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Dave Michels
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Dave Michels | February 25, 2010 |

 
 
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Lights, Camera-Phone, Action!

Lights, Camera-Phone, Action! The pieces are coming together, the technology is real as is the value. Interoperable desktop video is the next UC game changer.

The pieces are coming together, the technology is real as is the value. Interoperable desktop video is the next UC game changer.

Video conferencing rooms are useful, but generally require advance planning and can be intimidating. Technology marches on--now it's called Telepresence with improvements such as HD picture quality. While waiting for your appointment in the Telepresence studio, let's make some video calls. It is called visual communications, and it's taking place at your desktop. If VoIP was the industry of the last decade, the next ten years will belong to desktop video. The pace of progress in this area is staggering, and the pieces are all falling into place.

About a year ago, Polycom released the VVX 1500 "Media Phone" (video phone). At the time, I wrote, "The new Polycom VVX 1500 is probably the single most exciting and useless product ever released from Polycom." My complaint was with its interoperability (or its lack thereof). Polycom knows video and Polycom knows phones--but somehow this new model was incompatible with both sectors. Evidently, it was one of those "if you build it, they will come" products, and a tremendous number of changes have occurred since it was released.

Desktop Video Past
Perhaps one of the most famous examples of technology "bait and bait"--was the 1964 unveiling of Bell's PicturePhone at the New York World's Fair. The system wasn't quite ready for mass production at that time. It wasn't until 1970 that Bell offered commercial PicturePhone service in downtown Pittsburgh. AT&T executives incorrectly predicted a million PicturePhone sets would be in use by 1980.

Several factors have conspired to create an environment where desktop video is now possible, easy, and frequently free. The changes include widespread adoption of broadband networking, codec improvements, the proliferation of webcams, VoIP, IM, microprocessors, and SIP. The real excitement will come with interoperability between different types/networks of desktop video users as well as desktop-to-room systems.



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