Videoconferencing Gets IP Boost

Computerworld - Videoconferencing used to require users to adjourn to specially designed rooms filled with complex technology that worked over satellite, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) or other private network services. Such systems cost upward of $50,000 per site. But no more. Compression technology has improved, design upgrades have cut costs, and a new generation of videoconferencing systems designed to work over IP networks as well as ISDN is gaining a foothold in corporations.

"We have seen a heavy shift toward IP," says Stacy Saxon, director of marketing at videoconferencing vendor Polycom Inc. in Pleasanton, Calif. She says she expects 75% of all videoconferencing systems to be IP-based within the next three years, up from just 25% today. Giga Information Group Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., predicts 18.9% annual growth in videoconferencing appliance sales through 2005.

Several developments are driving the technology forward. IP-based systems eliminate the need for ISDN service, which can be expensive and difficult to provision and is unavailable in many locations. Unlike those based on ISDN, IP-based systems can be moved to any office with an Ethernet jack. Corporations are gradually replacing network infrastructures with switches and routers that support quality-of-service standards required for IP telephony and enable clear, jitter-free video services.

"We're piggybacking on what the company's doing with voice over IP," says Chris Duncan, global leader for e-communication technology at The Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich., which is equipping 500 offices worldwide with an IP videoconferencing system. Ethernet advances have also boosted LAN bandwidth to Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet speeds that can better support video feeds. And businesses are also extending those high-bandwidth connections to remote offices. "Getting fairly large bandwidth isn't as big an issue as it was four or five years ago," Duncan says, citing the current glut in long-haul fiber capacity.

Meanwhile, bandwidth requirements are shrinking. Video encoders now support up to 1,000-to-1 compression, delivering acceptable quality in as little as 128K bit/sec. per connection. "It's good-quality video, if you don't have a lot of movement," says Saxon, although Duncan says he considers 384K bit/sec. to be the minimum for acceptable quality. The newest standard, named H.264 by the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union (ITU), will soon deliver DVD-quality video feeds using less than 1M bit/sec. of bandwidth.

Videoconferencing technology is also starting to converge with traditional Web conferencing systems, allowing IT to create a single interoperable and centrally manageable set of applications that may include data sharing, whiteboarding and streaming media. For example, Polycom's Web conferencing software, called WebOffice, works with its PC-based videoconferencing systems. And Web conferencing vendors are adding video to their services, although analysts say quality-of-service issues will keep most business videoconferencing off the Internet.