Video networking is undergoing a transition similar to what happened to legacy phone networks when VoIP appeared.
And one of the leaders behind that transition is Vidyo Inc., a New Jersey company whose video conferencing software is able to transmit high definition images with near zero latency across the Internet by anticipating the amount of available bandwidth and degrading the picture to match, avoiding the blocky-looking pictures that plague low-end conferencing like Skype.
It’s also far cheaper than video conferencing systems from Cisco Systems Inc. and Polycom Inc., which, like legacy, copper-based phone systems, require a dedicated network connection and specialized hardware to send the video signals. With Vidyo, all a customer needs is a Vidyo Router, which is built with off-the-shelf hardware, in its data center and its decoder software installed on any computer, tablet or phone.
That inexpensive software and more flexible connection is enabling the company to gain early ground in the video conferencing market as well as open up live video to host applications that weren’t possible because of the high price of enterprise video conferencing systems and the low quality of other Internet-based systems.
VidyoMobile™ delivers telepresence-quality multipoint video conferencing on iOS (Apple iPhone and iPad) or Android based smart phones and tablet devices. As an integrated endpoint in the VidyoConferencing™ solution, VidyoMobile delivers much-needed error resiliency and low latency video communication for today’s increasingly mobile enterprises. An intuitive interface and simple commands make it easy for VidyoMobile users to participate and share data with other mobile, desktop or room system endpoints.
Checkout VidiyoMobile on the iPad 2:
Vidyo was founded to bring the high-quality of expensive in room video conferencing systems to desktop conferencing, but today it’s announcing plans to enter the high end of the video conferencing space with a multi-screen telepresence product that consists of up to 20 screens (most competing products are limited to three or four screens.) Customers can get a set-up with four screens for $44,000, compared with similar sized deployments from Cisco and Polycom that range from $300,000 to $500,000.
Though Vidyo’s not the only company to build products around what’s called Scalable Video Coding, an emerging video compression standard, in person the products are impressive as the differences in images coming from a laptop camera compared to those from one of Vidyo’s room systems are negligible — both have enough clarity to know which employee is sweating through a meeting — leaving competitors little room to improve on the video quality.
But its competition won’t even be able to come close to that, said Ofer Shapiro, Vidyo’s chief executive and co-founder. While the company is glad others are adopting the standard since it will allow Vidyo’s products to interoperate with systems from other vendors, Shapiro believes the quality won’t match Vidyo’s unless they willfully infringe on its patents.
The company has been able to expand into new markets where traditional video conferencing hasn’t had a presence because of Vidyo’s ability to run over the Internet and to get its software on any device. In health care it’s been used to connect stroke victims with medical experts to make sure they receive the proper treatment, monitor patients’ progress from their homes and allow family members to witness a live birth.
The company has also spent almost two years building VidyoCast, a version of its product that enables news and sports shows to replace expensive trucks full of equipment and remote production staff with nothing more than a laptop, a camera and a 4G wireless card, resulting in a picture that matches the quality of what a television station would normally need to rent time on a satellite to transmit.
It also envisions applications such as operations management in manufacturing, coordinating disaster relief and education — it’s been used by Arizona State University to enable students to participate in research by getting instruction directly from biologists as they work in the Panamanian jungles.
Shapiro wouldn’t disclose Vidyo’s revenue, but he said the company’s sales are growing 20% per quarter. Vidyo is nearing 150 employees and expects to add another 20 to 30 employees across all departments very shortly.
Vidyo was seeded back in 2005 by Sevin Rosen Funds. It has since raised a total of $74 million with investors such as Four Rivers Group, Menlo Ventures, Rho Ventures and Star Ventures joining the syndicate over the years.
COMMENTARY: What's not to like with Vidyo's disruptive videoconferencing technology. Vidyo's integration with mobile devices like the Apple iPhone and iPad and Android phones is quite exciting and differentiates it from its competition. Everything is going mobile, and Vidyo has the product for today's mobile workforce. Vidyo's lower costs and high quality HD video streams and multi-point capababilities make it a definite threat to existing industry leaders Cisco (Tandberg) and Polycom which enterprise videoconference space.
According to Ovum, global business spending on video conferencing will reach $3.8 billion in 2016, driven by an increasing focus on cost-cutting and productivity.
In a new forecast and report, the independent telecoms analyst predicts that revenues from business video conferencing will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.79 per cent from 2011 to 2016, making it one of the fastest growing markets in ICT.
In a recent study, Infonetics estimated that the worldwide videoconferencing market size will reach $5 billion by 2015. According to Infonetics, the global videoconferencing market size was $2.2 billion in 2010, up 18% year over year. Earlier, Gartner predicted an even rosier picture that videoconferencing market size will reach $8.6 billion by 2015.
The two major players in this market are Polycom Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCM) and Cisco System Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), which gains a major foothold after acquiring Tandberg TV. These two entities together commands more than 80% of the global videoconferencing market with almost equal share between them. However, as of now, Polycom remains the only pure play telepresence solutions provider, which is yet to collaborate with another company. Other telepresence or high-end videoconference competitors include Aastra, Avaya, Grandstream, Huawei, Kedacom, Lifesize, Magor, Microsoft, Radvision, Sony, Teliris, Vidyo, ZTE, and others.
Business spending on immersive video conferencing, often called telepresence – high-end video conferencing carried out in custom-built rooms where participants can see each other in life-size images – will grow even faster. Ovum predicts that telepresence will grow at a CAGR of 19.49 per cent over the same five-year period to become a $1.1bn market in 2016. Major orders for telepresence have already been signed by many global organisations, including HSBC, GlaxoSmithKline and News Corporation, whose executives are using the technology for highly interactive meetings as a replacement for traveling to face-to-face meetings.
Richard Thurston, Ovum analyst and author of the report, commented:
"Enterprises are seizing the huge opportunity that video conferencing offers them to cut costs and improve productivity by reducing business travel. They are starting to use video conferencing much more frequently because of ongoing economic concerns, continued efforts to reduce their carbon footprint, enhancements in video technology and price reductions that are improving the business case. The next five years will see solid increases in expenditure from businesses in every region around the globe."
"The improved quality of telepresence in terms of both visual and audio quality is resonating strongly with many large businesses," continued Thurston. "But these systems are complex to manage, and we forecast that businesses will opt for third-party managed services from operators, systems integrators and equipment vendors to help them with their telepresence installations." Accordingly, Ovum’s forecast shows that business spending on managed services will increase at a CAGR of 11.5 per cent from 2011 to 2016.
Courtesy of an article dated June 8, 2011 appearing in The Wall Street Journal and an article dated May 5, 2011 appearing in City-Is
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Posted by: strata management company | 10/03/2011 at 03:27 AM
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Posted by: strata management company | 10/03/2011 at 03:27 AM