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Conferencing Solutions : The Boom Ahead

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Voice&Data Bureau
New Update

The Indian audio-video conferencing industry continued to be on the growth
trajectory and became a popular mode of communication in the enterprise segment.
The entry of new and vibrant technology like telepresence is further fueling the
market.

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Videoconferencing is evolving quiet rapidly in India. According to a recent
Frost&Sullivan report, in 2008, the telepresence market was reported to be $3.2
mn. According to the same report the overall estimated revenue of
videconferencing industry in the calendar year 2008 will be around $55 mn and in
the calendar year 2009, estimated revenue will be around $66 mn.

While earlier traditional videoconferencing was done in a conferencing room
equipped with a television-set type unit, the year gone by saw the emergence of
public telepresence rooms. With the arrival of public telepresence rooms,
individuals will have the flexibility to pay on an hourly basis to avail these
services. The telepresence market has moved from the early adopters, with over
1000 units deployed worldwide to the requirement for this installed base to
interconnect with each other. Beyond their internal rooms, enterprises now want
inter-company connectivity.

According to the recent Frost & Sullivan report last year, as of now,
telepresence solutions today are mainly used for corporate meetings and for
recruitment by the HR executives. As the technology gains momentum, other
applications such as training and research, and the demonstration of products
and services shall increase the adoption of telepresence solutions in the coming
three-to-five years. Apart from that public telepresence rooms are expected to
start soon by some service providers. This would give the individual flexibility
to pay on an hourly basis to avail and evade the high initial investment cost
involved in deploying a telepresence solution.

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Reduction in travel time continues to remain the prime driver of conferencing
solutions. Enhanced employee productivity, as one spends less time traveling is
one of the key drivers of videoconferencing and allied solutions available in
the market today. Web-based videoconferencing can improve teamwork throughout a
company, accelerate project turnaround and time to market, hasten
decision-making, permit more selling in a shorter time period, eliminate certain
sales and service calls, improve information sharing and responsiveness, reduce
sales cycles and contribute to more efficient business processes.

Apart from the cost benefits to an enterprise, most participants in the
expert panel believe that India is a growing market, and is expected to grow
rapidly over the next decade. Deployment of conferencing solutions is being
witnessed not just in the large enterprise segment but also in small and medium
businesses. The SME segment is fast realizing the benefits of collaborative
solutions. The combination of mobility solutions and applications enhanced with
UC-based communication capabilities are becoming popular with enterprises across
the segment. In the past, the growth of videoconferencing solutions has not been
able to generate hype in the SME sector, however with the growing need and
increased competitiveness, the sector is realizing the benefits of it.

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The current recessionary environment is likely to further boost the growth of
the videoconferencing industry in the country. Pressure to be more productive at
lower costs, short time to market and being able to reach people are pertinent
for companies to gain a competitive edge, and these requirements will drive the
adoption of videoconferencing in the country.

Reduction of carbon footprint is another reason behind the growing popularity
of videoconferencing as it directly cuts down on the travel within an
organization. Enterprises are fast realizing the need to be environment-friendly
and need to reduce carbon footprint.

Experts panel

Dinesh Sehgal, regional director, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh,
Tandberg

Minhaj Zia
, national sales manager, unified communications, Cisco India
& Saarc

Peter Quinlan, director, telepresence managed services, Tata
Communications

V Praveen Kumar
, head, enterprise voice & teleconferencing, Avaya
GlobalConnect

Paul Newell,
Director of Technical & Strategic Sales
for Asia-Pacific and Acting Country Manager for India & SAARC, Polycom.

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Technology Buzz

Collaborative technologies have increased in popularity in the enterprise
segment. They enable business partners to switch back and forth from web, video
and audio conferencing to see and hear each other and to share documents and
information in real time. Today's enterprises are also looking forward to
leading edge technology, flexible conference, highly scalable solutions, secure
VoIP conferencing, embedded multipoint options and videoconferencing solutions.
There is a strong evidence that stand-alone videoconferencing solutions are
expected to be impacted by the changing usage dynamics and the availability of
superior technology in the market today.

Most of the videoconferencing manufacturers have adopted H.239, an ITU-T
recommended standard for multimedia communications, which has made it simpler
for users to see the presenter and the presentation at the same time.

Deploying
Telepresence: CIOs Questions
  • Does the service provider offer inter-company connectivity?
  • If the service provider offers inter-company network, is it only for
    their network or is it open to telepresence rooms on any network?
  • How to manage telepresence rooms-with in-house resources or using
    managed services?
  • To go for hosted solution or leased solution?
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Web conferencing, or Internet-based conferencing is another emerging trend in
the industry. This only requires software and an Internet connection and allows
conferencing from a participant's desktops instead of having a designated
conference room with expensive equipment.

The video world is in the midst of a massive migration from circuit-switched
ISDN transmission to packet-switched IP networks, which promises lower costs,
easier management, remote monitoring and control.

Apart from that desktop or personal conferencing is undergoing a rapid
transition as new systems are coming to the market that enable video to be
integrated into the enterprise work flow. For most companies, high definition
videoconferencing systems with enhanced image resolutions are on the horizon,
promising clearer picture and more detailed video.

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The upcoming 3G technology will also enable companies to offer 3G phone users
to connect in point-to-point or multi-point video calls. 3G will ultimately move
videoconferencing to the participant's mobile. This mobile videoconferencing
allows users to use their mobile phones and other handheld devices to video
conference via 3G gateways. The gateways convert analog voice streams and video
into IP packets.

Adaptive communication tools are further increasing in popularity, which
allow customers to create collaborative experiences on a range of client devices
(PCs, mobile phones) with public tools (Wikis, IM, Google Widgets) as well as
corporate applications (Webex, UC, video, mobility service engines).

Demands from CIOs
  • Reduction in cost of connectivity
  • Easy availability of bandwidth-more players, roll out of fiber all
    across India
  • Richer collaborative experience (voice and video)
  • Contextual collaboration
  • Availability of single point of accountability
  • How to reap maximum benefit from this investment?
  • Integrate Videoconferencing into their communication fabric enabling
    Unified Communication
  • Technologies with higher uptime
  • Quality videoconferencing with quick Return on Investment
  • Professional and efficient project management for quick multi-locational
    deployments
  • Dependable IP/ISDN media
  • Ease of use and user friendliness
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Challenges

Despite its inherent technological and cost advantages, videoconferencing
over converged network faces certain challenges that impede its growth. There is
lack of education and low awareness on the business benefits of conferencing
solutions. Factors like cost of ownership, maintenance of infrastructure and the
general perception about videoconferencing as an item of luxury could possibly
impact growth of this market.

At present, most enterprises connect via ISDN. However, Internet-based
connections are increasing in popularity and many public rooms have come up in
India, which allow conferencing over an IP network. Bandwidth issues at the
back-end also need to be addressed to ensure that full benefits of
videoconferencing can be availed.

One of the major challenges being faced by organizations is integration
across various elements of unified communications. Management of the converged
infrastructure is a further issue since real-time applications such as voice and
video have priority over less time-sensitive applications such as Web surfing
and email.

In some instances, lack of technical knowledge might become a challenge.
Unified Communications and conferencing solutions reside on different networks
and different platforms, requiring various management interfaces for maintenance
and intricate technical support.

The enterprises today demand an audio which is clear, without noise,
intelligible, echo-free and of sufficient volume. There is also need of a
technology, which will provide directional clues as to who is speaking if
multiple people are in the room, likewise video images should be clear, life
size and noise-free, while providing sufficient resolution and detail. The other
major issue is that the connections are unreliable. Either the calls do not go
through or the connections provide poor quality audio or video. Sometimes, audio
and video signals also suffer from noticeable delay, delay being one of the most
visible deterrents to having a natural-feeling meeting.

Going Forward

Adequate steps are being taken by telecom service providers that will enhance
network performance and resolve network maintenance issues. The drift towards
more deployment of IP endpoints is expected over the years. As this
technological shift accelerates, it will lead to easier deployment of
videoconferencing solutions. As convergence brings voice, data and video on the
same IP network, IP will become the backbone of the business infrastructure and
collaborative communications is fast becoming a necessity for organizations
across the globe.

Accessing videoconferencing through any medium irrespective of location or
networks is what the next big thing is likely to be. The technology will help
people on the move to be connected with their offices across the globe literally
through the touch of a button.

In the current year, while the government and corporate sectors are likely to
fuel the demand for visual collaboration solutions, relatively smaller markets
like education and healthcare will record growth as well. There is also an
emergence of new verticals like telemedicine, government and tele-medicine,
which is further likely to fuel the market. According to Frost&Sullivan,
convergence of collaborative technologies is growing at a fast pace and the
overall market will grow 12.6% annually from about $4.8 bn in 2004 to $9 bn in
2009.

The government sector is going in for videoconferencing adoption on a massive
scale: videoconferencing between various Government departments in India,
Videoconferencing in e-governance & District Administration through various
State Wide Area Network (SWAN) projects. In the corporate sector, IT firms and
banking sector contributes the maximum share in this vertical.

Hosted videoconferencing services from services providers are gaining in
popularity.

This technology has already changed the way enterprises communicate, and as
the current market scenario demonstrates, it is likely to be as commonplace as
mobile phones where enterprise communication is concerned. The future outlook of
the Indian videoconferencing market is bright and sunny.

Gagandeep Kaur

gagandeepk@cybermedia.co.in

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