Imagine making a video call to a colleague across the building or across the country using software on your desktop PC or in a conference room. That's the promise of network videoconferencing. Until this year, network managers often had trouble finding reliable, quality videoconferencing solutions over anything but ISDN. Today, however, new standards are bringing videoconferencing to the LAN. We tested three stand-alone workgroup systems that support video transport over ISDN and IP. Intel's TeamStation System 4.0 Update 2 took home our Blue Ribbon Award. Get the full results in our Review.
Our Issues and Trends story chronicles the evolution of LAN-based videoconferencing solutions and highlights some lingering concerns, such as bandwidth requirements and data-sharing capabilities. We also look at how turnkey solutions compare to component systems with regard to price and functionality. If you're trying to decide between a stand-alone workgroup terminal system and a portable small group system or desktop PC kit, visit our Interactive Buyer's Guide. We've polled 24 vendors and compiled full specifications for 41 videoconferencing products. You can narrow down your search through a query form or download a spreadsheet with all the data to play with yourself.. RELATED LINKS
