20
magazine
Consumerisation of IT to drive
uptake of video communications
One by-product of the consumerisation
of IT could be greater acceptance of
video communications, argues
Alcatel-Lucent’s head of marketing for
North Europe, Manish Sablok.
“The consumer has become accustomed to video
communication technology at home. There are now
millions of people who feel comfortable using and
appearing in video, thanks to services such as Skype,
which has in part helped consumer take-up of video
conferencing between friends and family.
“Tools like Skype – almost 40% of Skype minutes last
year were video calls – and the fact that webcams are
frequently built into computer monitors have allowed
consumers at home and on their smartphones to have
easy access to video communication.
“This consumer impact will drive the enterprise
to change the conversation and integrate video
conferencing. So far, success has been mixed: the
Telecommunications Industry Association reports
average growth of 6.5% for each of the last three years.
For video conferencing to be widely taken up, it needs
to be easily available at the desktop of every employee,
in the same way as email, so that you can simply click
on the name of the person you want to speak to and off
you go, as we’re used to doing on mobile phones.
“So why hasn’t the enterprise adopted video
communication in the same way as the consumer?
Security was an issue: tools like Skype were not designed
for use in the enterprise and lacked the security for
corporate use. And price too. Costly ISDN lines and
limited bandwidth compromising the real-life feel of
video communication also proved prohibitive in the past.
But these barriers no longer exist because of low-cost
ADSL and IP networking.
“And now there is an economic driver.While
companies were prosperous, money spent on travel and
international mobile communications didn’t represent a
prohibitive cost and was far outweighed by the fact that
they could meet face-to-face with important clients,
partners or prospects. The current economic climate has
changed all that.
“Video can now be as integrated within the enterprise
as telephone calls or email. I believe that video
communication is a key stepping stone in establishing
a truly dynamic enterprise, giving employees more
ways to engage with each other, with partners, with
customers – and innovate together. It’s in play now:
the barrier is now behavioural, not technological. Yet
as partners and employees used to videoconferencing
their friends and family become mainstream employees,
video conferencing will gain the critical mass it needs to
become a mainstream communication tool.”
www.binfo.co.uk
20
magazine
Meetings made easy
Steelcase has redesigned its RoomWizard
web-based room scheduling system
to make it easier for teams to organise
meetings and book meeting rooms.
According to a recent SteelcaseWorkplace
Survey, 40% of workers waste up to thirty
minutes a day searching for a place to do
group work. RoomWizard II’s Red Light/
Green Light feature allows users to see at
a glance what spaces are free and make a
reservation instantly. The system works with
a variety of calendaring systems and can
be operated via web, laptop, smart phone
or directly from a room unit’s touchscreen
interface.
Citrix adds HD video
to web meetings
Citrix Systems has enhanced its
web conferencing solution, Citrix
GoToMeeting, with high defnition
group videoconferencing for up to six
attendees.
Citrix GoToMeeting with HDFaces
combines high-defnition video, web and
audio conferencing, enabling anyone
with a computer, webcam and internet
connection to enjoy natural, real-time
face-to-face collaboration with colleagues,
customers and partners, anytime,
anywhere.
For ease of use, it provides one-
click participation for attendees, at no
additional cost and with no registration or
special equipment required.
GoToMeeting with HDFaces costs from
£29 per month including integrated HD
group video conferencing.
A free 30-day trial is available at
www.gotomeeting.com.
Video
traffc:
Greater use of online video, storage and back-up services will drive
a seven-fold increase in internet traffc between 2010 and 2015,
according to a new report by Informa Telecoms & Media. By 2015, video
is predicted to account for more than 50% of all internet traffc (1.2
million petabytes of data). Over the same period, Asia will replace North
America as the dominant region with 42% of global internet traffc.
LifeSize’s cloud platform
removes barriers to
videoconferencing
LifeSize, the videoconferencing division
of Logitech, has launched a
cloud-based HD video
conferencing platform
that allows enterprises
to make seamless, encrypted HD
video calls between LifeSize conference room
systems and anyone with a computer and a webcam.
LifeSize Connections provides click-to-call, presence-enabled dialling, with seamless
call escalation to multi-party calling, plus data sharing and instant messaging capabilities.
Users can invite remote employees, clients and partners to join them in Connections as a
guest simply by sending a download link and guest registration.
For easy management, the service features nine-way HD video bridging, data
encryption and management, and automatic confguration of endpoints and software
clients to go across frewalls.
Logitech argues that its Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model and pay-as-you-go
pricing overcome traditional barriers to the adoption of video including the high upfront
cost of equipment, interoperability diffculties and the lack of suffcient IT resources to
manage complex deployments of traditional on-premises video infrastructure.