There’s a Lot More to HD Voice than the Codec
Not much has changed in the last 60 years of telephone, yes “we went from analogue to digital but not much else,” said Jeff Pulver at the opening of the GIPS’ sponsored HD summit in New York. The summit was an intimate gathering of 70+ people passionate about building recognition and further demand for HD voice – and importantly people with the ability to make that change possible.
It’s true, that all of us tolerate poor voice quality on phones and one can get better voice quality from two tin cans and a wire – a sad indictment of the telecommunication industry. “How many time do you have to spell your name phonetically over the phone?,” posed Pulver to the audience – most said yes. “Now how many people have to do that in person…”
Currently, the technology exists to support HD voice, though the hardware support needs to catch up. The challenges to provide HD Voice has been overcome by a number of companies including GIPS, it’s the tipping point that we need to reach and as mobile and fixed broadband deployment increases, so will HD voice.
Jeffrey Rodman, CTO and co-founder of Polycom stated “HD voice is even more important” than HD video. While, some will disagree, I think it’s a correct assumption. HD Voice is critical for public safety, emergency services and business. As Rodman illustrated in his presentation trying to decipher communication over the phone should not be an issue – it could save time and lives if we used HD voice.
“The outside of the phone has changed over the years but the inside of the phone has remained the same since 1937,” said Rodman in his presentation. (Actually it has got worse when you consider the introduction of mobile phones) but his point is a sad indictment of the industry. While other industries have progressed the telephone remains the same.
So what will it take to make HD voice ubiquitous in the US? The short answer – It will take a multi-pronged approach.
The FCC will need to be lobbied (they’ll also have to listen) and educated on the benefits of HD voice. Public safety, emergency services and business are just a few of the major reasons.
The general public needs to be educated and that is the responsibility of many of the companies that attended today’s conference. Better comprehension, identify who is talking on a conference call, higher productivity, lower fatigue and overcoming different accents are just some of the benefits of HD voice.
Telecommunication carriers will need to understand the benefit and see that a move to HD voice could put billions of dollars on their market cap. It could also provide a huge differentiator for the first-mover.
Our everyday lives would also be positively impacted by such a transition to HD voice. Pulver brought up a good point – if the phone was to be invented and introduced for the first time today it would be an invention that would be ridiculed for its quality especially when you compare it to other devices available today. People expect high-definition. They expect it from their video games, DVDs and computers.
Today is just the beginning of the bigger push for HD voice – and co-opetition will be required to push it forward from all the industry’s players.
Tags: HD summit, HD-voice, iSAC, Polycom, wideband codec
