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Telepresence

Intelligent Videoconferencing Packs More Value
Into Business Connections

by Richard Grigonis

Telepresence and videoconferencing technologies are a technologically dazzling way to save on travel costs and enhance communication. But as they weave their way into both the corporate fabric and the public Internet itself, they offer much more, thanks to recent advances in video compression technology.

“It’s exciting how we’re extending the power of personal connections within the enterprise,” says Tom Carhart, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Visual Collaboration solutions at Hewlett-Packard. HP’s new software-based Visual Collaboration offerings include desktop client, executive desktop and room systems. These systems enable organizations to run videoconferencing over a wide range of networks, from those that are carefully designed and composed of dedicated leased broadband lines to those of varying quality such as the Internet.

“Companies spend billions of travel dollars because they want face-to-face contact with customers, partners and fellow employees to get a better sense of what they’re thinking,” says Carhart. “Achieving that same kind of experience with HD, full-screen, full-motion video and high-quality audio is a game-changer. Until now, however, video needed expensive, dedicated high-bandwidth networks and purpose-built appliances, partly because most video compression technologies weren’t very tolerant of transmission problems. That’s why HP focused on a software-based model incorporating an improved version of the popular H.264 video compression standard called Scalable Video Coding, or H.264 SVC.”

SVC-powered video offers far greater resiliency for real-world networks than its predecessor, enabling HD videoconferencing and collaboration over existing networks. This technology innovation overcomes poor picture quality caused by data traffic congestion, making SVC both reliable and cost effective. Moreover, SVC is an “intelligent” video compression scheme: The endpoints running it can dynamically adjust and compensate for variations in the quality of non-dedicated networks, even the public Internet.

“HD videoconferencing over the Internet was unheard of three or four years ago,” explains Carhart. “The video signals required a level of throughput and signal quality that just wasn’t possible over the Internet. Nevertheless, with the innovation of SVC, it’s not only possible, it works really well. SVC supports high-quality, dependable video sessions, even if there’s a delay or loss in data packets, typical when sending data over the Internet. That’s what excites our customers, and our software-based approach allows us to deliver a stunning video experience on our HP PCs and TouchSmart PCs instead of requiring additional costly dedicated appliances. With distributed workforces, enterprise video is becoming increasingly mobile, and SVC is what enables us to connect employees with high-definition face-to-face communication over 4G wireless and run on an ever-expanding array of general-purpose computing devices, including notebooks, handhelds and tablets.”

Carhart says that video and collaboration is spreading from executives in studio environments to ever-broader workforce segments: managers talking to remote employees, and employees in turn talking to each other and eventually to customers.

“That’s both the promise and reality of SVC,” says Carhart.