29-10-2012, 12:22 PM
Extending Visual Communications to the Enterprise Desktop and Remote Office
Extending Visual Communications.pdf (Size: 262.59 KB / Downloads: 18)
Introduction
For the past twenty years, enterprise videoconferencing solutions have been confined largely to
the corporate meeting room (or education classroom) where relatively small numbers of
endpoints operate in carefully configured, scheduled, and reserved environments. Today,
increasing numbers of line managers and business executives are looking for ways to make their
communications processes more efficient, easier to use, and broader in reach. Rich media
communication solutions that integrate voice, video, and data collaboration are now recognized as
key elements to help reduce the “human latency” that slows many enterprise decision making
processes. Extending conferencing and collaboration solutions beyond the conference room to
the desktop and to the remote/mobile/home worker has become a consideration for many
enterprise deployment plans.
Voice, video, and data collaboration solutions for the desktop have evolved from their proprietary
roots to modern, web-based solutions. But enterprise conferencing managers still face many
challenges. These include insuring connectivity across network boundaries, delivering a scalable
and manageable system friendly to end users and IT managers alike, and providing an
environment that supports video and data collaboration between desktop and room systems.
The Limits of Traditional Collaboration Solutions
The challenges that many organizations face in extending visual communications to the enterprise
desktop and remote office fall into three general categories.
Connectivity and Accessibility: The goal here is to bring together conference rooms and
LAN-connected desktops with remote employees and external partners no matter where they
are located. In looking at voice, video, and web communications futures, many enterprises
are migrating to an IP network for communications. One network offers many advantages –
more efficient to manage and deploy, capable of handling all types of traffic – and a single IP
network forms the foundation for unified communications and enhanced services in the
future. But one of the lingering disadvantages of today’s IP network implementations is that
for users outside the corporate firewall – whether they are employees on the road working
from hotel rooms, workers located in home offices, or colleagues from partner companies –
the firewall typically blocks IP-based voice and video communications.
Another aspect of connectivity and accessibility is extensibility. In many business (and
education) situations there exists a need to extend the conferencing or presentation
environment and to be able to deliver information to large numbers of PC desktops. When
the size of the audience becomes large, interactivity is less important, and
streaming/webcasting becomes a preferred alternative. Having a smooth interface between
the videoconferencing and streaming worlds makes it possible to deliver two-way, interactive
sessions in a one-way broadcast mode (both live and archived) that is convenient, bandwidth
efficient, and low-cost as well as compatible with many types of endpoint devices.
Conclusion
SCOPIA Desktop bridges between the rich environment of today’s room videoconferencing
systems and the needs of the PC-based worker, providing a common voice, video, and data
collaboration environment to all users inside and outside the corporate firewall. SCOPIA
Desktop is server-based and provides key scalability, manageability, simple licensing scheme,
and ease-of-use capabilities that line managers and IT executives will appreciate as they plan,
deploy, and manage their enterprise communications systems.