprietary approaches• Helpdesks, call centres

Conferencing – Market Status (2)

• Corporate• High bandwidth on corporate LANs• Variable bandwidth in Intranets• Strong bias to data

• Not enough bandwidth for Audio and – particularly - Video?

• Can always use the ‘phone!

• Security / firewalls

Corporate “Sell”?• Quantifiable benefits: reduced travel costs• Non-quantifiable benefits:

• Improved work practices/productivity

• Better job satisfaction and employee morale

• We use it between sites• High levels of interest/deployment across sectors:

• Engineering – Ford, Boeing, BMW, …

• Military

• Service Providers

Conferencing – Predicting The Future

• Web clients• Rapidly growing sector• Lack of standards and bridging to traditional clients like NetMeeting

• Conference Servers• in-house or via ISP• security, management• bridging communications – IP and PSTN• services – web “proxy”, recording

• Development of infrastructure• More bandwidth – e.g. deployment of 100Mbit Ethernet• QoS in VPNs

• predictable bandwidth• predictable latency

• Email was the major corporate growth “technology” of the 90’s ...

• Conferencing is a major corporate growth “technology” in the new millennium