Yesterday, HP launched a new video conferencing tool called SkyRoom that will be available for $149 per client and free on select HP business desktop and mobile workstations. From their marketing videos, it definitely looks like a nice collaboration tool, so I am looking forward to installing it and giving it a try. 

Despite the excitement, I did raise my eyebrows a bit when I read that Jeff Wood, director of worldwide marketing for workstations at HP, stated that “SkyRoom is basically a codec” and that “the secret sauce is a HD codec developed over the years that can take info from host system. It’s very good. It’s been used by NASA on the Mars Rover program.”      

The setup documents and specifications state that H.264 and MPEG2 are used for video and MPEG for audio. Wow, so that is where they found the codecs. I didn’t realize that a widely deployed industry standard could be considered a “secret”, but I guess this proves that the codec can deliver high quality video to a variety of applications. 

Unfortunately, to use SkyRoom, each participant needs to be on the same VPN because the application does not traverse firewalls. In addition, echo cancellation does not work on laptops, making desktop conferencing less desirable. Nevertheless, I cheer HP’s innovation and look forward to the proliferation of high quality video throughout the collaboration market.

Practice what you preach or eat your own dog food as they say around here. Well, Cisco is not only eating their own dog food they’re also saving over a half billion dollars in travel expenses yearly by doing it.  It’s not great for the airline industry but it’s saving a lot of time, money, stress, airport time and as a consequence far more environmentally friendly of Cisco.

Cisco’s high-end Telepresence system is not cheap but for large companies it can be a huge cost-saving. Who would have thought just a few years ago that the likes of Cisco, HP and Tandberg would be competing against airlines? While it’s true that there is nothing like meeting someone in person, most contact is currently over the phone or via email. People who have been interviewed about their experience with video communication have stated that this has strengthened their relationship and provide greater confidence in decision making, greater empathy and importantly how efficient meeting were with video communication.

However, what if you don’t have a telepresence system in your office? Well desktop video conferencing will become more prevalent in my opinion. Already on the consumer-level users have accepted video chat into their lives – enterprise needs to keep up and it will only be a matter of time. HSBC, a major banking chain is already planning their desktop video conferencing solution.

With desktop video conferencing there is also the opportunity to hold impromptu meetings, which isn’t possible with Telepresence – so there is a vast opportunity with the desktop. Look you’re sitting at one now, we could be video chatting!

The difference with the desktop is that instead of all the hardware and specially built conference room – all you will need is the software and hopefully you’ll be using one of GIPS’ customers for your desktop video conferencing. Stay tuned…

Two pieces of recent news seem to indicate that VoIP and Unified Communications are benefiting from efforts to tighten belts. This is a topic that has received quite a bit of attention already, but it is noteworthy that the phenomenon appears to be taking place in both the home and the workplace.

Over the weekend, the Boston Globe ran an article comparing various residential VoIP services. It surveyed the gamut of options, from PC applications like Skype and pure-play VoIP services like Vonage, to offerings from cable/telco companies such as Verizon. While the article could have been written about 3 years ago, what seems to be pushing the topic to national consciousness is the need to save money on home phone service. The piece clearly recognizes VoIP as a solution (perhaps the solution), and helps everyday folks not familiar with the industry navigate a crowded landscape.

Perhaps even more intriguing was the release of a report from Frost and Sullivan on web conferencing and collaboration.  The report claims the market for services from such companies as Citrix GoToMeeting, WebEX and On24 is expected to double by 2014 and reach revenues of $400 million. Among the driving factors, economic uncertainty seems to loom large.  Companies are looking to reduce travel expenses, and UC solutions can deliver the kind of interaction that would otherwise require face to face meetings. Furthermore, the SaaS model has proven stable enough that companies are comfortable going with more cost-effective hosted solutions to meet their collaboration needs. Finally, technical hurdles have been overcome to deliver reliable, high quality voice and video applications.