2. GLOBAL IP SOLUTIONS
Desktop Video Conferencing: Better Than You Think
Ready for Every Desktop Today and In High Definition Tomorrow
Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Desktop Video Conferencing (DVC) Value Proposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Desktop Video Conferencing Market Adoption and Enabling Trends . . . . . . . . . . 3
Managing the Complexity of DVC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Global IP Solutions – an Engine to Drive DVC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Introduction
Video conferencing, in various forms, has been with us for many years, but has never shown as much promise as today.
We are now seeing a favorable alignment of trends driving both supply and demand that translates into a promising
market opportunity, not just for having more cost-effective solutions, but for providing better ways to collaborate.
These developments hold true for all varieties of video conferencing, but in particular, desktop video conferencing (DVC).
To date, this market has been limited due to immature technology which has produced poor end-user experiences.
However, the underlying technology enabling DVC has evolved to the point where it can now deliver a quality end-user
experience. As good as this experience can be today, it will be even better in the near term with the advent of High
Definition (HD) desktop video conferencing.
This white paper has been prepared to explain the value proposition behind desktop video conferencing, especially in
conjunction with other solutions, such as telepresence. Supporting this is an analysis of the trends that create the
momentum we believe will make desktop video conferencing as ubiquitous as PCs themselves, and even mobile
phones in the years to come.
Finally, the paper outlines the complex challenges around desktop video conferencing, and the role that Global IP
Solutions (GIPS) plays to enable a high-quality end-user experience. This applies not just to today, but beyond, as
desktop video conferencing moves forward to support enhancements such as HD and mobility.
The Desktop Video Conferencing Value Proposition
Desktop video conferencing holds an inherent appeal on many levels. However, DVC is far from ubiquitous, despite the
fact that the vast majority of people use a PC, both at work and at home. Today, most video conferencing activity occurs in
the business environment, often in a boardroom or conferencing facility. These video conferencing solutions are based on
expensive and complex technologies, and while delivering a high-quality experience, are not accessible to most employees.
However, they certainly have distinct merits, and must be considered to fully understand what DVC has to offer, and why
its potential is just beginning to be realized.
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We see DVC as sharing a continuum with two other basic forms of video conferencing—immersive and boardroom. All three
solutions can deliver a high-quality experience, but as one moves from left to right along this continuum, they generally
become less complex, less expensive, more flexible and more accessible.
Immersive/Telepresence Boardroom Desktop Video Conferencing
At the far left of the continuum is immersive video conferencing. This is the most sophisticated form of video conferencing,
and is often called “telepresence.” Not only are the images life-size, but the visuals are very crisp—often in HD, the
audio is crystal clear, and the video is nearly flawless. However, to make this experience possible, these systems require
a highly customized, dedicated meeting room, and a completely managed IP link between locations. They are also very
costly to create, as well as support, and tend to be closed systems without the ability to connect to other solutions. While
price points will come down and interoperability will improve as these technologies become more mainstream, they will
not be affordable for most SMBs any time in the near future.
Moving to the middle of the spectrum, we come next to boardroom video conferencing. This is the middle ground
between immersive and DVC, and represents the vast majority of the existing market. These systems are based largely
on conventional video conferencing technology, and the installed base is dominated by a handful of familiar vendors.
The end-user experience is quite good, but even with HD, boardroom solutions fall short of the immersive experience.
However, these solutions are adaptable to a much broader range of environments, and of course, the price points are
substantially lower—but still a sizeable investment.
Finally, we come to DVC at the end of the continuum. While PCs are far more ubiquitous than these other video confer-
encing environments, they have traditionally not been suitable endpoints, so to speak, for video conferencing. In the
past, DVC solutions forced tradeoffs in video quality, visual impact and IT demands versus cost, and for that reason the
desktop has not been viewed seriously as a home for video conferencing.
However, technology has matured to the point where the possibilities for DVC have become much more interesting,
especially in terms of cost feasibility and the end-user experience. As this paper will explore, the DVC experience has
improved substantially on all fronts, and offers exciting opportunities to extend video conferencing into many new areas.
In short, compared to other video conferencing solutions, the value proposition for DVC is based on three variables:
quality, cost and flexibility. Today’s DVC solutions can deliver a high-quality experience, at an affordable price point,
and across a wide variety of environments. Aside from complementing the other types of video conferencing solutions,
DVC can be deployed in a host of scenarios that are simply not practical any other way.
To more fully illustrate the value proposition for DVC, Figure 1 below summarizes the salient comparisons with immersive
video conferencing. While the latter clearly serves a niche for video conferencing services, DVC has a distinct set of
advantages that make it a very effective solution for a diverse and expanding range of needs.
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Feature Immersive VC Desktop VC Comment
Deployment Environment Dedicated room, and a highly Can run on any PC that DVC is not location-dependent
customized environment. supports DVC and has a and can be used in many more
broadband connection. situations and environments.
Accessibility Both parties must have Most DVC solutions are DVC is more flexible, making it
immersive VC and be standards-based and accessible to a much wider
interoperable for the immersive interoperable. They can also audience, and as ubiquitous as
experience. Sessions are also deliver a quality experience PCs themselves.
limited by the number of seats even if parties use different
at the conference table or video settings based on
theater. bandwidth availability. DVC is
not limited by the number of
seats in range of the cameras.
Collaboration Feels very natural, and is easy Most sessions will be one-to- Immersive is a more engaging
to make eye contact to share one or one-to-many, and less environment for group
with a group. Sessions look effective for getting two or more collaboration, but Web-savvy
and feel just like a real meeting, groups to work together in users can still collaborate very
with multi-party attendance at real time. well with DVC.
both ends.
Productivity As with in-person meetings, Participants are usually using Both solutions can be very
immersive VC has a captive DVC individually, and will be productive, but it can be easier
audience that will be more more prone to multitasking on for DVC users to lose focus and
focused on the task at hand. their PC or other devices. Also, get distracted.
with multiple parties, there are
more points of failure for
network connections.
Cost Significant capital investment DVC rides over existing DVC is by nature very attractive
required to acquire the system broadband, and the cost can cpst-wise, and an immersive
and build the room. Ongoing be nominal or even free. VC experience remains a high-
support and network access Network capacity may need end offering. The experience is
fees can be substantial. upgrading to support less dramatic, but for many, the
anticipated volume, but this tradeoff is worthwhile.
cost is relatively minor.
Quality of Experience This is what you pay for with QoE feels more virtual than The QoE versus cost tradeoff is
immersive VC. The QoE is immersive, but is still very not as large today, and DVC
excellent—life like, life size, good, and much improved offers an excellent balance of
great audio and HD video. over earlier technologies. the two.
Figure 1. DVC and Immersive Video Conferencing Comparison Summary
DVC Market Adoption and Enabling Trends
Building on the value proposition for DVC, there are numerous enabling trends that will drive adoption over the next
few years, and have already come into their own in 2008. Before discussing these, it must be noted that the overall
market opportunity for DVC is substantive. In the absence of credible industry data specific to this emerging DVC
market, some recent research reports will serve as a reasonable proxy of what we can expect from this market.
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• Frost & Sullivan shows that the global market for video conferencing endpoints was $1.1 billion in 2007, and
will grow to $3.9 billion in 2014, which represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18%.
• Another Frost & Sullivan study on video conferencing services indicates that the North American market was
$118 million in 2007, and will grow to $396 million by 2014, representing a CAGR of 19%.
• Data from In-Stat and Wainhouse Research on the emerging Unified Communications market shows global revenues
growing from $22.6 billion in 2007 to $48.7 billion in 2012. These figures include video conferencing and have
a CAGR of 14%.
• Frost & Sullivan’s recent report on the fast-growing North American web conferencing market shows revenues
increasing from $632 million in 2007 to $1.5 billion in 2012, for a CAGR of just under 16%.
These are but a few examples of how technologies and applications related to DVC are forecast to grow, and it is more
than reasonable to conclude DVC will follow a similar path. In fact, our view is that DVC will grow even faster than
these examples for three specific reasons:
1. The impact of HD will accelerate DVC growth beyond what is expected in its current form. HD is feasible today
for DVC, but not yet practical on most PCs. Just as HD has quickly become a market driver for immersive VC, as
well as home use for television viewing, the pattern will repeat itself for DVC.
2. Mobility is another promising frontier for DVC and will provide another layer of accelerated growth. As with HD,
there is limited capability today for mobile video conferencing, but handsets are rapidly evolving and mobile
broadband is becoming a must-have service, thanks to the iPhone and other smartphone vendors who see the
mobile device as the primary communication device for many.
3. Finally, because DVC is not location-dependent, we envision considerable growth beyond the traditional video
conferencing base of the enterprise to both SMBs and the consumer market. This will help make the overall pie
larger, and take DVC into new areas that other solutions simply cannot serve.
Supporting these forecasts and growth scenarios are a number of enabling trends, which are summarized in the
following text table. Many of these trends are interconnected, but collectively create a very favorable environment for
the adoption of DVC.
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Better DVC solutions DVC technologies deliver a better quality experience, are easier to use, more accessible and more
affordable. These issues are no longer a barrier for using DVC.
More powerful PCs Today’s PCs have greater CPU capacity to support applications like DVC, and with the advent of
dual-core and dual-quad-core processors, they will continue to improve and still remain affordable.
Better quality cameras A high-quality webcam is vital for DVC, and the caliber of offerings has greatly improved. Whether built
in to the PC or externally attached, webcams are now commonplace and affordable, with many now
supporting HD.
HD video As HD becomes more commonplace, new applications will open up that could not be practically
supported by other forms of VC. This would hold for any scenario where enhanced video makes the
experience come alive. Examples include call centers and product demonstrations in the enterprise,
and for consumers, home shopping, virtual travel, social networking, interactive gaming, etc.
Greater availability of Broadband adoption is becoming ubiquitous in both the consumer and business world. Equally
bandwidth important is the shift occurring from ISDN to IP for data traffic, where video is natively supported. To
illustrate, Frost & Sullivan shows that only 18% of video conferencing activity was IP-based in 2004.
This level more than tripled to 56% in 2007.
Adoption of Unified As the Unified Communications market develops, DVC will become integrated to make UC a more
Communications and complete, real-time solution. Collaboration and conferencing are key value drivers here, and businesses
on-demand VC will recognize how DVC enhances the UC experience. Furthermore, on-premises software solutions
eliminate the need for an external conference bridge. This removes a major barrier within the enterprise
to using VC, as sessions can be done on-demand rather than reserving the equipment in advance. VC
now becomes more accessible to end users and further empowers them to adopt DVC.
Travel substitute As businesses become more decentralized, the need to connect geographically disparate offices and
workers will grow. However, it is not always feasible to connect for a face-to-face meeting. And as
issues such as rising travel costs, lost time and environmental concerns become more prevalent,
video conferencing will become more popular. Immersive VC is an attractive alternative, but can only
serve the high end of the market, because it is so expensive and requires a dedicated environment.
As DVC continues to gain adoption, it will help play the same role throughout the enterprise.
Figure 2. Enabling Trends for DVC
Managing the Complexity of DVC
While there are many benefits of DVC, there is one reality that persists: the underlying technologies for DVC are complex
and difficult for most solutions providers to develop themselves. The desktop environment presents a distinct set of
challenges that immersive or boardroom VC do not have to face, a factor which has long prevented the adoption of
DVC. These challenges are briefly summarized below.
Technical Challenges for DVC
• Video quality is the starting point for a quality DVC experience. This requires real-time video as opposed to
streaming video, and with that comes a distinct set of challenges, especially when scaling to support a large
number of users.
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• Maintaining a consistent experience for the duration of a DVC session requires proper bandwidth management.
This means controlling jitter, latency, lip synchronization and packet loss. Furthermore, DVC is more complex
than other IP-based applications such as VoIP (Voice over IP), since it must support multiple modes of real-time
communications.
• Synchronization of audio and video communications is critical for a high-quality, realistic DVC experience. This
also requires bandwidth management expertise as well as the usage of codecs optimized for DVC.
• Ability to support a wide range of web camera devices on PCs. Camera quality is highly variable, and DVC solutions
must be adaptable to provide a consistent visual experience across multiple end users, PC webcam configurations,
as well as perform under adverse network conditions.
• Unlike the controlled environment of immersive VC, DVC can be used in a variety of settings, many of which will
have sub-optimal lighting conditions. DVC solutions must be flexible enough to accommodate for these variances,
especially to support HD.
Global IP Solutions – an Engine to Drive DVC
Global IP Solutions (GIPS) has long been regarded as a pioneer in enabling Internet communications, and DVC is a
market they are well-suited to address. The company provides a full range of media processing technologies that are
used by software developers, hardware manufacturers and service providers around the world to create high-quality
IP-based voice and video solutions. Two widely deployed examples are GIPS' iLBC (Internet Low Bit Rate) codec for
VoIP, which is now a popular IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standard codec for narrowband speech algorithms
designed to optimize calls made over the Internet and WiFi networks; and the company’s proprietary video codec
(LSVX) for real-time, two-way video.
Taken individually, these codecs provide industry-leading point solutions, but for DVC, more is needed to address all
of the complexities outlined in this white paper. High quality of experience demands optimized pre-and post-multi-
media processing to handle latency, jitter, lip synchronization and bandwidth management issues. A best-of-breed
approach could be used across various vendors to piece together a DVC solution, but our view is that the odds of suc-
cess for such complex requirements are greater with an integrated offering.
GIPS offers such a solution in its voice and video engine products, and given the company’s long history and track
record of innovation in voice and video processing, there is a great deal of merit in considering them a leader in the
DVC market. Not only does GIPS technology enable a high-quality DVC experience today, but it is ready to support
emerging requirements such as HD and mobility.
Global IP Solutions technology comprises four distinct platforms, and the real value-add for GIPS is how these are all
integrated to provide a comprehensive DVC solution for any end-user environment. GIPS VoiceEngine™ and VideoEngine™
platforms address client-side needs—from PCs to IP phones and mobile devices—while Voice ConferenceEngine™ and
Video ConferenceEngine™ are their server-side platforms, which provide scalable DVC support across the entire enterprise,
as well as for service providers.
To further illustrate, the following are some key examples of how a best-in-class solution should address the
complexities of DVC:
• Server and client-side components are tightly integrated, making it much easier to ensure a consistent, high-quality
video and audio experience across the entire enterprise, as well as for consumers.
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