HD
Demand for high definition video conferencing is growing. We’re increasingly talking to IT managers who are upgrading their existing room systems to HD, or standardizing on HD for all new roll-outs. We’ve even heard from a few companies who are looking to deliver HD to the desktop. But as much as users expect HD at work (thanks to their big-screen HD TVs at home), HD video conferencing isn’t all that easy to deploy. The big challenge is bandwidth. Single screen systems or desktop applications providing 720p resolution at 30 frames-per-second usually require 1 to 2 megs of available bandwidth. This may not present a problem at large offices, but branches are an entirely different story given that many companies still lease a fractional T1 access circuit for their WAN access. For those considering HD at the desktop, the thought of hundreds or thousands of users sending 1MB streams across the network is enough to send a panic through the NOC. But times, they are a changing. This week saw Polycom announce a new HD compression algorithm called “High Profile.” Polycom claims that their new approach will cut the bandwidth requirements for HD in half: music to the ears of network architects struggling to justify bandwidth investments for HD. Polycom isn’t alone. Companies such as Radvision and Vidyo and their OEM partners already offer HD solutions based on an emerging standard known as H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC), which not only offers the same level of compression as High Profile, but also error correction to preserve high-quality video even with high packet loss rates. The bottom line is that barriers to HD video are continuing to fall. If you want a conferencing experience that rivals that of watching your home big-screen HD TV, you would be wise to carefully evaluate H.264 High Profile and SVC solutions.
