Crystal Clear

Once an organization decides to implement a particular technology, it weighs

the different options available, how the deployment can change the work dynamics

(obviously for the better) and most importantly, the RoI generated. Few would

disagree that a deployment decision based on these parameters can make a huge

difference to any organizations well-being.

With the maturing of the videoconferencing market in the last couple of

years, many organizations are increasingly able to see more value in deploying

different videoconferencing solutions.

In fact, if there is one space which has been immune to the recession, is the

videoconferencing market. Instead, it has rather acted as a catalyst.

It is no more an esoteric technology; rather SMBs too are looking at

videoconferencing to cut on their traveling costs. The vendors have broadened

the portfolio of services like never before. From the traditional standard

presence offered initially, the videoconferencing services have now graduated to

provide a bucket full of offerings of supreme quality.

Depending on the requirements and the cost affordability, companies can pick

from a whole spectrum of services that broadly includes standard definition,

high definition, telepresense, real presence solutions and so on.

All these are positive signs indicating at a changing market scenario.

Without getting into the specifics of the Indian market size for this

technology, lets just see how mature the market has become, in terms of

technology options, as compared to earlier times.

Demystifying Videoconferencing



Way back in early 2003-04, when videoconferencing was a relatively newer

trend, the audio and video quality was nowhere close to being prefect. The

picture wasnt very clear, and so was the image, which would often be delayed.

Add to that, repeated jumps and snags in the picture. The audio too wasnt

great. However, now with the presence of scores of technology options the future

of videoconferencing seems upbeat.

Vendors have varied levels of solutions that deliver perfectly clear visual

and audio quality in real time which means one can actually hear and see what

is happening on the other end exactly when it happens, without any delay

whatsoever.

The economic conditions too have served a dual purpose by not only helping

create a new level of awareness and demand for collaboration, but by also

serving as the best time for companies to start looking at ways to survive by

giving utmost importance to cost control. It is not just the bigger enterprises

that are going for this kind of collaboration; the small and medium sized

businesses too are waking up to the benefits of videoconferencing to replace

travel. In fact, analysts believe that the SMB segment is becoming the next

potential target market for a myriad of business technologies ranging from IP

telephony to mobility solutions to videoconferencing.

Confirms Anshul Dhingra, senior marketing manager, Polycom, SMBs are seeing

value in the solution. As far as higher end technologies are concerned, it is

just a matter of time. As and when it does become a part of their culture, it

will be looked at more as a necessity.

SMBs are seeing value in the solution. As far as higher end technologies are concerned, it is just a matter of time Anshul Dhingra, senior marketing manager, Polycom	We canceled two US trips (20 business class tickets) simply by using CISCOs telepresence at their facility Venkat Iyer, director, business technology & distribution, Pfizer	If you go for it without working out the mathematics then you might face issues in accepting the technology. One has be first convinced that it is a good option Anwer Bagdadi, CIO, Countrywide India

Seeing the potential in the Indian market, Polycom is all set to launch its

very first SMB offering, fully featured product with a plug and play facility.

We are looking at this segment in a big way. When we go to the market we will

have different approaches from a solution perspective. And we know its a

cost-conscious segment, so we have kept that in mind along with the ease of use

factor. Right now, customization for the Indian market is going on, adds Dhingra.

Based on specific requirement, the higher end videoconferencing solutions

come anywhere between the range of $4,000 to $1 mn. But still vendors seem to

believe that SMBs will be the next big hub. LifeSize Indias country manager,

Shivasankar Krishnamurthi points out, Fifty percent of our revenues come from

the SMEs.

As the value of real-time collaboration rises, the conferencing technologies

are further going to witness a strong adoption not only from verticals where

people virtually live out of a suitcase, but also in a big way from government,

healthcare, services and so on.

In fact, solutions providers point out that there is still strong adoption

from these verticals, which will only get bigger.

So what is it that is driving this adoption? The answer lies in the leading

edge technology that the vendors are offering today, which includes flexible

conferences and deployment, common management suites, highly scalable solutions,

secure VoIP conferencing, scalable solutions, embedded multipoint options and

much more. It all translates into the power of integration, enabling easy

sharing of any type of information and instantly arming participants with

whatever they need.

Depending on the use, nature of deployments and price-points, many

interesting applications have come up.

Amongst them is the popular tele-justice project, a videoconferencing

deployment by Polycom in Indian jails and district courts. Not only has it

helped cut down on transport expenses of taking the accused to the courts, but

it has also reduced the security risk involved in taking these hard core

criminals to the court.

Tandberg too has connected the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL)

headquarters and offices through the videoconferencing solution. It is helping

employees communicate to the regional offices and station with reduced costs.

Tanbergs FieldView is another application meant for industrial use. It is a

Wi-Fi-based hand held video device that can be used for remote inspection of

sites, allowing on the spot troubleshooting.

Now lets take the example of any healthcare institute. It would have to

provide for remote diagnostics and tele-medicine services to remote areas. The

tele-medicine deployment at AIIMS provides medical training and consultation to

over 100 locations across the country.

Outside India, lets take another example of Australias fifth largest

producer of fresh fruits and vegetables. To leverage the existing network

infrastructure and link 450 employees across four states for quicker decision

making as well as reduced travel time and costs; it went in for a

videoconferencing solution with network interface module, for unified

collaborative communications. Besides enhancing the company-wide productivity,

improving internal communications and reducing travel costs within eighteen

months, the company saved more than the capital cost of system implementation,

resulting in a positive RoI.

In the same way, a financial institute might feel the need to keep all its

branches up to date on the latest banking schemes and changes in government

policies. Moreover, the top management too has to touch base with the key bank

managers across the country, on a regular basis. What would it do? Traveling

obviously would become a costly affair, with so many branches spread across the

country. Likewise, for an educational institute like IGNOU, which has branches

across India, remote education would be quite an idea.

By now you are probably wondering what is the connection. The needs might be

specific to the industry, so it is quite obvious that one solution might not be

the answer to all their problems. One device wouldnt be the way out.

In fact, at the end of the day, a lot depends on the kind of experience one

really wants to have. If it is just the face (for eye-contact) that one wants to

see, it can be created over the desktop, but for a real time conferencing

experience high definition camera, a large screen, fabulous sound and piles of

bandwidth is needed. Most conferencing solutions somewhere range between these

two extremes.

All other videoconferencing solutions fit between these extremes. If we look

at the different options that are availablehigh definition (HD) and

telepresence technology seem to be in vogue, completely.

As per a recent study by Zinnov Management Consulting, the market for full HD

videoconferencing such as telepresence market would alone be $40 mn by 2012. At

present it is close to $7.2 mn; so analysts forecast significant growth in the

next few years.

As the name suggests, high definition option gives a far superior quality

than conventional videoconferencing, as the resolution of images transmitted is

high, without any picture drop. For instance, doctors can actually check X-rays

or MRIs of patients, as the images are crystal clear.

Now just imagine walking into a comfortable, luxurious meeting environment,

taking a seat and starting a live conversation with your counterparts from

across the world. There is no technology in the way, no snags, no hiccups, just

you and your colleagues from the rest of the world. This is what real presence

experience of high definition means.

We see a clear movement towards HD and telepresence. Its like how LCDs have

become mainstream because of greater image quality, so will these, very soon.

Its all about visual communication in a much better package, says Dhingra of

Polycom.

Pfizer, which is a pharmaceutical company, has been using videoconferencing

for over eight years. Venkat Iyer, director, business technology & distribution,

cites an interesting instance, of just how videoconferencing is being replaced

by telepresence in Pfizer: We canceled two US trips (20 business class tickets)

simply by using CISCOs telepresence at their facility. So what your company can

afford will decide whether you want to go for telepresence or not.

One could choose from simple desktop videoconferencing, to dedicated

standalone unit to group videoconferencing to webconferencing; options are

many.

And of course, any talk of HD videoconference would be incomplete without a

mention of 3D HD. Vendors see this as the future of videoconferencing, as this

technique guarantees natural representation of all participants in virtual space

to give a great quality.

There is another interesting mobile video solution, which is on the move,

literally. Its the latest application, which offers users to connect to

videoconference while on the move through their GPRS enabled mobile.

The equipment is portable as well as wireless and can be set up at any

location in the world. However, not every system offers mobile videoconference,

so one must carefully pick when choosing the appropriate equipment. Most

hardware is actually not portable and will need to be permanently set up in a

specific room dedicated solely to videoconferencing. This technology is

specifically getting popular for shere convenience feature, as all you need to

put in your suitcase when you are off to another world is your web cam and the

software.

The video communication management too seems to be getting popular. There are

several aspects to video communication management namely bandwidth management

meeting scheduling and support for ever-increasing users and their devices.

Clearly one is awestruck, when you actually go through the experience of real

time videoconferencing for the first time, but is it easy to deploy? Its an

important question, which lingers on. What is more important is the blues that

are associated with the whole technology of videoconferencing.

Implementation Blues



So if you are thinking of actually upgrading your videoconferencing

facility, the first thing that comes to mind is whether inter-operability is an

issue. There is a section, which believes that existence of different

inter-operable standards between vendors could hamper market evolution in the

long run. Well, not really, claim vendors. There are specific standards in HD

videoconferencing which do allow interoperability of differing products from

multiple vendors much smoother, they emphasize.

Venkat Iyer of Pfizer confirms, We have used Tandberg and Polycom

videoconferencing equipments and we have had no issue. Both the sides should

have good connection and this will not be an issue. Moreover, today many of the

videoconferencess are IP enabled and hence if you invest in that, then the

platform issue is no longer there.

I really dont see it as a deterrent to wide-scale adoption. And if you are

on open standards, we do offer scalable solutions. Also most mid-sized

organizations are going for deployment on premise, which is an indicator to the

fact that it is not such a big issue, says Dhingra.

Anwer Bagdadi, CIO of Countrywide India, too agress. If you go for it

without working out the mathematics of how it will help, than you might face

issues in accepting the technology, One has be be first convinced that it is a

good option.

Interestingly, according to a survey based report by IDC, while close to 64%

of organizations went in for a on premise model in the year 2007, 23% chose the

managed services option, and about 4% the hosted model. When it came to

managed-services model, IT/ITeS and the services sector were at the forefront

with IT companies contributing 20% and services 27%. Analysts predict a slow yet

steady shift towards the hosted and the managed models.

However, could bandwidth be an issue there? Solution providers, hope not! As

the conferencing market matures, the different, need based charging models have

also begun to crop up. Airtel, for instance, is the first player to offer all

three charging models capex, opex and Pay per use charging schemes. Though many

claim that working out cost for attaining the appropriate bandwidth still is a

huge challenge.

Moreover, there are differing views on how much bandwidth does a

vedioconference require. The answer really lies in the quality desired. Lets

assume that you have 768 Kbs of bandwidth, you can be rest assured that you will

be able to have a quality videoconference without interruptions or delays. With

256 Kbs of bandwidth, one can expect a visual delay. Though the audio should be

clear, so if one is not that dependent on the video aspect, one could use this

amount. If you only have access to 128 Kbs, a videoconference is still possible

but the quality will obviously not be too great.

Anwer Bagdadi of Countrywide India, too feels that for a good

videoconferencing, anything lower than 375 kps would witness problems like

static picture, bad sound. He adds, if more than 2-3 cites are connected, the

quality would be no where close to satisfactory.

However, in a country like India where telecom incursion is still at low

levels, the average broadband bandwidth availability ranges between 128 and 256

Kbps. To many, videoconferencing still seems to be a distant dream.

Besides the cost of the bandwidth, there is also an equipment cost which has

in the past acted as a put-off for many. Service providers believe that as

quality has increased, the initial purchase and installation cost of

videoconferencing systems has continued to decrease. Either way, vendors tend to

believe that most organizations have to justify cost in context of a complete

RoI extending over 6-24 months.

Venkat Iyer says, The main cost is the cost of equipment. The set of

equipments will range between anywhere between 4-8 lakh depending on the

add-ons. In my previous company we had added a specialized camera attached to

videoconferencing. So you need to work out things according to your needs.

It is believed that ISDN has played a significant role in adding vibrancy to

the growth of the videoconferencing market. When compared to an IP connection,

ISDN is much quicker, and more reliable. Though this makes a bigger hole in the

pockets, but the experience vendors vouch is worth spending those few extra

bucks. Making this a viable option from the cost point of view can really help

give the right push to the market.

Urvashi Kaul



urvashik@cybermedia.co.in