1. TV Based Video Calling
A Critical Design Analysis
Initial Brief from Doug Williams
August 2011
Version 2.1
2. BT and the TV
• Investment in Fibre
– £2.5Bn
– 11m homes passed
– 750k connected
– 66% homes by 2015 76
Mb/s
• Investment in TV
– £1Bn sports rights
19
• £248m/year on football Mb/s
• £38m/year on rugby
– BT Sports channel
• Multicast
• Jake Humphrey
– Youview
• Scrollback TV Humax DTR
• Freeview HD channels
• Catch up TV: iPlayer, ITVPlayer, 4oD, Demand 5 T1000
• Access to new providers such as NowTV
Slide 2
4. Multi-party HD Video Calls and Telepresence 1-6 1-6
Mbit/sec Mbit/sec
Consumer Use Cases
• Kinect – video chat
• Skype 5 way calling free
• Skype 10-way calling subscription based
• Multi-party video chat for consumers and video
conferencing and telepresence for business.
• Personal video chat with friends using multi-feed HD
video conferencing.
• HD telepresence for distributed virtual teams, similar to
iCom providing multi-feed HD video .
• Converged communications using video chat, IM,
media sharing (e.g. Zorap, G Wave)
Devices, Applications and Services
• 40% of Skype calls include video
• Skype, Microsoft, Sony, and Logitech all have high
quality TV based video conferencing systems in the Expected visual quality for HD resolution
market today.
• Microsoft Kinect launched in Nov 2010, and have
brought in by stealth, video chat to the TV
Bandwidth Requirements
• Consumer HD Webcam (1280x720p @ 30fps) requires
~ 1.5Mbit/sec upstream
• HD conferencing bandwidth requirement 1-6Mbit/s
• Polycom 720p 30fps duplex from 784kb/s
• Polycom 1080p 30fps from 1Mb/s
• Skype TV offers 720p duplex which requires 1.5Mb/s
upstream
Doug
6. TV Based Video Calling
Video Quality Codec improvements (H264), standardisation (HD 720p
1080i etc.) and broadband bandwidth available with Infinity
mean “good” video quality can bb attained.
Microphones are improved. Codecs for high quality audio are
Audio Quality standardised (G722 and AAC hardwired in hardware) and echo
cancellation has been mastered.
Previously video calling was a job for multiple computers.
Form factor Moore’s Law means we can now achieve “good” video
quality in a device no bigger than a biscuit.
And the UI’s are getting better too.
Interworking This is a remaining risk factor but three options exist to
mitigate this risk:
- go with Skype
Who you - go with Google
- interwork (how?)
gonna call?
Slide 6
7. Why BT?
• Strong brand match
– Communications (our heritage)
– The TV (our new battleground)
– Superfast Broadband (Infinity)
• Opportunity to define role
for directory functions
– Own the customer, increase
stickiness
Slide 7
8. Analyse
• Describe what is already out there:
– Price
– Form
• Aesthetics
• “quality”
• Brand impressions
– Practicalities in use
• The way it physically links to TV
• The way it relates to the TV as a
device and as a service
– Core Experience
• What does it expect of the customer
before they can use it?
• How well does it deliver the core
function? (video chat)
– Commercial success
• Are these successful?
• Which are doing better now?
• Which do you think will succeed in
the long run?
Slide 8
9. Form a view
• What is it that makes it better? • What aspects of the different
• What is important? options do you like most?
• What are the better decisions? • What aspects of the designs
you have seen would you
want to see in your perfect
device
Slide 9
11. Form a view
• What is it that makes it better? • What aspects of the different
• What is important? options do you like most?
• What are the better decisions? • What aspects of the designs
you have seen would you want
to see in your perfect device?
Slide 11
13. Form a view
• What is it that makes it better? • What aspects of the different
• What is important? solution do you admire? (why?)
• When choices have to be made
– what are the better choices?
• Be specific
• Give examples
• Show me
• Provide evidence
Slide 13
14. Form a view
• What is it that makes it better? • What aspects of the different
• What is important? solution do you admire?
• When choices have to be made (why?)
– what are the better choices?
• Be specific
• Give examples
• Show me
• Provide evidence
Slide 14
15. Recommend
• If BT were designing from – What would it look like?
scratch what choices should BT – What would the menu structures
make? look like?
– What would it physically look
like?
– What would differentiate it?
• Be specific
• Give examples – How would we make it look like a
• Show me BT product, make it fit with other
BT products?
• Provide evidence
Slide 15
16. Summary
• Review
• Analyse
• Deconstruct
• Form a view
• Imagine
• Synthesise
• Recommend
Slide 16
