| Username |
Post |
| Jay |
Posted
on 20-Apr-04 08:30 AM
Eventhough Video conferencing is not a new technolgy, I am fascinated with what it can do. I came acroos this technology a year ago and saw how companies and universities are using it. At work I use Tandberg 1000 which does video conferencing over IP.
Just wondering anybody has experience using such equipment in Nepal. The reason being if Video Conferencing over IP works, then with investment of couple hundred dollars( such as polycom's Viavideo- which is reasonably priced) I could talk to my family everyday in Nepal. They can see me- I can see them. And it wouldn't cost much because transmission being in IP mode. Wouldn't that be terrific???
On larger note this technolgy makes sense to a place like Nepal where traveling is difficult and resouces are scatterd. In telemedicine and in distance education we can use this technolgy.
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| rauniyar |
Posted
on 20-Apr-04 12:41 PM
Jay,
you got a point.
Videoconferencing has been around in corporate world since long time. I have used it during my work-life. It works wonders when you are in a meeting with remote clients.
To come back to the layman use, I guess, infrastrucutre back home in Nepal do not support the high bit-stream needed for VC. Besides we are talking IP, which does have it's fair share of delays in terms of forwarding packets. Nonetheless it is soon going to be a hit. That is the next pardigm shift in communication world.
Please shoot me a private mail if you have that spare time. I would love to talk more on the subject. We need not get the Sajhaites intangled in Technicalities, Kasoo?
Uhi Rajeev,
CT, Amrika
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| Badmash |
Posted
on 20-Apr-04 01:32 PM
Actually Rauniar, you should keep it right here. There are many technical souls in sajha who can share their insights on this subject.
I am no expert in VIP, in terms of technicalities, but have been using vedio conferencing in a regular basis for a while. I believe they use ISDN lines, so they may not be considered VIP. The equipment are form Polycom, and from what I understand, they are very expensive, especially the triangular speaker/microphone that sits in the middle of the conference room When you add that to multiple remote control revolving cameras, the cost can be significantly higher. Sure, using IP can drastically reduce the cost, or even completely eliminate it in terms of services, but it won't do much when it comes to equipment. Jay, I would like to know what polycom equipment it is that is resonably priced. Of course, I am strictly talking about business conferencing and not personal.
As far as the home vedio conferencing goes, doesn't one of the popular messenger service allows you to do just that with a simple installation of a webcam in both sides with almost the same principle?
Let us all hear your opinions
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| Jay |
Posted
on 20-Apr-04 02:48 PM
I thought people turn a deaf ear to what I wrote regarding VTC. Rauniyar and Badmash you guys proved that is not the case. Thanks for that.
Yes VTC technology is maturing up. With emmergence of Internet2 ( also known as Videnet), video conferencing over IP is lot more promising.
Rauniyar-yes one way to do VTC is over ISDN. Since it is special line and expensive( not a cheap- cost about 30 cents per minute), doing VTC over ISDN is not plausible approach. VTC over IP is getting popular because you can use internet. Ofcourse you need to have a broadband. There is always a possiblity the call might tear down at the middle of conference using public internet. Many companies and university don't use public internet to do VTC call because of the reliability issue. They still use ISDN eventhough it is relatively expensive.
ViaVideo II by polycom is well priced for the quality of the service it provides. It can do VTC over IP only. But it is not stand alone unit. You need to attach this equipment with your PC. It costs in the ball park of 4/5 hundred dollars. I used it and I am happy with it. But I am no fan of polycom. I love Tandberg products. I think Tandberg and Polycom are two major players in VTC business.
Now web conference is also getting popular.
I think Embassies in Kathmandu do have VTC equipments. or May be they don't. I thought someone had experience experimenting with this technology in kathmandu. I would love to hear what they had found. I was thinking of purchasing one set of Via video and install it in my home in Nepal so that I can talk to my family everyday free.
Btw, I don't know NTC could provide ISDN. Even if they do, it will be very expensive I guess. Anybody know?
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| rauniyar |
Posted
on 21-Apr-04 06:28 AM
Dear Badmash and Jay,
looks like we are heading towards a very interesting conversation here on the board.
Well to put myself and my thoughts in right perspective, I would like to inform you guys that I have been out of the telecom world for a while now. It would be feasible to say that I dunno about the recent development on the protocol and technology side of core telephony.If any of you are updated on what is going on now as well on the future bets, I would love to learn more. In the past I have had gotten my hands dirty on VoIP, VoATM and other technologies. ISDN used to be my pet peeves during my work years in that I found lots of bugs and unfinsihed documents in terms of having it as a stable technology.
I know that Cisco started to bet on ISDN in their routers 6 years south of here. But that did not work out well. Most of their switches stopped having ISDN blades in them. They focused more on ATM after that, but now they got heaps of VoIP for their VPNs that works wonders. Setup process for ISDN can be worked out on top of SS7 protocols these days, thanks to fabulous soft-switch approach. Having said that, softswitches are far from getting matured and start-ups are getting hammerd. Sonus, Telica and others are having hard time to get the major ISPs invest on their switches. This also entails the fact that we need to get rid of Nortel DMSs... The old POTS are their on the core. The move is such that the peripheral networking is gradually moving to VoIP, albeit at a slower pace. Telica is preety strong with their Plexus 9000, but it is far from being a one-stop switch for the vendors. Sonus has their devices for sell, but they are handicapped in terms having a long-term vision otherwise known as scalibity. Their platform is rather cyring for having multiple technolgies imbued in them. I also know about couple of other start-ups in TX area that have done well. There used to be Chinese guy who ran an enterprise on softswitch area (forgot the name of the company).
Coming back to Nepal and our telephony, I have no idea what technology we have and we plan to have. Last I recall talking to Haemenda Bohara dai ( I learned that he spent some time in Nepal trying to see what can be done in terms of bringing our telephony system up-to-date), he was rather dejected on the red-tape measures back home. The idea of getting Telecom divested into private companies is a wonderful notion. It could only work if the politicians were not to use "Marwaris" as their way of making money(no offense to Marwaris, it is just an honest opinon). Bohra dai, if you are logged in or if you happen to read this thread, I would like to invite you to throw some light on the technology we have back home. How could we make our pipes bigger is my question? Could it be so, that we go wireless instead of wired? Could it be such that we get a VSAT from mighty India to run 802.11a or 802.11b? Maybe 3Gs.
Aa on the issue of having VTC on the consumer side of stuff, I think it should work out well. There are quite a few Nepalese outside of Nepal that could use this technology. We got a money-making technology right here for the ones who are into technology back home reading this thread. Any technology that saves time and money is there to be exploited. And such is VTC.
MSN and other sites that feed truncated video images do not do justice with customer side of expectations. They are there, but just as a predicament.
Jay ji, I have used Polycom in the past. I was very happy with it when using it to talk to my customers in Europe and other Latin countris. But those are expensive devices that only corporate work can afford hai na ta. We are talking here to bring this to mass, meaning it should be cheap and afforadable as a service to all before it gets popoular. Also, the S-curve definitions of the technology herne ho bhanee, we are still in the early starters stage in terms of VTC. Correct me on this?
Badmash ji, yeah you are right that we need this technology not just for you to use it to talk to mom/pop back home, but to use it for one and all Nepali.
Uhi Rajeev,
CT, Amrika
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| Jay |
Posted
on 21-Apr-04 10:27 AM
Thanks Rauniya I learned many new things from your postinjg. My experience with VTC is from user perspective only. I am still learning and baffled by the confusings protocols. I think even a protocol has a protocol in this field :-0)
I think the cost of the VTC will go down in future. Via Video II- an VTC equipment( developed by Polycom) is designed to address that need. Yes if you want to do multipoint conference then cost is still high. It is because of the need to have a Multipoing Control Unit( popularly as known as bridge), gatekeeper and gateway. But if you want just point to point conference you can do under $1000 dollar. I do agree, the cost has to go significantly down to appeal the general populace.
Long time ago, there was a discussion here about the article Arnico( a well known Sajha Contributor) wrote in Kathmandu Post about making Nepal a hub for Higher Education. Wtih reliable VTC technolgy, World class professors / educators don't even have to leave their home therefore it will not be very challenging to recruit them.
In medicine, it's potential is just great. And I think Nepal is the best place to implement this technolgoy. People in remote places could get medical advise and even people in the cities who have easy access to doctors could have access to World Class doctors or surgeons.
After 9/11 when air flights were suspended, business embraced VTC because that was the only option they got to do business meetings.
Rauniyar, I hope people are not bored with what we have written here. I know some of the stuffs we talked here are really geeky :-)
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