Wave Three Software is looking to lower the cost of multi-point videoconferencing with a new software-based application suite that uses Session Initiation Protocol  and runs on commodity hardware.

Expected to be announced this week, Session Conference Server suite lets multiple users participate in the same call with audio, video and data-sharing capabilities. The suite includes three modules: Conference Management, which handles call reservation and general network administration; Call Control, for setting up and tearing down the call; and Multimedia, which pushes any images and files being shared to each user. The suite can run on a single Windows 2000 server or be spread over multiple locations, depending on the number of users being supported.

Session Conference Server works with Wave Three's SIP-based Session software client that runs on Windows and Macintosh. No special hardware is required on the client other than a standard Webcam and microphone/headset. Many SIP audio phones also can be used.

"Being all software, the whole package is a much less-expensive way to get into SIP video," says Christine Perey of Perey Research and Consulting. "This is something a company could buy to establish or prove SIP video [instead of buying] a Marconi [hardware device] at $10,000 an endpoint."

Though Session Conference Server competes with Microsoft's  SIP-based Windows XP Messenger, Wave Three says it hopes the products will be able to coexist. A Session and Messenger client can communicate in audio-only mode, but Wave Three is working with Microsoft on video interoperability.

The University of Arkansas School of Medicine in Little Rock is beta-testing Session Conference Server in hopes of improving communications on its campus. The school looks to roll it out fully in September, says Mark Clark, director of technical operations.

Clark says the Session video codec, which uses wavelet compression running at 320-by-240-pixel resolution was comparable in quality to the school's current H.323 -based video network. The 640-by-480 resolution (currently in beta) "looks like digital TV," Clark says.

"I took their product, set up a Dell with a fast processor and good sound card, hooked it to a large flat-screen TV monitor with a good set of speakers and for $5,000 got the equivalent [quality] of a $15,000 Tandberg unit," Clark says. "With hundreds of sites, that's a great savings."

The system is being tested with researchers, doctors and clinicians on campus and those traveling. Clark says he hopes to be able to let faculty and staff install the client at home. The client can connect at a minimum of 56K bit/sec, though video quality does suffer.

Wave Three is finishing work on an H.261/H.263 codec that will let the server and client connect with traditional video endpoints from Tandberg and Polycom , letting a session client connect with virtually any videoconferencing device.

An implementation for 10 simultaneous users is priced at about $1,500 per user and includes a Session Conference Server, the Session desktop software, a Ridgeway server for firewall and network address translation issues, and a SIP location server from Indigo or Snom Technologies .