During CommunicAsia2012, I took a look at the telepresence solutions provided by Vidyo.
They offer at affordable prices full telepresence solutions with 9 screens to soft-client applications that allow individuals to join a video conference session via their personal smartphone, tablet, notebook or desktop computer.
VidyoPanorama set up with six screens, two of which are used to share data/slides. The thin console at the bottom is the VidyoRouter.
Vidyo is a US-based company that offers personal and mobile telepresence solutions for individuals and telepresence solutions for enterprises.
Marty Hollander, Senior Vice President, Market Development at Vidyo. Here he's showing VidyoMobile on an iPad endpoint.
Many systems on the market today require an initial cost of $150k for a 3-screen dedicated room with an ongoing monthly fee of $10k per month.
Using these systems, a 3-hour video conferencing call from three sites could cost $3,600,
Vidyo claims its solutions would cost only a fraction – in most cases only a tenth.
It does this by controlling access and delivery with innovative components that turn ordinary IP networks into sophisticated yet affordable video communication systems.
The infrastructure that enables this comprise the VidyoRouter, VidyoPortal, VidyoGateway and VidyoReplay.
The conferencing endpoints, on the other hand, consists of VidyoMobile, VidyoDesktop, Vidyo Executive Desktop, VidyoRoom and VidyoPanorama.
A maximum 9-screen VidyoPanorama room setup, together with VidyoMobile clients (Android and iOS smartphones and tablets), and VidyoDesktop on a 1440p Mac monitor.
You can find details of each of the above components in the brochure that I’ve attached at the end of this post.
Vidyo had the VidyoPanorama (with 6 monitors) system and VidyoMobile/VidyoDesktop clients set up to show how it works and the performance and latency (or lack of) involved.
They had temps manning some of the endpoints so that visitors like myself could video-conference with them.
The performance was pretty good. Resolution was good and there wasn’t any noticeable latency.
I like the patented Adaptive Video Layering technology underpinning the solutions.
Intelligent and adaptive
So if you have a large monitor and fast network, you receive fast framerate HD video.
If you only have a small screen and slow network, the VidyoRouter sends you a lower quality video stream.
You can, of course, choose to limit the quality of the video stream (even if you have a large monitor) in order to control data usage and cost.
Essentially, the VidyoRouters dynamically optimises the video stream for each endpoint based on its capabilities and its local network conditions and bandwidth.
H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC)-based compression technology and Vidyo’s Adaptive Video Layering removes the need for transcoding by the Multipoint Control Unit (MCU) in traditional systems, offering high error resilience and low latency rates over the Internet, LTE and 4G networks.
This allows VidyoPanorama to connect over low-cost broadband networks with participants from any location.
The optional VidyoGateway extends the solution to existing H.323 and SIP endpoints; and clients using other videoconferencing systems – such as those from Cisco or Polycom.
