Beginner s Guide: Desktop Video

Transcription

1 White Paper Beginner s Guide: Desktop Video Contents Introduction....2 Five Key Drivers for Desktop Video....3 Driver #1 Attractive Economics....3 Driver #2 Maturing Technologies....3 Driver #3 Broader Vendor Support....4 Driver #4 End User Acceptance....5 Driver #5 Growing Need for Collaboration....5 Business Case for Desktop Video....6 Business Value of DTV....6 Absolute Value....6 Relative Value....6 Use Case Scenarios....7 Horizontal Applications....7 Vertical Applications....8 Vendor Landscape....8 Type 1 DTV within UC....9 Type 2 Standalone DTV Type 3 Free DTV Conclusion About Ziff Davis B2B Ziff Davis B2B is a leading provider of research to technology buyers and high-quality leads to IT vendors. As part of the Ziff Davis family, Ziff Davis B2B has access to over 50 million in-market technology buyers every month and supports the company s core mission of enabling technology buyers to make more informed business decisions. Contact Ziff Davis B2B 100 California Street, 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA Tel: Fax: b2bsales@ziffdavis.com Copyright 2013 Ziff Davis B2B. All rights reserved.

2 Introduction Video has emerged as a major business communications trend in 2013, particularly in the area of desktop applications. There are many solutions and use cases for video, stemming initially from legacy video conferencing systems, which were expensive, complex and accessible only to a select few. IP-based offerings have supplanted these, but more importantly, other forms of video have come along that have made the market opportunity much bigger. Today, virtually any IP-connected screen can support video, ranging from small scale telepresence for group conferencing down to simpler applications for one-on-one video chat sessions. Desktop video (DTV) has come into its own in 2013, and offers distinct value as a standalone service. The overall video communications market consists of several segments, but this guide only addresses DTV. Room-based or monitor-based video systems have their own set of use cases, as does the nascent opportunity for mobile video on smartphones and tablets. Our focus here is to help decision-makers understand the value of DTV for their business. In some cases, DTV will make sense as a standalone, on-demand service, and in others it will work better as an application within a Unified Communications solution. In either case, you must first understand the drivers for desktop video, typical use case scenarios, and the landscape of offerings to consider. That process begins now, so let s get started. ziffdavis.com 2 of 12

3 Five Key Drivers for Desktop Video There are several trends driving the broader adoption of video communications, but others are more specific to desktop applications. Video brings value in many ways, but to derive that value, you need to first understand the drivers, both in terms of video technologies and the benefits that are creating demand among end users. This section distills the top DTV drivers from our ongoing industry research. Driver #1 Attractive Economics Video is at the heart of a perfect storm in the IT world where Internet traffic and demand for bandwidth seems to be growing exponentially. Network resources of course are not free, but bandwidth costs in data centers have been dropping roughly 25% per year. Without this declining cost curve, the bandwidth-intensive needs of video would only create marginal demand. Historically, business video has been a costly service to provide, but so long as this trend continues, today s economics will ensure healthy growth. This is especially true for DTV, which requires far fewer network resources than room-based conferencing systems. Not only are most standalone DTV offerings affordable for any size of business, several free options exist that can serve informal everyday needs. Driver #2 Maturing Technologies Video is a complex application, not just as a real-time mode, but also in terms of delivering a quality visual experience. Legacy systems could do this very well, much the way that legacy PBXs were the gold standard for a business-grade telephony service. However, both types of solutions had limited flexibility, especially for adapting to the world of IP. With today s communications technologies being IP-based from the ground up, they start with a clean slate and have no need to compromise around closed systems and proprietary standards. One key technology is H.264/MPEG-4, the leading video compression standard, especially for high definition (HD) video. This may be familiar to you as a consumer, as H.264 is the standard for Blue-ray, HDTV and many video streaming sites. The latest iteration extension, actually of this standard is SVC scalable video coding and is particularly beneficial for supporting video across a wide range of devices such as desktops and mobile devices. These endpoints require more sophisticated compression capabilities, not just for their smaller size, but also due to the variety of screen sizes in use as well as the varying degrees of resolution quality that can be supported. While H.264 is today s standard, the next generation is coming soon, and will provide even better quality as well as utilizing less bandwidth. This codec is H.265, and despite being ziffdavis.com 3 of 12

4 recently ratified, most endpoints cannot yet support it. In time, this will change, and with that DTV become even more attractive. Looking ahead, WebRTC is another recent development that will spur DTV adoption, but that doesn t need to drive your decisions today. A handful of vendors currently support WebRTC, but others are expected to follow as it becomes more fully evolved. Other important advances come on the network side, where real time monitoring capabilities give IT managers more control over bandwidth allocation. Just as with VoIP, bandwidth can be prioritized for video to ensure quality, reliable sessions. This can be further enhanced with SIP trunking, which supports HD audio and video to deliver an even better experience right at the desktop. Driver #3 Broader Vendor Support The IP-based video market was first developed by the immersive telepresence vendors. Given the high cost of these solutions, only a handful of vendors offered them, and the same could be said for the buyers. Telepresence has actually developed a healthy customer base, and along the way has been invaluable in creating awareness of both video s business value along with just how good a high end system can be in terms of the user experience. With this newfound validation in place, many more vendors set their sights at the middle or lower ends of the business market. This represents a much larger pool of potential buyers who could not afford immersive telepresence, but see value in video. For them, the compromise between having a scaled-down solution at a much lower cost is worth it, and from this we now have a rich ecosystem of DTV offerings. As an aside, the telepresence vendors have also kept pace with more economical room-based offerings, but these will not be covered in this guide. Building on the technology advances noted in the previous driver, a wide range of vendors are now able to offer DTV. All the major telecom and software vendors have DTV as part of their UC offerings, and an even great number of choices can be found among the cloud-based pure plays who build their entire business around DTV. Add to this the free offerings from the Web and social-based platforms, and DTV is now just a mouse click away. Note that this diversity will not likely last, as proven business models have not yet developed around DTV. Barriers to entry remain low and the space is expected to become more crowded, but will reach a point where money needs to be made and consolidation will lead to sustainable set of players who can properly serve the market. ziffdavis.com 4 of 12

5 Driver #4 End User Acceptance Supply is only one half of the economic equation, and demand is what will really make DTV a dynamic opportunity. Based on the above three drivers, the technology and solutions are available now, so the market is ready to grow. Our view is that adoption will be rapid, largely because a growing segment of the workforce is now video-savvy and quite comfortable being on camera. Millennials will drive this adoption, as they have been socialized with video longer than anyone else. This is the YouTube generation, where video is simply another tool in their digital zeitgeist, and many are equally at home creating and consuming visual content. More importantly, voice has greater relevance to them as part of a video session than making a phone call. This is not surprising since they are more likely to make a business call using a smart phone or a tablet instead of their desk phone. Since their mobile devices usually support video, those calls will increasingly be video-based. For the older generations of workers, DTV will take longer to gain adoption, but given the low cost involved, you don t need everyone using it to make this a good business decision. Not only will Millennials need little prodding to use DTV, but they will derive enough utility on their own to justify the service even without everyone else using it at the office. Driver #5 Growing Need for Collaboration This may be the most powerful driver of all, not just for DTV, but all forms of video. For a variety of reasons, businesses need collaboration tools that are easy to use, and DTV is the most accessible and practical option for most employees. Businesses are increasingly relying on home-based workers and virtual organizations, not just to keep costs down but to be more flexible in helping provide a better work/life balance. As a result, teams are usually dispersed, and do not always have the chance to work together in one location. DTV is ideally suited for these situations, especially when ad hoc projects require teamwork or meetings on short notice. While employees are the users of collaboration tools, the business bears the cost, and when they consider alternatives such as immersive telepresence, DTV emerges as a great option. Not only is DTV economical and suitable quality-wise for most forms of collaboration, but is accessible by employees from most all their endpoints, whether at the office, on the road or at home. No other solution can provide so much flexibility ziffdavis.com 5 of 12

6 Business Case for Desktop Video The business value for desktop video comes from the economics both in absolute terms as well as the net benefits relative to other options for communicating and collaborating. This section will explain that further as well as present some use case scenarios to illustrate the value on a business level. Business Value of DTV Absolute Value Among the various forms of video conferencing and calling, DTV is at the low end of the cost spectrum. To be fair, there is value at every price point, and there certainly are use cases that justify the most costly options. As noted earlier, as a communications mode, video covers a wide spectrum, ranging from casual chat sessions to group meetings where the fate of your company is being determined. The higher the stakes, the more performance will trump price in defining video s value. There are three basic business models for DTV, all of which are economical in absolute terms. At the highest level, DTV is simply a component within a Unified Communications solution. Since all the applications are built into the seat licensing cost, there is no direct cost just for DTV. Whatever you re spending for UC, DTV is included, and considering the full package of applications, the overall economics are attractive, especially if you had to pay for each one on a standalone basis. The second model would be the pure play DTV providers, which operate much like the audio conferencing vendors. You can use a pay-as-you-go plan for ad hoc needs, or a subscription-based plan for ongoing usage. Either way, these services are affordable for businesses of any size. Finally, there are the free DTV applications, which in absolute terms are the most economical of them all. Relative Value While any of the above DTV options are affordable in their own right, the business value becomes even stronger when the price/performance value equation is compared against other options for providing video. In the most basic terms, DTV is apples and oranges when compared to immersive telepresence. Both are great options for video, but if you believe bigger is better, then the choice is clear. Of course, that choice comes with a cost. Not only does immersive telepresence require costly, purpose-built hardware, but also a dedicated space built and furnished for an optimal visual and audio experience. On top of that, your network will likely require an upgrade to properly support it, especially you expect regular usage. The payoff comes from the experience, which initially is like seeing a regular movie ziffdavis.com 6 of 12

7 then seeing it in IMAX. Immersive telepresence is very life-like and life-size, making it difficult to go back to regular video once you ve experienced it. DTV cannot deliver this, but keep in mind the use cases are very different. Businesses can justify telepresence simply because it s the next best thing to being there. Having such an effective proxy for in-person meetings translates into a reduced need for travel, and those costs alone can support the ROI case. Another justification comes from the impact this adds to high stakes meetings with remote clients, making it easier to close deals and work out problems without the cost and time lost for sending executives out on the road. DTV works on a different level, and this is where the performance/price ratio is adjusted to properly reflect its value. Rather than being used by few for strategic objectives, DTV can be used by many for more tactical, everyday needs. In this sense, DTV makes the video pie bigger, allowing it to become as commonplace as a phone call. The cost is far less than telepresence, and while the experience is accordingly scaled back, the quality is good enough for the tasks at hand. Executives would not use DTV to negotiate a merger, but they would use it to join a weekly sales meeting. Video is not an either-or proposition where the quality must be 100% across the board. Those nuances would not even be noticed on a desktop, and the point here is that with today s technologies, good enough is actually very good, and certainly far better than even just a few years ago. An entire guide could be produced to review all the recent advances in hardware, software, standards, cloud, and network technologies, with the overall point being that the DTV experience delivers great value for a wide range of communications needs. Use Case Scenarios While every business will need to define its own set of use cases, this guide serves as a template to start that process. To illustrate the value of DTV at a high level, the following are two basic types of use cases that any business can relate to. Horizontal Applications Presuming that almost all your employees will have a computer and broadband access, DTV will be available to everyone. This is very different from legacy times where only executives could use video, so you need to think of DTV now as just another communications tool, like voice, , chat, fax, etc. From there, the use case for DTV comes from situations where voice or text alone will not get the job done. Most people learn visually, and video is often the best way to communicate. In terms of horizontal applications, the context would be settings across and within the organization. These are needs that all businesses have to varying degrees, with the following being some common examples. ziffdavis.com 7 of 12

8 Regular team meetings either within one department or across many Operational meetings or planning sessions across branches, regions, geographies, etc. Technical support helping customers with complex problems Training staff either one-on-one or group Human resources remote candidate interviews or employee performance reviews Supporting remote/home-based workers and making them feel more engaged Vertical Applications Aside from addressing communications needs common to all businesses, DTV provides another layer of value for vertical applications. These could be specific to your industry, to a type of customer or even a specific subset of your products/services. Some applications will be self-evident, but the most valuable uses may well not emerge until DTV becomes part of your everyday landscape. As employees gain familiarity, they will often discover new uses, and given the flexibility of DTV, you will be able to put these into practice right away. These applications have more to do with thinking creatively than the underlying technology, and to start that process, here are some vertical scenarios to consider. Healthcare more people are receiving care in their home today via telemedicine, and DTV plays a key role in making this effective for both patients and healthcare providers Education DTV is a key enabler for distance learning as well as a way for students to virtually attend lectures they cannot get to, or view replays for missed classes Marketing/advertising client campaigns require collaboration and creative input, with much of the work being highly visual, and team members usually widely dispersed Hearing impaired customers for companies willing to provide access to a live interpreter, these customers can communicate very effectively via DTV, which should translate into enhanced satisfaction and loyalty Vendor Landscape Within the context of this guide, there are three basic types of DTV offerings. Since video can be a rather fluid application when tied to broader-based communications platforms, we have kept the focus rather narrow here. Some UC offerings have little or no DTV, and those have ziffdavis.com 8 of 12

9 not been included, and the same holds for immersive and room-based video systems. Finally, we are not considering mobile video support, as this remains early stage for the business market. There are mobile-only video applications, but these are not included herein. We expect that mainstream business services running over 4G/LTE are at least a year away, and at that time, an updated video guide will likely include mobile video solutions. Type 1 DTV within UC This category is difficult to define as these vendors typically offer a complete range of video solutions, both desktop-based and hardware-based. Furthermore, some also have more than one form of desktop video, so these options should be viewed as a starting point for more research. All the options below are integrated with comprehensive UC solutions, and these are typically the domain of the major telecom, software or network vendors. To varying degrees, these DTV components will be part of the UC package, and would not likely be viable choices if your objective was to deploy a standalone DTV solution. Vendor DTV Component Website Alcatel-Lucent LifeSize video solutions ollaboration&page=homepage Avaya Radvision Scopia Desktop Cisco Jabber Video index.html Cisco TelePresence EX Series index.html IBM Sametime voice and video sametime/voice-video.html Microsoft Lync Meetings what-is-lync.aspx?title=conferencing&tabid=1&i temid=5 Mitel VidyoConferenc-ing Siemens OpenScape Video unified-communications-collaboration/openscapevideo.aspx ziffdavis.com 9 of 12

10 Type 2 Standalone DTV These are the pure plays, the companies whose business is completely or almost completely built around video. For some, the business is entirely DTV, offered as a cloud-based subscription service and others also sell endpoints and hardware to complement their video solutions. Also keep in mind that DTV is distinct from Web conferencing both are experienced primarily on a computer screen, but the applications are different, as are the vendors. Some vendors offer both but as separate services plus there are additional vendors focused only on Web conferencing. To further explain, DTV vendors are not in the telephony business, but over time, could well evolve and add pieces to approximate a UC offering. Note also that these companies use a mix of go-to-market approaches selling direct to businesses, selling indirectly via channel partners, and self-serve for customers deploying on their own via the Web. As such, while this category may seem just right for your business, you will need to address these variations in more detail to be certain. Vendor/Provider Offering Website Blue Jeans Blue Jeans Glowpoint B2B Exchange Glowpoint Unity Video_Systems/LifeSize_Unity/Summary.aspx Magor Visual Collaboration Nefsis Web Collaboration collaboration-software.html SightSpeed SightSpeed Business Vidtel Connect Vidyo HD Multipoint Yorktel VideoCloud Open uploads/2012/10/yorktel_video-cloud-open.pdf ziffdavis.com 10 of 12

11 Type 3 Free DTV This category is not really viable or practical as a primary DTV solution for businesses, but any of these could certainly be used for ad hoc and informal sessions. The inclusion of free options in this guide serves two distinct purposes aside from listing the major options. First is the fact the free DTV services exist, and while the experience is below the paid options outlined in this section, it can be passable for business use. This is a valid consideration since some use cases for DTV are for simple conversations with co-workers where these services would do the job. The second reason is to show how fluid the DTV space has become. Businesses are accustomed to paying for services, but in our personal Internet lives, many applications are free, including DTV. All of the examples below are consumer-focused services, and are positioned primarily as video chat sites. Most people use them for one-on-one virtual socializing, but some services also support multiparty sessions. These are often in a chat room format, where the activity is unmoderated and not generally appropriate for business. However, there are also services that emulate a videoconferencing setting where only invited participants can join. As such, the line between business and consumer video is blurry, and free DTV options need be carefully considered. Provider Offering Website Apple FaceTime Google Google+ Hangouts Oovoo Video chat Paltalk Video chat Skype Video calling Yahoo Webcam video ziffdavis.com 11 of 12

12 Conclusion Desktop video has come of age now, and is another reason to second guess the demise of the PC. Despite the rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets, the desktop remains the dominant hub for business communication, and will continue doing so for years to come. Voice will always remain the preferred mode for direct communication, but as people become more comfortable with video, the desktop will become video-centric not just for group meetings, but for everyday conversations we normally do over the phone. This guide has been prepared to explain the trends and recent developments that have made video and the desktop a natural combination in The technologies will continue to improve, which means an even better quality experience across a wider range of desktop environments. In terms of offerings, this guide has only included the leading vendors, and as the market grows, many others will follow. Not only will this mean greater choice, but also lower prices as the competition intensifies. Our objective here is to cover the basics of the DTV landscape, along with some fundamental guidance for making informed decisions. Most importantly, we have profiled the range of solutions and business models available, from which you can determine the best fit for your business. This guide should suffice for those looking for a standalone DTV solution, but if you need to consider this in the broader context of Unified Communications or as a complement to hardware-based videoconferencing systems, we suggest you review our other Ziff Davis guides on those topics. ziffdavis.com 12 of 12