CNBC Business | VOLCANIC DISRUPTION

VOLCANIC DISRUPTION

The volcano with the impossible name has led to an explosion in videoconferencing enquiries. Good job the sector is evolving rapidly, says John Brandon

For years it struggled to win over companies, but, thanks to better technology, greater choice, a squeeze on business travel, and various environmental factors, videoconferencing – whether a simple chat over Skype, or a meeting using high-end telepresence suites – is suddenly one of the sexiest tools in the business toolbox. As entry-level services improve and topend conferencing becomes affordable, the industry is in a flux, says Howard S. Lichtman, of telepresence consulting firm Human Productivity Lab. The challenge, he says, is to determine your needs: how many will use it, where they are located, and how often you’ll use it. “The exciting thing,” says Lichtman, “is that telepresence and videoconference companies are moving to connect their networks, and provide exchanges and interoperability, so the utility of this will skyrocket.”

1. TOKBOX

An entry-level business video chat system, for which you pay about €10 a month to moderate meetings with up to 20 people (although another 200 attendees can view the video). The service has a clean and fresh design. It’s easy to mute users as needed. On the downside, you’re relying on the standard internet some participants can ruin the experience with a slow connection.

Cost: Nominal and free for most users www.TOKBOX.COM

2. SKYPE FOR BUSINESS

Skype has now added five-way calling to its services, which means any business can connect with any customer using a free-to-download service over the web. Elliot Gold, president of TeleSpan Publishing Corp and an authority on videoconferencing, says the new five-way business chat features in Skype are compelling, and the company has shown it can make video work; about a third of all Skype calls use video, and during holidays, the service is used about half the time for video chats, he says.

Cost: Free, plus additional cents per minute for international conferences www.SKYPE.COM

3. VIDYO

A hybrid approach to videoconferencing, Vidyo simulates the same quality and feel of a telepresence suite without the extra costs – coming in at around €14,000 compared to about $1m for a complete end-toend telepresence system. “This is HD telepresence comparable to telepresence systems that cost 300 times as much but cannot offer universal access to everyone at any time or from anywhere,” says Vidyo spokesperson Suzanne Matick.

Lichtman adds:“Vidyo uses a technology called SVC [saleable video encoding], which is an enhanced way to send bits over a wire that is more tolerant of any network; you can use it on the internet. To achieve a telepresence feel, you have to engineer the room – you will have to position the cameras and use a big screen and get the lighting correct. If you buy a telepresence system, you will sit perfectly framed by the camera to where you are life-size and seem to be sitting across the table, you will be lit correctly for video and you will be microphoned correctly, even if you whisper.”

Cost: About €14,000 for a complete suite www.VIDYO.COM

4. VIDEOLINK

A private videoconferencing system, VideoLink is used by Wall Street brokers, high-end clinics and major TV networks including CNBC, which uses the system to interview financial analysts. The systems of ReadyCam feeds is an always-on network that works like broadcast television. Th e main advantage: with VideoLink, the service runs on a dedicated fibre optic network that is impervious to the fluctuations of the internet. VideoLink spokesperson Jonathan Robbins says the ReadyCam system is capable of cross-linking with satellite feeds and is useful for remote conferences. “Sir Richard Branson has a VideoLink ReadyCam TV studio in his office at his Necker Island resort in the British Virgin Islands,” says Robbins. “He sometimes speaks to audiences around the world using his, which is remotely controlled, along with its own satellite uplink, by VideoLink engineers in Newton, Massachusetts.”

Cost: Varies by installation www.VIDEOLINK.TV

5. TELEPRESENCE

A virtual extension of the conference room, telepresence suites allow participants in, say, London to chat with those in New York as though the remote office were a mere extension of the boardroom table. Cisco dominates the sector, especially as it now owns Tandberg, which had more than half the traditional videoconferencing market, while others, such as HP Halo and LifeSize, are playing catch-up. Telepresence unit sales account for less than 3% of the business video endpoint market, but 10%–12% of revenue, because of their price. But, Gold says, with Cisco buying Tandberg, and Logitech buying LifeSize, the cost of telepresence will fall and it will become more widely adopted. Lichtman says that which one you choose depends on your priorities, your location, the number of people available to conference, and whether you need services such as white board collaboration and document sharing.

Cost: Around €250,000 for end-to-end telepresence www.CISCO.COM / www.LOGITECH.COM