Video Conferencing Moves onto the Network ...

...and into the mainstream

Enter hosted conferencing services accessed via the Internet, in which video conferencing moves off the desktop into the network, providing not only better video performance but also integration with whole suites of other applications for communication and collaboration. The result has been a new generation of services that work better and make video conferencing more affordable.

Besides that, hosted services open a new revenue opportunity for service providers and telecom resellers. Service providers can scale hosted services from a small number of subscribers up to thousands, while resellers can offer a high-value service that does not require deployment of expensive infrastructure at customers’ premises.

Recent offerings targeting service providers aim to deliver the scale and multiple features for customers.

Macromedia Inc.’s entry into hosted conferencing with its Breeze system earlier in 2005 was a move into new territory for the company, known best for Flash animation on the Web. Macromedia’s value proposition was the ability to use its Flash plug-in, already installed with most browsers, as the soft client for its conferencing system.

Since then Macromedia has partnered with other vendors, notably Avaya Inc., to get the product to service-provider customers. The two companies have combined Macromedia’s Breeze Web conferencing system with the Avaya Meeting Exchange audio conferencing solution to create a conferencing system that can be installed as a hosted service or a server on premises.

Macromedia also has partnered with an audio conferencing service provider, Premiere Global Services Inc., to add Breeze Web conferencing. The new hosted service enables Breeze users to control audio and access conference calling from within the Breeze meeting-room interface, while Premiere Global Services clients can tap into Web communication to enhance their audio conferences.

Microsoft Corp. recently selected Arel’s video and audio technology as a plug-in for Microsoft’s Live Meeting conferencing service.

In June 2005 Arel Communications and Software Ltd. introduced the Spotlight II software for Web-based conferencing and collaboration combining voice, video and data. Spotlight II includes dynamic video bandwidth and interoperability with heterogeneous networks and endpoints, including SIP and H.323 endpoints, multipoint conferencing units, and PSTN and satellite networks.

Like the Macromedia stuff, the Arel product can be used either to deliver a hosted service offered by a service provider or installed on premises as a server, or in some combination thereof, which can save bandwidth where there are many participants at one location.

RADVISION Ltd., long a provider of video conferencing infrastructure, has integrated its video capabilities with Microsoft’s Live Communication server and, more recently, with the Microsoft Communicator desktop client. The combination, sold as a hosted service for both service providers and enterprises, offers video and audio conferencing, with presence and availability information, all accessed through the desktop client or a wide range of other devices. Use of the Microsoft Communicator client gives extra control and visibility to participants, as well as application sharing.

Extensive conferencing and collaboration capabilities also now are becoming part of hosted PBX services. Pandora Networks Inc., a new wholesale hosted PBX service provider that developed its own software, includes those features in its services package.

One of LifeSize Communications Inc.’s high-end conferencing systems.

Of course, not all new conferencing systems are hosted. LifeSize Communications Inc. has announced new high-end desktop and room conferencing systems that transmit 720-line high-definition video. Packaged in sleek units for executive desktops and conference rooms, the systems can deliver the HDTV resolution with just 1 megabit of bandwidth, using the H.264 codec.

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