I’ve been writing about or simply mentioning High Definition in almost every post here, so excuse me for not telling (again) the HD story or explaining (again) why it’s worth your every cent. I have already discussed the definition of “high”, and reached the following lower limits:
- Display resolution of 720p
- 25 frames per second
- Bitrate of 1 Mbps
The evolutionary steps of video conferencing that introduced us to HD were quite dramatic: in two years, between 2005 (when LifeSize introduced the first 720p endpoint) and 2006 (when Cisco introduced their Telepresence product, with a 1080p resolution), the whole market leaped from CIF (4CIF for the privileged few) to high definition.
Left: Lifesize endpoint (2005) Right: Cisco Telepresence (2006).
Source: Companies’ PR.
But since then, there hasn’t really been that much innovation. To quote my grumpy friend Tsahi:
Yeah, we talk about moving from 720p to 1080p, moving from 30 frames per second to 60 frames per second, adding another camera, adding more screens. But really – who cares?
Who Cares? You Care!
Yes, you care. Or at least should. As a customer, we are used to bigger and better (in terms of resolution and bandwidth) and smaller and more capable (in terms of size and price per performance). But do you ever wonder what is “big enough”, and whether that “better experience” they are talking about is just hype and marketing talk, to convince you to buy more – a more expensive product, more products, etc.
The difference between CIF and 720p is/was overwhelming. I remember seeing for the first time our CP layout on a 720p endpoint – it was amazing. The difference between 720p and 1080p, for instance “has to be explained”, as I heard some smart people note during this or that demo. And the same goes for 60fps, more cameras and all the other “magic” everyone is putting up on stage.
And it really makes you wonder: do we really need “more of the same”, as Tsahi nicely put it, and if so why? Does “bigger and better” really give you a higher quality of experience, or is the quality of experience simply automatically derived from the title “bigger and better”?!
I mean, you enter a $100K meeting room, with “state-of-the-art” video conferencing equipment, will you not be satisfied? Or if they put a $50K endpoint in your room, will you dare to say that you don’t see the difference or that it is not worth the extra bucks?! In a way, this reminds me of The Emperor’s New Clothes. And guess who’s the annoying kid shouting “the emperor has no clothes!”?
The emperor’s clothes
High Definition, Mr. Emporer?
In a very provocative and interesting paper, titled (surprise!) “The Emperor’s Clothes in High Resultion”, which I came across via Elizabeth Gough-Gordon, researchers from Utrecht and Twente Universities are sharing their conclusions from their witty experiment: Two groups of people were watching a DVD clip. One group was told they were watching a DVD quality clip (the truth), while the other was told they were watching an HDTV version of the clip. Surprisingly (is it?) the people framed to watch the “HDTV clip” were found to have a significantly more positive viewing experience.
What the researchers found out is what many of us suspect without having any proof: most people can’t differentiate digital and high definition signals, but are influenced by the settings. HDTV is associated with high-quality, and so if you’re watching “HDTV” it must be a great experience, doesn’t it?
What do I learn from this neat experiment? Well, a few worthy points – For starters, I am not that ashamed that I still don’t own a HDTV set. But in a more broad way, this proves that I may be right – when they call their endpoint “the biggest”, “the one with the most frames per second” or even “the most expensive”, are they actually trying to convince us it is better, even before we’ve laid our eyes on the screen?
This is, of course, not true for all situations and all endpoints. But like any good Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, the moral should be taken into consideration: the next time you compare a few alternatives, try to do so without the big adjectives and fancy feature list. You may find yourself surprised, Mr. Emperor.
Tags: 1080p, 4CIF, 720p, bitrate, CIF, Cisco, CP layout, frames per second, Hans Christian Andersen, HD, HDTV, High Definition, LifeSize, Telepresence, The Emperor’s New Clothes, Tsahi Levent-Levi, Twente University, Utrecht University, Video Conferencing
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