UC
Last week I had the opportunity to get a look at Sprint’s upcoming HTC EVO 4G smartphone. Running the Android operating system, the EVO represents Sprint’s first attempt to leverage its 4G network to deliver bandwidth intensive services such as streaming high definition video and even video conferencing to mobile users. On the video conferencing front, EVO comes with the Qik video chat application. EVO features both front and rear cameras, enabling users to either engage in a natural two-way conference using the front camera, or provide a live video feed using the higher quality back camera. Sprint’s not alone in bringing two-way video to the mobile world. Vidyo, a provider of enterprise video conferencing applications, recently delivered a software developer kit to enable Android developers to embed its H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC) into mobile devices. Taken together these announcements portend a scenario where mobile phone users will come-a-knocking on IT’s door, asking for IT to make their video-capable smartphone operate with the company video conferencing system. Or, business managers will explore how video-enabled phones can improve the capabilities of remote workers across a range of verticals including healthcare, insurance, education, manufacturing, and field services. We’re still relatively early in the game. 4G services are still in their infancy and not yet widely available, especially outside the U.S., but moves by Sprint and Vidyo are bound to raise awareness of the potential of two-way video in the mobile world. Now is the time for IT to both help business managers understand the potential for process improvements, and work with their vendors and service providers to determine strategies to integrate mobile video with desktop and room-based video conferencing platforms.
