What a great time to be in the streaming and videoconferencing industry.

This week, my position was “eliminated” due to business slow-downs and the culminating effect of several large, competitive projects being lost to other integrators.

This was a rather amicable separation, one that reminded me of one of my favorite quotes:  ” logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” as spoken by Spock in the Wrath of Kahn.

This slow-down drove some business decisions to be made that directly impacted both the VP of the Broadcast Business Unit and I, vs. risking the security and stability of many more senior and valued employees.  This was no reflection of personal performance or the stability of my previous employer, rather than the state of business today.

Thanks to a tremendous network of friends, partners, clients, and LinkedIn Group peers (both the Streaming Media Professionals Group and the Videoconferencing Professionals Group), I am confident that my “un-employed” status will not outlast my severance.  Quite the opposite.  I would actually welcome some downtime before venturing onto the next path in my life.

One of the most disappointing outcomes of this week’s unfortunate event is that I am missing the opportunity to attend the  LifeSize Communications Channel Partner Conference that starts in Austin tomorrow.  I was really looking forward to getting more information about their new Passport offering first hand – as well a absorbing a clearer picture of LifeSize’s go-to-market strategy in the months and quarters ahead.

For now, I get t0 spend some extra time with my kids, help with some homework, and catch up with my network.  It is my goal to no be rushed into a quick decision about my next position.  There are a number of teams that I would gladly join, but only one will rise above the rest.

The news has broken (early) that on Monday, October 5th, LifeSize communications will announce  a new low-cost videoconferencing solution that is (or will be) Skype compatible – called LifeSize Passport.  The early descriptions of this sub $2,500 unit leads me to believe that it may negate the firewall issues that have prevented telephone-like access to visual communications – bringing videoconferencing (telepresence) one step closer to critical mass.

Affordability is one of the first criteria addressed by Passport.  A version with LifeSize’s Focus HD  camera will be available for $2,499.  If you need a pan-tilt-zoom model, you can expect a price tag of around $3,499.

Early indicators suggest that the Passport will deliver 720p resolutions at 30 Frames-per-second.  Most users with a cable modem or DSL will be able to realize these HD video and wideband audio benefits if their internet connections are better than 1 Meg up/down.

Hook ups lookd to be simple and straight forward, power, network, video and audio.  The Passport should easily to any PC display or HDTV.  Skype calling may well be enabled in the near future – though initially audio only, it makes sense at some point to enable video calls (something yet to be made available commercially).

If this is a tipping point for the videoconferencing industry – where does that leave the top-heavy Cisco/Tandberg offering?  There are still thousands of conference rooms and meeting spaces that need room-based telepresence offerings, the pie just gets bigger and sweeter!

This is one of the most interesting developments since Polycom bought PictureTel…..  I believe that the shake-out from this merger will change the face of visual communications and the adoption rates for these solutions dramatically.  Who’s next?

Acquisition of TANDBERG to Expand Cisco’s Collaboration Offering and Enable Customers to Transform How They Do Business Globally

SAN JOSE, Calif., NEW YORK, and, OSLO, Norway, October 1, 2009 – Cisco® (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced a definitive agreement for Cisco to launch a recommended voluntary cash offer to acquire TANDBERG (OSLO: TAA.OL). TANDBERG, based in Oslo, Norway, and New York, is a global leader in video communications, including a broad range of world-class video endpoint and network infrastructure solutions with intercompany and multi-vendor interoperability. With this proposed acquisition, Cisco will expand its collaboration portfolio to offer more solutions to a greater number of customers, further accelerating market adoption globally.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will commence a cash tender offer to purchase all the outstanding shares of TANDBERG for 153.5 Norwegian Kroner per share for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $3.0 billion. This represents an 11.0% premium to the previous day closing price of TANDBERG’s stock, and a 25.2% premium to the 3-month volume weighted average closing price for TANDBERG’s stock. The proposal was recommended unanimously by TANDBERG’s board of directors.

The acquisition is expected to close during the first half of calendar year 2010; however, the close date is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory review in the United States and elsewhere. Cisco expects the acquisition to be accretive to Cisco’s non-GAAP earnings in fiscal year 2011.

Highlights / Key Facts:
• Cisco’s collaboration vision is to enable a sustainable, new level of enterprise productivity, agility and innovation by transforming the way people interact, share knowledge and deliver productive outcomes within and across organizations.
• TelePresence and high-quality video have redefined how users communicate through easy-to-use, immersive, high-quality video experiences and are becoming a larger segment of the broader collaboration market.
• TANDBERG’s leading video endpoints and network infrastructure solution will be integrated into Cisco’s world-class collaboration architecture.
• This will enable intercompany and multi-vendor interoperability and ease of use across the full product portfolio – from desktop to immersive, multi-screen TelePresence. This interoperability will benefit Cisco’s customers, but also competitors and partners by accelerating customer interest in video collaboration globally.
• Cisco continues to invest in the European market as a center of innovation across all market segments, and will continue to drive global growth by positioning TANDBERG’s Norway operations as a European center of video excellence alongside our Service Provider video team in Diegem, Belgium.
• TANDBERG’s 1,500 employees globally, with innovation centers in Norway and the United Kingdom, will be extremely important as Cisco’s team continues to drive video innovation and growth.
• Upon completion of the transaction, TANDBERG’s CEO Fredrik Halvorsen will lead the new TelePresence Technology Group, reporting to Marthin DeBeer, senior vice president of Cisco’s Emerging Technologies Group.
Quotes:

John Chambers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cisco:

“Cisco and TANDBERG have remarkably similar cultures and a shared vision to change the way the world works through collaboration and video communications technologies,” said Cisco Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Chambers. “Collaboration is a $34 billion market and is growing rapidly-enabled by networked Web 2.0 technologies. This acquisition showcases Cisco’s financial strength and ability to quickly capture key market transitions for growth.”

Fredrik Halvorsen, Chief Executive Officer, TANDBERG:

“Cisco and TANDBERG share a vision of changing the way people communicate and collaborate,” said TANDBERG Chief Executive Officer Fredrik Halvorsen. “This transaction is a vote of confidence, not just in TANDBERG but in our technology and our people. The combination of world-class technologies, Cisco’s global scale, and exceptional people from both organizations will enable us to accelerate innovation and market adoption.”

Media Opportunities:
• Cisco CEO John Chambers and TANDBERG CEO Fredrik Halvorsen will host a joint investor call on Oct. 1 at 12 p.m. CET (3 a.m. PT) to discuss the proposed transaction. The dial-in numbers are +1 212.287.1646 (international) and (888) 788 8648 (United States). Replay of the event is available until October 16 at +1 203.369.0122 (international) and (866) 357 4205 (United States).
• Cisco CEO John Chambers and TANDBERG CEO Fredrik Halvorsen will host a joint press conference on Oct. 1 at 12:45 p.m. CET (3:45 a.m. PT) at the Hotel Continental; Stortingsgaten 24/26, Oslo, Norway. Members of the media are invited to attend in person, dial in to the event or listen to an audiocast. The dial-in numbers are +44 (0)20 7806 1950 (international) and (888) 935 4575 (United States). Replay of the event is available until October 7 at +47 2100 0498 (international) and (866) 932 5017 (United States). The audiocast will be available at http://nongrata.seria.net/embed.php?id=23717.
• Cisco CEO John Chambers and TANDBERG CEO Fredrik Halvorsen will host a joint multi-point TelePresence roundtable session for investors, analysts and the media on Oct. 1 at 4 p.m. CET (7 a.m. PT) in Oslo, San Jose, Boston and Bedfont Lakes. To watch a live webcast of this session, please click here. Please note that online registration is required. A broadcast replay will be available within 24 hours. For more information on this announcement, please visit newsroom.cisco.com.
Useful Links:
• Video featuring John Chambers, Cisco Chairman and CEO, and Fredrik Halvorsen, TANDBERG CEO, discussing the proposed transaction.
• Investor Relations information

About TANDBERG
TANDBERG is the leading provider of telepresence, high-definition videoconferencing and mobile video products and services. The Company has dual headquarters in New York and Oslo. TANDBERG designs, develops and markets systems and software for video, voice and data communication. The Company provides sales, support and value-added services in more than 90 countries worldwide. TANDBERG is publicly traded on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker TAA.OL. Please visit www.tandberg.com for more information.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

Behind the Curtain of a Successful Rich Media Project

by Paul Croteau, Rackspace Solution Engineer

Technical Considerations For Success
There are many reasons to deploy “rich media” content. This three-part article is not about the why, but the how. As with all online projects business leaders have to decide what makes the most sense for their company from both a financial and technical perspective. How will you deliver this fancy new content?

Do you do this using your current infrastructure, or do you outsource? If the latter, there are a lot of questions you need to ask, starting with, how much will all of this cost? And what happens if delivery fails? After all, a broken media campaign can be far more damaging than no campaign at all. Delivery, availability and performance are three key factors to a successful online campaign of any kind.

Delivery
When working with internal resources on your own corporate network it is easy to get used to 100Mbps or 1Gbps network delivery speeds. Everything runs fast at the office, right? However, once you bring external resources into a project your end-user experience now becomes dependent upon the weakest link between all participants, more often than not this weak link is your business Internet connection.

Consider the following:

• A 5MB file takes about 27 seconds to transfer across a T-1 line (a common Internet connection for small businesses)
• A 50MB file takes about four and a half minutes to transfer via T-1
• A 500MB file would take more than 45 minutes

If you upgrade your office connection to 10Mbps the transfer times drop to 0:04, 0:40 and 6:45 respectively. Be sure to do the math before signing any contracts. If you plan on adding 250GB of media content to your delivery network every week, the last thing you want to do is commit to a legally binding contract with a T-1 connection that takes more than 16 days to deliver that weekly 250GB update to your delivery partner. A web search for “bandwidth calculator” can help you determine your transfer needs.

Availability
Once content has been created you want to be sure people can get to it. If you decide to keep content in-house and deliver it on your own, be sure that you have a fast enough Internet connection as well as a redundant connection. And, despite what your network sales representative might say, having two separate connections from the same provider is not good enough. A single outage upstream can cause both of your ‘redundant’ connections from that single provider to fail. It is always recommended that you purchase connectivity from separate network providers. Usually, outsourcing your content delivery removes this concern.

When choosing a provider, be sure to determine that it a) has multiple network partners, and b) connection to those partners enters their data center from different paths. What good is connectivity to ten networks if all of the fiber enters the data center from a single conduit? One backhoe mistake and down go all ten networks.

In addition to eliminating single points of failure in your delivery network you also need to consider removing as many single points of failure from your delivery hardware. Do you have just one server handling everything? Do you have multiple web servers but only a single database or application server? Is your firewall redundant? While we all want 100% availability, the cost of doing so often exceeds project budgets. Knowing your cost of downtime, down to the hour, will help properly quantify and justify your final content delivery configuration.

Performance
Nobody wants to suffer through a slow rich media experience. As home network and handheld wireless network performance improves, the attention span of the average Internet user is getting shorter and shorter. If you don’t grab their attention in the first few seconds, you may lose your audience. Therefore, fast delivery of content is often vital to the success of any online rich media experience.

What controllable factors influence performance? It is often assumed that hardware is the most important part. “Get me a big server so I can deliver lots of content.” But, this is just part of the equation. The best hardware can be brought to its knees by bad code, therefore performance testing is always recommended. Delivery of content may also depend on factors such as network throughput, hard drive speed, CPU performance, geographic location of the source content as well as the end user and much more. Does your company network run slow in at the beginning of the business day? This might be a sign that your employees are saturating your connection and it is time to upgrade. If outsourcing, does your provider offer not only connections to multiple providers, but are those connections over-subscribed, or is there plenty of room for unexpected network peaks? A good provider can walk you through these variables to help identify potential bottlenecks based on your specific requirements.

Summary
Ask questions early and often. Never assume someone else has thought through all of your needs. The more answers you have, the more likely your project will be successful, technically and financially. In most cases a reputable hosting partner can answer your questions and bring up others that you may not even know to ask. In future articles we will discuss how to deal with and plan for potential surges in traffic.

Understanding The Reach Of Your Project

Understanding the potential reach of your rich media campaign can help you properly frame budget and technical expectations. Online campaigns are like parties – knowing how many guests you expect makes budgeting and planning much easier. By knowing the potential size of your online audience you can maximize your campaign’s ROI (return on investment) and plan for scalability by working with partners if necessary.

Project Scope
Predicting site or project traffic is not an exact science. Marketing people will often quote industry take rates, while content creators or entrepreneurial visionaries will predict massive adoption of their ideas. It helps to understand your target audience as well as the general population of the Internet.

When sizing a rich media project you should keep two factors in mind – how many unique visitors do you expect, and how many concurrent users do you think you will reach? Knowing your expected number of unique visitors can help define your storage needs, revenue projections and other quantity based facets of your business. Knowing the maximum expected number of concurrent visitors (how many will hit your infrastructure at peak times) helps define the actual hardware/delivery requirements. The resources required for a steady stream of visitors (such as a banner ad delivery system or shipping company tracking system) are quite different from an event-based solution such as the online sale of a new music recording or exclusive online interview with a specific starting time.

According to Comscore.com, the total Internet audience for May 2009 was 193,825,000 unique users around the world. (source: http://www.comscore.com/) Use this number to help keep user projections in control. Assuming your marketing blast reaches every single user in the world, a 1% global take rate would generate 1.93 million potential unique visitors to your site.

It often helps to know how many visitors to the more popular Internet properties receive. These numbers often have the effect of a fire hose on the flame of marketing optimism. For example: Google is the current king, and received about 157 million unique visitors for the month of May 2009. Ebay.com, a top ten Internet property, received 72.4 million unique visits in June 2009. Facebook, an extremely popular social media site, received about 70 million visits. Do you think your project will reach more people than ESPN? They enjoyed 20 million visits in May.

Taking this concept further, let’s divide that traffic by 30 days to get a monthly average, or 22 days if your site is primarily accessed only during the business week. Google traffic (157M visitors) breaks down to a daily average of 5.23 million unique visits per day. If we assume that ESPN gets most of its traffic from people at work on weekdays, ESPN gets less than one million unique visitors per day.

Of course, this simplification assumes a steady stream of traffic instead of spikes based on demand, but the point is to provide real world examples of how much traffic existing properties generate. If your marketing director projects that you will get one million visitors during the day, keep these numbers in mind. They are absolutely attainable! Ad campaigns can generate millions of visits over a day or two, just make sure you work with a provider or partner that can help plan for and react to such a situation.

Delivering and Scaling Seamlessly

What happens when all of that market research and graphic design work pays off and you create a successful campaign that is driving lots of traffic to your site or business? There are two scenarios: 1) traffic spikes cripple your online infrastructure causing your campaign to fail and your business to suffer embarrassment. Or 2) the campaign seamlessly absorbs all traffic and you come out smelling like a rose. To improve your chances for success it is important to understand your potential audience, maintain perspective and plan for scalability by working with partners that enable growth instead of inhibiting it.

Scalability
With the advent and promotion of virtualization and cloud technology many decision makers are asking for more information to determine if either of these options makes sense for their businesses. Sometimes they help, sometimes they don’t. Cloud services tout instant scalability but may be limited with regard to the technology that can be deployed on them. Server virtualization can provide true server images with the complete functionality of a physical server, but they might not offer an instant increase in performance. Sometimes a hybrid approach makes sense. This would include dedicated servers running the main application infrastructure and a flexible cloud-based front end to handle massive traffic spikes. A completely physical infrastructure can also meet your needs, but you have to do the math in advance to determine your expected peak performance requirements. Each business has its own technical, financial and industry requirements, so talk to an expert to help determine the best fit for your business.

Once you decide on a hardware layout, how do you know what to scale? Will the system handle that for you transparently, or is user intervention required? Proper monitoring tools need to be in place that can identify the specific component that is creating your bottleneck. Hardware monitoring, software monitoring, network monitoring – these are all vital components that help technicians quickly identify the specific areas to focus on. The last thing you want to do is throw the wrong solution at a problem and create a larger one.

Content Delivery Networks
While worthy of an article of their own let’s briefly address the content delivery network (CDN). A CDN is a business that handles the delivery of your content for you. They have multiple Points of Presence (PoPs) across the US and usually the rest of the world. By placing your content physically closer to your end-users they may experience performance benefits. But, in many cases this level of performance or delivery is not necessary. Depending on your needs you may be able to deliver content from your own location or a hosting partner single data center with no negative impact to your customers.

How each CDN actually delivers content is what sets them apart from one another. Some own their own network between the PoPs, while others rely on the public Internet for delivery. Some require code modification. Others rely on DNS changes. They each have their own billing methodologies (storage, bandwidth, file requests, DNS queries, etc.). Working with a partner is often the best way to leverage these technologies.

Summary
Owners of rich media content need to consider many factors when launching a project or business. There are many technical and business considerations that need to be addressed before the first document is created or server is deployed. Can you do this yourself or do you need help? What capabilities do you require? What can you outsource? Do you know your cost of downtime? How do you get your content out there and how do you make sure it remains available even when experiencing fast growth? In most cases a reputable hosting partner can answer your questions and bring up others that you may not even know to ask. In any case, asking questions early can help your project be successful, technically and financially.

About the Author
Paul Croteau is in his fifth year at Rackspace Hosting and has worked in the data center/hosting industry for nearly twenty years. He has worked in many facets of the industry including racking and supporting servers, handling account management, technical training and system design/engineering. He has an MBA from Texas A&M University with a focus on Services Marketing and a Jazz Studies degree from the University of North Texas.

Day 2 on the exhibit floor at infoComm gave me time to catch up with many of the friends and colleagues that I have shared this industry with these past 13+ years.

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Some of the product highlights of my day included V3 of Accordent’s Media Management System, Tandberg’s C20 entry level videoconferencing system, some sleek new carts and options from AVTEQ, and the new form factor of the EDUcast podcasting solution from 323Link.

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The latest version of Accordent’s Media Management System (V3) not only raises the bar for content management, it empowers content owners and creators  with a robust and flexible suite of tools changes the rules of the game.

Accordent has completely redesigned AMMS, leveraging the Microsoft .NET Framework for maximized performance and scalability.

For administrators, V3 has dramatically improved the workflow with a number of enhancements:

• Performance-Based Reporting and Management delivers proprietary player-side reporting for tracking real-time quality of service and viewer activity.  AMMS V3 also touts expanded content, audience, and network reporting features.
• Multiple Tenant/ Sub-Portals per System empowers users with the ability support multiple departments, schools or business units each with their own system administrators, branding, content, functionality, business rules and reporting;
• Network Control via New Distribution Pro files gives administrators the ability to easily manage and schedule the creation and modification of live/video-on-demand (VOD) streams and web content with Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), Windows Media Services, Real Server, Flash servers.

Accordent also showcased their new “1U” Server for AMMS (software, SQL server, Web Serer, and streaming server).  This turn-key solution is targeted to support up to 1,000 viewers and will streamline the deployment of Accordent’s rich media content creation, distribution and management suite.

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TANDBERG re-defined entry level HD with the new Quick Set C20.  This compact system features a new, compact microphone, a PTZ camera and comes standard with NPP (Natural Presenter Package).  There are two models of the C20;  the Quick Set C20 1080p30 with 4 x zoom, or Quick Setplus 1080p30/720p60 with 12 x zoom. The TANDBERG Quick Set C20 solutions feature software options for premium resolution and dual display and come complete with all the customer needs to get started.

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TANDBERG also highlighted several of the API driven capabilities of their newest flagship Codec C90. It is the only product of its kind that can share five HD sources simultaneously and present unique views to participants based on their system and the number of displays available.  The extreme flexibility and power of the C90 makes it the most powerful, flexible telepresence and collaboration engine that I have seen to date.

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The new AVTEQ carts with a integrated drawer and shelf for the Revolabs wireless Microphone system.  The rack mounted shelf allows users to seamlessly integrate their Revolabs products into any AVTEQ cart or standard a/v rack.  The trim and finish continues to prove AVTEQ’s value and their attention to detail is unmatched in the industry.

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323Link was demonstrating their newest model, the EDUcast Touch – HD rich media Podcast creation appliance.  The newest form factor (shuttle PC) delivers includes a front panel touch screen that gives users the ability to navigate the menus quickly and easily, as well as previewing video sources.  With the enhanced processing power and updated capture card, up to 3 live video feeds and a full-motion, hi-res graphics source can be captured simultaneously.

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Making my way across the expansive exhibit floor on Day 3 opened my eyes to even more new and exciting offerings from some of my existing partners, and some that I hope will become partners in the near future;

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Digital Rapids was showing off their new TouchStream appliance.  This appliance is comfortable in the field, the classroom, or in a rack.  It is  fully self-contained device with and intuitive touch-screen interface with integrated video monitoring for unparalleled ease-of-use.  Best of all, no laptop, keyboard, mouse or monitor required for operation.

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Revolabs Executive HD Microphone Systems provide the sound fidelity of wired microphones with the added appeal of a wireless set-up.   The introduction of the Single and Dual Channel HD Systems and the Executive HD Systems are the latest example of Revolabs drive to deliver state-of-the-art wireless audio products for business environments.  The new wireless lapel and table top boundary mics are now shielded and include 128-bit encryption, and high definition audio from 50Hz to 20KHz, which allows it to pick up the entire human voice spectrum.

At the Revolabs booth they used a CD player to feed a speaker attached to one side of the box.  With headphones attached to the mic receiver, the clarity was amazing.  So amazing that I was compelled to open the chest and tap the mic to confirm the cans weren’t connected straight to the CD Player.

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Sound Control Technologies was showing off their newest CAT 5 extenders for PLCM and TAND cameras.  Currently the RC2 products support and expanding array of cameras over two (2) Cat5e at a specified rang of 300 feet.  The exciting news here is that the next round of products to ship will be spec’d for 500’ runs and you cannot damage the units by crossing the powered Cat5 cable with the non-powered line.

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LifeSize Desktop is a standalone desktop client (no server required) that allows you to receive 720p30 video in full 16:9 format, for effective collaboration at a distance. HD audio with echo cancellation delivers a rich, true-to-life experience.  The software is supposed to be available in the August timeframe and I thought I heard someone say that it would hit the market at $200/seat.  I have signed up for the 30-day trial – you can too here.

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VFI (Video Furniture International) has new Podium and the jumbo PL-3072 dual panel stand.  VFI always manages to have new products at the show.  This year they brought a larger version of one of my favorite stands (the PL-3070).  The PL-3072 has a larger base, a few more wheels and only costs $100 more (Mike, is that right?).  Hang 2 50″ LCDs on this and in a large room where you need to move the video element around – based on room configuration, and I think it is immediate hit.

VFI also had a new Podium (PD3009) caught my eye from across the booth.  The rounded edge top and brush aluminum corners on the upright pieces makes this podium nice and clean looking.  Then, Mike showed me that the front panel lifts completely out of the way, so that techies can have unrestricted access to the back plane of any installed gear – nice touch.

Yesterday, I had the guys at Creative upload the latest firmware (v1.12.02) onto my inPerson. This is revision to the software that allows this sweet little appliance to call directly into H.323 videoconferencing systems and MCUs (multi-point conferencing units).

So far, I have had successful connections to the following videoconferencing systems: LifeSize Room 200 (point-to-point and multi-point calls), Polycom VSX8000, Sony PCS-TL50, Sony PCS-XG80, and individuals have called me from their PC running a simple little active-x file in Internet Explorer 7 and 8.

Now, my preference is to turn-on the inPerson up wherever I go and first try to call friends, partners, clients, & suppliers on video, before picking up the phone. I feel that being on video at my desk allows me the opportunity to connect with them even more. If I want to grab a file on my PC and send it to them, they can see I am doing it, they can tell when they have my full attention – the phone can’t offer that!

Since the unit offers Wireless Standards Compliance IEEE 802.11b and IEEE 802.11g, connectivity and portability is a snap. Plus the added security element – supporting Wireless Security WEP (128-bits), WPA-PAK (TKIP), and WPA-PSK (AES).

But what about Molibility? How about the $179 PHS300 Personal WiFi Hotspot from CradlePoint. Just add your 3rd party data modem and active data plan and you can connect your laptop and your Creative inPerson unit anywhere you have service. Since I have yet to test the limits of the Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery included with the unit, I can tell you what the “talk time” is, but I have left it unplugged and in standby mode for hours without a re-charge.

I am looking forward to testing the Multi-point service that is an option with the Creative Broadxent service. $.50/min for up to 4 sites of video and 2 audio (PSTN) calls.

Any organization that has already made an investment in legacy or HD videoconferencing systems can benefit from enhancing their network by connecting associates at home or in the remote office workplace. For those would-be users that have been reluctant to make the investment in hardware, displays, network, and maybe even dedicating a space – this go-anywhere system is a perfect fit.

This week ooVoo has released its new web developer tools which provides you the ability to integrate the ooVoo multi video chat experience directly into your website eliminating the local client installation. Information is now being listed here.

Also released is a new version of ooVoo’s PC client application with new features, improved audio quality and integrated web chat rooms. It can be downloaded here.

This past week I had the chance to meet with some educational customers to get their opinions on some relatively new technology that dramatically simplifies and automates the process of creating and distributing MP3 and MP4 podcasts. Though I will speak to this solution in greater detail in future posts, I have to say the response from IT, Media Services and Instructional Technologies staff from 3 well-recognized institutions was overwhelmingly positive.

Then I caught the news from the Yankee Group, where they unveiled U.S. survey results that suggest the current economic crisis will make Internet video a champion in 2009. They went on to state that Consumers are spending 11 percent more time online than watching TV, and Internet video is emerging as the key platform for the delivery of on-demand video services.

Yankee Group analysts advise that media companies should focus on the Internet as a primary opportunity in 2009. The emergence of the Anywhere Consumer™–Yankee Group’s vision for an individual able to connect to content, society and commerce at any time from anywhere–will herald an important shift in how entertainment is delivered and monetized.

Other findings from the recently published Yankee Group Anywhere Consumer: 2008 U.S. Entertainment Survey:

* 56 percent of television viewers are online at the same time, browsing the Web or sending e-mail
* 82 percent of Internet video viewers watch TV shows online because they missed the episode on TV
* Digital video recorder (DVR) owners are more likely to watch online than they are to record a program in advance
* 25 percent of the Internet video audience watches online programming on-demand either once or several times per day

Upon reading this, I had to reach out to several of our current partners with solutions for live streaming and webcasting. During one conversation, I was struck with the realization that today’s media consumer wants to watch their genre of media when and where they choose. The only real live media we generally consume is sports and news – though I find the news posted by Twitter users and Bloggers more appealing than the bulk of the chatter that the locals and nationals are compelled to feed us.

So if the traditional media sources have lost out to internet video (per this report), what about live streaming and webcasting? Will the future generations of media consumers be the on-demand generation? I think so. So podcasting from a meeting room, classroom, court room or lecture hall seems to have as much, if not more, relevance as technology that extend those messages beyond traditional brick and mortar boundaries in the form of a live Windows Media or Flash Stream.

I heard on NPR this week that Apple has sold over 20 Million iPods and over 4 Million iPhones. So when I went to show a (YouTube) video (about these guys in Norway Extreme Base jumping with flying suits, buzzing the fce of the mountain at 100+ mph) to my daughter and her boyfriend, I down loaded it onto his iPhone that is powered by Verizon (oh, that is another story)

I do not plan on making it a habit to re-post from other blogs – but this one from Videoconferencing Out on a Lim is part of a series with some great images that need to be shared/promoted.

The question featured in this post is the following:

If your principal or superintendent walked into your classroom during a videoconference, give five adjectives to describe what they would see happening.

This year, for some reason, I am less inclined to make resolutions or predictions. That being said, I consider myself a goal oriented person, so as it is every year, it is time for me give careful consideration to my primary activities for the year ahead.

2008 lent us the opportunity to finally realize the promise of over 10 years of unfulfilled expectations in the videoconferencing industry. Growth was in the 20-30% range, depending on the metrics you are using. Every manufacturer made wonderful contributions by bringing a seemingly endless array of software releases, product enhancements, and new models. Yet one alone seemed to have the most impact. Cisco all but single-handedly relabeled the industry “telepresence”. You can visit forums at Wainhouse Research or any number of other tech-watchdog sites, and you can read countless iterations as to who is better than whom. For me it boils down to an experience.

In my opinion, Wikipedia has done a great job compiling the definition:

Wikipedia definition: Telepresence

Telepresence refers to a set of technologies which allow a person to feel as if they were present, to give the appearance that they were present, or to have an effect, at a location other than their true location.

Telepresence requires that the senses of the user, or users, are provided with such stimuli as to give the feeling of being in that other location. Additionally, the user(s) may be given the ability to affect the remote location. In this case, the user’s position, movements, actions, voice, etc. may be sensed, transmitted and duplicated in the remote location to bring about this effect. Therefore information may be traveling in both directions between the user and the remote location.

Telepresence is a matter of degree. Rarely will a telepresence system provide such comprehensive and convincing stimuli that the user perceives no differences from actual presence..

As the screen size increases, so does the sense of immersion, as well as the range of subjective mental experiences available to viewers.

here, here….

So what? Well, by renaming the industry and associating the experience with High Definition video and wide-band audio – videoconferencing is legitimized. Couple that with skyrocketing travel costs, demands for increased productivity and environmental awareness – well, that is why I am so glad I stayed in this business!

In the year ahead, I will continue to evangelize HD Videoconferencing (telepresence) and I will engage customers and prospects in a conversation around the benefits of streaming that content (both video and graphics) live and on-demand as they look to reach viewers that are not yet VC enabled.

Allowing groups and/or individuals to connect and collaborate real-time is easier today that ever before, and there are several emerging technologies coming to the market this year that will dramatically simplify the process. As a result, I see a majority my time being invested in the continued effort to help customers reach out to their time shifted audience with on-demand rich media, and reach beyond those with videoconferencing by utilizing a variety of live streaming solutions.

Over the past 3+ years, we have had a fair amount of success helping our customers create content. I expect that more of our conversations will focus on how content producers are managing and measuring that content.

Desktop collaboration is another area that will be consuming my time this year. Especially those solutions that can effectively bind the workplace and the work group (the desktop and the meeting room). In my opinion, the state of current technology is perfectly suited to redefine “meeting”, just as telepresence redefined videoconferencing.

In addition to supporting the sales team at Roscor, I enjoy spending time with customers and prospects that are open-minded to exploring ways that they can put these emerging technologies to work. I love the iPhone and similar devices, if only because these “appliances” serve as thought provoking ways for organizations to reach out to their customers, employees, and partners. The challenge set before us is to find the decision makers that realize that this year is, if anything, another chance to embrace change.

May your lights shine brighter and your fires burn longer.