[On his last post here, Amir Zmora promised to get back from InfoComm with insights from the show and share with us feedback from the launch of the SCOPIA VC240. Well, he is back.]
InfoComm is over and as promised I’m getting back with some insights from the show and with an answer to the question I’ve asked on my previous post: Is SCOPIA VC240 going to be a game changer? Tsahi already provided his answer about this here.
Striving for Video to the Desktop
RADVISION has long been saying that video in the meeting room is great but for it to really be used daily, massively, practically for any call, it should be on every desktop. RADVISION has even taken actions in this direction, with SCOPIA Desktop delivering HD video to the desktop.
But even with this change in direction happening, the options one has for video to the desktop are somewhat limited: you either have to spend big bucks on an executive solution priced in the sub $10K level or go for a soft client solution at an affordable cost. The big bucks option is available for some years now, but it didn’t bring video to the masses. Just show me an enterprise willing to spend the money to put such a solution on every manager’s desktop.
Soft clients are great, but they have some issues:
- CPU overload – they requires a strong PC to enable HD video
- CPU race condition – other applications running on the PC are competing on PC resources, which results in unexpected video quality degradation.
- Peripherals, peripherals, peripherals – the user needs to add a bunch of peripherals, such as HD camera, mic and speakers, install them and make the whole thing work.
- Peripheral race condition – user needs to handle various issues, such as another application suddenly taking control over his speakers or streaming audio into the call taking over the mic.
- Not stand-alone – The PC must be turned on to make a call.
Given this, we see that there’s a big gap in the market, and a big need for a stand-alone, self-contained, affordable desktop level HD video solution.
Yes, We Can!
Well, where there is a need there is a way. The SCOPIA VC240 is filling exactly that gap, and that is why it is a game changer. Until not long ago video to the desktop was just talking heads, were the value of video was limited, as you didn’t really get a clear picture of the people you were talking with. This changes completely when you switch to HD. Today everything is ready for bringing high quality video to the desktop: the technology (DSPs, Codecs), the network and the day-to-day habits of most of us, using video communication on IM clients such as Skype, Yahoo or MSN. The change, as of last week, is that now there is also a solution that supports this need. Together – Samsung, RADIVION and our partners – we’re making it happen.
Amir, at the Samsung booth, next to the Samsung VC240
We can change this market, grow it and make video calling a common practice. This is great news for all parties in the market: Users who will be gaining higher value from their video products and vendors who will increase their revenue as the market as a whole will grow.
