Software application development
This blog is intended to provoke discussion and exchange between like minded software application developers, engineers, architects, project managers - and keen hobbyists too.
Thursday 18 December 2008, 11:48 PM
High-end video-conferencing apps vs. quick and dirty web-collaboration apps
These apps drive full ‘human size’ size video walls that are known popularly as telepresence.
To me, these systems look just about as impressive as they look awful. The last time I had a video-conference it wasn’t a particularly enjoyable experience and the formal time scheduling of the whole affair made it all the more stifled, in my humble opinion.
The interesting thing with this topic though is this – although I am paying appropriate lip service to the makers of these video behemoths (as that’s what the feature demands)… the responses I got from my Twitter pals and industry contacts told a totally different message. Emails and Tweets said things like:
It’s just crazy to spend US$500,000 on something like that!
No way – we just get on a plane, flights are cheap and nothing beats personal face-to-face meetings.
Web cams are great these days, Microsoft's LiveMeeting is good and the open source www.dimdim.com is argued to be very practical.
Adobe Acrobat Connect / Connect Pro works well. Other than that, I use a web cam and IM software.
So who buys these units? Some of them come as a complete dedicated room with wood panels and blue backgrounds (Tandberg – you know who you are) that claim to provide a consistent and immersive experience for all participants.
Is it just corporate ‘showboating’ to have one of these units in place?
Have web developers and designers built such useable software now that we can get a good web chat with video completed without spending half a million dollars? Let’s hope so and let’s hope that social networking platforms are helping to integrate geographically distributed workers in a new and more productive and yet professional way than ever before.
My vote goes out to the developers who created IM and everything connected to it. Long may it continue to develop in terms of sophistication and let’s hope for more video interchange in our daily existence in cyberspace.
PreviousComments on this post
Telepresence has rapidly grown in popularity because c-level execs like to look each other in the eye before they make decisions that could make or break their earnings.
While nothing beats face-to-face, the quality of 1080p combined with the "actual-size" scale of telepresence makes it an ideal alternative to flying executives across the country, putting them up in hotels, and rendering them unproductive for 24 hours or more for a meeting that might only take twenty minutes. Couple the productivity loss with the damage to the environment and you have a reason to explore whether HD video conferencing or telepresence makes sense for your organization.
Conference room telepresence systems have come down in price--as technology always does--and are now available for less than half the number you mention. A firm that commits to such a solution can realize a return on their investment in about a year.
HD video conferencing solutions are now available for $10,000--that's less than what many what many businesses spend on travel and lodging in a month.
Further, bandwidth requirements are not what they used to be and HD is now possible at approximately 1 MB/sec. DVD quality can be achieved at about 500 KB/sec. And, if you have you even a little experience with a system, you should be able to launch a meeting on the fly with less finger work than it takes to reach a client on the phone.
As for "quick and dirty" web apps, while they may work well in-house, or for visiting with grandma in Tucson, they are not well suited for conference room meetings or rendering the detail required by an architect, textile manufacturer, film studio, etc.
Lastly, I do not work for any of the companies you mentioned.
Thanks Nadelia,
This blog is intended to question and challenge - I am trying to also reflect the views of those in the industry that I speak to on a regular basis.
Thanks for your post - a good 'leveler' with extra technical information ... my post was a quick overview on the subject, there are clearly professionals out there who are completed devoted to this technology.
Regards - Adrian
Have you checked out the recently announced CoCoMo beta for Flex developers? (http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/cocomo/) Adobe is trying to enable just the types of experiences that you seem to be calling for.
From the labs.adobe.com site:
Codename "Cocomo" is a Platform as a Service that allows Flex developers to easily add real-time social capabilities into their RIA (rich Internet applications). Comprised of both Flex-based client components and a hosted services infrastructure, Cocomo allows you to build real-time, multi-user applications with Flex in less time than ever before. And because Acrobat.com hosts the service, issues like deployment, maintenance, and scalability are taken care of for you.
Add social features to your existing Flex apps or build totally new ones, such as real-time productivity/collaboration apps, multiplayer games, and audio/video chat.
Features of the Cocomo beta include the following:
* VoIP Audio
* Webcam Video
* Chat
* Multi-User Whiteboards
* Real-Time File Sharing
* User Management
* Roles and Permissions
* Robust Data Messaging
