Telepresence requires a major investment at a fixed location. With so many web based options becoming available are telepresence facilities becoming white elephants or are there opportunities to live side by side and still warrant further investment? In our virtual panel discussion we asked a number of experts to explore these and other questions.
Mauritz van Wyk, senior product manager: Visual Communications,Vox Telecom; Gary Hart, executive head of the managed network and unified communications at Vodacom Business; Andre Deetlefs, executive: lines of business, Jasco Enterprise; Dean Baker, business development director, BT Global Services (Sub-Sahara Africa); Rob Lith, business development director, Connection Telecom and Caroline Beswick, national sales manager, Altech Collab.
Telepresence is a fixed high quality teleconferencing facility. With the many other web based services offered today, is telepresence, as originally defined by Cisco, still a viable option and does it warrant the large investment required to install the facility?
Mauritz van Wyk, senior product manager: Visual Communications,Vox Telecom said that the high quality offered by “telepresence” is warranted for critical meetings which takes place over consecutive hours. It is important to note that a complete ecosystem for visual communications is required to get the real ROI of visual communication in a business.
Gary Hart, executive head of the managed network and unified communications at Vodacom Business agrees that telepresence is a viable option for enterprise and the public sector as the solution provides business value while offering a reduction in travelling expenses and in employee time away from the office.
“It is important to note that there are two options available for businesses looking to invest in a telepresence solution, namely a fully immersive telepresence system or room based conference solutions. Fully immersive telepresence systems use state-of-the-art technology to create a high-quality experience that aims to make you feel like you are sitting in the same room as the video connected colleagues. This option is often quite expensive as it requires an investment in expensive technology and relies on high bandwidth to deliver the high-quality audio and video of the solution.
Room-ased video conferencing, on the other hand, allows businesses to conduct face-to-face group meetings via video conferencing as easily as making a phone a call.
Both of these solutions offer users security, as information is shared over a private network, high quality of service and a professional way to meet colleagues and customers. Although fully immersive telepresence offers the most life like experience, a majority of South African businesses are satisfied with the quality of room based video conferencing and believe it is a viable and more affordable option to meet their specific needs.”
Andre Deetlefs, executive: lines of business, Jasco Enterprise also agrees that telepresence still has its uses and is preferred for high level executive meetings such as board meetings where the premium is justified based on the quality of the interaction and ability to provide a true face to face meeting in high definition (HD). When considering Telepresence facilities, conferencing, collaboration and web based services and the costs of local and international travel for meetings, telepresence can be cost effective.
Dean Baker, business development director, BT Global Services (Sub-Sahara Africa) believes that it is not a question of technology (i.e. telepresence or web based services or other conferencing technology) but rather about collaboration. “The key message is one of enhancing the collaboration experience to enable a more efficient and productive organisation. Collaboration is about facilitating business agility, increasing speed of decision making, improving productivity, reducing costs and making the global communication easy. Thus, the investment must be business case driven aligned to business requirements and objectives. To give an example, one of our clients, a global multinational enterprise, calculated travel savings of more than one million kilometres and forty metric tonnes of carbon emissions within six months of deploying their telepresence rooms. Further savings and efficiencies are being realised as they continue deploy a blend of collaboration services which includes additional Telepresence facilities, conferencing, collaboration and web based services.”
Rob Lith, business development director, Connection Telecom has a more controversial view about the question whether telepresence, with the large investment it requires, is viable. “To a large degree the standalone large and expensive telepresence facilities are becoming white elephants, but that said there are new delivery mechanism technologies that makes the investment cost materially less and far more efficient for users to meet with the devices they have available to them, be they in a boardroom with very high definition screens and cameras down to using their PC/laptops, tablets or even smartphones on the operating system of their choice. Today one no longer requires proprietary hardware or networking. One can use Windows, Mac or Linux PCs as well as Android and iOS tablets and smartphones.”
Caroline Beswick, national sales manager, Altech Collab says that both telepresence (TP) and video conferencing (VC) is about efficiency, maximum utilisation of resources and time-to-decision making. In an increasingly global workplace, organisations need to be more agile and responsive in the way that they communicate and in their real-time decision making processes. Companies no longer revolve around a physical location, but rather on the resources of the organisation. These resources can, through TP and VC, be located anywhere in the world. In a knowledge-based economy, information, ideas and execution are what separate winners from losers.”
Various organisations offer telepresence facilities that can be rented by the hour. How well are these facilities supported? Will there be a need for this type of facility in the future?
Dean Baker: “There is a growing requirement for these facilities as customers become more familiar with collaborative services. There will be an increase in demand within (for example) the hotel industry and/or small to medium enterprise sector. However the proliferation of smart devices connecting to global video exchange services to enable collaboration (which enables interconnectivity between dedicated TP and web based services and a multitude of devices) could negate the need for rental TP facilities.
“We do however see an increasing up take of Collaboration services in global multinational organisations as a means to deliver bottom line savings. Further, we see an ever increasing demand for ‘collaboration as a service’, which simply means companies are delivering collaboration services on a pay per service model with no capital outlay required by their clients.”
Gary Hart: “People are often reluctant to spend time travelling to a facility to attend a video conference. With the advances in technology today our workforce needs to be able to collaborate from anywhere, with any device. Further to this, the cost of telepresence solutions are coming down, which means that companies are now able to invest in their own in-house telepresence solutions rather than renting these offerings.”
Rob Lith: “There is a requirement for a ‘white glove’ concierge service to assist users to get the wide variety of systems hooked up together at a specific time. The new hosted services allow for remote management and inviting users into conferences through web-based services. I don’t think a by the hour service always works, it may in the business service lounges like at airports and hotels.”
Caroline Breswick:”As the cost of TP and VC end points reduces, as well as the need for technical expertise within a company to run these solutions diminish due to the ease of use of these systems, the utilisation of the rental TP facilities will pass down to the smaller, medium enterprises which are entering the market to utilise the benefits of TP. Where the market will grow is in the hosted bridging facilities. Many of the VC solutions offer multipoint conferencing of +/- 4 sites within one’s own network via mini, built-in multipoint control units. But it can still be a costly investment to install bridging facilities and system management centres for multipoint conferences. Breaking out of your network is a specialised area requiring resources to be proactive in setting up and managing the sessions.”
Are the currently installed telepresence facilities compatible with each other? Do they support break out to smartphones and tablets?
Mauritz van Wyk: “Most of the “telepresence” facilities are interoperable with a common protocol used. Support for smartphones and tablets are predominantly achieved via VC infrastructure to facilitate these devices.
Dean Baker: ”Interoperability is achieved by means of Video Bridging and/or Global Video Exchange services which can be, delivered as a cloud based service. This “bridging” service enables (i) audio and web integration (ii) Interoperability of any kind of standards based video device and (iii) Cross-network connectivity (e.g. various partner conferences).
Video bridging solutions integrate a variety of networks, cloud based video bridging and if needed your own video bridging infrastructure into one seamless end-to-end video managed services offering. There are very few service providers who have the global reach and who have made the investment to be able to “bring it all together” by providing video unified collaboration services for traditional video, PC/mobile-based video and Telepresence systems (including audio services), while keeping a focus on simplifying the technology according to the specific business requirement and/or service.
Video bridging services enable organisations to extend their internal collaboration beyond their corporate boundaries, collaboration can now be facilitated internally cross borders and with customers and suppliers too. Consequently, customers can orchestrate these services to improve their business outcomes. This is the
the ‘art of connecting’ as defined by BT.”
Do web-based video conferencing facilities offer a quality experience compared with telepresence?
Mauritz van Wyk: “Network capacity or bandwidth planning is crucial to accommodate these services. Webcams and PC specifications play a vital role on the experience of these solutions. Dedicated video conferencing hardware will in my opinion always trump PC hardware but the benefits of the reach of web-based conferencing services will enable larger ROI for businesses.
Rob Lith: “No, web-based VC definitely doesn’t offer a quality experience, however, depending on the application, it is more than adequate for most types of meetings. As TP provides a much superior video quality due to the additional bandwidth available, it is a far better experience. Web based systems however (especially in South Africa) are designed to use much less bandwidth with resulting degradation of video quality.
Gary Hart “Web-based conferencing provides companies with a solution to run a conference from anywhere, anytime and on any device. However, there are a few limitations to this option that can be addressed by using telepresence solutions. These include:
• Security – when using a web based conferencing facility, companies sacrifice on security as they are not necessarily exchanging information over a private network. A telepresence solution is often set up on a company’s private network, offering higher security to users.
• Quality of service – web-based solutions offer a quick, easy offering that often are of a lower quality than the other telepresence offerings. The quality of service one receives through web conferencing is in directly linked to the quality of the network, whether it is fixed or mobile. Often web conferencing is conducted over a broadband connection and the user will often experience a different quality depending on the speed of that service. Telepresence offerings, on the other hand, have been set up specifically to offer a high quality of service and deliver a better user experience.
• Professional way to meet – telepresence solutions offer users a professional way to meet with colleagues and customers. However, web based solutions offer users an easy desktop solution that can be used anywhere.”
Caroline Breswick has a definite no! “No they can’t. You are dependent on the service providers for the delivery of your session. You have no control over the quality of service and the true, real time bandwidth available.”
How important is a file sharing facility as part of web-based video conferencing?
Andre Deetlefs: “File sharing, presentation sharing and desktop sharing are all very useful features and enhance collaboration. In some systems there is even the ability of late arriving participants to review slides in the presentation if they want to without disrupting the progress of the presenter.
Dean Baker: “When you need to quickly make decisions and make sure your audience understands your message, web conferencing and audio conferencing supported by Web collaboration tools is the solution to share and update documents online while on a video and/or audio call.
Conferencing streaming services let you deliver multi-media audio, video or web content over the internet and your corporate intranet. With streaming, or ‘webcasting’, your business can extend presentations and training to audiences of almost any size, virtually anywhere, anytime. It’s that easy.
Example of web conferencing include Microsoft Office Live Meeting and Cisco WebEx solutions. Each application comes with a number of features and (again dependent on the business application). In addition, each application can be supported by WebJoin, an online tool that lets you launch and join a web conference. Benefits of Web Conferencing include (i) no need to meet face to face to review documents – it’s all done at a click of a button (ii) Real-time collaboration – share, collaborate and discuss your projects in real time with your colleagues and suppliers and (iii) Faster output from meeting discussions – develop documents in real-time.”
Caroline Breswick’s comments reflect the views of the panel “It is very important for that real time, fully participative experience so that all members of the conference can interact in the session. It is a fully interactive experience of productive collaboration and not just a vocal visual experience!”
With today’s emphasis on mobility, is the teleconferencing (voice only) market growing?
Gary Hart: “Yes, there is a growing demand for teleconferencing because of the convenience factor which allows participants to participate in conference calls anywhere and at any time via a mobile device, for example, while driving to a meeting. However, with the cost of video conferencing coming down significantly to be almost the same as that of a teleconference call, coupled with the benefits that come with the audio and video offering, more companies are opting to use video conferencing rather than teleconferencing.”
Andre Deetlefs: “We makes extensive use of voice conferencing to conduct meetings at all hours of the day especially while people are commuting. This enhances productivity and enables employees to communicate on the fly, making it convenient especially for busy executives. “
Dean Baker: “To reiterate, we are seeing significant growth in collaboration services. A component of collaboration services is audio conferencing. The growth trend continues globally, more so in Africa, as the demand for local (in-country) toll free access numbers increases. In partnership with Dolby, we deliver BT MeetMe with Dolby voice, an exclusive best in class audio conferencing VOIP service. It offers spatial sound, noise reduction and high efinition (HD) quality, making conferencing just like a face-to-face meeting, which is ideal for the user on the move.”
Conferencing solutions should work together with each other and with (where applicable) your existing unified communications. For example, the global BT MeetMe call-back service from Cisco WebEx, ensures users incur no charges. Integration with Microsoft Lync makes sure you still benefit from the cost savings of audio conferencing through Lync, as well as including non-Lync users in your audio conference.”
What impact have services like Skype had on the tele- and videoconference market?
Caroline Breswick: “Skype, face time and the like, have brought video conferencing into our everyday lives and made it the norm. They have helped create that expectation that we can communicate face to face to whomever, anywhere in the world at the push of a button or a swipe of the screen.”
Gary Hart: “Although these technologies are easily available, many organisations haven’t opted to use these solutions as an alternative to video conferencing options. This is supported by research conducted by Wainhouse in 2013, the paper “End-User Survey: The “Real” Benefits of Video” asked organisations about their plans to adopt personal video conferencing solutions such as Skype, ooVoo, Zoom, Google Talk, Apple FaceTime, PGi iMeet, etc. The results showed that there were no major plans in place to deploy Skype while 22% had no plans at all. As such there may have been a slight impact on the market, particularly within the consumer market, but it has not had a major impact in replacing video conferencing solutions in business organisations “
Andre Deetlefs: “Skype has been the market leader for consumer based voice and video. While it is intended for one-to-one video and voice calls, limited conferencing is supported. It lacks a few key elements that don’t qualify it as enterprise class (like diary integration, meet me and scheduled conferences) but it has given the consumer at least a taste of what is possible.”
Rob Lith sums up the answer to this discussion point in a concise way “It is making what was only available to the enterprise with Lear jets accessible to all.”
Are there new developments in video- and teleconferencing systems in the pipeline?
Gary Hart:“Yes, there have been several new developments in the industry. The biggest was Microsoft’s purchase of Skype last year which it then introduced to the market as Skype for Business. There were also developments in WebRTC, previously companies needed have an application installed to access web conferencing and to make video calls, but now this has been simplified and browsers such as Chrome and Firefox can be used to access this technology. Making video calls has become as easy as picking up the smartphone and making a video call to family and friends. We have not seen any major developments in the teleconferencing systems area.”
Andre Deetlefs: “The advent of WebRTC looks set to change the web conferencing landscape and the ability to host conferences where customers use standard browser end points is becoming a reality.”
Dean Baker: “Considering new developments, one should first consider some key communication challenges businesses face today. These include (i) Too many communications channels will overwhelm your employees (ii) People now expect instant and ‘always on’ access (iii) Different technologies often don’t work well together (iv) Keeping up with new technology is expensive and (v) IT and communications networks don’t work well together when having to manage (in-house) multiple suppliers, equipment and solutions. As we overcome these challenges, we foresee that blended collaboration services will become as standard means of communication within the business as well as private sector.”
Caroline Breswick:” The next generation of telepresence, called Max Presence, will combine up to ten 1,8 m displays into an immersive video wall that can be used for video conferencing and surveillance applications in a large conference room. The combination of the 10 high-resolution displays provides a single ultra-wide screen with Huawei patented image-splicing technology that creates a seamless panoramic video – bigger than life and crystal clear.”
Rob Lith:” WebRTC is the most exciting development in the pipeline!”
Thank you to the panellists for their interesting views. Call it video conferencing, teleconferencing or telepresence, it ultimately boils down to collaboration, sharing of information to make fast and profitable business decisions. From Cisco’s first introduction of telepresence, technology is on the roll making it easier for companies to embrace the collaboration media and to growth their facilities as their business prosper.
As always we invite you to share your views in a letter to the editor at annette.thompson@ee.co.za or hans.vandegroenendaal@ee.co.za
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