Market ForecastAccording to Andrew W. Davis, an author of Teleconferencing Markets and Strategies, a market study published by Forward Concepts, an electronics research firm, use of videoconferencing has increased; usage is now 58% , compared to last year's 33%. Last year, 24% of the respondents indicated plans to purchase a desktop videoconferencing system. This year, 54% of the respondents intend to buy. Additionally, an on-site survey of the attendees of the Desktop Video Communications Conference 1997 West in San Jose, California, also showed an expected increase of 79% for desktop videoconferencing usage.
The desktop collaboration and videoconferencing market has moved from an embryonic, early adopter technology to a more mainstream, viable solution for enterprise deployment. There are a number of market drivers attributed to this transition, and include:
Evaluating Desktop ConferencingWhile the number of desktop conferencing vendors has significantly increased, in reality, very few have delivered viable Enterprise solutions. The majority of these vendors have introduced point-to-point, telephony-based products, and have failed to present long-range strategies to address the diverse connectivity and standards issues of the Enterprise.
The desktop conferencing market is divided into 3 distinct technology implementations. They are:
Telephony-based OfferingsThese products take an ISDN, Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) and/or H.320-only approach. The term telephony-based refers to applications developed specifically for a telecommunications network (i.e., phone lines, long distance services) rather than a computer network. From an implementation perspective, all are point-to-point, proprietary offerings, meaning they can only communicate from one point to another. They are tied to one specific desktop computer platform and support only one compression algorithm. They do not connect to the computer network, making them prohibitive for enterprise deployment when considering infrastructure, cost and return on investment issues. While seemingly low in list price, the hidden costs associated with ISDN line installation and monthly charges are not openly disclosed. The same holds true for multipoint capability, meaning the ability to conference to more than 2 sites simultaneously. A hardware multipoint control unit (MCU) is required as an add-on option, and can range in price up to $70000. ISDN provisioning issues are also not well-documented, so connectivity to a different regional Bell operating company's (RBOC) ISDN service may not be possible. Point SolutionsThis segment includes manufacturer-specific products, and 3rd-party offerings. The term "point solution" refers to an application that is not a by-product of a comprehensive, structured software architecture. A durable, underlying software architecture can mean the difference between integrating new technology into a changing environment, or chaos. Each offering, while network-based, is proprietary in terms of supported platforms and video boards. Again, they are tied to 1 specific desktop computer platform and support only 1 compression algorithm. In the manufacturer space, internal funding for these product lines has been dramatically reduced or eliminated due to a greater emphasis for allowing third-party companies such as MDL to provide these solutions. They have recognized that the application provider is best suited for delivering these solutions, given the specialization required for installation, training, support and maintenance of the environment. These applications provide PC-only connectivity and are not built for cross-platform communication or multi-algorithm video interoperability. These inherent architectural limitations prohibit them from providing an API development environment to support emerging standards, networks and video algorithms in a timely manner. Equally as important are the companies worldwide customer support and engineering programs. Resources have yet to be applied to address onsite information systems evaluation and consultation, training and support. Architectural ApproachMDL is the only vendor shipping a solution based on a core software architecture that enables multiplatform conferencing, network interoperability and video compression independence. Called Digital Video Everywhere (DVE), it enables true digital convergence. DVE represents the most open solution for collaborative and networked multimedia applications. It facilitates rapid implementation of newly established standards, network and video technologies, while transparently enabling backward compatibility to interoperate with existing installed product. This approach protects past investment in computer systems, peripherals and network infrastructure, while leveraging integration of newer, more advanced information systems solutions. For senior IS and MIS management, it presents a logical, long-term strategic path for enterprises to follow when deploying collaborative and video-enabled applications. This architecture also facilitates an API development environment, called OpenDVE, that allows corporate and 3rd-party application developers, and systems integrators, to write or enhance applications and take advantage of the inherent features of DVE. Resulting applications developed using OpenDVE are collaborative, conferencing and video enabled, and provide a common interface across all platforms and MDL developed applications such as Communique!. |
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