Ok so I’m the last to write about Google’s announcement this morning on its acquisition of Global IP Solutions, a major provider of IP-based communications infrastructure with not only its voice and video codecs but also voice and video engines that mean simply “supply me with an Internet connection, a microphone and a set of speakers” and we’ll handle the conversation on your PC or smartphone.

Combine this acquisition with Google’s experience with Google Talk and Google Video Chat, its acquisition of Grand Central to become Google Voice, of On2 for its video codec (used by Skype amongst others) and of Gizmo, Google now has a full set of the underlying tools required to bring out some interesting communications offerings. Can Google integrate these tools, and overcome the inherent management and organization integration issues, to deliver a coherent and effective communications offering? What will we see as end user offerings? And how will Google work with the competition?

After all four weeks ago I had a demonstration at GIPS of a video call received on an iPad (notice I only said “to”). And, as I reported at the time, they basically affirmed that we should be seeing video calling supported on mobile smartphones before year end. Perhaps with a GIPS mobile video engine. Will this now simply be an Android offering or will their offerings also involve smartphone video calling support for Apple’s iPhone/iPad and, say, RIM’s BlackBerry?

It’s interesting to note that I’m already observing the Skype – Google competition in my GMail window. Hover your cursor over the appropriate location at a sender’s name and I get one of two “click-to-call” options: to converse with a contact using Google Talk/Video or to converse directly with the same contact in Skype voice, chat or video:

Google has long been a customer of GIPS for its voice technology and more recently for its video technology on Android. As have Nortel, Cisco (Webex), Communigate (one of the world’s largest suppliers of enterprise email services), Yahoo, IBM/Lotus and many others for both its voice and video technology. It will make for an interesting world of co-opetition.

Other bloggers have made some interesting points:

Thomas Howe, Voyces.com in Tick, Tock, Core, Edge implies that, with the pendulum swinging from the core to the edge, IP-communications infrastructure is going to be supported primarily by two players, Skype and Google:

More important, though, is what these battle lines say about the other players. Which is to say, these guys aren’t even on the battlefield. If fellow Cape Codder David Isenberg is right, and we are in the era of the dumb network, then anyone not-Skype and not-Google is not in the running. Although I agree, appreciate and applaud Orange’s work with their core (in particular, the API program), where are they in this battle? Where is AT&T? Now, doesn’t Verizon’s deal with Skype seem much smarter? To me, it does.

Voxeo’s Dan York, in Google buys GIPS for $68 million – to take on Skype? Apple? Microsoft? gives a short course in IP Communications 101 to explain Google’s motives for this acquisition by pointing out where the real battleground lies:

The issue is that while the control channel is increasingly around the open standard of SIP, which anyone can implement, the “codecs” used in sending media from one endpoint to another have long been a proprietary battleground, particularly with regard to wideband (or “HD audio” as some call it). Yes, there have been and are standards, but usually there have been intellectual property or licensing issues. Now, there is work within the IETF to create a standard wideband codec (and as I wrote earlier, Skype is involved with this effort) but that may take some time and the outcome is not known right now.

But there’s one aspect to this acquisition that can tend to get overlooked – cross licensing. When I worked in the NMR spectroscopy industry during its early evolution in the 1970’s, the two major players (Varian and Bruker) would be filing and acquiring patents and then suing each other. But the final outcome was that both players set up cross licensing arrangements such that the entire NMR spectrometer market benefited by always being able to benefit from the best of both companies’ innovation. And it all subsequently contributed to the rise of Magnetic Resonance imaging that plays such an important role in today’s medical imaging space across six or seven vendors. Will we see Google and Skype cross-licensing their technologies so that overall IP-based communications offerings can ultimately provide best-of-breed services to both their customer bases?

Bottom line: What I see emerging is a communications market where each of Google and Skype will continue to bring forth unique communications offerings that may appear somewhat competitive to their respective customers. Recall the final value add is in the customer benefits exposed by the user interface, not the underlying technology. As a result we can expect a world of co-opetition and cross licensing such that customer offerings by either party are not held back by some intellectual property dispute that really relates to technology and infrastructure in which the customer has no interest. In the end its about growing a bigger market for the benefit of all.

Other posts:

• Alec Saunders on Voyces.com: Google Targets Skype
• Alec Saunders on Saunderslog: GIPS acquired by Google. How does Abramson pick them?
• Rich Tehrani on TMCNet: Google Buys GIPS – Here’s Why where he provides a short history of GIPS and then analyzes some interesting reasons behind what may have motivated Google.
• Garrett Smith on Smith on VoIP: Google the service provider

Update: Andy has written Congrats to The Great Team At GIPS – it’s his 18th client who has been acquired and the second acquisition by Google. He has also given me credit for the small role I played in introducing him to GIPS:

And with this acquisition, for me and my agency, Comunicano, the number of companies to “exit” or in this case “get bought” in the last 8 years now has hit 18. Alec Saunders referenced that feat in his very well written post yesterday. GIPS came to my agency and I in the same way the other 17 had. We were asked to work with them. In this case the door opener was trusted friend and colleague, Jim Courtney, who has known Emerick Woods for longer than most dating back to their days at Quarterdeck. Jim always said that Emerick is the consummate professional, and someone who knows how to win. Looks like Jim’s matchmaking ability came through.

Full disclosure: GIPS CEO Emerick Woods was the Vice-President, Internet of Quarterdeck Corporation in the mid-1990’s who became a mentor to the author on several business development projects at Quarterdeck involving partnerships with ISP’s of the time. Over the past 14 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.

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• Is Google Building a Skype Competitor? (mashable.com)
• Google Buys Real-Time Video Communications Company (readwriteweb.com)
• Google buys VOIP engine behind Yahoo, AOL, WebEx, Lotus conferencing (Larry Dignan/ZDNet) (techmeme.com)
• It’s Been a Week for New Skype Video Experiences (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype mobile on Verizon Launch: It’s About the User Experience (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Voice and Chat over iPad: Skype and Truphone Fill the Gap (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype’s SILK Codec: Working Towards Adoption as a Standard (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Google buys a VoIP company, might build a Skype competitor (downloadsquad.com)

So why would Skype announce support for, and In Store Solutions develop and launch, the FREETALK^® Everyman headset in a seemingly crowded market? Let’s step back a bit and look at some issues related to headsets:

• Skype’s research has found that a Skype user’s “end point” configuration is one of the main contributors to churn. A major component of the end user configuration is the PC’s audio chip; they have found evidence pointing to a lack of consistent audio quality across the various PC audio chip sets.
• The recent introduction of Skype’s “superwideband” SILK audio codec, supporting a 12KHz audio bandwidth, has set new bars for incorporating HD Voice performance into a headset – both the speakers and the mic.
• Headsets have always been an issue for road warriors trying to fit them into their briefcase or PC carrying case. Speakers that are at right angles to the main headband suddenly demand a space with about 3 to 5 inches of width. Breakage and loss are often the result. (Full disclosure: I have never found a headset that was suitable for easy insertion into my multiple PC carrying cases over the years.)
• Complementary to the PC has been the widespread adoption of (smartphone) media players such as iPod, iPhone and BlackBerry; standard earbuds are not capable of adequate overall audio quality, especially for bass tones.
• Cost: try to find a good quality headset for under $30 or $40. A “no brainer” impulse purchase is certainly assisted by keeping the cost low.
• Finally, in this age of online e-commerce, why do the devices that are shipped as a result of an online purchase need plastic clamshell packaging that goes straight to landfill (and generates emergency room visits when cutting the packaging open)? The sale has been completed; there’s no need for the packaging to be a “sell piece”.

Since late 2007 In Store Solutions’ wireless stereo headset has been a top seller on the Skype store. It has been my PC headset of choice ever since I received one in December 2007.

When Skype recognized the need for a headset that provided both consistent audio quality across all PC models (desktop and laptop) while also fully supporting the audio bandwidth demands of their SILK codec, they approached In Store Solutions about producing a new basic headset that addressed Skype’s audio quality concerns. But with In Store Solutions’ previous retail distribution and audio hardware experience they designed a product that also addressed the other issues outlined above.

The result of this partnership was the recently launched FREETALK Everyman Headset. It’s a USB headset incorporating an audio chip in the USB dongle. But on the headset side the USB dongle has a 3.5 mm speaker jack into which is plugged the removable speaker wire coming from the headset.

The physical headset itself comprises a unidirectional microphone to reduce background noise along with neodymium speakers supporting 20 Hz to 20 KHz stereo audio. Weighing in at 124g/4.3 oz, the headband and microphone are adjustable. (Hint: headset microphones work best when the microphone is positioned near a corner of your mouth.)

Compatible with both Windows 2000® / XP® / Vista™ and Mac OS 10.22 or later, the only other requirement is a USB port on the PC.

FREETALK^® Everyman incorporates:

• HD Voice support within the audio chip via its support for the SILK codec used in Skype for Windows 4.1 and Skype for Mac 2.8 (or later) and an overall 20Hz to 20KHz audio bandwidth.
• Plug & Play such that Skype immediately recognizes and acknowledges the headset as the default audio device for Skype (no need to go to Skype audio settings; no driver installation required)
• A flat fold-down design that compresses the entire headset to a thickness less than 3 cm or 1.25 inches; it readily fits into your PC carrying case.
• A removable speaker plug such that, when not using the headset with your PC, you can plug the speaker plug into any media player with a 3.5 mm audio jack, such as the iPod, iPhone (3G and 3G S) and BlackBerry.
• Eco-friendly “brown box” recycled cardboard packaging that not only eliminates sending plastic clamshells to landfill but also helps to reduce shipping costs.

And, to encourage “no-brainer” adoption, it’s available at the Skype Store at US$22.88/£19.88/€19.88 – including delivery (and VAT in Europe).

But the most important feature of any headset is the user experience. Several bloggers and columnists are currently reviewing the FREETALK Everyman; links to their posts will be incorporated into a forthcoming post summarizing the feedback as they become available. But two initial posts for more information and feedback:

• Skype’s Andrew Brennan: Skype Gear Road Test: The FREETALK Everyman Headset
• TMC’s Tom Keating: FREETALK Everyman Skype Headset Review where he concludes:

I made some test Skype calls and the audio quality was excellent. I also connected my iPhone using the 3.5mm jack and was able to play music using the iPod application on the iPhone. Slightly better bass response than my iPhone ear buds due to the larger speakers. All in all, a pretty good Skype headset.

Earlier today, Alec Saunders interviewed me on SquawkBox; with about twenty participants including both ISS’s Product Manager and Skype’s Hardware Product Manager contributing to the discussion. I’ll be adding a post covering this interview and incorporating a player for the recording shortly. (Update Aug. 25: you can now access the conference call recording on Saunderslog at SquawkBox August 13 – FREETALK Everyman.)

Hints (based on some initial user feedback): when you receive your FREETALK Everyman headset, ensure you plug the speaker plug into the speaker jack on the USB dongle for listening to your Skype calls or any multimedia playback from the PC. And to keep the cost down the volume control is carried out via the volume control slider in the Skype clients.

Bottom Line: Addressing the audio quality issue is only one aspect of the Skype user’s end point configuration that can affect the overall Skype call quality. The PC processor, active software programs, operating system (Windows or Mac) and user’s Internet connection can also contribute to the finalSkype call experience. However, the FREETALK Everyman headset optimizes the audio configuration of the PC and its associated audio hardware such that it consistently meet the standards required to support Skype’s SILK codec and its contribution to the overall calling experience.

Earlier posts related to Skype’s approach to call quality issues:

• At his talk to VON Canada in April 2006, Skype Goal: “Better than a phone”, Stefan Oberg outlined many user issues that Skype still needed to address at that time. During that talk Stefan mentioned Skype’s frustration with the fact “terrible user experience” when the user could not readily locate the audio jacks on the rear of (older) PC’s.
• In April 2007 Skype 3.2 was launched incorporating echo cancellation – which allowed users to use their basic PC mic and speaker for Skype calls without having to deal with echo feedback from the speakers back into the microphone.

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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• Global IP Solutions: Positioning Codecs, Including SILK (voiceontheweb.biz)

As the supplier of a key element in delivering voice-enabled solutions, Global IP Solutions’ activities provide a window into the world of voice- and video-enabled applications and IP-based communications beyond the Skype ecosystem. The GIPS Voice Engine contains API’s that allow a service provider or application publisher to readily incorporate robust, reliable, high quality voice and video calling into their offerings. A recent announcement from Global IP Solutions provides a classic example where we catch a glimpse of the role of IP-based communications in delivering commercial and large enterprise communications solutions.

I first learned of CommuniGate Systems as a provider of Internet-based communications infrastructure software solutions when one of my business planning clients from ten years ago, a business services ISP, was installing the CommuniGate Pro Messaging Suite as the backbone of their email offerings. From that time until last June, when an acquiring ISP failed to provide an appropriate level of support, my own email had been run through this particular CommuniGate-enabled server.

But CommuniGate, building on their CommuniGate Pro communications architecture, has gone on to be a major supplier of unified communications infrastructure. From their website:

CommuniGate Systems’ goal is to consolidate all forms of Internet Communications into one address space, making the single address for email, IM, VoIP and video calling, more productive, portable, and independent of tariffs and tolls of closed network topologies. We see all Internet Communications becoming accessible to multiple media types through one account, providing true portability of an “address” no matter where you access the Internet.

Communigate’s 12,000 strong customer base services over 2 billion email accounts through broadband, wireline and wireless service providers as well as larger enterprises who require “private” communications services. Secure airline communications services, such as required by British Airways, is one significant vertical enterprise market for CommuniGate.

In the fall of 2007 CommuniGate announced the launch of a Flash-based unified communications client, Pronto!, that now serves as a “single dashboard for e-mail, collaboration, secure instant messaging, RSS feeds, and Rich Media”. Pronto!, with an Outlook-style interface and built on Adobe Air, supports contacts, calendar, email, Instant Messaging, voice calling, conference calling, voicemail, news, photos, audio and video player. Users can access their communications services via the Pronto! client on any PC and network connection.

Over time CommuniGate has been adding features to Pronto!; for instance, last summer they announced the addition of video mail, contact and calendaring features, RSS “news” feed support and audio media support. But they also had been evaluating solutions that would improve the voice calling experience with a more robust voice engine that incorporates the enhanced sound quality characteristic of wideband audio HD Voice. After an investigation of their options over the past few months, it was announced at the end of March that CommuniGate had signed an agreement with Global IP Solutions to incorporate the GIPS Voice Engine into Pronto.

“Global IP Solutions has been a pioneer in HD Voice for many years. They have over 800 million downloads and a growing list of brand name customers to prove it,” says Jon Doyle, VP Business Development CommuniGate Systems. “GIPS has a unique engineering team that is focused on addressing the processing issues related to IP communications on various network topologies. With GIPS superior engineering skills, we are able to deliver on the promise of a truly business grade UC experience.”

In a recent interview with CommuniGate’s John Doyle and Larry Golob, GIPS Senior Director of Business Development it was pointed out that:

• CommuniGate was seeking a solution that met HD Voice specifications supporting 8KHz wideband audio during voice calls; the GIPS wideband iSAC codec meets these specifications.
• However, they were also looking for a full voice engine package that could call quality issues such as jitter, packet loss, echo cancellation while adapting readily to network congestion conditions through bandwidth management features.
• In the future, CommuniGate may elect to investigate Skype’s superwideband SILK voice codec for incorporation into their GIPS Voice Engine; however, as its royalty-free licensing had only recently been announced, they would consider the SILK codec at some point in the future, especially if customer demand existed
• CommuniGate is also evaluating the expansion of the role of video in Pronto!; they will be evaluating GIPS video technology later this year.

While services using Pronto! are distributed to end users via either Internet Service Providers or large enterprise “closed network” operations, one can experience Pronto! by setting up an account at TalktoIP.com.

A final question: how will Pronto! users be able to have access via mobile smartphones? Is there an opportunity for GIPS’ mobile offerings?

Bottom Line: Meeting large enterprise and service provider requirements for low cost, secure IP-based communications creates a separate market space – of significant size – not addressed by Skype’s current business model and strategy. On the other hand, it will be interesting to see if CommuniGate incorporates connections with Skype users as another offering within their unified communications suite. Certainly Skype for SIP opens up an interesting opportunity for CommuniGate to consider as they move forward.

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Last week Skype announced that their new superwideband SILK voice codec would be made available royalty-free to any vendor who wants to incorporate it into their calling infrastructure. So how does this impact a voice engine supplier such as Global IP Solutions?

Very simply Global IP Solutions focuses on selling “engines” – voice engines for voice calling, mobile voice engines for mobile devices (initially iPhone) and video engines for video calling and messaging. These engines are then embedded in customer applications developed by IBM Lotus Live, Yahoo, Oracle and many other software publishers.

A voice or video codec is one component of these “engines”. The value-add and differentiation comes with the feature set of the entire “engine” which will address issues such as:

• bandwidth management (adapting to network and end point conditions)
• jitter and packet loss (addressing packet errors and synchronization)
• establishing a connection between parties (with GIPS this will be a SIP connection)
• user’s audio environment: echo cancellation, background noise
• battery life (for voice engine on mobile devices)

Bottom line for the GIPS customer is to supply a bidirectional Internet connection as well as a speaker and microphone connection. GIPS then worries about all the digital signal processing and related voice quality management issues. From the GIPS “Implementing Voice and Video over IP for the iPhone and Smartphones” White Paper (registration required):

While GIPS developed the highly respected  iSAC codec several years ago (and which was used in Skype clients for the first few years), their voice “engine” architecture allows for the use of any codec within the overall voice engine. Speaking with Global IP Solutions CEO Emerick Woods last week he welcomed the availability of Skype’s SILK codec and, being customer driven, said it would be available within a GIPS voice engine for any customer who requested it.

Recall that Jonathan Christensen, is his announcement at eComm 2009 last week, pointed out that the SILK codec is not only available to any vendor but also its use will not require any association with a Skype offering. Skype basically wants the voice communications industry to have available an HD Voice capability that will lead to clearer voice calls, reducing confusion due to low audio bandwidth, accents, speech inflections, expressive intonations, etc. Recall that studies have shown that HD Voice, such as offered on many Polycomm products, will lead to more productive call centers and customer support operations for this reason alone.

Following an “engine” vendor such as Global IP Solutions will provide us with a view into how readily accepted the SILK codec becomes as its availability and feature set awareness increases across the voice communications market space.

Sometimes an industry is more about co-opetition than competition delivering a win-win-win for all parties, especially the end user.

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At a Skype’s CES 2009 press conference today recently appointed COO Scott Durchslag provided the first hints of a vision statement for Skype under its new executive team along with some initial software offerings that hint at the direction Skype is taking towards “liquid communications” or “Skype Whenever, Wherever”.

In leading up to the new software announcements, Scott made a few points about Skype’s recent accomplishments and focus going forward:

• Skype now delivers 8% of the world’s telecom minutes through clients that now support 28 languages
• New software will drive a liquid experience on the desktop, web, TV and mobile devices
• A key goal is to liberate the Skype experience from a captive device (desktop) to more user aware devices (mobile, TV as well as embedded into appliances)
• 41% of Skype calls on Christmas day involved video, only to be surpassed at 47% on New Years day.
• New software offerings have to pass a bar of four basic criteria:
  • high call quality
  • super simple user interface
  • sensitivity to power management issues
  • security

He then went on to talk about new software offerings:

• New desktop clients: Skype for Mac 2.8 (launched as beta at Mac World Monday), Skype for Windows 4.0 (with a February release date)
• Release of Skype Lite, a thin client  for Java-enabled mobile phones with Skype for Android to be available within a few days on Android Market on T-Mobile’s G1^TM and Skype Lite general availability in the U.S. (in addition to several countries previously announced) resulting in Skype availability on over 100 mobile smartphones.
• Internally developed new Skype “SILK” audio codec which is twice as efficient with respect to bandwidth requirements for the audio and video experience.
• Skype for Mobile Internet Devices with a demonstration on a couple of MID platforms.
• Skype for Mac 3.0 to be available by year end with the feature set of Skype 4.0 for Windows.

This afternoon Phil and I spent an hour with Scott discussing the restructuring, support issues, the TOM Skype Breach and how Skype will work with its developer partners to provide a win-win direction for the development and marketing of partner applications. These topics will be the subject of future posts over the next week.

First impression: it’s the first event where a senior Skype executive has provided in a public forum an outline of its vision, guidelines for achieving that vision and how it wants to work in the real time communication and IP-based conversation space. The real challenge now lies in the execution.

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This morning Skype released a hotfix upgrade for Skype for Windows 4.0 beta 3 bringing in several new features but most significant is the introduction of a new “super wideband Audio codec; from the Skype Garage blog post linked above:

This is our second in-house built audio codec especially designed for calls over the internet with superb quality. The Super Wideband Audio codec will help you most on lousy network conditions and when you have lower bandwidth available, although it also improves quality in normal conditions too.

In the Skype 4.x Discussion Public Chat Raul Liive goes on to say: “it’s superior over SVOPC in every usage area, but it comes best out in the low bw or loose internet conenction cases”. However, the legacy SVOPC codec remains available to address backward compatibility requirements.

Other new features include;

• MySpaceIM with Skype (functionality carried over from 3.8)
• Option to disable uPnP and Nat-PMP
• eBay browser highlighter bundled
• Added Philips SPC 1330 NC as High Quality Video camera

along with an improvement in the Instant Messaging layout and numerous bug fixes listed in the release notes.

As I am at CES where my laptop still has the last released version 3.8 of Skype for Windows in order to access features such as Public Chat creation, I will not be able to try this hotfix out until I return home this weekend (where my desktop has the 4.0 beta 3). But if you have a PC running the beta version, it’s definitely worth checking out this hotfix. I am curious to see if they also fixed the “flashing technical call info” problem.

Obviously feedback about :”hidden mysteries” should go back to Skype’s forum for reporting issues; however, if you have experience with the new codec, tell us about it in the Comments.

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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

Skype partner HiDefConferencing enhances their conferencing infrastructure to provide high definition voice for all Skype participants on a call.

Skype-to-Skype calls have long been known for their high quality audio; certainly when I am talking to another Skype user using my stereo headset, it sounds like the other party is “inside my head”. To give a brief explanation:

The human voice and ear have an audio bandwidth range to produce voice and hear sounds up to 22 KHz. But the introduction of electronics, such as microphones, speakers, switches, amplifiers and repeaters, into the landline telephone system reduces that bandwidth transmitted by the legacy telephone system to under 4 KHz — sufficient to clearly get across the essence of the voice conversation but certainly not for recording the deep audio of that high pitched soprano or tenor solo you just may be hearing and definitely not providing the full richness of a face-to-face conversation. Mobile phones have an audio bandwidth that is about 50% of landlines bringing us the sometimes scratchy quality of mobile calls. But the Skype engine is capable of handling audio up to somewhere around 12KHz, providing a much richer and more realistic sound approaching the reality of face-to-face human conversation. At VON Boston next week, the general concept of high bandwidth voice in real time conversations is taking on the term High Definition Voice (HD Voice) at a session in the Innovators track called The Secret Life of HD VoIP. (As an aside, audio bandwidth should not be confused with the network bandwidth required to make a Skype call; different issues related to transmission of voice packets.)

One problem created by this reality is that Skype calls to SkypeOut numbers lose that high bandwidth quality. In the worst case, due to all the compression/decompression going on involving both voice and wireless compression standards, it sometimes becomes difficult to complete a call to a mobile phone. And in conference calls involving both Skype and SkypeOut participants, the call quality is reduced to the lowest common bandwidth.

For three years, VAPPS, Inc. of Hoboken, NJ has been offering its HighSpeedConferencing service extending conference calls involving both Skype and PSTN participants to as many as 500 participants. A key differentiator of this service is that VAPPS uses their own proprietary conferencing bridge which mixes the Skype and PSTN audio streams for listening by all the conference call participants. Today VAPPS is launching a beta high definition voice version of their High Speed Conferencing service that incorporates an enhanced version of this bridge. The result is that all Skype participants on the call will hear each other at the full audio bandwidth inherently available with Skype. Participants on landlines and mobile will still get the quality level associated with the underlying landline and mobile services.

Ben Lilienthal, CEO and Founder of Vapps, Inc., has made several demonstration calls with me over the past few months where he goes from a Skype connection to a landline connection; the voice quality difference is very noticeable with a richer deeper sound from the Skype connection and a “squeakier” sound on the landline connection.

But from a target market perspective, Vapps has combined the new high definition voice capability with the established robustness. reliability and scalability of their conferencing server into services that target the entire enterprise conferencing market currently served by the legacy telcos, such as AT&T, Verizon, Bell Canada and Telus. With its continued 500 participant capacity, weekly sales meetings, virtual webinars and even (eBay) analyst presentations can now be handled through the HighSpeedConferencing service with much higher voice quality and significantly lower costs.

So where does Skype fit in? HighSpeedConferencing offers, in addition to a “Pay-As-You-Go” plan, several monthly subscription, unlimited use plans based on the maximum number of participants. The “additional costs” are in making the connection between the participant and the conference bridge. Under these plans:

• Skype-based participants have no additional costs
• Calls from landlines and mobile devices have any associated long distance charges to the conference’s landline number
• The host can also make available an 800 number (in eight countries) and pay for the participants calling in from a landline.
• The plan includes a base number of toll-free minutes per month for landline/mobile participants.

Reservations and scheduling of calls are optional but no reservations are needed. Additional features with the subscriptions are:

• Call recording with 30-day storage
• Hand raising along with host control of individual participants’ mute/unmute
• Web Controls for host management of the calls

For instance, a 100 user plan costs $125 per month for the host; this includes unlimited minutes for Skype users, 2500 toll-free minutes for landline/mobile participants as well as the call recording, hand raising and web controls features.

Also of note:

• Skype participants on a Pay-As-You-Go call will pay $0.04/minute per participant; landline/mobile participants (US/Canada) are $0.07 per minute per participant
• A 30-day free trial of the “HighSpeed 25″ subscription is available to allow enterprises to work out how HighSpeedConferencing can be incorporated into their communications activities.
• High Speed Conferencing is a Featured Skype Extra for this quarter and can be accessed from the Tools | Do More | Get Extras menu in Skype.
• High Speed Conferencing also works with the Skype-enhanced collaboration services Skype Extras: Convenos and Yugma Skype Edition.

From the press release:

We are thrilled to offer this service to the small businesses and entrepreneurs that are always searching for the most effective tools for success,” said Ben Lilienthal, CEO of Vapps. “Highspeedconferencing.com presents the perfect convergence of high quality, low-cost and flexibility in the audio conferencing industry.”

The ability for small businesses to host these calls via the telephone or the Internet, not only enables them to present their clients with big business offerings, such as flexibility, but it also enables them to do so using the low cost of Internet communications.

Skype for one has recognized the importance of applications built by partners like Vapps for three years now and the value they bring to the Skype platform. Since 1st October, 2007, Skype has been promoting the Vapps HighSpeed Conferencing solution to its 220 million registered users as a premium extra.

Update: Andy Abramson comments at VoIP Watch:

A call yesterday showed how bright and full it sounds. The platform works with mobile, VoIP, PSTN and Skype inbound calls, and can handle up to 500 simultaneous participants per call.

Footnote: we are starting to see mass confusion about what is meant by HD when it comes to audio-based services:

• Intel actually has set specifications and released products using the term HD Audio
• HD Radio really means Hybrid Digital Radio
• And VON Boston next week is having a session on HD VoIP.

Tags: Skype, VAPPS, HighSpeedConferencing, Convenos, Unyte, Yumga Skype, HD Voice

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