At the recent UC Expo in London, the great and the good of the video collaboration business took part in a panel discussion
Will Pro VC ever get it right?
At the recent UC Expo in London, the great and the good of the video collaboration business took part in a panel discussion to consider the future of video in collaboration. Amidst many statements of the ‘mea culpa’ variety the discussion centred on whether pro video collaboration technology could be refined to the point of universal usability before its lunch is well and truly eaten by rival consumer technologies, WebRTC and its successors.
With issues around adoption, ROI and interoperability and disruptive technologies like WebRTC, professional video collaboration technology has to address numerous issues to confront even before it has reached anything like maturity or even majority adoption, AT UC Expo, a panel discussion entitled ‘The future of video collaboration’, moderated by analyst Rob Bamforth of Quocirca, featured contributions from: Anthony Blake of Cisco; Mark Richer of Starleaf; Mike O’Boyle of PGi; and Tim Stone of Polycom.
The initial discussion focused on ‘what went wrong with video collaboration’, concluding that problems with ease-of-use, interoperability and scalability have been the principal barriers to adoption. This is despite a reasonable level of support for the concept of collaboration throughout organisations. Dimension Data has released a report, the Connected Enterprise Report that reports that while:
“Nearly 40% of organisations don’t have a defined unified communication and collaboration strategy, in the remaining 60% that do have a strategy, line of business (LoB) managers and other non-IT executives have a pivotal role in defining and executing their company’s collaboration strategy – an astounding 89% of research participants. An increasing number of LoBs – one in four organisations – are also taking responsibility to pay for and implement the solutions as well, without the express consent of IT.”
Structural problems
While LOB managers accept the need for collaboration for improving the performance of their departments, issues around professional solutions is driving these new users to adopt emerging consumer technologies to collaborate with colleagues, suppliers and even customers. An equally important consideration is the cost of access – LoB mangers with bottom line responsibility for their departmental budgets will always temper their demand for quality, and even security, with the appeal of a low-cost option.
Today, the quality compromise isn’t that great. HD video is cheap when delivered via a tablet PC. In addition, the use of consumer technologies obviates the training overhead. With just 10 percent of meeting rooms video enabled, the use of a mobile or desktop device for video collaboration is frequently the only passivity. With the cloud improving access, ultimately the current ‘islands of video’ issue should disappear. In the meantime, expect further growth in the use of video over Skype, Facetime, WhatsApp and the like.
Of course, this trend is anathema to IT managers, with many companies trying to regulate the use of personal devices and unregulated cloud services. The UC Expo panel more-or-less conceded that trying to restrict the use of these consumer technologies is pointless. The same people that make up the sales team for a corporate use their iPhones to Facetime their friends as soon as they cross the office threshold. Would they really prefer to use a totally new and frequently complex solution that is often restricted to communicating with colleagues within the same organisation?
Evolving solutions
Rather than restrict the use of alternatives to the pro VC tools, the UC Expo panel advocated integrating the consumer technologies into the pro solution – not easy when Apple has steadfastly refused to play ball. There are some positives however: Office 365 looks like it will be transformational both in terms of adoption by LoB manager and integration with legacy solutions – Polycom, for example, will open its solution to 365 by the end of the year.
This changing landscape prompted panellists to consider the changing pattern of user adoption. Recent experience proves that LoB adoption (targeting a specific sales team, for example) works better than generic deployment. There was widespread agreement on this point, but the debate over on-premise deployment versus the cloud continues, with the cloud just edging it.
The cloud offers many advantages, particularly in respect of integrating data into any collaborative session. But will the cloud solve all of the dilemmas facing video collaboration? The problem for some of existing pro solutions is deep routed, even ‘architectural’. Most of the traditional solutions stated as peer-to-peer technologies, which developed to get every endpoint to talk to every other endpoint. What’s needed now is something more akin to the hierarchical telephone network.
The cloud has this potential but there are many more battles to be fought before this becomes a reality. The potential to find a solution towards universal integration probably exists with WebRTC and the APIs developed around it, but expect a choppy short to mid-term.
Krish Ramakrishnan, CEO of BlueJeans: “Once people experience the power of video, they ‘hang-up’ on traditional conference calling.”
BlueJeans Network has unveiled the Enterprise Video Cloud, a comprehensive platform built for today’s globally distributed, modern workforce with video communications at the core. New global research shows that 85% of employees are already using video in the workplace and 72% believe that video will transform the way they communicate at work.
“There is a transformation happening among business today – face to face video is quickly rising as the preferred communications medium, offering new opportunities for deeper personal relations and outreach, as well as for improved internal and external collaboration,” said Krish Ramakrishnan, CEO of BlueJeans. “Once people experience the power of video, they ‘hang-up’ on traditional conference calling. We are seeing this happen with the emergence of video cultures that power the most innovative cultures—from Facebook and Netflix to Viacom and Del Monte.”
BlueJeans argues that Current video solutions are fragmented, siloed and prohibitively expensive, or not secure and reliable enough to be trusted by larger businesses. They are also simply too hard to use, forcing consumers of video to face steep learning curves and the “video tax”- the 10-15 minutes of lost time associated with setting up a video session before every meeting.
The BlueJeans Enterprise Video Cloud is described as a secure, global platform and extensible architecture that extends a video culture internally and externally. Uniting single-click video experiences, powerful IT management tools, and a rich ecosystem of integration partners, the BlueJeans Enterprise Video Cloud delivers business video communications on a global scale:
End-to-End Video Experiences
● BlueJeans Meetings – Delivers touch-to-join simplicity, HD video, and screen sharing for any combination of conference room systems, mobile devices, phones and computers that easily interoperates with leading unified communications tools
● BlueJeans Primetime – Engages up to 5,000 attendees with one-click access to live, multipoint video, creating a new way for audiences to participate and interact
● BlueJeans Relay for Room Systems – Makes room system deployments easier to use and manage with calendar integration and touch-to-join simplicity. Displays scheduled meetings on a tablet controller so users can simply walk into a conference room and join meetings with a single touch
Superior IT Management Tools
● BlueJeans Command Center – Combines rich reporting and analytics with centralised moderation and live meeting control through a powerful dashboard. Helps IT leaders manage and measure the success of their video communications deployment
● Public & Private Cloud Deployment Options – Offers global Tier-1 peering network with data centres in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and direct peering through the Equinix Cloud Exchange and MPLS integration with AT&T NetBond, Level 3 Cloud Connect, and West IP Maxxis
● Custom Branding – Enterprise branding options including custom landing pages, email templates, and interactive voice response (IVR) system prompts
● Customer Success, & Support – Extensive service options include deployment planning, training and adoption services, meeting and event assist services, and access to dedicated Customer Success Managers and Enterprise Solutions Engineers.
Integrations with Systems and Applications
● BlueJeans for Microsoft Skype for Business – Delivers superior video quality, access for room systems and external participants, cloud recording, bandwidth conservation, and central management features for organisations who want to upgrade their stock video experience
● Workflow Integrations – Offers users an easy on-ramp from workflow applications including Lync 2010/2013, Cisco Jabber, Atlassian HipChat, and Slack. Organisations can also use the BlueJeans API to add cloud-powered video communications to their user’s everyday applications and workflows
● BlueJeans for Huddle Rooms (available later this year) – Enables IT to affordably deploy and support video communications in every conference room and workspace, and gives end users one-touch simplicity for both ad hoc and scheduled meetings
While the BlueJeans Enterprise Video Cloud was designed for large-scale enterprises, the company claims that businesses of all sizes can benefit from video communications.
Krish Ramakrishnan, CEO of BlueJeans: “Once people experience the power of video, they ‘hang-up’ on traditional conference calling.”
Biamp Devio makes meetings more productive
Biamp Systems demonstrated its new Devio collaboration system at UC Expo Devio provides a feature-rich conferencing system for huddle rooms and other small meeting spaces, making collaboration simple, efficient, and intuitive. With its easy-to-connect device (Devio CR-1) and advanced beamforming microphone (Devio DTM-1), meetings are equipped with a high-quality, laptop-based audio and video conferencing solution that enhances user engagement and increases meeting productivity.
“As our work spaces continue to migrate toward open office floor plans, employees need spaces they can gather and brainstorm without disturbing co-workers,” said Rob Houston, product manager, unified communications (UC) products, Biamp Systems.
“Devio provides a very unique solution, in that it enables people to quickly transition from their desks or cubicles to a collaboration space, connect their laptop to the technology in that room, and start collaborating with colleagues in person and via soft-codec conferencing systems like Skype for Business, GoToMeeting, WebEx and more.”
Described as “effortless to install, manage, and control”, Devio is a single-box collaboration tool that brings high-end audio input and output and easy connectivity to in-room technology, including displays, web cameras via a single USB 3.0 connection to a Windows or Mac OS X-based computer.
Devio’s beamforming microphone has three 120-degree zones, providing full 360-degree audio coverage of the meeting space. The Devio microphone tracks and intelligently mixes conversation from around the table, allowing far-end conference participants to experience the conversation naturally in real time. Devio also features Biamp’s acoustic echo cancellation technology to diminish echo and feedback, while dynamically monitoring the room to lessen or eliminate unwanted background noise.
Devio’s Auto Setup automates audio input and output levels — reducing installation time and ensuring remote participants can hear and be heard. Multiple CR-1 units in an installation can be managed centrally using the Devio software administration utility (SAU) or via SNMP, and firmware and configurations can be mass deployed.
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Described as “effortless to install, manage, and control”, Devio is a single-box collaboration tool from Biamp.
Drum selects Epsilon to support RTC
Epsilon has been selected by Drum to deliver co-location services to support the growth of its browser-based Drum web meeting platform. Drum web meetings combine WebRTC with CSS3 and HTML5 to deliver a meeting platform. Drum offers users instant access to flexible browser-based communications and collaboration tools inside a web meeting.
Drum, formed in 2011 by John Logsdon, utilises WebRTC to deliver browser-based web meetings inside your existing service and /or website. Drum’s in-house expertise ensures that web meetings are just as effective as previous meeting solutions. Drum offers two separate versions of web meetings. The first which is an embeddable web meeting API. The second offering is a standalone web meeting solution for your meetings and meeting management hosted in the UK and USA.
In 2016, Drum launched its instant web meeting API enabling organisations to immediately embed web meetings into existing services and websites with either JS or HTML. This streamlines access to meetings and removes the limits on communicating quickly and securely via the web.
Drum says it delivers a comprehensive set of features that include browser-based audio, PSTN dial-in, messaging, document sharing and collaboration, chat, screen sharing, with immediate integration into 20+ existing business apps. All meetings created with Drum can be played back in real-time while the new Slack integration allows users to create meetings instantly using the /drum slash command. Drum is pioneering in the development and application of real-time communications while integrating fixed, mobile, WebRTC voice into a single solution.
“Quality of Service (QoS) and reliable underlying infrastructure is critical to the success of WebRTC and any real-time applications. Epsilon demonstrated they understand not only the traditional voice world but the rapid innovations currently developing within browser-based applications and communications services. As our Drum instant web meetings continue to grow, we appreciate Epsilon’s ability to deliver QoS at scale,” said John Logsdon, CEO and founder of Drum.
Drum will use Epsilon’s UK-based co-location services providing immediate access to 500+ operator networks in 170+ countries. Epsilon has more than a decade of experience delivering co-location services in the UK offering service providers direct connectivity to major cloud service providers, particularly those with real time communications needs.
“Drum is a unique service that is showing the way forward for WebRTC and browser-based communication. Our co-location services offers it reliable infrastructure that is ready to scale with adoption. Epsilon has had a lot of success supporting both fully hosted Software-As-A-Service (SaaS) and Hybrid Cloud solutions and this is another opportunity to support a growing and innovative service provider,” said Jerzy Szlosarek, CEO at Epsilon. “WebRTC is a exciting opportunity and we are well positioned to support its development.”
