Personal Video Conferencing How mobility is changing the video conferencing landscape: Industry trends and deployment best practices.

Transcription

1 How mobility is changing the video conferencing landscape: Industry trends and deployment best practices March 2012

2 Table of Contents Executive Summary... 3 Market Trends... 4 Applications & Benefits... 5 Case Studies... 6 Key Requirements for an Enterprise System LifeSize ClearSea... 9 Competitive Scenario: LifeSize ClearSea Advantages Glossary

3 How mobility is changing the video conferencing landscape: Industry trends and deployment best practices Executive Summary Personal video conferencing can be defined as the use of video conferencing software on a personal computer, tablet or smartphone or, more generally, without additional, dedicated equipment. It contrasts with room video conferencing, where participants have to move to a dedicated conference room equipped for video conferencing. In the last few years, personal video conferencing became part of the daily processes and communication routines within companies and organizations of every size and in every industry, all over the world, complementing and in some cases replacing traditional room systems. PERSONAL VIDEO CONFERENCING DEFINITION The use of video conferencing on a personal computer, tablet or smartphone without the need for additional, dedicated equipment. Sales of tablets, as a whole (consumer and enterprise), will grow at a CAGR of 75.6% to reach 294 million units by 2015, with Apple expected to maintain the largest market share with its ipad line (see Forecast: Media Tablets by Operating System, Worldwide, ). Gartner says that more than 130 million workers worldwide will use corporate-supplied video conferencing on their desktops or mobile devices by 2015, compared to 7 million in 2008, while spending on dedicated soft clients will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 22.9% by This white paper analyzes the latest trends in personal video conferencing, including the benefits, some case studies and the best practices for its deployment. 1 Gartner, Market Trends: Videoconferencing, Worldwide, 2011, 28 April

4 Market Trends Companies have been pushed by the need to reduce costs and increase productivity toward more affordable video communication solutions such as personal video conferencing. The diffusion of personal video conferencing has been driven by two factors: 1. The transformation of workspaces due to the increase in numbers of mobile and remote workers combined with the convenience of having video conference software directly on your laptop or tablet 2. The outstanding improvements in video and audio quality that enable an amazing experience Notwithstanding the remarkable developments of recent years, the video conferencing market will continue to change dramatically over the next few years, with personal video conferencing being the key driver of a new wave of growth sustained by two major trends: 1. Mobile devices explosion 2. Need for integration Mobile devices explosion Mobile video is expected to grow 100% per year until at least International Data Corporation predicts that 2012 will be the year of mobile ascendency as mobile devices (smartphones and media tablets) surpass PCs in both shipments and spending,³ and Gartner says that tablets as a whole (consumer and enterprise) will grow at a CAGR of 75.6% to reach 294 million units by 2015.⁴ Need for integration The addition of new users, new devices and video infrastructure increases the need for an integrated environment from immersive telepresence to the soft client, including all existing room systems. Interoperability is no longer enough integration is a necessity. ⁵ 2 Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Top 10 Mobile Internet Trends, Feb IDC, IDC Predictions 2012: Competing for 2020, Dec Gartner, Forecast: Media Tablets by Operating System, Worldwide, , 8 April Gartner, Market Trends: Videoconferencing, Worldwide, 2011, 28 April

5 Applications & Benefits The applications for video communications are endless, and when video conferencing is properly deployed, it tends to supplement or replace business meetings, educational trainings and other forms of communication. Video conferencing via mobile and personal devices, instead of holding traditional meetings and events, takes advantage of the greatest benefits of all forms of video conferencing: travel cost savings and increased productivity. Certain applications, however, are unique to video conferencing on personal devices due to the unmatched benefits it provides in terms of mobility, simplicity, flexibility, scalability and manageability. Mobility While traditional video conferencing equipment cannot be moved from dedicated rooms, tablets and smartphones perfectly embody the concept of conducting business anywhere. Simplicity and flexibility Placing a video call shouldn t be any more difficult than making a phone call. With personal video conferencing, users can take advantage of the power of video from any device they re familiar with, including laptops and smartphones. Scalability and manageability Adding new users to a personal video conferencing system requires only a software client and credentials to be provided to anyone who needs them; it does not require new hardware or time-consuming setups. Moreover, customers are finding new, innovative ways to use personal video conferencing every day. See the chart below for a selection of applications. CHART 1 Applications Application Mobile and remote workforce Meet on the fly Description Nine out of 10 employees don t work at corporate headquarters, and even the ones who do are often on the road. Having the opportunity to join meetings from an airport lounge, a hotel room or even a car decreases idle time and increases productivity during business travel. Everyone can easily engage in an ad-hoc meeting with a remote colleague working on the same project and get critical information on the fly without needing to book a room or use dedicated equipment. Recruiting Video interviews are a great substitute for face-to-face meetings, and they reduce not only travel expenses for suitable candidates but also the time involved in the recruiting process. Candidates are not likely to have personal conference rooms or the willingness to pay for one, but they are likely to have a laptop or a tablet that they can use to join the video conference. Manufacturing Thanks to the extreme versatility of mobile devices, performance inspections can be conducted on a remote production site without flying in an engineer or technician. Elderly care Video conferencing can be used to provide elderly care services, including video connections to hospitals, emergency centers and relatives. Refer to Case Study A. Distance learning Not every school can afford dedicated video conferencing equipment. Thanks to personal video conferencing, any tablet or desktop with a webcam can turn a classroom into a video conferencing room with guest lecturers from anywhere joining students. Refer to Case Study B. 5

6 CASE STUDY A Elderly Care Services A Dutch services company needed to extend its offering to a larger number of customers and service providers. The company offers its services through an interactive portal featuring a range of different services, from video conferencing and video on demand to home automation function, and its biggest challenge was interoperability among different video communication standards. Even if some enterprises such as hospitals and major care institutions use H.323 systems and are willing to invest in expensive video conferencing infrastructure, the possibility to interact with their customers relies on the capability to interoperate with SIP-based clients, said the company s ICT technical consultant. Thanks to the addition of LifeSize ClearSea to its portal, the company has enabled its subscribers to connect with their peers, caregivers and relatives through easy-to-use devices, such as touch-screen tablets on their existing Internet connections. The company is now involved in the development of an elderly-care project that will allow each customer to have a personalized and dedicated range of services, including video connections to hospitals; emergency numbers of relatives; and on-demand video content regarding self-medication, bank/insurance products and home functions. CASE STUDY B Distance Learning Educational Service Centers assist schools in providing quality products and services that improve student performance while decreasing costs. This case study focuses on one region s ESC. The center adopted video conferencing to deliver distance learning to classrooms beginning in the early 1990s, but it was working with many school districts that had limited broadband Internet access and limited funds to acquire video conferencing equipment. As a result, they couldn t participate fully in many of the academic, remediation and enrichment programs offered through the center s statewide educational network. LifeSize ClearSea offered the center a turnkey solution that fits its needs, as it provides a standards-compliant video solution that can utilize schools existing networks as well as 3G/4G to allow existing devices to connect with any H.323 or SIP video solution. With LifeSize ClearSea, rural-area schools can turn their existing PCs, Macs, smartphones and tablets (Android and ios) into video endpoints, improving their efficiency with video conferencing and enabling them to participate in programs they had difficulty connecting to before, all without having to buy dedicated appliances. The coordinator of distance learning programs said that after only a month, at least five new elementary classrooms were able to participate in programs that they had never had access to before, and new requests for access had begun to pour in from all over the region. Employees of the center have also been able to connect to ongoing conferences from the palms of their hands and have even used the videoconferencing solution to stream a regional meeting to a half dozen schools. Schools in the region also plan to use LifeSize ClearSea to allow some of their engineering students to participate in Ask the Expert events via video conference. Other applications are being found all the time. Administrators who used to view only streamed meetings to avoid having to travel to video meeting rooms now interact in real time using LifeSize ClearSea, improving both participation and productivity. 6

7 Key Requirements for an Enterprise System The fact that video conferencing has now become easier to use shouldn t prevent companies from carefully analyzing how the technology best fits into their existing environments, focusing on what makes it a high-value choice and a key asset for the company. This section describes some important elements that need to be taken into account when planning to implement a personal video conferencing solution, as well as suggested architecture. Simplicity Simplicity is the key for a successful deployment. A personal video conferencing solution should be turnkey and require minimum effort both for the IT department in installing and integrating it into the existing environment and for the end users in adopting its use as a daily practice. Centralized and IT friendly provisioning and management IT administrators should be able to centrally manage all aspects of the solution, including the integration, with existing company directories (e.g., LDAP authentication). Manage and scale Depending on the company structure and number of users, different needs arise in terms of manageability. Key aspects include centralized management, a suitable licensing model, tracking and reporting. Making the most out of existing infrastructure New-generation solutions should be designed to integrate with existing infrastructure. Most of the deployed room systems worldwide are based on the H.323 protocol, while the newer SIP protocol is gaining momentum. It is fundamental that a system be able to interoperate with both protocols seamlessly. Invisible firewall/nat traversal solution The need to connect with mobile workers, customers and partners who are outside the company network makes the ability to solve firewall/nat traversal issues in the simplest way essential. The solution should provide seamless connectivity among users inside and outside of the company LAN. It must be transparent to end users in order to keep the dialing complexity hidden. Address network capacity issues Gartner says that when it comes to personal video, the IT buyer s No. 1 concern is still the impact this will have on network capacity. 6 With the increased number of people taking advantage of the opportunity to use Full HD video conferencing inside the organization, bandwidth shaping, supported by the ability to automatically adapt to changing network conditions, is a critical feature. Collaboration and multiconferencing The ability to share and present documents is fundamental for collaboration tasks, as is the option to engage in meetings with multiple participants. End-user adoption Some employees might be skeptical about video conferencing, thinking of it as it was a few years ago: working only one time out of three, requiring IT support and providing poor audio and video quality. 6 Gartner, Market Trends: Videoconferencing, Worldwide, 2011, 28 April

8 What employees want today is to collaborate with their colleagues whenever and wherever they need to. Moreover, a growing number of employees expect not H.323 Room System only to be able to use their personal devices for work but also for their devices to be integrated with the company network. These growing expectations, sustained by the MCU SIP-H.323 gatweay LDAP CORPORATE NETWORK IT Administrator proliferation of smartphones and tablets, are pushing more and more companies to embrace a bring your own device policy. Therefore, in order to drive employee adoption, SIP Software Client SIP registrar (Provisioning & management) Video IVR companies should offer an easy-to-use solution that is also capable of supporting the largest number of operating systems and devices (PC, Mac on desktop; the broadest range of ios and Android devices on mobile). SBC (Firewall/ NAT traversal) Pervasive software client Regardless of the number of devices on which it can be installed, the software client should offer a consistent video communication experience across INTERNET H.323 Room System SIP Software Client all of them. Generic architecture for personal video conferencing deployment When it comes to personal video, the IT buyer s primary concern is still the impact this will have on network capacity. The secondary concern is how to make personal video interoperate with group video systems. 8

9 LifeSize ClearSea In this final section, we describe how the proposed solution can be easily implemented with LifeSize ClearSea. LifeSize ClearSea, built by Mirial7 on over ten years of desktop and mobile video conferencing experience, embeds in a single appliance all the elements described above. H.323 Room System LDAP Based on a client/server architecture, ClearSea includes both a state-of-the-art PC, Mac, ios and Android HD software client and a server component ClearSea Client ClearSea CORPORATE NETWORK IT Administrator that provides centralized provisioning and management, available as a hardware appliance or Provisioning & management SBC (Firewall/NAT traversal) as virtual machine software (VMware based). SIP-H.323 gateway Video IVR Thanks to LifeSize ClearSea, desktop and mobile MCU users inside and outside the company LAN can easily place video calls to one another and to any standards-based H.323 or SIP room system or equipment, without any additional gateway or custom configurations. The same goes for any standard equipment that is able to connect to any ClearSea user directly or with the help of the ClearSea INTERNET H.323 Room System ClearSea Client embedded video IVR for improved dialing simplicity. Besides natively supporting both SIP and H.323 protocols, ClearSea acts as an IP gateway and thus is able to solve firewall/nat traversal issues for any device. ClearSea provides collaboration and multiconferencing capabilities and is able to rely on the internal centralized directory or to connect to an external LDAP directory for integration purposes. Personal video conferencing deployment with LifeSize ClearSea Enterprise scalability and licensing per concurrent ports eliminate costly unused accounts. 7 Mirial was acquired by Logitech/LifeSize in July

10 Competitive Scenario: LifeSize Clearsea Advantages What makes LifeSize ClearSea different? Power of choice in mobility Broadest range of devices in the industry: more than 40 mobile devices (Android and ios) supported and increasing rapidly Single number reach: users are able to log in to multiple devices at the same time and answer a call on the preferred one while consuming only one account Turnkey and interoperable enterprise solution Includes firewall/nat traversal, multiconference, encryption, support for H.323 equipment, IM and presence Unmatched quality Up to 1080p on the desktop Up to 720p on mobile devices Easy to manage and control Works in any existing IT environment Centralized directory and LDAP integration provide quick and easy dialing Server component available as virtual machine software or hardware appliance No additional cost for unused accounts thanks to the licensing per concurrent ports LifeSize ClearSea is the most flexible, open, interoperable and cost-efficient solution for desktop and mobile video conferencing. No need for additional hardware Certified Mobile Devices: 12-month Timeline NUMBER OF DEVICES Nov 2010 Dec 2010 Jan 2011 Feb 2011 Mar 2011 Apr 2011 May 2011 Jun 2011 Jul 2011 Aug 2011 Sep 2011 Oct 2011 Nov 2011 LIFESIZE COMPETITOR 1 COMPETITOR 2 COMPETITOR 3 Timeline of supported mobile devices LifeSize vs. competitors 10

11 Glossary H.323: An International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standard that provides specifications for audio/video communication over packet-based networks. LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol): An application protocol used to access a directory listing. A directory is a set of objects with attributes organized in a logical and hierarchical manner. MCU (Multipoint Control Unit): A device used to moderate a video conference of three or more endpoints. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol): Signaling protocol used for establishing sessions in an IP network. Video IVR (Interactive Voice Response): An interactive voice response system that includes video. Virtual Machine: A virtual machine image (software only) that includes the operating system and the application designed to run on a virtualization platform. 11

12 Universal Video Collaboration About LifeSize, a division of Logitech LifeSize is a pioneer and world leader in high-definition video collaboration. Designed to make video conferencing truly universal, LifeSize solutions are simple to buy, adopt, support and use. Offering video conferencing systems and software applications as well as a full line of video infrastructure, available on premise or in the cloud, LifeSize is committed to universal video collaboration. With LifeSize, customers can participate in large, multiparty HD calls, live streaming and recording, collaboration on any mobile device on any network, all at the highest level of quality. LifeSize was founded in 2003 and acquired by Logitech in For more information, visit AMERICAS: 1601 S. MoPac Expressway Suite 100 Austin, Texas USA Phone Toll Free EMEA: LifeSize Regional Office (Germany) Toll Free Europe APAC: LifeSize Regional Office (Singapore) 2012 Logitech. All rights reserved. Information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. LifeSize is the registered trademark or trademark of Logitech. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. WP_PersonalVideoConferencing_0312