Video conferencing has always been something of a black art for many businesses. Historically the kit has been complex to set up and video quality has been patchy at best, with jittery images and time delays common.

However, the advent of easily accessible broadband connections and some impressive advances in both broadcast compression systems (the technology used to cram high-quality video on to broadband lines) mean video conferencing is now fast and easy. Near broadcast quality results are well within reach, even if you are in a distant hotel room.

However, there are a number of different solutions, ranging from huge high-definition systems with twin plasma screens to small cameras which clip on to your laptop. As a result, choosing a system can be tough, with a high price to pay if you get it wrong.

The key decision for many companies is whether it makes sense to buy a system which can be installed in one of your meeting rooms or simply hire the equipment when you need it. There is, however, a third option: that of using existing web technology in the form of instant messaging. The online chat systems from Microsoft, Yahoo and the like have encroached into video-conferencing territory, with traditional text-only chat negating the need for video conferencing, and the option of using industry-standard video being supported with some of these options. If you are thinking about buying a video-conferencing system, it’s worth experimenting with this before committing to an expensive piece of kit you may not need, or may find doesn’t suit your purpose.

For larger meetings, however, a dedicated video-conferencing setup is still king. The latest high-end systems, while expensive initially, could save a small fortune in airfares if used correctly, and there’s no denying the newest twin plasma TV systems will also give the boardroom a bit of a high-tech upgrade.

One last warning: there is no one-size-fits-all solution for running a video conference, but the following products showcase a good selection from the current choice.

Logitech QuickCam Sphere USB camera

£80

logitech.com

Possibly the most high-tech add-on webcam you’ll find, the Logitech Sphere is a webcam in a ball that can track faces. Move around the desk and it’ll move with you.

Styled in a black casing, the bubble-like unit is fairly sleek and looks more like a kitchen timer from an expensive designer shop or Sunday supplement catalogue than the latest in video-conferencing equipment.

Perched on a smallish base, it can be raised in height by an additional 22cm on a post enclosed in the box. The footprint remains the same, and the extended webcam soon takes on an alien War of the Worlds feel. A 2.7m USB lead in the box means that there is enough cable to place it anywhere on your desk or meeting-room table.

Turn it on and you get a decently-specified webcam which can record video up to 640 x 320 and still snapshots of 1,280 x 980.

Flick the software switch to enable tracking and the device will try its hardest to keep your face in the centre of the screen. Move around and the camera moves with you, up to 180-degree tilt and a 60-degree pan. For the user who likes to duck and dive you can set the zoom to track as well, and this will make sure your head is roughly the same size all the time.

The QuickCam Sphere has a good stab at trying to resolve an age-old problem with webcams, namely that people like to move about when they talk.

It’s not perfect, and you’ll lose it if you move around too quickly, but if you’re forever disappearing off-screen and need a cheap and cheerful USB camera for conferencing, it’s a great little piece of kit.

Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision

Around £90
logitech.com

The first thing that hits you about the Ultra Vision is its size – it’s huge. Given the features crammed in, that can be forgiven, and it’s very stylish, but since it is designed to be taken out on the road, you might want to check your baggage allowance first. It comes with an additional rubberised stand, which adds to the weight but allows you to mould it into position to fit on top of any screen, be it a laptop or LCD monitor. The end result means that it can perch on anything and yet feels solid.

Looking beyond the high-quality finish, this is one of the first high-definition webcams you can use to do “real” video conferencing from your laptop anywhere in the world where you have a broadband connection. In practice the results were incredibly good, especially on-screen and in picture mode, and it’s not that surprising considering Logitech has done so much work on the lens in this webcam.

But the key to the video quality is the software, which adapts the video settings on the camera depending on the environment and lighting conditions, meaning you can work from even the dullest hotel room.

There’s also a built-in speaker and microphone, and without much background noise the audio was crisp and clear. Logitech, showing its confidence, hasn’t bundled in a headset with the Ultra Vision like it does with other webcams.

It will also work as a still camera, and software enhancements can bring the image up to near 4-megapixel quality. Overall, this is probably the best webcam you’ll find on the market. It is good for video conferencing on the move – and thanks to the quality of video produced, pair it with the right software and it will even give some dedicated video-conferencing systems a run for their money.

Polycom PVX software


£99

polycom-uk.co.uk

While Polycom also makes dedicated video-conferencing kit, this is its software package which allows you to use any off-the-shelf webcam to turn your PC into a video-conferencing system.

Because of its use of H.264 compression, the video quality is far superior to Microsoft’s competing NetMeeting software, and it’s by far the best quality you’ll see on a PC. Audio quality is also surprisingly good, clear and sharp.

We tested PVX with a variety of different cameras from Logitech and Creative and it worked well with them all. We were especially impressed with the combo of Polycom PVX software with the Logitech QuickCam, and it’s a near-perfect solution. However, it’s not perfect, and requires a powerful CPU and plenty of RAM. As with most video-conferencing apps, firewall, NAT, and VPN issues can cause problems, so be ready to spend some time befriending your technical support staff.

But overall, it’s easy to install and set up once you have the network security sorted, and most importantly the thing about the Polycom PVX video-conferencing software is that can make desktop video conferencing work the way it logically should work, from your desktop.

Sony PCS-TL30P


£1,999

sonybiz.net

Sony’s PCS-TL30P is one of the most stylish dedicated solutions for video conferencing, comprising a really good-looking 17-inch LCD screen with a built-in camera, microphone and speakers. It’s aimed at the smaller business and offers a complete “plug and play” solution to video conferencing. It has a screen which doubles up as a PC monitor and which can be used simultaneously to show both PC data and live video-conferencing video images.

The PCS-TL30P is extremely straightforward to use, and is operated with a mouse that can be used for PC operation as well. Plug it into an ethernet connection, and you’re pretty much all ready to go.

The embedded digital PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) camera is very good, although as with all these solutions, the picture and audio quality will obviously depend on connection speed and who you are calling. The operation is easy – the mouse makes getting around the different calling and “picture in picture” options simple – this is a video-conferencing system almost easy enough for those not computer-literate to use. Almost.

There’s no doubt that the PCS-TL30P is an excellent system, but it faces tough competition from desktop PC-based systems. If you need to video conference a lot, there’s no reason you can’t have this as your desktop PC monitor, switching it into video-conferencing mode when you need it. For under £2,000, it’s slick and well thought out, so the question is really whether you’ll use it enough to justify the purchase of a dedicated system over a less expensive PC-based system.

Polycom VSX 5000


Around £2,500

polycom-uk.co.uk

Polycom is one of the biggest names in video conferencing, and the small-business VSX 500 is one of its most popular products. It’s a small unit with a camera that sits on top of your monitor or, more likely, plasma TV in a meeting room.

Setup is relatively easy, and it’ll work with internet connections and ISDN lines, and will interface with pretty much any other system, including callers using just audio. It’s easily expandable, and you can add a peripheral (document camera or VCR/DVD), dual monitors, and audio-only callers through ISDN. Each VSX 5000 system comprises the conferencing unit, a camera, a microphone and an ISDN adaptor. However, be warned, the setup can be a little confusing at first.

The built-in camera is reasonably good: images were sharp and clear, and the colour was nearly accurate. Although you can’t make the camera head swivel by remote control as you can with the higher-end Polycom VSX units, you can move it left or right manually. Digital pan and tilt can be accomplished using the remote. Although the zoom isn’t optical – there are no moving parts, it’s all done by digital manipulation – the image is relatively clear at maximum zoom.

When in use, the camera follows whichever VSX unit is producing the predominant audio. A quick reply like “yes” won’t change the camera’s focus, nor will background noises like the sound of coffee mugs being set down. But if the camera detects someone speaking a few words near another unit, the image will switch over to that unit.

A second set of connectors allows you to hook up an additional video-input signal, such as a VCR or DVD player, which makes it perfect for showing Powerpoint presentations, although there’s no VGA cable to plug it straight into the unit, so you’ll need a video-out socket on your laptop.

You also can mirror content through a second S-video port, or output video via a VGA port to a standard computer monitor, but only 800 x 600 and 1,024 x 768 resolutions are supported for VGA output. Overall, it’s a slick and well thought out solution, although aimed at the more serious users, which is reflected in the price tag. But for companies which regularly video conference, it’s well worth a look.

TANDBERG Profile 8000 MXP


POA, around £30,000

tandberg.com

At the upper end of the market, video-conferencing kit takes on a whole new feel, with massive slick display units and high-definition pictures.
Tandberg’s Profile 8000 is aimed squarely at the boardroom of larger companies and, with twin 50-inch plasma screen and a high-definition camera, it’s an impressive piece of kit.

Setup is surprisingly easy – your IT department should have no problems at all integrating it into your existing video-conferencing systems, and Tandberg’s software is even available for desktop PCs. The 16 x 9 wide-screen format provides exceptional visibility, ensuring that the meeting participants and presentations remain the centre of attention.

A lot of attention has also been paid to the unit’s audio, which is brilliant, with crisp, clear stereo sound – combined with the massive dual plasma screens, you really do get a sense of “being there” with this system.

This is helped by the high resolution of 1,280 pixels x 768 pixels, which gives an exceptional clear picture or graphics on a flat screen. It’s also easy to plug in a PC to the unit for presentations, and you can easily flip between views using the excellent remote control.

The high-definition camera has a 7x zoom, and image quality is superb, with voice-activated zooming and a wide field of view earning this the accolade of probably being one of the best high-end systems out there.

Cisco Telepresence

Cisco’s TelePresence service is most definitely the top end of the video-conferencing market. The massive triple 65-inch plasma screens create a life-sized “virtual” table, and up to 12 people can participate (six in person, six in another location). The key to the system is jaw-dropping video quality. It uses 1,080p high-definition signals, the latest industry standard, which is on a par with the very latest Blu-Ray high-definition DVDs – certainly not a system to buy if you’re prone to bad hair days.

Using the system for the first time is a strange experience, and this is the only video-conferencing system we’ve seen that really makes you think you are in the same room as the people you’re talking to. It’s a little odd at first, but soon becomes far more productive than rival systems, as you forget you are taking part in a video conference at all. Rather than seeing a picture of the table, the life-sized images really do let you look people in the eye, and you can clearly read documents held up by people on the other side as well.

Video of meeting participants is captured by an array of three cameras mounted above the centre screen, each of them focused on two people.
Microphones built into the table surface capture audio, which is output using a surround-sound speaker system that is mounted under the plasma screens, and it’s really accurate at making sure sounds appear from the right person.

However, apart from the quality, Cicso has really thought the system through, and it’ll do everything from integrating into calendar applications, so you can simply click a single button to make calls, to full duplex sound, meaning you can both talk at once – perfect for those heated debates. It’s certainly not one for those on a tight budget, but if you absolutely have to have the best (and were probably fascinated by Star Trek’s holodeck as a kid), this is the system for you.

Check out the demonstration videos on the website, and then start saving up for the system. It is the future.

Price available on application, for further information visit cisco.com.

The etiquette of a video conference

We travel in order to meet people face to face. Video conferencing promises a way of meeting people without that travel but, just as we make efforts to be polite when meeting someone in person, so there are definite pitfalls to avoid when meeting in the form of a video conference.

  • Avoid wearing all-white clothing. It reflects light, causing images around you to appear darker, while all-black clothing can also soak in light and makes everything around you appear lighter. Pastel colours are best.
  • Remind everyone at the meeting not to rustle papers or make any other background noise. It’s a good idea to set the audio to mute when your side isn’t speaking.
  • Once underway, don’t interrupt other conference participants by speaking “over” them, don’t lean in too close to the camera and remember to focus attention on the camera – body language and facial expression count in a video conference.
  • Always have a Plan B in case the technology breaks down.