Video vendor round-up

Major vendors are selling a bewildering array of video communications systems targeting every conceivable type of user. From cheapo video desktop applications to vast IMAX-style telepresence theatres, enterprises have a lot of gear – with plenty of bells and whistles – to choose from. As a rule of thumb, vendors claim the return on investment for video conferencing systems is about six months, mostly recouped from travel savings, although some also factor green carbon credits in their calculations. Since there are cost savings to be had in all cases, which vendor’s wares should enterprises pick to suit their particular business needs, and which ones can they mix and match? Here’s a guide to the top five. First, a quick caveat about video marketing-speak. There isn’t a fine line dividing plain ordinary video conferencing from more expensive telepresence systems purporting to offer deluxe immersive experiences, says Roopam Jain, principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan, a global IT consultancy. “Video conferencing can mean anything from a desktop to a room, while telepresence usually refers to the best experience with customized rooms, screens and so on,” she says. “But there are many grey areas – for example, Cisco Systems offers a telepresence unit with a single screen for executive offices, so these too span from low- to high-end.” Tandberg and Polycom These two pure-play video companies are the top providers, and are running neck and neck, says Jain. Both have been offering complete end-to-end product lines of video conferencing systems for years, and they’re extending them into telepresence. They also provide robust product lines of the management software, bridges and gateways needed for video conferencing implementations. “In video, they pretty well offer the same portfolio of products,” she says. “But Polycom extends its reach into audio conferencing and the voice communications market.” Polycom is working HD video into its product offerings, and is making strides in bringing the price points for its products down, says Joan Vandermate, the company’s vice president of marketing. All its video systems also feature full broadband audio, she adds. The company is also working to improve ease of use, she says. “Video suffers a well-earned bad rap. We’re presence-enabling our equipment so users can simply call up a directory of video systems, be it a room or personal video devices, and select one by name instead of the IP address or ISDN dialing string.” Polycom supports standards, so its equipment can interoperate with vendors who support them as well. “Our video conferencing systems interoperate natively with Tandberg, Sony, Microsoft and others, so you don’t need extra gear. We also have native interoperability with most telepresence systems, but you do lose some of the sophisticated screen layouts and other immersive features.” The company is also working with IBM, Avaya and other unified communications (UC) players to integrate Polycom gear with their offerings. “In the future, users won’t need to leave a UC application to participate in a video meeting. They’ll launch it from Microsoft Outlook or whatever they’re using, and they’ll never see a Polycom interface.” For Polycom gear, there’s a broad continuum of pricing: desktop software starts at $50 per seat; business media phone that supports web applications is $1,000; executive desktop appliances are $2,000; conference rooms range from $3,000 to $50,000; and telepresence systems range from $6,000 to $500,000. Tandberg is also focusing on HD, says Larry Satterfield, vice president of sales for North America. “We believe all video should be HD, be it a point-to-point or bridge call. We’re a Norwegian company, so our products also look good – we think our sleek design is important.” The company offers interoperability with other standards-based providers, so enterprises aren’t constrained to stick with Tandberg gear. “If you have video deployed across hundreds of rooms and desktops, you can manage it like a phone system with different types of phones. With our management software, you can mix Tandberg, Polycom and any other vendor that’s standards-based.” Tanberg is looking to extend its reach in the telepresence market, and recently announced British Telecom (BT) as its first global certified managed services provider. For Tandberg gear, a Movi system that allows video on the desktop sells for about $200; video phone is $1,500; executive video on desktop is $9,000; room systems range from $8,000 to $50,000; and telepresence systems start at $200,000. Cisco Unlike pure video players, Cisco Systems is a network player coming at video from the opposite spectrum, extending telepresence into the rest of its end-to-end communications portfolio, says Jain. The company is integrating it with its IP telephony-based desktop video so users can connect with room systems. But interoperability issues appear to be dogging the communications giant. Other vendors complain Cisco’s video conferencing offerings aren’t standards-based and won’t interoperate with their own. “We can talk with Hewlett-Packard, Polycom and others, but the only non-standard video conferencing player is Cisco – nobody can talk to them,” says Tandberg’s Satterfield. But Cisco denies the charge. “It’s not true – it’s a story being circulated by our competitors,” says Erica Schroeder, director of marketing for telepresence. Cisco does offer interoperability with standard videoconferencing systems, largely due to demand from customers, she says. Both standard-definition and HD video conferencing systems can be connected to telepresence calls via Cisco’s TelePresence Multipoint Switch. Jain weighs in on the impasse, and warns against making broad generalizations about Cisco’s interoperability. “Its gear comes in many different shapes. What we hear, which may not be what’s happening in the real world, is that Cisco is interoperable with standards-based H.323 video conferencing systems. So you can connect a Cisco telepresence room today with someone outside the network who’s using a Polycom or Tandberg standards-based system.” That level of interoperability between standard video conferencing systems has been established in the market, or is getting very close, she says. But there are issues in connecting one telepresence system to another, as there are no standards yet for these customized systems. This distinction is often not made, which creates confusion in the market. “The big challenge comes when you’re connecting Cisco telepresence with another vendor’s,” says Jain. Standards are still a work in progress to be addressed by the industry.” Polycom’s Vandermate agrees the scenario is mixed. “We can talk with Cisco’s Call Manager and some of our video equipment can connect to theirs using the SIP protocol, but the only way to interoperate with their telepresence systems is through a proprietary gateway. However, there are also problems connecting telepresence systems natively in general. We still have work to do on standards with Tandberg and others.” Cisco’s TelePresence Multipoint Switch lists at $88,500; telepresence's stems range from $33,000 for 1-2 seats to $340,000 for 18 seats. Hewlett-Packard HP isn’t a traditional video conferencing or communications vendor, and has only one in-house offering: its high-end Halo telepresence system. “Due to its business model, HP is in a different position. This plays well with its services angle, as the company has positioned itself as the key managed services provider for enterprise communications, and telepresence is a major offering in that space,” says Jain. Ease-of-use has been a major design factor, says Ross Camp, senior marketing communications manager. No training is required to learn how to conduct a meeting or use the high-powered overhead document camera. In addition, he says HP has spent an enormous amount of time improving eye contact, and uses a three-camera spread design which gives everyone at the table the ability to look at other meeting participants. Endpoints are placed on the Halo Video Exchange Network so customers don’t have to worry about bandwidth scheduling or paying hefty bandwidth prioritization fees, says Camp. HP also provides security, account management, 24/7 concierge service, diagnostic support and maintenance. “Our solution is the only cost predictable solution on the market today – customers know exactly how much the endpoints will cost and what the monthly managed service fee will be,” he says. HP recently entered into a reseller agreement with Tandberg, which will allow it to extend Halo throughout an enterprise with a complete end-to-end offering that includes desktop and standard conference room systems, and interoperability between the two vendors’ telepresence systems. The company is also working to deliver interoperability between HP Halo and Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS). HP Halo endpoints range from $120,000 to $349,000. Monthly managed service fees depend on the type and location of endpoints: for the $120,000 product, the fee is $9,900 per month per endpoint, which covers all bandwidth costs, security, monitoring/diagnostics, and concierge service. Microsoft Microsoft Corp is primarily focused in the UC space to tie multiple modes of communications on its OCS platform, says Jain. “It’s essentially a messaging platform that has built-in video and audio capabilities, so desktop video becomes part of OCS.” Microsoft offers the software that runs video conferencing, be it on a PC or integrated with a telepresence room, says Brian Rusche, UC manager at Microsoft Canada. The two primary clients are Windows Live Meeting, a web conferencing application that integrates video conferencing, and Office Communicator, a presence and IM application. “These are overlapping products. Maybe a communication will start with an e-mail, a reply with IM, and then the user may decide to add video or content.” Since Microsoft provides the software backend that video gets used from, it’s designed to be interoperable with a range of equipment. “Users have their choice of equipment – they can use Logitech, Tandberg, or MS Webcams – and high-end room systems can be integrated with the application platform.” Video conferencing in general has enormous business potential, he says. “But it takes about 17 minutes on average to start a video conference today. Although video is not necessarily core to what we do, Microsoft is working to create a more integrated user experience.” Microsoft’s on-premise video conferencing software costs about $140 per user if deployed on existing OCS servers, and its hosted SAAS offering is $15 monthly per user for 1- 250 users, and $5 for 251-1250 users.

Video vendor round-up

News | September 1, 2009

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