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Solution Snapshot: AVTEQ TeamSpace

Thu, 23 May 2013 17:20:40 -0500

Continuing the roll out of our 2013 series profiling the leading solutions in videoconferencing, telepresence, and visual collaboration, we offer a Solution Snapshot of AVTEQ's TeamSpace Solution.

AVTEQ's new TeamSpace collaboration center is compact videoconferencing furniture designed for cubicle and small office spaces, making office-to-office and team-to-team collaboration easier than ever. It combines a worktable, screen mounting system, equipment storage and videoconferencing camera shelf into one unit.

Our regular readers will notice that we have recently improved the format of our online Company Profiles as part of our ongoing efforts to constantly improve the website and content. We have also recently redesigned the on-line Telepresence and Videoconferencing Catalog and the upcoming print version of the Catalog will also have an updated look and feel.

Our detailed Solution Snapshots feature important information about Telepresence and Videoconferencing Solutions, Managed Service Providers, Exchange Providers, Video Network Infrastructure, Inter-Connection Solutions, and more.

Be sure to check back often, as we have many Solution Snapshots to be published in the near future. And don't forget to subscribe to Telepresence Options Magazine, the #1 magazine in the world covering Telepresence and Visual Collaboration.

Click here to view the AVTEQ TeamSpace Solution Snapshot

Videoconferencing Start-Up Pexip Uncloaks From Stealth - Wainhouse Research Interview with CTO Hakon Dahle

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:03:50 -0500

Story and Images by Andrew W. Davis / Wainhouse

Andrew recently caught up with Hakon Dahle, a well-known video technical guru from his years with Tandberg and Cisco and the Norwegian Navy. Hakon is now involved in one of the industry's newest startups, again based in Oslo.

WR: Like Michael in "the Godfather" and Sal in "the Sopranos," you're probably thinking "just when I thought I was out.... they pull me back in." Seems like the video conferencing industry is one that people just can't exit. Like quicksand. So where have you been since you left Cisco?

HD: Well, first I took some time off to use up my frequent flyer miles for leisure travel. Then I began thinking about some of the unsolved problems in the video conferencing industry and how I might help assemble a team to tackle the challenges.

WR: What are you talking about? There are no unsolved problems in video conferencing.

HD: Let me start with some observations and suggest how they lead to problem identification.

WR: OK. Your observations?

HD: Here are my top four....

1. Enterprises are deploying video conferencing successfully, but video conferencing is still mostly confined to group systems and executive offices -- very few actually deploy video to everyone in an organization. This is often due to cost -- cost of ownership, expensive hardware infrastructure, and bandwidth.

2. End users want to participate in meetings from wherever they are. As mobile devices are becoming increasingly suitable for high-quality video meetings, the need for conferencing ports will increase. Also, I think that for ease of use and pervasive deployment of video, everyone in an organization should have his or her own virtual meeting room, which again drives the need for conferencing ports.

3. Existing multipoint conferencing technology in the marketplace is expensive, and this cost is an impediment to large scale enterprise deployments.

4. Enterprises are increasingly moving towards data center virtualization. For cost and efficiency reasons it makes sense to run as many workloads as possible on the same server platform. WR: I can't argue with these. So how do you wrap these observations into a problem that needs to be solved?

HD: The bottom line is that interoperable, business-quality videoconferencing cannot be deployed cost-efficiently at scale and usually requires a huge upfront investment in equipment and network upgrades.

WR: Well, it seems like there are a couple of dozen service providers out there who have recognized your challenge and are offering a "no-up-front investment" option to lots of enterprises thinking about large scale personal video conferencing deployments. One of them is even run by some of your old buddies from your Tandberg-Cisco days. Let's cut to the chase. Is Pexip a product or a service, and how are you different from what's already out there? ]

HD: Let me be clear. We are a product company, and we are just about to make our first product available. WR: Is this just another MCU then?

HD: This is not just another software MCU. We are introducing Pexip Infinity, a scalable software platform providing personal meeting rooms for any number of users on video, voice, and mobile. I think of Pexip as a distributed architecture company, and our first application is a distributed conferencing product. We have designed a software solution from the ground up that is optimized for virtualization -- this is not just a port from hardware to software of an existing application. In short, Pexip offers simple deployment, simple usage, simple scaling -- we introduce simplicity to the world of video conferencing. This simplicity is a type of disruptive innovation we think is much needed in the industry.

WR: So, simplicity is related to virtualization. Is this the magic ingredient? Please explain.

HD: For starters, a scalable, cost-efficient conferencing solution must deliver on five key principles. Once these are satisfied, an enterprise can provide every employee with a dedicated "meet me" conference number, much like employees are provided with email, phone, and a computer today. Here are the five elements; virtualization is only one.

1. Interoperability: This goes without saying - across protocols, products, standards, and vendors. For us, interoperability also means more than just making the connection. Whether you connect using a telephone, soft client, or group system, we want everyone to have a vastly improved user experience, with easy access to roster lists, to be able to see who is speaking, and to be able to view the presentation.

2. Software only: This gives us a fast development cycle using standard tools and platforms and ultimately provides the customer with investment protection, because there is no custom hardware that eventually will become obsolete.

3. Virtualization: Reduces the cost of ownership and management and gives us the capability to run on any standard server. We can deploy anywhere in a matter of minutes using standard IT tools.

4. Distributed: Reduces bandwidth for global conferences while improving latency at the same time. We are not talking about old fashioned cascading here, but truly distributed resources acting as one.

5. Flexible licensing: Licenses are not tied to any single location and customers do not have to buy ports in blocks of 8, 12, or 24, but in any way they want. And the software can be installed on multiple servers for redundancy. WR: So, to summarize, this is a next generation distributed conferencing system, software based, virtualizable, and targeting large enterprises. What is your go-to-market strategy?

HD: Through partners only. However we aren't limiting ourselves to enterprise customers only. This should also be very attractive to smaller enterprises also -- you don't have to have a massive data center to use our technology. A single, standard Intel-based server will do.

WR: Can you shed any light on pricing?

HD: Details will be forthcoming in June. As a pure software product we will have the most flexible pricing models in the industry, offering a simple licensing model. And remember, our goal is to reduce the barriers to deployment and growth. But -- you really should talk to Simen Teigre, Pexip CEO, about pricing -- he handles the business side of things. I am just an engineer.

WR: Speaking of Simen, what can you tell us about your team.

HD: We have 40 people in 5 countries, many with Tandberg experience. Our development team has a strong track record and over 200 years of experience in media coding, protocols, virtualization, call control, and scalable systems. And yes, just when they thought they were out, they got sucked back in! By the way -- you should stop by InfoComm in June this year -- I hear it will be exciting.

WR: So, where did the name Pexip come from? What does it mean in Norwegian? Rumor has it that it is the term for gelatinous Lutefisk that has gone bad while waiting for the video conference to start.

HD: The name actually doesn't mean anything, but we kind of like it. Don't you?

Playing God: Meet the man who built the most lifelike android ever

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:57:11 -0500

Story and Images by Andrew Couts / digitaltrends

Next month, leaders in the world of robotics, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence will converge on New York City for the second annual Global Future 2045 Congress, an event devoted entirely to the quest toward "neohumanism" - the next evolution of humankind. GF2045 is the brainchild of Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov, who's made it his life's goal to transpose human consciousness into a machine, thus giving us the power of immortality. (Really.)

Among those presenting during the two-day GF2045 conference is renowned roboticist Dr. David Hanson, who will unveil the world's most lifelike humanoid android, designed in the likeness of Itskov. Founder of Hanson Robotics, Hanson is a true Renaissance Man, with a background ranging from poetry to sculpting for Disney to the creation of humanlike androids that are said to possess the inklings of human intelligence and even emotion. As we edge closer to GF2045, which takes place June 15 and 16, we chatted with Dr. Hanson over Google+ Hangouts to get his insight on mankind's march toward the future.

Ed. note: This interview has been shortened for the sake of brevity.

Digital Trends: You will be unveiling the world's most realistic humanlike android at GF2045. What can we expect to see?

Dr. Hanson: What we're doing with Dmitry is making a telepresence robot. It is basically a remote-controlled version of Dmitry. So we're bringing together the technologies. There's some risk associated with this because the time schedule is fantastically short for this particular project. I mean, we basically received this commission about a little less than two months ago. So we're talking about a very, very short time frame for making a redesign of the human-scale technology to improve it, customizing it to be Dmitry, and then bringing together the best of our technologies available to achieve a remote control version of Dmitry.

That said, things are looking pretty good. We think we're going to have a very nice remote controlled face that will be under Dmitry's command, will say what Dmitry says. It will look around under Dmitry's control - so Dmitry can see through its eyes. And control its expression, so it's able to express his intentions and emotions. So it becomes a very high resolution representative. With enough sensory information going back and forth, it basically becomes like one of these sci-fi scenarios, where you have this hologram or a whole presentation of a person, or like the movie Surrogate, or Avatar, where you have a robot identity that looks like you're really there. Somewhere between a cellphone and a Star Trek-style teleportation device.

Continue Reading...

Microsoft Unveils 3rd Generation Xbox One: Another Step Towards Videoconferencing in Every Living Room

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:49:44 -0500

Today Microsoft unveiled their 3^rd generation video game console named Xbox One. The long awaited successor to the massively successful Xbox 360 comes with incredibly high expectations, and it is already available to pre-order.

The Xbox is basically just a PC running Windows. The major difference between the Xbox and the PC in your office is that the configuration of the Xbox is locked down. This makes things easier for game designers, as they can optimize their code specifically for the Xbox, and be sure that it will run perfectly for every single Xbox owner. Compare this to PC games, which have to run on a variety of PC setups and configurations, and can not be optimized for any particular piece of PC hardware.

Due to the power of today's hardware, and the flexibility of today's software, dedicated appliances make less and less sense. The biggest examples of this are our multi-purpose smart phones and tablets, which have replaced countless dedicated devices (see image below - source).

The Xbox One is powered by an 8 core CPU with 8GB of RAM and has a 500GB hard drive. Clearly, a Windows based machine with those specs can do a lot more than just run games. A device with that much power, and a direct connection to both the internet and your primary living room big screen TV, could potentially be the hub of all home entertainment. This appears to be Microsoft's plan, as the presentation during the big reveal appeard to be more focused on TV integration than gaming. While controlling your TV with voice and hand gestures (recognized by the Kinect) is very cool, there has been a little backlash from the gaming community, as evidenced by the semi-viral video (below) with a somewhat unflattering edit of the reveal.

One major new feature that we are particularly excited about, is the bundled Kinect sensor and Skype integration. This may open up a number of possibilities for application developers, allowing for new and perhaps unexpected uses for home consoles. Please see our previous coverage of the WiiU's videoconferencing capabilies (powered by Vidyo).

In addition to gaming with Skype (as shown above - source), there could be countless uses for this combination of technologies, such as personal training, expert counseling, and even just basic videoconferencing meetings.

Living room videoconferencing has proven to be a very difficult puzzle to solve, with many solutions just failing to achieve adoption. However, the 1080p capable Kinect can easily support high quality videoconferencing sessions, and the success of the xBox as a platform will guarantee its availability in many living rooms. Perhaps VC will an unexpected hit for the Xbox, much like Google Hangouts have been a pleasant success for the Google+ platform.

With Sony's new Playstation reveal right around the corner (June 10th 2013), all eyes are on the gaming community and Microsoft has boldly set a high bar.

Company Profile - Polycom

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:49:21 -0500

Continuing the roll out of our 2013 series profiling the leading companies in videoconferencing, telepresence, and visual collaboration, we offer a profile of Polycom.

Polycom is the global leader in open standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) solutions for voice and video collaboration, trusted by more than 415,000 customers around the world. Polycom solutions are powered by the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform, comprehensive software infrastructure and rich APIs that interoperate with the broadest set of communication, business, mobile and cloud applications and devices to deliver secure face-to-face video collaboration in any environment. Polycom and its ecosystem of over 7,000 partners provide truly unified communications solutions that deliver the best user experience, highest multi-vendor interoperability, and lowest TCO.

Our regular readers will notice that we have recently improved the format of our online Company Profiles as part of our ongoing efforts to constantly improve the website and content. We have also recently redesigned the on-line Telepresence and Videoconferencing Catalog and the upcoming print version of the Catalog will also have an updated look and feel.

The print version of the Telepresence and Videoconferencing Catalog will be included with the next issue of Telepresence Options Magazine, which will be delivered in May to over 5000+ subscribers and industry influential in 100+ countries. Get your free subscription here. Companies that are interested in having their company profiled on Telepresence Options and appearing in print version of the Catalog should contact us at Info@TelepresenceOptions.com

Click Here to View the Polycom Company Profile

The Fridge Has Eyes: Cara Gives Anything With A Camera Powers To See Faces, Age, Gender, More

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:58:00 -0500

Story and Images by Sarah Kessler / Fast Company

When Jason Sosa started work on a webcam technology that detects, in real time, the age, gender, attention time, and glances of the people looking at it, he thought he was solving an advertising problem. It's turned out to be much more.

His startup's first product was a digital billboard that changes the ads it displays depending on who looks at them--showing, for instance, an ad for a toy to a child and an ad for aftershave to a man.

It wasn't long, however, before requests started pouring in from other industries eager to use the technology:

In a car, one request proposed, real-time facial detection could monitor a driver's attention, alerting him if he falls asleep.

In a fast-food restaurant, it could track how many people are standing in line.

In a house, it could help control the temperature based on who is home.

In a bar, it could keep tabs on the gender ratio (though startup SceneTap already does so using a similar technology).

It could even make a toy smile back.

Continue Reading...

Is That A Display, Or An Actual Window? The Answer Is Yes!

Wed, 15 May 2013 08:15:46 -0500

We recently stumbled across "Switchable Projection Window" technology, demonstrated in the YouTube Video below. This technology allows a normal glass window to be used in a variety of ways, including as a television, a whiteboard, a computer monitor, and a privacy screen.

There is a growing trend in the visual collaboration world. The affordability and flexibility of today's software is allowing for more innovative uses of standard monitors. Take a look at our recent coverage of the Mezzanine solution (shown below). The designers of that solution proved that with multiple monitors, you can really create some powerful presentation and collaboration environments. The more glass you have, the more options.

Many rooms already have a large piece of glass in place. The standard window. Until now, this has primarily performed a single purpose, to look outside. With this new technology, your everyday window is replaced by a multipurpose monitor / whiteboard. However, it still functions as a normal window, and even has privacy functions (changing the window from clear to opaque).

While the technology may still be in its early stages, it does appear to be functional. If it can be packaged into a reasonably affordable, easily install-able and manageable product, it could be a real winner. I am ready to replace my office windows with this technology today.

Introducing Switchable Projection Window by Telepresence Options

About the Author
David Maldow, Esq. is a visual collaboration technologist and analyst with the Human Productivity Lab and an associate editor at Telepresence Options. David has extensive expertise in testing, evaluating, and explaining telepresence and other visual collaboration / rich media solutions. David is focused on providing third-party independent analysis and opinion of these technologies and helping end users better secure their visual collaboration environments. You can follow David on Twitter and Google+.

G2J's MyEasyVision: Next Generation Videoconferencing Management

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:15:19 -0500

G2J is a videoconferencing managed service provider, headquartered in Paris with a growing global presence. I recently was invited to meet with Jose Jacques-Gustave (CEO) and Geoffrey Vande Weerdt (Head of The Americas & Global Wholesale Alliances). Unfortunately I wasn't able to use this as an excuse for a Paris vacation, as we were able to meet in their Miami offices. But it was still a great opportunity for me to learn that there is a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to G2J, and to find out why they are so excited about their MyEasyVision offering.

North American VCMSPs (videoconferencing managed service providers) may be looking at G2J with a wary eye. After all, G2J is already managing over 300,000 end users in over 102 countries. They have hundreds of customers, but those of us in the know realize that their listed customers are only a small part of the story, as some of the biggest MSPs in Europe (which I am not at liberty to disclose) are white-labeling G2J VC managed services. If G2J were to make a move in the U.S. market, they could be a force to reckon with.

Fortunately, G2J is here looking for partners, not competition. Even with their massive resources, building a new channel from scratch in an established market is just not a very attractive proposal. As a result, G2J will not be offering video bridging services here. Instead, they are looking to share the experience, expertise, and tools they developed for their managed services in Europe, with new partners here in North America.

One particularly powerful tool in the G2J lineup is MyEasyVision. Most video management solutions fall into two categories. Customer facing solutions are user friendly, but lack power and functionality. On the other hand, solutions designed for service providers are very powerful, but can be difficult to work with. In fact, IT staff often are required to take classes and obtain certification to use these solutions.

MyEasyVision is the best of both worlds, a fully features MSP ready solution, with ease of use allowing customers to directly access their accounts and manage their own videoconferences.

MyEasyVision is a fully featured, service provider solution. In fact, it was originally developed internally by G2J for use in their own VNOCs (video network operating centers). It worked so well for them that they decided to productize it and make it available to other service providers. American MSPs looking to follow G2J's model and match their success can now literally use the very same internal tools that work so well for G2J.

G2J quickly realized something unique about the MyEasyVision solution, as they started deploying it in their VNOCs. It is so user friendly and intuitive, that service providers can simply give their customers direct access to their accounts, and let them manage their own video environment. While some management solutions offer separate user portals, giving limited functionality, MyEasyVision can provide all users full functionality through the same UI used by their VNOC operators.

In fact, G2J suggest providers really leverage this benefit, and empower their customers by "pushing MyEasyVision down to the users". Even things as simple as allowing users to directly schedule their own meetings can greatly encourage adoption. Encouraging adoption should really be the key goal for all parties involved. More usage means that customers are getting more ROI on their VC investments. More usage also increases their need for more video managed services, which is obviously good news for the MSPs.

While MyEasyVision isn't the only customer facing management solution on the market, it is notable for being completely cloud hosted, whereas others may require installation on a local server. It is also, as discussed before, exceptionally powerful as it was originally designed as an internal VNOC tool. American VCMSPs still using the clunky management tools of the past, and wanting to empower their users while encouraging greater adoption, should take a close look at the MyEasyVision solution. Service providers interested in learning more should contact Geoffrey Vande Weerdt directly at geoffreyv@g2j.com or +1 (888) 832-7982.

Company Profile - AVTEQ

Thu, 09 May 2013 20:50:32 -0500

Continuing the roll out of our 2013 series profiling the leading companies in videoconferencing, telepresence, and visual collaboration, we offer a profile of AVTEQ.

AVTEQ manufacturers of a wide range of AV products including mobile carts, fixed stands, and executive conference room and technology furniture.

The company is regarded for cost-efficient, all-inclusive products that do not require accessories and upgrades to be practical and efficient. AVTEQ has become the preferred choice of hundreds of Global 1000 and Fortune 500 clients because of unmatched quality, service and product innovation. It stocks a full line of A/V and digital signage support products, as well as custom develops and designs solutions for unique videoconferencing, business, and retail applications.

Our regular readers will notice that we have recently improved the format of our online Company Profiles as part of our ongoing efforts to constantly improve the website and content. We have also recently redesigned the on-line Telepresence and Videoconferencing Catalog and the upcoming print version of the Catalog will also have an updated look and feel.

Click Here to View the AVTEQ Company Profile

Blue Jeans New Pricing Plans: Business Class VC Interop at Consumer Prices

Tue, 07 May 2013 12:05:30 -0500

Blue Jeans, pioneers in cloud-based videoconferencing interoperability services, just announced a new pricing plan designed to shake up the cloud videoconferencing market. Please check out my recent coverage of Blue Jeans and their latest developments at the Enterprise Connect Show.

The Blue Jeans service is primarly focused around accessibility. Blue Jeans users and their guests can connect to their virtual rooms using a number of business class, and consumer, endpoints (Cisco, Polycom, Lifesize, Microsoft Lync, Skype, Google Video, WebRTC Browser, mobile devices, etc.). However, interoperability is only half of the accessibility picture. In order to be truly accessible to the millions of potential users in the SMB market, the offering has to be affordable.

With prices ranging from $10 to $50 (per user, per month), the Blue Jeans service is now well within the range of a much broader potential market. I have been performing some informal testing on a Blue Jeans trial account, and it is a fully featured, ready for prime-time solution. Despite the fact that this is a new market, and new technology, Blue Jeans provides a polished, intuitive, quality user experience.

This announcement is yet another step towards the democratization of videoconferencing. Full viral adoption of consumer solutions is hampered by their lack of functionality and quality, whereas fully adoption of business class solutions is blocked by high cost and complexity. Offerings like the new Blue Jeans pricing plans aim to provide the best of both worlds with powerful, but affordable, solutions. I look forward to checking in with the Blue Jeans team next month at InfoComm in Orlando, to find out how the market reacts to this announcement.