Computers Today, December 1-15, 1998 Networking

Sitting tight through day-long meetings can leave you tired and bleary-eyed. Long haul flights can cause jet lag. Why go so far and break your head? Take it easy and conference from your desktop.

Over 10 million business meetings are held every day and about 37 percent of employee time is spent in meetings. Add to this, the hours lost in travelling, hotel bills and entertainment expenses of jet-setting executives. In most cases, it is a sheer waste of time and effort. Is there a way out?

Advances in videoconferencing technology show a glimmer of hope. In lay lexicon, videoconferencing means meeting people face to face over a telephone line or a network connection. In essence, this technology enables real time exchange of audio and video data over wires. You smile, glare, talk, share ideas-do just about anything and be heard and seen by people sitting thousand of miles away. What one needs is a standard PC with a video processing card, a video camera, microphone and speakers.

Until now, desktop videoconferencing systems were the expensive gadgets of cash-rich corporate giants. They were difficult to set up and ran over costly ISDN lines. Now, with increasing bandwidth and reducing prices, desktop videoconferencing systems are finding favour with government agencies, hotels, and medical institutions. The latest is that even wedding vows have been exchanged over video.

Typically, desktop videoconferencing systems include a video capture board, colour camera and third party H.324 videophone software such as Smith Micro's VideoLink and VDOnet's VDOPhone Professional. These software progams provide many value-added functions such as picture-tuning controls, diagnostic tools, and telephony functions. They enable one to adjust frame rate, brightness, contrast and sharpness. The programs work best on powerful MMX systems with 150 MHz processors; anything else will produce video that's sluggish and jittery. Some desktop videoconferencing kits also include V.80-class modems and proprietary Internet videophone capabilities.

In videoconferencing, resolution(which denotes the degree of sharpness) is as important as transmission. Resolutions are of two types--Quarter Common Interface Format (QCIF) that shows you a 176x144 pixel window on your screen; and Common Interface Format (CIF) which gives a double resolution height and width. This, in effect, means a four times larger picture.

However, picture size isn't everything. The number of frames transmitted per second (fps) is also a major determinant of the system's efficiency. TV usually has 30 fps. Videoconferencing is rarely that good; only high-end ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI)--a digital line providing 128 K bandwidth line based systems--can offer 15-30 fps.

Another important factor is bandwidth, which essentially follows the general thumb rule of 'more is better'. Thus, plain old phone lines do not provide good quality video, whereas LANs promise best results.

Globally, videoconferencing is being used by a wide segment of people-doctors, attorneys and accountants. It is playing a pivotal role in providing education at the Western Heights School District, Oklahoma City, in the US. Last year, the district installed 200 units of Intel ProShare video system to upgrade its distance-learning program involving 230 teachers and over 3,100 students. Now students can get in touch with their teachers, solve problems, and discuss their homework in real time.

In India, the medical sector was one of the early entrants in the videoconferencing arena. Now doctors sitting on opposite sides of the globe can exchange critical medical information, offer advice and even watch live operations. Take for instance, child heart surgery specialists Dr K.R. Balakrishnan at the Sri Ramachandra Medical College in Chennai and Dr Peter Einstein at Toronto Sick Children's Hospital in Ontario, Canada. They are linked via Intel TeamStation systems. Similarly, leading cardiologists at Escorts Heart Institute use this technology to discuss case studies of patients with their American counterparts.

Besides foreign banking majors Deustshe Bank and Citibank, Indian corporate houses like Tata Consultancy Services, Reliance and Infosys have begun to exploit videoconferencing. Texas Instruments India (TI), which participated in the recently held Bangalore IT.com, had organised videoconferencing facility for students visiting the exhibition. The semiconductor major had special time slots reserved for students during which they could interact online with employers of TI and have their queries answered. According to Jaidev Raja, manager, corporate communications, "Our executives video-conference practically every week. It certainly is a cost and time-effective technology. We are pleased with the response at IT.com. About 10-12 students, most of them from engineering or computer science background, called each day with hard core technology questions." Videoconferencing has stirred up the otherwise staid public sector too.

Recently, the Reserve Bank of India announced that it has set up a WAN to link various branches of its department of non-banking supervision with state-of-the-art videoconferencing facilities. Bank officials say this would facilitate instantaneous interchange of information. Likewise, ICICI bank has also invested heavily in videoconferencing equipment from PictureTel, the worldwide leader of videoconferencing equipment. Besides live meetings, the bank aims to use the technology for project and loan appraisals. The Oil and National Gas Corp. of India (ONGC) has also installed PictureTel's videoconferencing facility in Mumbai to connect its onshore and offshore bases through a combination of satellite and microwave links. Prior to this facility, ONGC officials had to make frequent trips offshore, mostly by air, to meet people, assess damage and coordinate repairs. Each trip by helicopter would cost around Rs 70,000 or more. Today, ONGC officials can hold meetings right on their monitors, exchange data with workers, determine offshore site problems, provide solutions and even direct the scuba divers online. Taking a cue, state governments are also getting video-smart. The IT-savvy CEO of Andhra Pradesh Inc., Chandrababu Naidu, has announced his plans to implement videoconferencing facilities in 23 districts. The aim: to facilitate timely and cost effective exchange of information between the state departments and thereby smoothen the administrative work flow.

While videoconferencing can cut down travel, prune expenses, and release more time for productive work, it cannot provide the 'real' experience. Many users complain of the absence of 'personal touch' and do not feel comfortable talking or discussing critical issues while sitting in front of their monitors. It could be a limiting factor. Also, due to no eye-contact cues and transmission delays, videoconferencing is not suitable for initial exploration of ideas and brainstorming sessions that require exchange of spit fire questions and ideas. This technology does not make any concessions for 'body language'. In the conventional face-to-face meetings, you can 'study' a person--his posture, his mannerisms--and determine his level of interest and attention, and accordingly chart out your strategy. Another stumbling block is the high cost of leased lines. Presently, the annual rental charge for leased lines of 64 kpbs is about Rs 11 lakh.

But that is not deterring the global communication leaders. Cashing in on the 'networked' meeting wave, Intel, Microsoft, PictureTel and British Telecom are providing different desktop video kits and products to target varied segments of the market. Products range from free ware that operates over analog lines to high end systems. Recently, White Pine Software demonstrated its 'Continuous Presence' for H.323 conferencing technology. Company officials say it would enhance the conferencing experience by enabling the participants to see up to four video windows at one time. Earlier, H.323 client users could only see the participant that was talking, and not any of the other participants.

Industry experts reckon videoconferencing will dramatically impact business on a scale similar to E-mail and the Internet. It will change the way we work, hold meetings and keep in touch with our dear ones. And perhaps, going by the advances made so far, videoconferencing in the future might also pack in personal effects.

How to Video-chat

Typically, there are four ways:
Over the Net: One of the cheapest means of desktop videoconferencing. All you require is an Internet account, a camera with a PCI or ISA video capture card, and software such as MS NetMeeting, which incidentally can be downloaded free of cost from www.microsoft.com . Though you can save on long distance phone bills, you will have to compromise on video quality. The heavy Internet traffic and picture resolution that is limited to QCIF can give you jerky and slow video.
Modem-to-Modem: This is definitely a step ahead in cost as well as quality. Since the connection is only between two modems and the line is not shared with everyone else, the frame rate and the picture resolution is quite satisfactory.
Over an ISDN line: For picture perfect video quality, this is it. ISDN gives you four times the bandwidth of a modem-to-modem connection resulting in less jerky video.
Over the LAN/WAN: The quality of videoconferencing varies depending on how people use them and what kind of applications are running on them. However, you need a whopping 1.5 Mbps TI line for usable quality.

Suite of Standards

Since the bandwidth for analog video is too wide to be effectively contained on most transmission lines, it has to be compressed. A circuitry called CODEC (COmpression-Decompression) is squeezed onto a plug-in PC board. However, in order to make the different CODEC boards compatible with each other, they must adhere to predetermined industry standards.
Videoconferencing systems are governed by the H.320 family of standards which defines protocols for compression, transmission, graphics and camera control, among others.
So before you decide to go in for video chatting and buy a conferencing kit, check out the different standards, what they stand for and which one is suited to your needs :
H.320--this is ideal for conferencing over digital-switched media such as ISDN, Switched 56, and T1 lines.
H.323--over packet-switched networks such as the Internet and Ethernet.
H.324--for conferencing over analog phone lines and V.34 modems.