Expert Report on Video Conferencing

Group: james & boitumelo

One page Summary and the real Report.

WHAT IS IT AND WHAT DOES THE AREA ENTAIL:

Videoconferencing is a fast and efficient method of bringing together 2 or more parties for a meeting - without flying, driving or catching trains.
Used extensively for recruitment interviews, depositions and global business meetings, it is a truly 21st Century, eco-friendly and cost effective way to do business.

LEADING INDUSTRIES IN VIDEO CONFERENCING:

• Wiredred. Com (e/pop), Videré Conferencing (USA), Radvision (RVSN)
• LifeSize channel, Direct Visual (UK), Face-to-Face Communications (Aus)
• Focus 21 (UK), Genedis Group (France), IDSolutions (USA)
• Microsoft, Ivci, llc., Raindance Communications, Inc.

WHAT’S HAPPING NOW IN VIDEO CONFERENCING:

• Real-Time PowerPoint Sharing:
No Pre-Meeting Uploads Required.
•
Best Multiparty Audio Quality
•
Real-Time Presenter Controls
•
Video Conferencing With PowerPoint Presentations
•
Document/ Application Sharing


PEOPLE’S IDEAS ABOUT USING VIDEO CONFERENCING:

To provide a better avenue of communication between you and another person somewhere else.
E.g. I chat with my colleagues in the USA without leaving the UK.
I couldn't justify flying ($$$$ or ££££ depending on where you are).

Our "body language" experts I am sure could give some stats about the amount of communication conveyed visually.

WHAT WIDER SOCIAL ISSUES AFFECT THIS AREA AND HOW DO THESE ISSUES AFFECT DEVELOPMENT:

· Direct accessibility of hardware and software.
· Accessibility of content presentation and use.
· Education of those who use technology.


HOW TO IMPROVE VIDEO CONFERENCING:

VIRTUAL WORLD

Which would be a computer-simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact with via avatars. This habitation usually would be represented in the form of two or three-dimensional graphical representations of humanoids (or other graphical or text-based avatars).

Main Report:

1. What Does the Area Entail?

Videoconferencing is a fast and efficient method of bringing together 2 or more parties for a meeting - without flying, driving or catching trains. Used extensively for recruitment interviews, depositions and global business meetings, it is a truly 21st Century, eco-friendly and cost effective way to do business.


2. Leading industries in video conferencing?

Wiredred. Com (e/pop): Founded in 1998, WiredRed Software is a technology leader in real-time communications. The Company's secure, multipoint routing technology powers its e/pop® product line, which includes multiparty video conferencing, web conferencing and secure IM software. All e/pop products are designed to provide busy, security-conscious IT staff with fast and easy to maintain solutions compatible with their existing networks.

RADVISION (RVSN) is the industry’s leading provider of products and technologies for unified visual communications over IP, 3G and emerging next generation networks - enabling high definition video - conferencing, converged video telephony services, and scalable desktop–based visual communications.

LifeSize channel: (LifeSize, the high definition video communications company, has a joint partnership with 15 video communications to market, sell and support LifeSize products worldwide. Some of these leading industries are:

Direct Visual (UK): (Direct Visual is the UK's leading independent supplier of visual applications.
Face-to-Face Communications (Australia): (Face To Face Communications is a Distributor of high-end videoconferencing products. It has a network of specialist videoconferencing resellers throughout Australia and New Zealand. Focus 21 (UK): (A leading edge systems integrator and service provider, Focus 21 Visual Communications Limited has been delivering video conferencing solutions in the United Kingdom for seven years.
Genedis Group (France): (Genedis Group is one of the leading companies in the telecom, security and rich media communications European product and services market. Genedis Group's portfolio is centred around converged voice, video and data communication, and is made available around three business lines:
IDSolutions (USA), NIAD (UK): (IDSolutions, LLC is an Applications Service Provider, which provides comprehensive interactive communications solutions over traditional and next generation networks.
Videré Conferencing (USA): (Videré Conferencing, Inc. of Quincy, MA specializes in video, audio and Web conferencing and collaboration solutions for the commercial, education, health care and state government markets. Videré's expertise includes consultation, design, sales, implementation and support of the leading remote meeting and distance learning technologies.

Eyenetwork Global Videoconference Service:
Microsoft:
Ivci, llc.: (a leading integrator of enterprise collaboration solutions, including video conferencing, audio/visual systems, streaming, Web conferencing and managed conference services, announced today that a distance learning application
Raindance Communications, Inc.:
Toshiba’s (Toshiba and Winnov Inc. (a Silicon Valley startup), have been working on a portable videoconferencing systems into the mobile industry. Both of these companies are building their systems around Type 2 PC cards, but have different software approaches for their respective systems).
Lucent Worldwide Services (LWS):


3. What’s happing now in video conferencing?

The Best Multiparty Audio QualityLike its video counterpart above, e/pop includes multiparty audio (VoIP) conferencing as a standard feature. The host can enable/disable audio conferencing and easily switch from low-bandwidth, cell phone-like sound to studio quality audio all at the click of a mouse. This is full-duplex, multiparty audio, so any number of users can talk at the same time.

Real-Time PowerPoint Sharing: No Pre-Meeting Uploads Required!You don’t need to pre-process or stage your PowerPoint presentations before your meetings. e/pop lets you share any PowerPoint anytime. Your presentation is processed on-the-fly. Most importantly, since the file is cached at each participant.

Multipoint Video Conference
State-of-the-art software allows the meeting host to change video settings during the conference. Unlike many competing Internet video conferencing products, e/pop does not use peer-to-peer or broadcasting technology, which often fail in corporate and government networks due to firewall, proxy and private routing limitations.

The entire video conferencing session sends all traffic via the e/pop server. Since this server is at a fixed IP address, and uses port 80 and http, it achieves high levels of proxy and firewall compatibility, plus provides the foundation for multiparty desktop video conferencing!Real-Time Presenter ControlsAs the presenter, you have fully interactive web conferencing controls at your disposal. You can easily allow/disable participant look-ahead (PowerPoint and documents), promote a participant to presenter, demote presenters, and expel users, all at the click of a mouse.

The user interface behaves as you would expect any office application. Just right-click on any user to get a short list of properties and settings you can easily change.
Video Conferencing With PowerPoint Presentations e/pop goes far beyond traditional boardroom video conferencing equipment and provides complete multiparty PowerPoint presentation sharing as a standard feature. There is no need to pre-process your presentations, just select Share PowerPoint. Attendees see beautiful presentations (with vector and image
graphics rendered just like PowerPoint itself).

Document Sharing
Share virtually any document on a Windows PC, even large documents with graphics and tables. The virtual document is sent only once, making very efficient use of bandwidth.
Application Sharing
Easily share applications in real-time, you can even share more than one and take advantage of e/pop remote control features.


4. People’s ideas about using video conferencing?

Why do we need videoconferencing?

To provide a better avenue of communication between you and another person somewhere else.

E.g. I chat with my colleagues in the USA without leaving the UK. I couldn't justify flying ($$$$ or ££££ depending on where you are). But a phone call does not let you see what your colleague looks like.
Our "body language" experts I am sure could give some stats about the amount of communication conveyed visually. So VC enhances communication.
VC "enhances" communication. It does NOT replace real life meetings, telephone calls perhaps.


What would CNN's news service be like without live, high quality video communications? Can you remember the days when reports from far-flung countries were provided as audio-only, with just a photo of the intrepid reporter? Or when remote interviews with pundits were conducted by audio? How rare is that now?


The news networks do not NEED live talking heads, but all TV news networks use them as a matter of course, because seeing someone say what they have to say is far more impactful and natural than just hearing it.

I believe VC is an enormous benefit in saving resources, reducing travel stress, saving congestion, improving the environment. Equally the industry has not delivered enough noise to get this message across nor lobbied enough other intelligent people to demand government action in making it happen.

What is the energy benefit of VC? How much petrol/jet fuel can be saved per plane trip, per person? how many productive hours sitting in traffic can be saved? Has anyone done a 'green' analysis like this.

A picture says a thousand words. Bet you have herd that before.


5. What wider social issues affect this area and how do these issues affect development?

1. Direct accessibility of hardware and software. It is true that natively accessible distance technologies are few and far between. But what are the central issues that lead to this result? What is the relationship between laws, procurement policies, industry standards, and technology development? Is it possible to expect that market forces will improve technology access over time? Do we need more regulation? How can we improve standards harmonization and use? Do we need additional resources? What do we do in the meantime?

2. Accessibility of content presentation and use. Given a technology that enables direct access, the design, layout, and delivery of a course will impact its true accessibility to the learner. We know that accessible does not mean useable. What needs to be done to insure that students with disabilities can benefit from these educational opportunities? Who shoulders this responsibility? Is this a faculty and staff training issue, a student issue, an accommodation issue?
3. Education of those who use technology. Many individuals who use technology in distance education need training and support to maximize accessibility of the course itself. The list of these in need of education is long and includes course designers and developers, technical assistants, instructors, and the end-user (i.e., the consumer with a disability). Who is teaching these individuals what they need to learn? Where do they go for additional training or support? Who funds this important effort? How are these complex interactions improved over time?



6. How to improve video conferencing?

A virtual world
Is a computer-simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact with via avatars. This habitation usually is represented in the form of two or three-dimensional graphical representations of humanoids (or other graphical or text-based avatars).

Tele-immersion is ultra-realistic, full-scale 3D video-conferencing in which people feel like they are actually together. Will bring a new level of robustness and versatility to videoconferencing and related applications, in a variety of working environments. To meet the needs of a globally expanding user-base,

The Internet implementation side of it is really hard, because it requires an extreme level of performance. it's not easy to sense the world in this sort of three-dimensional way, and it's hard to recreate it realistically.


7. How we researched this area?

Information about video conferencing was collected from this search engines google and google scholar

Links:

http://www.videoconference-bureau.com/?gclid=CP3H_LSD84cCFQjqYAodBBqXig
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1997/apr97/nm2finpr.mspx
http://www.ivci.com/international_videoconferencing_news_press_release_021406.html
http://www.wiredred.com/video-conferencing/future-of-video-conferencing.html
http://www.raindance.com/rndc/index.jsp
http://www.lucent.com/gov/mscsc.html
http://www.lifesize.com/pr.php?prid=26
http://www.radvision.com/
http://www.vcinsight.com/?menuID=188
http://www.wainhouse.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000020.html
http://staff.washington.edu/sherylb/summit.html
http://www.google.com.my/search?hl=en&q=define+virtual+world&btnG=Search&meta=
http://java.sun.com/features/2003/02/lanier_qa2.html
http://www.vrvs.org/?id=81210