FEATURE: UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS
Educational establishments are embracing UC as a way to reach a wider range of students at a time that is suitable to them
at Polycom. “Years ago, people on the other end of a video call appeared as fuzzy images; now it is as if they are in the same room. HD technology has made images clearer. Technology has enabled eye contact with the person on the other end of the call, and software such as the Polycom EagleEye Director pans and zooms onto the speaker in a meeting revealing important facial expressions and a ‘just- like-being-there’ experience.” Within an organisation
where everybody uses the same services, proprietary equipment will offer the full functionality throughout. The majority of unified communications systems now run on Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) which defines how sessions should be set up, maintained and managed, but goes no further. This means that calls can be set up between different vendor systems, but does not cover the features and services that will be available between two endpoints. These are deployed individually above the base SIP layer. As a consequence the functions that users enjoy within their corporate environment may not be available across networks/ vendor systems.
Security within networks is
obviously paramount. Normal network and mobile device management measures, where BYOD strategies exist, are crucial when videoconferencing systems are employed beyond the enterprise. However the data transfers across SIP-based, inter-vendor systems will not necessarily be encrypted and may therefore be open to attack. Microsoft Lync is commonly used to provide the core functionality for unified communications systems offered by many vendors. However it does not include an enterprise-grade telephony capability and requires
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additional layers of functionality. “Lync provides a consistent, single-client experience for presence, instant messaging, voice, video and a great meeting experience,” says Dave Silberstein, Crestron’s director of marketing. “It is the software that underlies Crestron RL to extend the Lync experience, bringing video, voice, interactive content sharing, presence, and chat to the conference room within an integrated presentation and automation system.”
IN THE CLOUD With the all-pervading influence of the Cloud, it is inevitable that large-scale videoconferencing and unified communications services would be provided as a service; an attractive option for small to medium-sized businesses in particular. “We offer a wide variety of Cloud-based communications technologies in one easy-to- use system to create a virtual office with fully featured voice capabilities with audio conferencing, hunt groups, auto attendants, point-to- point and multipoint video calling, instant messaging and collaboration/document sharing,” says Kevin Scott- Cowell, CEO, 8x8 Solutions. “Cloud-based unified communications solutions are tightly integrated, have a common sign-in, and the same user experience over a number of devices.” New manufacturer Pexip
has rapidly gained traction and some large design-ins. “Pexip Infinity offers native interoperability with Microsoft Lync. It enables HD video, voice communication and data sharing between virtually any enterprise endpoint and any Lync client, even in hybrid environments where Office 365 is combined with on- premise installations,” explains Anders Løkke, Pexip’s marketing manager. “Pexip
Infinity extends Lync’s capabilities by adding Virtual Meeting Rooms for everyone in the organisation. Pexip Infinity runs in standard VMware or Microsoft Virtual Machines on-prem, or can be run Cloud-based, and it is designed to be simple to use. For integration with Microsoft Lync, no on-premise Lync server is required, and internal and external videoconferencing endpoints can connect to the same Pexip platform. In addition, external users can join via WebRTC-enabled browsers if they do not currently have a unified communications or video platform.” An additional option for meetings is for attendees to simultaneously access shared data on a separate, personal device. Cloud-based solutions do
not require on-premise hardware or software and are scalable. They are ideal for applications such as remote learning, where a lecture to thousands of students on an ad hoc basis (massive online open courses, or MOOC) is accessed from a PIN-protected clickable web address. This link
is, in effect, the lecturer’s own virtual lecture theatre or a personal meeting room in a business environment, accessed from a browser or videoconferencing endpoint.
FOCUS ON QUALITY Video quality is an aspect of unified communications that is becoming more important as greater amounts of information and higher- resolution images are expected by users. “Video and still images are becoming more prevalent in business and these take ever greater bandwidth to transmit,” says Joan Vandermate, VP of marketing for Vidyo. “While the capacity of networks is expanding rapidly there is still a requirement to deliver the highest possible quality and resolution in the least amount of bandwidth, particularly in applications that need to be able to view images in great detail, like healthcare and scientific research. We are still in the early days of unified communications and the technology will improve and develop. As Weinold points out: “Radical simplification is
going to dramatically change the way we use and think of unified communications. Previously solutions of exceptional quality have also been complicated to use. This has provided a significant barrier to user uptake. However we’re learning from the mobile industry as smartphones redefined the value of a mobile device. Unified communications systems will need to plug into a wide variety of applications (such as scheduled meetings, streaming and recording, and HD content sharing) that can be accessed with the push of a button, without needing to understand how any of the underlying technology works. It needs to do all this from one simple user interface that promotes discovery and reduces the training and support burden on administrators.”
www.8x8.com www.crestron.com www.imagogroupplc.com www.lifesize.com www.polycom.com www.pexip.com www.vidyo.com
DUBAI COLLEGE IMPLEMENTS COLLABORATION SOLUTION
International Horizons College in Dubai has developed a unified communications model to provide an extended range of Cloud-based interactive services and collaborative teaching programmes with colleges and universities in the US.
The infrastructure, built on
the Polycom RealPresence Platform, enables large numbers of students and teachers to collaborate using any type of device. Data, lecture notes and presentation material is
shared between remote participants; it is certified to the Learning Tools Interoperability standard for distributed and collaborative learning.
Students participate in
lectures from other universities, share teachers, and research projects. “With video collaboration solutions in our global classrooms, the possibilities are endless,” says Dr Dobe, president of the college. “Sessions are recorded and made available for students to watch and review
when convenient to them.” Faculty and board members join staff meetings remotely using personal devices. The college also uses videoconferencing to recruit new professors. “It makes everything easier to secure top academic talent,” says Dobe. “We conduct video interviews which eliminate the cost and travel of personal interviews and provide a far richer interview experience than voice alone. We record interviews, for later review by other faculty members.”
www.installation-international.com
STUDY CASE
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