Since its launch in August 2003 Skype has developed its brand through “free” calling for Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls as well as chat. However, whenever they launch a revenue generating offering, users need to experience the actual feature before paying up. Recently Skype has come up with a couple of ways to have a free user experience of a feature.

Experience Skype WiFi

Skype WiFi is a “last resort” offering that allows nomadic Skype users to make calls when traveling from over 1 million access points worldwide at airports, restaurants, hotels and coffee shops amongst other “road warrior” locations. But at a cost that is country dependent but about 20 cents/minute in the U.S.

Yesterday Skype announced free Skype WiFi over the Christmas period (December 21 to 27) at 50 U.S. airport locations. Provided your battery is charged or you have access to a waiting room power outlet, you can not only make Skype and SkypeOut calls but also check your email and surf the Internet for up to one hour. (You can also access Skype WiFi on your iPhone or iPad if you have installed the Skype WiFi app.)

Experience a Simulated Group Video Call … and have some social fun at the same time

Skype’s Group Video Calling requires a Skype Premium subscription; however, through Skype’s Facebook page you can experience how Group Video calling works while sending birthday greetings or Happy Holidays wishes via a Skype Facebook application: Say It With Skype. Skype has worked with several bands to create melodious greetings that can be sent via a friend’s Facebook wall, a URL or embedded into an email message. Click on the tabs to see the progress.

The resulting video is a simulated Group Video call where each member of the band selected is a separate Group Video Call participant. And, if you elect to record, your own video is added in. Not quite a full Group Video Call experience but you start to get a feel for it. On the other hand the couple of recipients to whom I have sent these have appreciated them; it’s one way to have a bit of fun with Skype.

For a complete Group Video Call experience the 7-day trial remains available.

Personally I have been on a weekly Group Video Call that has participants in three continents across nine time zones for the past five months. When you consider that a Skype Premium subscription also incorporates Skype Out calls to U.S./Canada and Live chat support, at $4.49 per month for a one year subscription, it’s a no brainer.

In previous posts I have mentioned how the iPad is an ideal form factor for a “Desktop phone” experience, whether using CounterPath’s Bria, as a business phone extension, or Skype for iPad, targeted largely to the consumer and small business market. This is especially true for video calling where the 10” screen combined with the iPad’s portability is an ideal format.

Today at DEMO Fall 2011, a new player, but with lots of veteran IP-communications experience, announced their forthcoming entry into the fray with an offering targeted at the small-to-medium business and enterprise market. Hookflash has been designed from scratch to take full advantage of the iPad’s display format and touch screen features to provide a unique business class video calling experience.

According to Trent Johnsen, Hookflash’s CEO and co-Founder, in a press release today:

“With Hookflash, millions of iPad users will immediately have access to the powerful communication capabilities previously limited to expensive corporate telephone and video conferencing systems.  Leveraging the iPad’s size, touch-based controls and connectivity allowed us to create an integrated experience that will dramatically improve how people work.”

In addition, Hookflash will offer a docking station which hold the iPad but also provide a familiar phone handset for picking up the voice channel of a call. When away from the office, the iPad (say, with a mounting case) remains a convenient form factor for handling video calls.

Hookflash does not simply provide voice, video and chat support with a heavy focus on collaboration, including group video calling, but also leverages social networking tools to provide unique “participant profiles automatically created from information extracted from business and social networks — all seamlessly integrated within an intuitive interface.”

The touch screen user interface allows swipes to be use for activities such as exiting and entering a group video call without killing the conversation. There is also a feature where two video calls can be brought together.

Other features include:

• One-on-one and group video, voice and chat;
• View all active conversations in one place;
• Merge together or divide active group text, voice and video conversations, with a simple swipe of the finger;
• View real-time social and business profiles right inside Hookflash;
• Transfer calls at the click of a button;
• Record and share previously captured conversations–voice, video and chat.

In effect Hookflash proposes to offer a social media-enhanced business video calling experience where participant background, through social networking services and contact information, is available by simply by touching on a participant’s picture. Hookflash’s key value-add appears to be the comprehensive user interface and its ability to quickly show participant information, merge calls, make call transfers, peer into the cloud for background information, and manage other aspects of the call, including recording for later recall.

But what are its chances for market adoption?

• Do business users want the level of information being offered? Can it become distracting to the call’s primary agenda?
• How will it build up a user base? Being targeted to the business and enterprise market requires management endorsement and support.
• What is the level of interoperability? Can multi-party call participants be brought in from, say, the PSTN or other platforms such as PC’s and smartphones?
• How quickly can it become available on other platforms? While certainly the iPad has had huge adoption, how soon will it be supported on other platforms that may be more convenient to some users?
• What are the demands on the network connection? Especially when it comes to considering 3G/LTE data plans and roaming charge issues?

While Hookflash looks to be an alternative to Skype here are some issues they need to address:

• the network effect. How will Hookflash build a user base or will it be restricted to participants within an individual business’s ecosystem?
• platforms: at the moment it requires all participants to have an iPad. While expansion to support iPhone is fairly obvious, what about PC’s, Android devices, TV’s?
• what will the Microsoft acquisition of Skype bring to the table in terms of offerings for the small-to-medium business and enterprise market? Not to mention that Microsoft has already built up a significant business and enterprise customer base.

And finally, where is the revenue model? According to their Home Page “Hookflash for iPad is a free communications app that makes working together easy.” In the long term “free” does not pay the bills.

From reviewing their website, which appears to be incomplete at this point (the video and trial “sign up” is not available for instance), Hookflash overlays social networking for contextual information about participants, end-to-end call management (set up –> call with management –> archiving) and integration with other key services (Outlook Calendar, YouTube, Plancast) onto an open source peer-to-peer voice, video and text chat communications platform. It really remains to see it in action to determine its ease of use, level of market adoption and potential for revenue generation.

Bottom line: based on the limited information available Hookflash layers significant user interface features onto voice, video and text conversations. However, given Skype’s network effect and broad platform support, I can see Hookflash being considered as an acquisition by a post-Microsoft acquisition Skype business unit to provide a richer video calling experience.

Related articles

• Demo: Hookflash aims to make phone calls at work more productive (venturebeat.com)

After a beta period of several months last fall, Skype launched Group Video Calling on Skype for Windows at CES 2011 as one element of its Skype Premium service. Group Video Calling on the Mac became available with the release of Skype for Mac 5.0. Over the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to host a weekly group video call for an Internet Marketing mentoring group in which I participate.

This was a group that had been using a hosted push-to-talk conferencing where only the speaker’s video would appear – using Adobe’s Flash Video. It provided a tedious (and not terribly robust) way to share voice and video but ….

• being push-to-talk, only one person could talk at any given time; any ad hoc conversation had to be via the text chat window.
• there were pregnant pauses while the video started for each participant who wanted to talk; it was not what one would call “totally interactive” or spontaneous ad hoc conversation.
• the chat window was only available during a session; if you lost the connection and reconnected, you only picked up new chat messages and lost any previous content, such as URL’s and email addresses.
• voice quality was acceptable but definitely compromised by the audio technology employed
• the service itself often could not stay connected for the duration of a conferencing session.

Once we were about to cancel one of our weekly sessions due to hosting issues when we realized there were fewer than ten participants on the scheduled call. Instinctively I fired up Skype Group Video Chat; immediately we had:

• seven or eight participants on a call, each with live video (provided s/he had a webcam)
• a fully interactive meeting experience where one could start talking “spontaneously”
  • due to the nature of the group and a “business meeting” discipline, no moderator was needed
• participants were on both Windows and Mac platforms
• a persistent and archived chat session is available
• while some participants used headsets, others used microphones and their PC speakers – but there were no echo issues from any party – echo cancellation played a key role in the audio quality experience
• voice quality is “as if we were all sitting around a table in the same room”
  • due to Skype’s superwideband SILK audio technology

But don’t take my word for it when it comes to the audio performance. During an interview with the mentoring group’s leader, Brad Gosse, about how he uses Skype to build and support his business, I asked him about his impression of Skype Group Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYOhIYERp2Y

Any participant with Skype for Mac 5.3 could actually share his/her desktop to a Skype Group Video call; hopefully this feature will soon be supported in an upcoming release of Skype 5.x for Windows.

One other “robustness” feature I noticed during a recent call. For whatever reason, one of the participant’s Windows PC crashed during the call; Skype for Windows gave me, as the host, “transparent” notice of an Internet Connection issue, the participant’s video disappeared from the call screen, yet the called carried on without interruption. However, once he rebooted his PC and opened Skype he was presented with an opportunity to rejoin the call, did so and reappeared in the call with no disruption of the call itself. (As shown in the image, participants who have left a call are prioritized in the Add to Call screen.)

Bottom line: you probably have to participate in a Skype Group Video call to fully appreciate the participant audio and video experience. Suffice it to say all the participants’ feedback from these calls relates to the value of the discussion content – the video and audio technology has become totally transparent to the real purpose of the session.

A couple of related posts:

Andy Abramson talks about Video Calling In The Living Room where he intends to use Group Video calls for his weekly staff meetings:

Virtual face to face meetings that will replace the faceless conference call. With video calling in the living room, or the conference room available for so little money, you have to wonder why people are waiting?

Michael Graves points out why he continues to use headsets at his home office to avoid introducing “room tone” into his audio: Can You Hear Me Now? Headset vs Speakerphone In The Home Office

Note that Skype continues to include unlimited calls to North American destinations with a Skype Premium subscription.

Related articles

• Facebook Video Chat – Powered by Skype: First Impressions (voiceontheweb.biz)

Yesterday Skype released the “Gold” or “user” version of Skype 5.5 for Windows. Many of the features, including the Facebook integration, were discussed in Skype for Windows 5.5 beta: First Impressions with Facebook Integration and Skype for Windows 5.5 beta: The Call Bar. In the final release these have been enhanced; at the same time Skype introduced some amusing new emoticons – some in the emoticon table for the chat message; others are “hidden”.

As for the complete new feature set, according to Raul Liive, Skype’s Beta Program Manager, it includes:

• Skype to Facebook instant messaging (enhanced from beta)
• New and updated emoticons (new)
• New login experience
• Improved call controls (modified from beta)
• Improved video calling reliability (yes!)
• Simplified installer flow (only three splash screens)
• Avatar selection improved
• Video snapshot capture improvements
• Changed group conversations profile area:
• 
• Plus several bug fixes

Facebook Enhancements: In the beta there was little to identify whether you were in a chat session with a Contact’s Skype chat or Facebook chat. With this release, the Facebook icon appears at the top of the conversation pane. However, confusion can still arise. In the Contacts pane “Recent” tab there is no way to identify whether one would be communicating with the Skype chat or Facebook chat. Product management is probably conflicted because they also want to show the contact’s presence information … maybe a blue icon for Facebook chat presence would help.

Notice also that if you are in the Contacts Facebook chat conversation, the call bar only allows you to call PSTN numbers (via SkypeOut) but not place a Skype-to-Skype call, as would be expected. You can still set up a conference call and monitor your hardware and network conditions via the call bar.

Finally the Facebook news feed content has been moved to the Skype client Home Page tab (no longer a separate tab) but still continues to show the profile pictures (avatars) for the most contacted Contacts (either through calls or chat sessions).

• When you enter a Mood Message on the Home Page tab, there is an option to share the message on your Facebook news feed.
• Running your cursor over any of the Skype profile pictures along the top row or a Facebook message will bring up a Call button which can launch either a Skype-to-Skype call or a SkypeOut call with the Contact.
• You can “Like” a Facebook message and/or add a Comment

It will be interesting to see how the various calling services evolve in both the Skype client and Facebook itself as Skype’s integration into Facebook deepens beyond the initial Facebook Video Calling introduced three weeks ago. Dan York adds his comments on the implications of the Facebook Chat integration in Skype Opens Its Walls A Bit? Lets You IM Facebook Users Just Like Skype Users.

Emoticons: not something I used a lot but I can see using them more often; when appropriate in the context of a chat session I might use only a few of the emoticons. However, today Skype introduced several new emoticons as shown on the right. Most amusing is the “wfh”, a hidden icon that I can see many users in today’s virtual commuting world having an association with (although more often in their Skype Mood Message).

Skype has several hidden icons, as shown on the left – sometimes called “Easter eggs”. I’ll not give the shortcodes but many of them can be implied from the name. “Working from Home” is very dynamic rotating between the two images shown in this graphic. For those who are totally puzzled and frustrated there is a hidden “wtf” button.

Suffice it to say that these icons have created much discussion and amusement today. Skype for Mac’s Chief Whining Officer, Dan York made himself heard arising out of our musings earlier today when the release was first announced. Let’s hope they appear in a forthcoming Skype for Mac release. Actually both sides of the conversation need to have Skype for Windows 5.5 “Gold” release in order to see these emoticons properly.

The Call Control Bar (or Call Navigation Bar) has been modified slightly. Most importantly it continues to offer the Call Quality Info feature – perhaps its most useful feature where you want to monitor and modify conditions during a call. Also very useful is the PopOut window during a video call which allows you to watch the video image while using other applications during a call.

And, talking about Video, over the past two weeks I have done a few Skype Group Video Calls with up to eight parties. Where this group had previously used a service where only the speaker’s video appeared (it was really a “push-to-talk” service) the dynamics of the group call change entirely when you have the many “ad hoc” features of a Skype Group Video call – chat window, identification of who is speaking, monitoring the network conditions .. even the network connection recovery feature has helped a few times. And, as it should, the technology stayed in the background relative to the conversation. (The call resulted in at least one Skype Premium subscription being picked up.)

Oh, and there’s lots of flexibility in sizing and placing the various participants’ images. As Raul noted in his post reference above:

In this version we have made numerous ‘under the hood’ updates to our video engine to improve its reliability. We have reduced the amount of graphic card resources needed for video calls and improved support for older cards, especially for users with SiS graphics cards.

Full disclosure: the Skype Group Chat is being hosted on a quad core PC with a 1.7 Mbps upload speed on the Internet connection.

Bottom line: Skype for Windows 5.5 “user release is a winner, most importantly because the client and technology is almost totally transparent to the conversation. The Facebook integration remains optional as to whether you use it (you simply can either not log into Facebook or log out of it if you find it not satisfactory). It still needs a bit of User Interface work to more readily identify whether you are chatting via Skype or Facebook. The emoticons can add some fun and excitement to the conversation (an picture is worth a thousand words sometimes) and have some amusing new additions. But experiencing the robustness of Skype Group Video Calling is perhaps it most innovative feature in terms of user benefit (even if Skype for Windows is still awaiting inclusion of the screen sharing feature recently introduced in Skype 5.2 for Mac).

Being the “Gold” or “ user” release, Skype for Windows will probably auto-update at some point. However, if it does not or you want to try it out now go to Help | Check for Updates or click here to access the download.

By the way notice that the Help Menu now includes a link to Skype’s Heartbeat page – not sure if this is new but worth drawing attention to, as one qick check on the service status. Don’t know if this arose out of the comments re Phil Wolff’s “Heartbeat” suggestion reference by Tony Bates in the Skype Journal interview at CES last January.

Release notes.

Related articles

• Skype for Windows version 5.5 update adds more Facebook features (digitaltrends.com)
• Facebook Video Chat – Powered by Skype: First Impressions (Voice On The Web)

Skype Premium upgraded for North American users along with an early summer special offer.

While I did some testing of Skype Group Video (on both Windows and Mac) during its beta period last fall, yesterday I hosted my first “business meeting” Skype Group Video call with a mentoring group in which I participate.They had been using HotConference, a push-to-talk collaboration service where only the speaker is on video, but the service went down in the middle of a weekly conference call. So I created a Group on Skype and launched a Skype Group Video Call.

Most noticeable was that the dynamics of the video conference call changed somewhat:

• Whom we saw: we could see video of each of the participants (except one who had no webcam and one who had Internet connection issues – they were audio only)
• Ad hoc and informal: Anyone could start speaking at any time without the “pregnant pause wait” that is inherent to a push-to-talk service.
• There is a blue halo around anyone who is actually speaking (see Megan in the image below)
• Change video image size: One of the participants wanted to demonstrate his new beach accessory. We could blow his image up to a “full size” while the others remained on the screen in small images (scroll to end to view).

The major feedback from this call – the participants did not realize that Skype Group Video could be so effective and powerful yet so easy to set up. There is definitely a need to generate first-time user experiences; Skype’s challenge remains building market awareness of the effectiveness and power of the group video calling experience.

A seven day trial is available; but somehow its awareness generation needs to go viral. (I do notice that launching skype.com these days does feature Skype Premium on the “Home Page” – at least for U.S. and Canada site visitors but experiencing it in operation is everything.) Certainly one member of that discussion was going to purchase a Skype Premium subscription as a result of this experience.

Where’s the Skype Chat pane?

One feature that gets lost when, on launching a voice or video call, the big black blind comes down to show who is on the call. Any other feature available during the call is left to guess from the icons on the call bar. Yet a complementary live chat session has become critical for any conference call these days, whether voice only or video.

This group missed out on the function of the blue icon third from the right which will open a (Group) Chat text entry pane. The chat session content can be seen by all call participants during and after the call. Several participants on this call were not aware that you could expose the chat session when I wanted to share a URL associated with our discussion. Just reinforcing the point made in my post on this topic yesterday.

One other hint that may encourage trials: while Skype Group video supports up to ten participants on a call, only the host needs to have a Skype Premium subscription. A Skype Premium subscriber may also receive a 1:1 Skype video call from a non-subscriber; the Subscriber can then Add Contacts to the to build up a Skype Group Video call.

Skype Premium Update

Skype Premium has always included Group Video Calling and Live Chat support. Recently Skype announced changes and a special offer (expires July 31, 2011) to its Skype Premium service for North American customers:

• Added unlimited calls to U.S. and Canada if a 3- or 12-month subscription is taken out.
• Offering 50% discount on a 12 month subscription and 25% discount on a 3 month subscription to July 31, 2011.
• 25% discount on a FaceVsion N1 HD video webcam.

Bottom line: at $4.50 per month the incremental cost for Group Video Calling beyond the basic 12 month Unlimited North America Calling Plan Subscription becomes $2.00 per month. While there is no benefit for those of us who already have paid for this calling plan or have a Unlimited World Calling Plan, it may be an incentive to drive the Group Calling user experience by Skype users who have been wary of the $8.99 per month cost. Now they can get to experience the power of Group Video Calling at a very low cost; once experienced they won’t go back.

And here’s the re-configured Group Video Call screen when Kurt demonstrated his beach accessory (Kurt found that a hard floor is not as comfortable as a sandy beach):

Following up on last week’s two posts that coincided with the launch of the BlackBerry Playbook, iPad Competitor? and Infrastructure for New User Experiences, along with learnings from a recent Mobile Monday presentation on developer opportunities, this post will attempt to anticipate an example of the new user experiences that could result from the the technology behind the platform.

The primary question: Given that RIM wants PlayBook to become positioned as the tablet of consumer choice, can its technology foundation lead to the development of unique user experiences? Only if they bring unique benefits to the end user. But one can always speculate…

As background to this discussion, three comments:

1. With my current BlackBerry Torch I have two applications that are triggered immediately, via the Bluetooth connection, when I get into my car:
   • Make phone calls in a totally handsfree mode using the Voice Calling and Address Book applications on the BlackBerry
   • Commence logging my driving activity for tax purposes.
2. The PlayBook ads on local radio stations have highlighted three unique features:
   • Complete web browsing experience
   • Powerful applications
   • True multi-tasking
3. The BlackBerry Bridge feature, and a BlackBerry, are required to manage BlackBerry email, contacts and calendar – applications around which RIM built BlackBerry’s primary reputation. Great for enterprises that support secure BlackBerry communications but an inhibitor to broader consumer adoption until these native applications are available on the PlayBook. (Note also that Canada has carriers who do not charge additional for tethering.)

Certainly the three claims of their advertising ring true when it comes to the existence of the features. But what is the reality in terms of the user experience?

1. The Browser: combining its Torch Mobile webkit-based browser roots with its support of Flash, it appears that PlayBook would certainly be ideal as a complete, fully-featured browsing platform. In fact, it would even allow access to the web-based versions of popular email programs, including GMail, Yahoo Mail, MobileMe and the many web versions of popular client based email programs such as Outlook Web App (formerly Outlook Web Access).
2. Powerful applications: yes, there are some “powerful” applications (1700 according to this Mobile Gadgeteer report) that take advantage of the combination of QNX and a dual core processer. However, when I start using a new mobile device I initially look for clients that support cloud based services such as Twitter, Facebook, DropBox, Evernote, Four Square and the Google Mobile Apps suite of applications (Search, News, Mail, Maps, Docs, Calendar, Reader, etc.). Again all these services can be accessed via a web browser but they each have platform-specific clients to simplify the user experience and encourage adoption of the various services. However, they are lacking on PlayBook at launch time.
3. True multi-tasking: yes, this has been a feature of BlackBerry from day one; the QNX O/S certainly provides an even more robust multi-tasking environment. But until we see applications that take full advantage of the potential horsepower, users will not be driven to adopt PlayBook, especially as a consumer device.

Doing the BlackBerry “Thing”

Rim built its reputation on email and the associated personal information management applications. However, this feature only becomes available if you have a BlackBerry. The good news is that, given my experience with other Bluetooth-associated applications, these applications should become accessible on the PlayBook whenever the two devices are within Bluetooth range; also the BlackBerry Bridge incorporates BlackBerry’s industry leading security features. The bad news is that you need to have a BlackBerry to be able to use the number one application that drove the original adoption of the BlackBerry.

The Video Experience

PlayBook, in spite of its support of both front- and rear-facing webcams, does not support any video calling application at this time. Yet again the demonstrations of video content running in background and the underlying Playbook horsepower certainly would portend to seeing a video calling application. PlayBook needs to be participating in the mobile video calling space currently served by Facetime, Skype and Qik. While PlayBook certainly has its attractions as a top-of-the-line media player device, its underlying technology would seem to support its evolution into supporting real time video conversations.

But, in addition to the user experience its technology could deliver, PlayBook needs to find a way to access a large enough contact base that would drive immediate adoption. The real issue becomes one of interoperability; whom can you readily call with the launch of a video calling service? And across what platforms?  Certainly Apple, Google and Skype already have the large contact bases, well beyond the size of BlackBerry Messenger contact bases, that would be required to make a worldwide video calling application viable in the consumer market.

The Real Time Communications Experience

Which brings me to an application that would provide a significant boost to driving consumer adoption. Since the early 1980’s I have sold multi-tasking computers (yes, even mini-computers) and multi-tasking user experiences (DESQview). I have often commented on the value of BlackBerry’s multi-tasking. Most interesting is PlayBook’s lack of RIM’s heavily promoted BlackBerry Messenger application – one which I often use for private messaging to invited contacts; it could certainly take advantage of multi-tasking in some unique ways.

But there is one application lacking on BlackBerry devices that could demonstrate better than any other the benefits of multi-tasking on a QNX platform while driving consumer adoption. But there’s more! It also addresses the need for a video calling application that can immediately deliver an appropriate contact base.

With its support of voice, chat and video calling and its presence on a wide range of platforms, smartphones and other devices, Skype would be the ideal application to both demonstrate the power of PlayBooks’s technology infrastructure while driving accelerated consumer and prosumer adoption. Skype’s voice and video calls set the benchmark for voice quality and video resolution. Running chat in background as an interrupt-driven service, supporting desktop sharing and file transfer during voice and video calls are some of the Skype features that would perform best on a multi-tasking QNX platform with multiple webcams. And it would potentially become a benchmark mobile device for serving as a host for Skype’s Group Video Calling.

PlayBook Bottom Line:

At this time, PlayBook is a platform that demonstrates amazing potential for new user experiences. Its most immediate challenge is to bring into its applications library what many product managers would call the “hygienics” – the basic applications and services that users expect from any smart mobile device, whether smartphone or tablet. Google Mobile apps, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, Twitter, Evernote and Skype certainly fall into this requirement.

Skype serves as the most demanding example. With over 145 million active users across PC’s, smartphones (iPhone, Android, Symbian), TV’s and other devices), Skype has become one of those “hygienic” cloud managed services that consumers look for when making purchase decisions about smartphones and tablets. The business case is not about Skype-generated revenue; it’s not about competition with other services such as BlackBerry Messenger. Skype has become a “must have” application and makes the business case one about driving basic user purchase of the device. PlayBook provides all the technology infrastructure required, especially the video horsepower, to make Skype perform at its best on a mobile device.

As for introducing Skype on BlackBerry. Yes, Verizon and 3 customers can make calls to Skype contacts; however, only with a carrier-specific application. As demonstrated on iPhone, Android and Nokia smartphones, a carrier-agnostic Skype client would overcome a major barrier to consumer and prosumer adoption of not only PlayBook but also BlackBerry itself.

In conclusion Skype would not only provide a powerful demonstration of PlayBook’s underlying technology but also could be configured to provide one of the those “killer” applications that would establish user experience benchmarks for real time video calling, including conference calling.

Note: the image of a Skype icon on PlayBook shown above was reported by several bloggers when RIM first demonstrated PlayBook to the public at CES 2011; turns out this was an error. During March there came out reports that RIM may be developing a video calling app for PlayBook; this was vaguely confirmed in response to a question I asked at the Mobile Monday Toronto event. One primary issue is where would a large enough contact base come from? Certainly not BlackBerry Messenger with only 20+ million active accounts.

Yesterday Skype released Skype for Mac 5.0 Gold version, addressing many of the concerns raised in the beta version released three months ago. And, rest assured, Skype received lots of feedback about the new user interface experienced in the beta version and the disruption it caused to those long time fans of the previous version 2.8. While not addressing all the issues (such as my major one – see below) the 5.0 Gold release certainly has a more usable and less intrusive UI.

When I interviewed Skype’s Neil Stevens, Skype’s Vice President of Consumer Products, at CES three weeks ago he had given me a heads up that this release would be forthcoming shortly. But he also expressed two other goals for Skype’s Consumer Product development process:

• Work towards a more common User Interface across all the PC platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux
• Reduce the release cycle time between versions from  12 to 18 months down to two to three months to be more responsive to market needs and user feedback.

In my earlier post discussing the beta version I mentioned how Skype for Mac was moving in a similar direction towards the Skype for Windows 5.1 user interface. While not going all the way there, the Gold release does address some of the outstanding issues:

• the chat window can very easily be brought up at the bottom of the conversation pane and resized (addressing Dan York’s major issue with the beta)
• the Skype client window can be narrowed to take up less desktop real estate although it can almost get too narrow when the Contact Sidebar gradually disappears if narrowed down to the extreme
• reduction of white space in both the main conversation pane and sidebar (click on View | Compact Sidebar for the latter).
• more prominence to the Contact Monitor (View | Online Contacts – see below on left) where you can see who’s online by Group. (Although I’m still trying to figure out whether it’s viewable outside the Skype application.)
• restored full screen mode for video calls – probably the most requested feature restoration
• moved the dial pad up to the tool bar such that its availability becomes more readily apparent.
• on video calls, the caller’s window can not only be readily moved within the Conversation pane but also resized
• in the Call settings of preferences you can add a Skype watermark that is viewed when your cursor is not within the Conversation pane (actually it’s also faintly there behind the red “end call” button when the Call Status bar is visible).

Also Skype for Mac 5 includes support for Group Video calling for which there is a seven day trial available following which users must sign up for Skype Premium which also includes access to Live Chat support for Skype. (Note the discount for 3- and 12-month subscriptions.) Yes, it’s another potential revenue generator for Skype.

My initial observations – it’s all about the navigation and call management:

• At the bottom of the conversation window are four icons: toggle Contact Sidebar on/off, toggle chat session on/off, full screen video on/off and caller video window on/off. Very handy.
• The Call Status Bar at the top of the conversation screen still lacks the Call Quality Information feature of Skype for Windows 5.0. When I mentioned my previous recommendation about this to Neil he said to expect this feature to be incorporated into a future release. Once again, it is a most useful and handy tool for facilitating Skype calls in Skype for Windows.
• The floating Call Monitor bar, which appears when you are in an application other than Skype, remains a very useful feature. In this version double clicking on the “presence” icon returns you to the Skype client.
• While the DialPad has been moved to a more apparent position above the Conversation window, it also make more sense to have it appear on the Call Status Bar as well (as in Skype for Windows 5.x).
• One always wants to have “View | Compact Sidebar” set as I can see a Contact’s profile picture in the Conversation pane when I select the contact.
• There is more visibility, and therefor emphasis, for Groups due to their inclusion in the Contact Sidebar whereas accessing Groups in Skype for Windows requires an extra click from within the Contacts tab.
• Update Feb. 10, 2010. Support for H.264 is now included with Skype for Mac 5. This now allows calls between Skype for Mac and Skype for TV. There is still no support for the H.264 processor deployed on HD webcams and in Skype for TV clients. This also means one cannot make calls between Skype for Mac and any Skype for TV client as the latter requires H.264 support on the other party’s Skype client.

Bottom line: Skype for Mac 5.0 Gold certainly brings the Skype for Mac client closer to the Skype for Windows UI algorithm. It’s definitely easier to use than the beta. Also I have to admit my own bias in that I have come to the conclusion that the Skype for Windows algorithm is easier to manage and use than earlier versions of the Skype client. You basically have all your searchable conversation history for a contact in one “Conversation” window pane.

Whereas, unless someone was serious about providing beta feedback, I was not recommending that anyone upgrade to the beta, at this point I can readily recommend upgrading to Skype for Mac 5 Gold. There’s probably a bit of a navigation training exercise to go through but once you experience the algorithm, you’ll find it easier to manage and track your conversations. But also let’s hope we see a new version in 2 to 3 months addressing additional feature requests, such as the Call Quality Information feature.

And one Skype for Windows 5 feature that’s definitely missing: nary a sign of any Facebook integration.

Skype Journal’s Phil Wolff tracked “user sentiment” about the new version by following social networking and other feedback during launch day.

Finally, here’s the video from Skype for Mac Product Manager Krishna Panicker:

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When I started through the major TV manufacturers’ area yesterday afternoon I did not intend to be writing a post about Skype for TV. However, it quickly became apparent that several manufacturers had, at a minimum, a display panel or two where Skype for TV was running in some fashion. After three hours of wandering the main hall I had seen displays of Skype for TV at five booths: LG, Panasonic, Toshiba, Samsung and Sony. Three of these, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony, had been mentioned in Skype’s CES press releases, along with Vizio. It leaves to question whether LG and Toshiba have any “endorsement” from Skype. (I also saw a demonstration on a Vizio set in a private suite).

Panasonic’s demonstration was done using their forthcoming Blu-ray player showing not only video calling but also “video mail” where unanswered calls could result in leaving a video message for the recipient. It’s all covered in this demonstration:

Note in particular:

• The video runs at HD (720p) resolution and 30 fps, requiring a 1.2Mbps upload connection. However, it’s safe to assume that it reverts to High Quality Video VGA resolution for lower upload bandwidth availability. (Current Skype-certified HD webcams support 720p at up to 22 fps; current Skype for TV webcams only support VGA resolution.)
• Video messages can be left for later viewing by the recipient
• Call indicator and SD card for storing messages on the Blu-ray player
• A dedicated Skype button on the player’s remote control
• A Skype button on the player’s primary on-screen menu
• Panasonic was using a proprietary Panasonic webcame

At the Samsung booth there was a pod with Skype for TV on two adjacent sides (shown on the right). The demonstration was on their forthcoming D-series (D6000, D7000, D8000) which will replace the current C-series sets at retail later this spring. The sets themselves incorporate a wide ranges of Internet features with an emphasis on social networking and on-demand audio and video. (Yes I’m in the right hand image taking the photo.) For the D-series, Samsung was using a new proprietary webcam that was the narrowest of all the TV webcams on display.

In this case, while a Samsung representative was available to answer questions, there was no active demonstration of setting up calls, etc. As a result we don’t know the feature extent of the supporting firmware.

At CES it was announced that Skype for TV would be included in new Sony BRAVIA series TV’s; while they had a demonstration in their BRAVIA section (shown on the left), it was simply again an ongoing video call with no real demonstration. Note the webcams sitting underneath the TV screens. While they had announced a Blu-ray player that would incorporate Skype for TV, they had nothing to demonstrate.

Finally there were two demonstrations where there has been no official announcement from Skype.:

• The Toshiba booth had two corner displays where they appeared to be showing nothing more than a Skype for Windows PC calling a display with a FREETALK Everyman webcam above it.
• LG had one display where the rotating screen display focused on Skype for TV but, while they were included in last year’s Skype for TV announcement, they have yet to deliver any product supporting Skype for TV.

Sunday afternoon I came across another demonstration of Skype for TV at the Maxim booth. Maxim is an OEM supplier of webcams to various branded vendors. Their press release associated with this booth provides some insight into the future of Skype for TV:

“Maxim has integrated Skype into several TV platforms, providing our TV partners with a complete solution consisting of a turnkey Skype HD camera design and customized support,” said Manrique Brenes, director of business development for Skype.

….

In addition to pushing the technology curve, Maxim is helping Skype TV technology gain rapid adoption by making it more affordable and reducing time-to-market for TV manufacturers wanting to add Skype functionality to their TVs.

“We think that it makes a lot of sense to embed the camera in the TV itself instead of as an accessory, and several TV makers are headed this way already,” said Brian Gannon, executive director of business management, Maxim. “Maxim‘s new web camera solution, with its small footprint and very low cost, will simplify this task for our TV customers.”

At CES 2011, Maxim is demonstrating a number of new technologies immediately applicable to new Skype on TV designs. In addition to showing the industry’s smallest camera for Skype-enabled design, Maxim is also demonstrating new features like Multi-Party Video, Face Tracking, Gesture Recognition and 3D Capture in its private meeting room at the show.

As an early Skype partner, Maxim does not limit itself to enabling Skype on the TV, but is also working to enable Skype on a wide array of devices.

Bottom line: Definitely Panasonic wins the Voice on the Web award for best display of Skype for TV at CES 2011. But it is also apparent that Skype is becoming an essential service that will be embedded into any brand of TV should the hoped for “Internet TV revolution” actually start to get some buyer traction. Yet, it’s still early to see how quickly demand would build for these sets such as to trigger a “must have” scenario that would accelerate replacement of legacy TV’s (even early HD TV’s). And one outstanding question: Skype for TV currently supports voice and video calling along with presence. Will we eventually see a way to also incorporate Skype chat?

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The opening day of CES 2011 was a banner day for Skype announcements and activity. It started with a morning press conference where new Skype CEO Tony Bates built his message around the themes of “Universal, Useful. Wonderful”:

He covered recent Skype activity and accomplishments:

• From the recent Skype outage, they learned much about Skype’s pervasiveness and users’ reliance on Skype as a critical real time communications service in addition to addressing the technical issues that led to the outage.
• In its annual report on international long distance minutes by service provider, Telegeography had reported earlier in the day that, in 2010, Skype had increased its market share of international calling minutes from 12% in 2009 to 24.7% in 2010. This represents an average of 520 million minutes per day and over 190 billion minutes for the year.
• Video calling has increased to 40% of all calls in 2010.
• When Skype for iPhone 3.0 launched last week, it triggered over 4 million downloads on the Apple app store and over 1 million Skype mobile video calls on the first day.

Tony then went on to make some announcements:

• Completion of an agreement earlier in the day to acquire Qik, a popular live video streaming service, to complement its video technology resources; from Tony’s blog post linked above:
  

  Skype and Qik share a common purpose of enriching communications with video, and the acquisition of Qik will help to accelerate our leadership in video by adding recording, sharing and storing capabilities to our product portfolio.

  Through this acquisition, we’ll also be able to take advantage of the engineering expertise that is behind Qik’s Smart Streaming technology, which optimizes video transmission over wireless networks.

• Launch of Group Calling on Skype. Group calling on Skype for Windows 5.1 has gone “Gold”. It’s being offered as part of a Skype Premium offering that includes Live Chat Support for a monthly $8.99 subscription fee (with discounts for 3 and 12 month subscriptions). While group video calling supports up to ten participants on a call, only the call host requires a subscription.
• More Skype access from the living room involving Skype for TV becoming available later this year on newly introduced Skype-enabled Sony BRAVIA and VIZIO VIA TV’s; Skype has also announced a partnership with Panasonic and Sony to introduce Skype-enabled Blu-ray Players in the near future.
• Opening up SkypeKit beta to any legitimate developer for building third party applications embedding Skype.

Early Thursday afternoon Skype CEO Tony Bates appeared at the Verizon 4GLTE press conference to announce Skype mobile Video that will be appearing within the main feature set of four Android smartphones that will be amongst the initial featured devices supporting Verizon’s new 4G/LTE network. Whereas the current Skype mobile on Verizon uses Skype’s thin-client architecture, the Skype mobile Video will use a true Skype IP client.

For the first time in several years, Skype has a small booth at the rear of the Upper South Hall featuring video calling on iPhones as well as group video calling. But it’s been drawing crowds for the presentations.

Bottom line: speculation can abound as to what new services the Qik acquisition will bring and how they can complement existing Skype services. While the Skype’s user base continues to grow, usage has accelerated significantly when it comes to Skype’s key feature: free international calling. The introduction of a Skype Premium service  with a fee encompassing group video calling and live chat support adds the first potentially significant new revenue stream since the launch of Skype Out and Skype Online numbers many years ago. (Coincidental that it comes at the time of filings for a new IPO?)

Note that coincidental with the Group Video calling announcement Skype released Skype for Windows 5.1 that also address a couple of related issues.

Here’s the full morning press conference video:

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Over the past week I have been experimenting with two relatively new features that build out the Skype video experience:

• HD video using the recently released FREETALK® TALK-7140 HD webcam and Skype for Windows 4.2
• Skype Group calling using the beta release of Skype for Windows 5.0

FREETALK^® TALK-7140 HD Webcam

At a price point that makes it attractive even for Skype High Quality Video calls (VGA resolution @ 30 fps), the FREETALK^® TALK-7140 HD Webcam:

• Enhances the video image quality to HD’s 720p resolution at frame rates up to 22 fps, provided the Sender has sufficient Internet upload bandwidth (>1.2 Mbps).
• Requires 30 seconds to four minutes at the beginning of a call to come up to HD resolution; after some initial “network negotiation” by the connecting software the aspect ratio changes from 4: 3 to HD’s 16:9.
• Works with Skype’s High Quality Video calling where end point conditions do not provide sufficient bandwidth for HD calling.
• Falls back to lower resolutions when network conditions degrade as a result of Skype’s network bandwidth adaptation feature that adjusts video resolution to network conditions. But the image will self-restore to the maximum resolution if the network conditions recover and return to improved quality.
• Is Skype certified for HD Video and High Quality Video calling.
• Is recognized as a webcam by MacBooks and iMacs; however, currently will only operate on MacBooks at up to VGA resolution at up to 30 fps until Skype releases a new version of Skype for Mac that supports HD video calling.

The image to the right comes from a half hour, two-way HD call with TechCraver’s Jason Harris who had an upload speed in excess of 4Mbps while I was supported by a network upload speed of 1.8Mbps using Rogers recently introduced DOCSIS 3.0 Ultimate service (50 Mbps download, 2 Mbps upload). Expanding the image to a full screen display (22” in my case) gives a close-to-Telepresence experience.

Note that if only one Sender on a one-to-one video call has the upload speed to support sending HD video, the recipient, if also using Skype for Windows 4.2 or later, will be able to receive and view the full 720p HD image provided his/her download speed is above 1.2 Mbps – well below the download bandwidth maximum for most broadband Internet services.

So this brings up the issue of upload bandwidth speeds available to consumers. Om Malik had something to say on this subject in a recent post, Faster Upstream Speeds for Cable Broadband:

U.S. cable companies expect that by 2015, nearly 100 million of the nation’s homes will be able to send data upstream at speeds of around 20 Mbps. This will eventually be followed by further upgrades to 50 Mbps, by way of enhancements to DOCSIS 3.0 tech. That compares to current upstream speeds of 6-28 Mbps (shared).

So we don’t need to wait for Fibre-to-the-Home if you’re on cable. As mentioned above, Rogers now offers a 50Mbps download/2 Mbps upload DOCSIS 3.0 service for which they recently reduced the price by 1/3 to under $100 per month with a 175 GB/month cap. Bell Canada is introducing a 25/7 fibre-to-the-home service for $54 per month but with only a 75 GB cap; their current issue is coverage. Whereas it’s available in central Toronto, there is only limited availability around the suburban Toronto area. In the U.S., where available, Comcast is offering DOCSIS 3.0 services with up to 10 Mbps upload speeds but have services at 2 and 3 Mbps upload as well; also Verizon offers its FIOS Fibre-to-the-Home service. This scenario recalls the era ten years ago when broadband Internet services were rolling out sporadically over a three to four year period.

I’m still experimenting with the HD webcam and will have a more complete report once I have experience with a wider range of user endpoint conditions. The TALK-7140 HD webcam is available at the Skype Store.

Skype Multi-Party Video Chat (beta!)

In a separate post I’ll deal with Skype Multi-Party Video Calling; in the meantime check out Phil Wolff’s posts on this subject at Skype Journal and Andy Abramson begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting’s Skype Multi Party Video Makes Others A Thing of The Past at VoIP Watch. As shown in one of Phil’s posts, I participated in a five party call for about fifteen minutes simply to ensure I had a configuration where it would work.

Caveat: Skype for Windows 5.0 is still beta software and needs user feedback and some work prior to any final release; it’s not suitable for ongoing production use at this time.

Bottom line: we’re seeing how far video calling can be pushed with respect to video resolution and multi-party video chat sessions; it’s still early days. For full realization of the potential of video calling we need implementation of faster Internet services for both consumers and SMB’s with reasonable pricing. Also we need more experience and development of the underlying video calling software and hardware, especially when it comes to the User Interface. In the meantime VGA resolution video calling (High Quality Video) remains a quite acceptable user experience – especially when it’s free.

Full disclosure: In Store Solutions, producer of the FREETALK line of Skype hardware, has become a client of Denali InterConneXions, publisher of Voice On The Web, building on the author’s previous business development experience with establishing partnerships that can assist with the promotion of a primary vendor’s offerings. A more complete statement will follow shortly.

Some posts from the High Quality Video launch in late 2007:

• Installing a Logitech High Quality Video Camera: The Experience.
• High Quality Video: What’s the Benchmark?
• High Quality Video: Definitely a Winner for Skype
• Click here for more…

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Ok, so the iPad does not have a camera of any type. But is its form factor not a “natural” format for video calling? When Global IP Solutions put out a press release yesterday I was a bit skeptical about who would take up on their “one way Video Conferencing/Chat capabilities for iPad developers, powered by GIPS VideoEngine™ Mobile”.

We’ve heard a lot of speculation about video calling on the next generation iPhone. Global IP Solutions has been offering their GIPS Video Engine Mobile to iPhone developers for the past several months. When the iPad came along they were able to port it quite readily to the iPad as announced in the press release linked above:

GIPS VideoEngine Mobile supplies iPad developers with a simple to integrate, high-level software API that contains the complex video conferencing/video chat capabilities [that can be embedded] into applications running on Apple’s iPad operating system.

Of course without a camera of any type on the iPad a video conversation involving the iPad would have to be one way (receive) video and two-way voice. One had to wonder why would there be interest in video calling using the iPad?

Yesterday the answer came home loud and clear. I had a demonstration of a video call received on an iPad over the GIPS internal WiFi network. Having experienced lots of video on the iPhone and BlackBerry Bolds (usually You Tube) and video calling using Skype, one aspect of this experience turned me from skeptic to advocate for using iPad for video calls.

The iPad form factor is an ideal format for receiving video calls. Its medium “family” picture frame size is very familiar to consumers. Propped up in a vertical position on a coffee table or physical desktop, it would be receiving video in a format and size that is quite suitable for family participation in a video call. With the accompanying (wideband and superwideband) HD voice, it delivered a perfectly natural conversation. Overall, the iPad is a natural size for video calling.

Where will we see this? Keep in mind that Global IP Solutions delivers engines that take voice and video input and transmit it efficiently over the Internet to a final destination. Their customers, who specify and provide the end user interface to the GIPS engines, include Yahoo, Lotus/IBM, Communigate, Nimbuzz (with an iPhone app), Citrix Online and many other vendors of IP-based voice and video services. And, again from the press release:

As video access becomes available from Apple, GIPS VideoEngine will support 2-way video chat/conferencing.

Bottom line: From this demonstration, and listening to the sessions at this past week’s eComm America 2010, by year end I expect low cost and mobile video calling and conferencing services will be breaking out in a big way:

• We’ll see mobile smartphone video calling not only on iPhone but also on Android devices, (RIM, BlackBerry?). Read through the GIPS blog to get more in-depth perspective on why I say this.
• Where feasible with the device display screen, the video calling standard will become HD over consumer broadband connections with the launch of the HD webcams for Skype in the next month or so.
• But the resolution standard for smartphones and tablets will actually be determined by the individual device’s screen properties; in general they will require less wireless data bandwidth than HD video calling over (cable, DSL) consumer broadband.
• We’ll be seeing low cost multi-party video conferencing solutions from a variety of vendors bringing onsite telepresence to small business.
• And there is reason to justify a built-in video camera on the next generation of iPad (but on the dipslay side a la MacBook Pro).

Update: San Francisco’s KRON-TV also visited Global IP Solutions last week and witnessed prototype video calls using mobile phones:

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At CES 2010 last week In Store Solutions announced they will be adding three webcams to its FREETALK^® product line that set new standards for video calling hardware.

The primary service goal for these webcams is to support up to 30 frames per second transmission over Internet services available via widely deployed broadband (cable and DSL) connections. Here’s a summary of the specs that have been developed incorporating features requested by Skype while contributing to a robust, reliable, user-friendly video calling experience:

Product	FREETALK® HQ Everyman Webcam TALK-710x	FREETALK® HD Webcam TALK-7140	FREETALK® HD PRO PLUS TALK-7181
Maximum Resolution and Frame Rate	VGA: 640 x 480 @ 30fps	720p: 1280 x 720 @22fps VGA: 640 x 480 @ 30fps	720p: 1280 x 720 @22fps VGA: 640 x 480 @ 30fps
Sensor	1 megapixel HQ 24-bit true color	5 megapixel HD 24-bit true color	5 megapixel HD 24-bit true color
Microphones Range	0 n/a	0 n/a	4 using Skype’s beam forming algorithm 4 meters
Video compression	via PC’s CPU	On board	On board
High performance Optical Lens	Yes	Yes	Yes
Auto Exposure and Auto White Balance	Yes	Yes	Yes
Focus	Auto	Auto and Manual	Auto and Manual
Target Audience	One-to-one video calling	One-to-one video calling Multi-party video	“One-to-one” video conferencing (larger room)
Minimum CPU	Dual Core	1.8 GHz Dual Core	1.8 GHz Dual Core
Upload bandwidth required	384 kbps	1.2 Mbps for 720p 384 kbps for VGA	1.2 Mbps for 720p 384 kbps for VGA
Skype Version	Skype for Windows 4.2	Skype for Windows 4.2 (one-to-one) Skype for Win 5.0 beta (multi-party)	Skype for Windows 4.2
Target Price (subject to change)	$40	$70	$140
Availability	July 2010 on the Skype Store	May 5, 2010 on the Skype Store	July 2010 on the Skype Store

Notes:

• This table has been updated to reflect changes in webcam specifications as of the launch date for shipping the TALK-7140 HD webcam, May 5, 2010.
• While all three cameras will support High Quality Video calling on Windows, Mac and Linux at VGA resolution, only Skype for Windows 4.2 will support 720p HD calling on the HD webcams.
• A 1.2 Mbps network speed is required to both send and receive video; the real challenge with this requirement is the scarcity of Internet users whose upload speed meets this requirement. Receiving HD video, even if you can’t send HD video, is still possible for download speeds > 1.2Mpbs.
• Should an HD webcam encounter network conditions that do not fully support HD video calling, they will revert to support of either High Quality Video at its VGA (640×480) resolution if conditions permit or even lower resolution if conditions degrade further.
• The FREETALK Everyman HD Webcam also requires either a FREETALK Everyman Headset for Skype (or equivalent) or use of Skype’s echo canceling feature on PC’s with an internal mic and speakers.

And to clarify the video calling terminology:

• High Quality Video refers to the VGA (640 x 480) video calling offered by Skype on Skype for Windows in November 2007.
• HD (High Definition) Video calling refers to the 720p (1280 x 720) video calling announced at CES 2010 and initially to be available in May 2010 in Skype for Windows 4.2 (currently in beta).

Bottom line: the FreeTalk-7140 Everyman HD webcam allows a much broader public to take advantage of Skype’s High Quality video at a lower hardware price point; the 7140 and 7181 will establish the benchmark for the emerging world of HD video calling not only on PC’s but also TV’s.

Full disclosure: In Store Solutions has become a client of Denali InterConneXions, publisher of Voice On The Web, building on the author’s previous business development experience with establishing partnerships that can assist with the promotion of a primary vendor’s offerings. A more complete statement will follow shortly.

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In the lead-up to the forthcoming eComm Europe Conference organizer Lee Dryburgh interviews some of the speakers. This past weekend he posted an interview with GIPS CTO Jan Linden (picture below) and CMO Joyce Kim where they talked about (i) the role of codecs in delivering overall high quality HD voice and (ii) the emergence of H.264 SVC as a video codec standard.

Lee started off the questioning by asking about where the audio codec plays its role in delivering wideband audio and HD voice; Jan responded by talking about “the total HD voice experience”:

A codec is obviously an important part, but it’s not everything that makes the HD Voice experience. If you look at the analogy of a car, you have a lot of different things like tires, body, steering wheel, etc. and – the codec – let’s say that’s the tires. It’s one very important part that makes the whole thing run smoothly, but without all the other pieces, you don’t get the full experience.

That said, we’re very much focused on HD Voice, and the things we do, in addition to codecs, is things like jitter buffer and packet loss concealment. Those are things to address what happens on the network. We also address things that handles on the device, like sound card. For video, it’s cameras, microphone adjustments, speaker adjustments; all those things are necessary for the great experience.

They go on to talk about how GIPS is emerging as a full R&D facility, innovating incrementally and building voice quality expertise in a way such that third party attempts at replication run up against time-to-market issues due to GIPS’ long term experience with codecs. (Ed. – Perhaps Skype, with its SILK codec and experience with network bandwidth management is the only other company developing superwideband HD voice at this level.) When asked about where SILK could play a role Jan responded:

We do so much more than a codec, and in fact, SILK is a very attractive codec for our customers to use, in conjunction with the rest of what we do. Again, we look at SILK as the wheels or the tires of the car and we provide the rest of it to put the whole car together. That means that SILK, standard codecs like G72.1 AMR [G.721] wideband, you name it; they all fit into our solution.

Lee then opens up a discussion about GIPS’ widely implement iSAC wideband codec and the recent development of a superwideband mode for this codec. Lee effectively summarized GIPS role in the market, for companies that want to incorporate voice and video calling into their offerings, stating:

Okay, so what you’re doing is knocking down time to market for companies and you’re also knocking down the cost of providing voice – audio, I should say, to be more general, and video solutions for devices, software, and so forth. It’s about time to market, it’s about saving money.

Lee, Jan and Joyce then went on to talk about the emerging H.264 SVC video codec and its layering architecture that optimizes performance in a video conference that bridges a range of end point devices and the various devices’ respective network speeds. Click here for the complete interview. But since that will be the subject of Jan’s talk at eComm Europe 2009, I’ll end this post by suggesting that you consider attending for the conference to learn more details.

Click here to register with a 10% discount.

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Global IP Solutions today announced a white paper on Desktop Video Conferencing, providing a background for their video infrastructure technology that has the potential to make video calling and video conferencing available to a much broader user base beyond Skype’s (even though it is quite large) and SightSpeed.

Many of you will recall that Skype’s original voice engine came from Global IP Solutions (formerly Global IP Sound) and contributed to Skype’s initial adoption through both its ease of use and voice quality. In April 2006, Skype acquired Camino Networks whose voice engine provided improved features such as echo cancellation. Camino’s President and CEO was Jonathan Christensen, Skype’s current General Manager for Audio and Video.

Global IP Sound went on to supply their voice engine to other players, such as Oracle and Yahoo but, as a company, they have been struggling; their most recent quarterly report demonstrated the extent of the revenue drop-off after loss of the Skype royalties.

This past April, GIPS announced the appointment of a new CEO, Emerick Woods (see full disclosure below). Since joining GIPS Emerick has led a reorganization of the company that included dropping their professional services offerings due to not only lackluster revenue but also the channel conflicts that operation created for their core audio and video infrastructure technology business. They have also closed a Tokyo office and settled outstanding customer lawsuits, including one with Skype where GIPS’ previous claims were denied in an arbitration resolution. As indicated in this interview with iLocus, they are moving to extend their customer base for their Voice Engine product line. As an initial move in August there was the announcement of Voice Engine for iPhone accompanied by a white paper.

In my interview with Emerick at that time, he pointed out that, while GIPS offers, through its various Voice Engine products, a total solution linking the Internet inbound/outbound connection to the user’s microphone/speakers, customers can also customize the voice engine, particularly when it comes to codecs. Customers can use either the GIPS codecs available with the voice engine or any other standard codec. Another feature he emphasized was their independence from operating system restraints and their support for various mobile platforms.

One additional focus has been on working with their current customer base to build stronger customer relationships that can extend their various Global IP Solutions implementations. And, going forward, GIPS will be investing in innovation with video as a key focus.

Today GIPS released a Desktop Video Conferencing (DVC) white paper, authored by analyst Jon Arnold, outlining “the value proposition behind desktop video conferencing, especially in conjunction with other solutions, such as telepresence. Supporting this is an analysis of the trends that create the momentum we believe will make desktop video conferencing as ubiquitous as PCs themselves, and even mobile phones in the years to come.”

Jon talks about the spectrum of video conferencing solutions from telepresence systems employing large “real life” HD video displays, such as offered by Cisco and Polycom, to boardroom systems that provide the basics of teleconferencing via standard display monitors, to desktop conferencing where the user does not have to leave his/her desk to participate in a video conversation.

In short, compared to other video conferencing solutions, the value proposition for DVC is based on three variables: quality, cost and flexibility. Today’s DVC solutions can deliver a high-quality experience, at an affordable price point, and across a wide variety of environments. Aside from complementing the other types of video conferencing solutions, DVC can be deployed in a host of scenarios that are simply not practical any other way.

Jon goes on to provide tables comparing the three scenarios and then goes into details on potential market size for DVC as well as enabling trends that will help provide an appropriate infrastructure for DVC. On a SquawkBox conference call this morning (recording will be linked once posted) we discussed one aspect: support for HD video. Its minimum 720p resolution will require higher bandwidth upload speeds (> 1.5 Mbps) that I have been told will be coming to Rogers Internet next year with an implementation of the DOCSIS 3 infrastructure and probably to other cable Internet services; recall that the widespread availability of broadband Internet was one factor in the rapid adoption of Skype back at its launch in 2003.

He then goes on to discuss the complexities of the providing and adopting the underlying technologies starting with video quality. Synchronization of audio and video, a consistent user experience, the variability of DVC end point configurations and support for a wide range of camera devices are other factors.

And, now for the commercial: GIPS is offering four products, Voice Engine and Video Engine for the PC client side and Voice Conference Engine and Video Conference Engine for the server side, that will allow ready embedding of desktop video conferencing into their customers’ services. Basically GIPS is providing platforms that allow developers, enterprises, service providers and end users to have a high quality DVC experience. Jon concludes:

With GIPS, they have a complete engine that handles all the complexities of IP communications, and with that, a clear path for allowing DVC to reach its full potential, not just at the desktop, but in the mobile world as well.

GIPS has put up two demonstration videos for comparison: one “Traditional Video Conference” and the other “Video Conference Using Global IP Solutions”.

The only current customers using these services are Oracle and Baidu, the Chinese portal; however, discussions are being carried out with several prospective customers, probably including many in their current customer Most interesting is their potential for mobile video; the only North American carrier supporting video to date has been Rogers; however, its most obvious problem is finding other users who can take video calls. Introduction of the Nokia N95 8GB was supposed to expand the video calling-enabled user community; however, iPhone and BlackBerry Bold have stolen the 3G phone market.

Skype’s High Quality Video, SightSpeed’s acquisition yesterday by Logitech, Qik on Blackberry and Nokia N-Series combined with news of GIPS platform offerings are all precursors to a much broader adoption of user-friendly video in both business and personal conversations in the future. (Yes, we all know users have been looking for Skype video conferencing; when?)

Skype Journal: On2 Powers Skype High Quality Video

Full disclosure: GIPS CEO Emerick Woods was the Vice-President, Internet of Quarterdeck Corporation in the mid-1990′s with whom I worked on several business development projects involving partnerships with ISP’s of the time. Over the past 12 years, Emerick, in his capacity as CEO of several startups, which have gone on to be sold, has hired the author at various times for his business development services. The author, however, has no business relationship with Global IP Sound. One more clarification: Emerick has the same initials as a well known Tiger and loves golf just as much.

Tags: Global IP Solutions, GIPS, Emerick Woods, Jon Arnold, Skype High Quality Video, Polycom, Cisco, Nokia, BlackBerry, Qik.com, Logitech, video conferencing, video calling, video, Jonathan Christensen, Desktop Video Conferencing, Voice Engine, Video Engine

A major trend in the late 1990′s was the emergence of enterprise grade Customer Relationship Management offerings that not only required IT support but also significant investments in server hardware and business process engineering. However, 1999 saw the launch of a different scenario for CRM, namely a hosted service, Salesforce.com, where even the smallest business could sign up and pay under $100 per user per month with no capital investment required. Today over 35,500 companies have implemented this hosted solution and Salesforce.com is regarded as the pioneer of the “No Software” movement. One could also point out they were the pioneer in the “No Hardware” movement.

Today we are seeing the emergence of several “No Hardware” hosted services including:

• OnState ACD: removing the need for Call Center PBX’s
• Convenos Meeting Center: a virtual boardroom for ongoing enterprise team building
• OnSIP hosted PBX: providing a hosted full service PBX for turning any SIP-based connection into an extension.

Of course common to all these platforms is that the users can also be geographically disbursed worldwide, contributing to the “Green” movement by reducing the need for business travel. And common to all these is that they bring what were previously perceived as large enterprise solutions to the small to medium business market space with a sub-$100 per user monthly subscription cost.

Lost in the buzz of Fall VON two weeks ago was the recent launch of another “No Hardware” service, SightSpeed Business, providing a range of video-based services for the small to medium enterprise. What previously required minimum six figure investments has been replaced by a service that costs under $20 per month per seat with no capital investment beyond user PC’s.

SightSpeed has always had a reputation for high quality video services including video calling, (up to four party) video conferencing and video messaging (or video mail). Building on SightSpeed’s informal adoption by over 30,000 small businesses, Sight Speed Business consolidates its video services for small business by introducing:

• An Administration console for central management of users, including internal directory services as well as coordination of purchasing SightSpeed
• Multi-user licensing
• Full video session recording
• In-call file sharing

The key new software piece here is the Administration Console providing the a business of any size a tool to easily and readily take control of how it deploys, manages and purchases SightSpeed’s video services. All the features of the previously available SightSpeed 6.0, including its Windows/Mac cross platform capability, are included.

Essentials:

• Operating System: Windows 2000/XP/Vista; Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher
• Video Services: Video Calling (one-to-one), Video Conferencing (up to four participants), Video Messaging (create a video and email it)
• Voice Services: Unlimited (VoIP-based) PC-to-PC calling; Outbound calling to PSTN; Inbound calling via 800 number or local phone number.
• Other features include: In-call file sharing, session recording, unlimited text messaging
• Packages:
  • Single seat: $19.95 per month; $189.95 per year; 5-, 10- and 50-User Packs
  • Free 30 day trial
  • Includes 500 minutes of Outbound U.S. or Canada calling

SightSpeed has developed a customer base associated with their video messaging strengths. Having found a market niche in the SMB space, SightSpeed Business opens up new video communications (and productivity) opportunities for this market segment; it provides the tools for easy implementation across the business’s operating space with no capital expenditure. The challenge for small business is to determine where video communications can be incorporated into their ongoing business processes.

With Skype’s expanding video capabilities and the increasing general awareness of video overall as a real time conversations tool, we should be seeing additional interesting video-based services going into 2008.

More information here.

Tags: SightSpeed, SightSpeed Business, video services, video calling, video messaging, video conferencing

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