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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Three weeks ago Skype made available the “Gold” release of Skype 4.2 for Windows. In the interim I have had the opportunity to experience many of its new features, several of which I have found improve the call experience in somewhat subtle but very beneficial ways.

Call Quality Indicator

This is what I have found the most useful new feature; it simply provides quick access to determine the conditions under which a call is being made. Before a call you can check your audio/video setup; click on “Check Settings” to bring up the device bar; click on a device to check that each of the mic, speakers, webcam (only if the Contact has a webcam) and computer speed are appropriately configured for making a call.

During a call you can continue to track call quality in the Call Bar; the network quality indicator on the right will also become active:

Should network connection conditions change the network quality indicator will turn orange or red and the number of bars will reduce. If you get a red exclamation mark you have a serious issue with your setup that most likely needs to be addressed. (The call in this case was to Skype Test Call; thus the gray “video” icon as Skype Test Call does not have a webcam.)

Note also that, at the end of every call, there is an opportunity presented to report on call quality. Responding, especially with less than best quality calls, certainly helps Skype to get a statistical handle on their performance.

But there’s one other unannounced feature associated with the Call Quality Indicator; click on the drop-down arrow to the right of the volume control in the Call Bar and you’ll find a menu that can lead to assistance with call diagnostics.  Select “Call Technical Info” and a separate window will open up with a wide range of diagnostic information including the other party’s SkypeID, codec being used, jitter, packet loss information and, for some calls, the version of Skype being used by the other party. Some of this information has been readily available in previous 3.x versions of Skype; however, in earlier versions of Skype 4.x it always operated in a “flicker” mode which made it difficult to read. Only a portion of the information available is shown here; the “24000” sample rate means the call is taking full advantage of the 12KHz audio bandwidth supported by Skype’s SILK codec.

Skype Access

Skype Access was first introduced on Skype for Mac 2.8; now it’s available in Skype for Windows 4.2. When you enter a WiFi zone supported by Boingo (there are over 100,000 125,000¹ worldwide with the SSID’s shown at this link), a window will pop up indicating that Skype Access is available (simply by having the appropriate client on your laptop). While it’s not exactly the least expensive way to connect to the Internet (including Skype) via a WiFi access point, it does come in handy for those 15 to 30 free minutes during airport stopovers or in “urgent” situations where there is no other alternative.

(Full disclosure: the author has a Boingo account which is available at the same locations as Skype Access as it has proven to be a cost saver at hotels that have the alternative of an expensive daily fee or using Boingo. On the other hand even at these locations, the Skype Access window will pop open.)

From time-to-time Skype has a Skype Access promotion; one is occurring the weekend during which this post was published; the promotion offers free Skype Access from 00:01 GMT Saturday, March 20 to 23:59 GMT Sunday, March 21, 2010 (extended to 23:59 Monday, March 22 in the U.K. to assist travelers stranded by the British Airways labor disruption).

Ready for HD Video

Ready, yes, but we’re not there yet; the HD webcams equipped for this feature will not be available until later this spring. However, I have received some test calls demonstrating that Skype 4.2 for Windows does support HD Video calling using appropriately compliant Skype-certified HD video cameras from FreeTalk and faceVsion. To the right is captured a frame from a test call using a faceVsion camera; below is the call diagnostic information from a recent test call using a prototype FreeTalk webcam – 1280 x 720 is the key parameter indicating HD Video support. (Once again, these webcams will only be available later this spring on the Skype Store). That we are all going to love the experience of these HD Video calls is all I can say at the moment. Note the reference to the H.264 video codec that is embedded in the webcam; the associated video compression is done on the webcam itself to reduce the load on the host PC’s CPU during a call and the associated network bandwidth requirements.

Update: While the FreeTalk webcam call reported above was made Tuesday, March 16, Jason Harris reports on an HD Video call from Andy two days later using the same webcam in Coming Soon: High Quality Skype Video Calls With Everyman HD. (I did not want to embarrass Andy by showing the details of his facial stubble in the one frame that I captured during our call; recall that many actresses were wary of HD video when first introduced as it could show intimate details of facial blemishes. I’m sure the make-up industry has compensated by now.)

Call Transfer: Simply stated, Call Transfer, a popular feature of many Skype 3.x versions, has finally re-appeared in Skype 4.2 for Windows.

Brower Toolbars: Since the release of Skype for Windows 3.0 a Skype Toolbar icon for Firefox was available; concurrently there has also been available a Skype Toolbar for Internet Explorer. Basically it uses a Phone Number Recognition algorithm to locate phone numbers within a web page and Skype-enable them (essentially a Click-to-Call using Skype or SkypeOut). With Skype for Windows 4.2 this feature has finally become stable within Firefox (full disclosure – the author has been an external beta tester for this toolbar). In a subsequent post I’ll discuss how it can also be used to Skype-enable Skype contact names within a web page. Suffice it to say it has become a very handy tool, especially with telephone directory services.

Additional features: The release notes for Skype 4.2 also list several less significant but helpful changes that assist with the user call experience. For instance:

• The video call button remains available even if there is no webcam detected
• Improvements in video quality in low bandwidth conditions
• Improved contact importers, including from GMail, Facebook, Hotmail and Outlook

But it’s still not “perfect”. The Release Notes and Release Notes Document include details of not only improvements and bug fixes but also a list of known issues that the Developer team continues to assess and track down. But there’s one 3.x feature for which I still would like to see support in 4.x – namely Skype Public Chats.

Bottom Line: With three weeks of usage, Skype 4.2 for Windows definitely brings an enhanced user experience, especially with respect to providing diagnostic information to help with call quality issues. Skype Access opens up one more option for road warriors to have Internet access for short sessions at airports or ‘’urgent” situations where no other option is available. And we still have to wait a few weeks for the webcams that will support HD Video support, setting new standards for video calling, but the final outcome will be well worth the wait.

Of course, now that I have a MacBook Pro as my primary laptop, I have joined those asking when the equivalent features (Call Quality Indicator and HD Video calling) will be available in Skype for Mac².

¹Shortly after publishing this post I received my monthly email advising me that Boingo is now supporting 125000 access points worldwide.
² I can continue to use Skype for Windows on my desktop PC or via Windows 7 running as a virtual PC on Parallels for Mac.

Full disclosure: In Store Solutions, producer of the FreeTalk HD Video webcams, 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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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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Skype launches a Canadian Skype store customized to the Canadian market.

When Skype began working with hardware vendor partners a few years ago, it also realized there was an opportunity for revenue generation by hosting a store where a Skype user could purchase Skype Certified headsets, phones and webcams. However, it also quickly became apparent that operating a multi-national retail web-based store came with the logistics challenges of delivering atoms (as opposed to bits), collecting revenue in multiple currencies and as well as inventory management, warehousing, shipping and “local” customs agencies and their rules. Not to mention that every political jurisdiction likes to collect its taxes.

Over the past year Skype has been quietly overhauling its Skype Stores on a country-by-country basis. Skype came up with a strategy that involved working with country-based shopping comparison sites who would, in turn, introduce shoppers to products as well as with In Store Solutions who have been developing their own “In Store Solutions” stores that now supports 40 currencies across 67 countries. The Skype Store for 21 countries (U.S., U.K., Australia, several western European countries and several Latin American countries) comprises both a shopping comparison site shop and an In Store Solutions shop whereas In Store Solutions is the sole Skype Store shop in 47 additional countries including Japan.

The shopping comparison sites facilitate purchase of products from vendors such as Logitech, Plantronics, Netgear, Belkin and Polycom while In Store Solutions sells their FREETALK line of headsets (FREETALK Everyman and FREETALK Wireless Stereo Headset) and the FREETALK Buddy Cam.

Prior to April this year, if, from a Canadian IP address, a Canadian visited the Skype Store at shop.skype.com, s/he would simply get a web page with a message to the effect that there was no Skype store for Canada. Since April but until last week the same situation would lead the visitor to a Skype store but with a U.S.-based shopping comparison vendor in addition to In Store Solutions. And pricing was in U.S. dollars. Neither a terribly relevant nor successful store in terms of sales generated.

As of last Thursday this situation changed completely. Canadians will now find a “Real Canadian Skype Store”¹ involving a Canadian shopping comparison site as well as In Store Solutions. And all pricing is in Canadian dollars.

Bottom line: Canadians can now order Skype Certified Hardware, including the FREETALK Everyman Headset and other FREETALK hardware, knowing what their final C$ price will be at the time of purchase. If, for some reason, you do not find C$ pricing check that you are in the Canadian store by looking for the “Canada (English)” selection in the footer of the store page. A “Canada (French)” version is under development.

Full transparency: A real Canadian Skype store has been under development long before it was announced last week that Canadians will have a “shareholder” interest in Skype.

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.

¹“Real Canadian Skype Store” is a parody on a Canadian grocery and housewares retailer who had a chain of stores called “Real Canadian Superstore”.

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“I thought you were on at 4 in the afternoon”, says a confused Manhattan Best Buy visitor. “No, we tape at 9 in the morning”, replies Oprah. “Oh, then Hi Oprah!”. Placing a Skype webcam setup in a Best Buy store found an adolescent customer who was looking for a Mother’s Day gift and waiting for the neighboring Pottery Barn store to open.

Oprah: “So, do we have permission put this on TV?”

Ashra (Sp?): “On Oprah! Hell, yes!”

With this introductory clip of Skype video-induced spontaneity, Oprah’s “Where the Skype Are You” show yesterday became the world’s longest duration, most viewed Skype promotion. During the sixty minutes the show went to downtown Grise Fiord, Nunavut, Canada’s northernmost community on the southern tip of Ellesmere Island in the Arctic Ocean, the Palmer Station Antarctica research site about 200 miles from the South Pole, to 37,000 feet on a Virgin America flight 780 from Seattle to Los Angeles and 60 feet under the ocean to the USS Louisville submarine. Other highlights:

• Three setups were at locations where such happenstance as shown above could occur: a Manhattan Best Buy Store, Harrod’s in London and at the Oprah sign outside the studio in Chicago.
• The Oprah sign initially was missing the usual crowd of tourists taking pictures but a later return found five young ladies who were eventually invited into the taping.
• The Palmer Station Antarctica research team was going to use their Skype video equipment to do live presentations about their research activities to students at schools across the U.S. while it was still there.
• Oprah interviewed Skype President Josh Silverman from Skype’s London Corporate Office who gave a brief demonstration of setting up Skype.
• Obviously Harpo has figured out how to mix Skype video calls to come up with a video conferencing solution that allowed a ”virtual” wine tasting session to happen between a vintner at Bonny Doon Vinyard in Santa Cruz, CA, two Virgin Flight 780 passengers and Josh Silverman in London. Now if we could just get the Skype bit-to-atom converter working to virtually share the wine!
• The Virgin America flight connection was via Aircell’s recently launched  GoGoInFlight WiFi service, which as of yesterday, is now available on all Virgin America flights. However, only for this flight was Skype video calling allowed; from Wednesday’s press release:
  

  Although Virgin America does not typically allow Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) products like Skype video call in-flight due to concerns about maintaining a quiet, restful cabin environment, guests can currently use Gogo® to Skype via the instant message feature, in addition to e-mailing, tweeting, updating their Facebook pages and any of the myriad other ways the web is keeping people connected. The early roll out of the Gogo® service across the airline’s network makes Virgin America the first and only airline to offer consumers in-flight WiFi on every flight – regardless of route, aircraft type, or flight time.

• Local Toronto sketch artist Barbara Muir has taken a liking to doing sketches from Skype Video calls (that’s Barbara’s sketch on my Voice On The Web bio page). Barbara appeared on the show and drew a sketch of Oprah from her Skype video connection. I spoke with Barbara after the show; the interview experience with Oprah had overwhelmed her. She was impressed with how Oprah was up at 4:30 a.m. to prepare for the show; Harpo personnel were contacting her in preparation at 6:00 a.m. Chicago time. As mentioned above the show was taped at 9:00 a.m. Chicago time; and apparently there were two more Oprah shows to be taped that day. Barbara’s biggest issue was having to look at the webcam while Oprah appeared on the her display screen below – a protocol for doing any interview is to be looking the camera “in-the-eye”.

Overall an amazingly interesting production. What would be really interesting is to see if there was any significant post-show jump in Skype downloads and account registrations. But we’ll probably never know.

• Toronto Globe and Mail: Skype connects Toronto artist to Oprah
• Check out the Oprah.com user comments related to this show; read about the request for a “modem in the sand” (#12)
• A historical note from April 2007: Skype Video for “Live On Location” Television Amber MacArthur was the original reporter using Skype video for her reports to Toronto’s CITY-TV.

Next: what I have learned from this about how Harpo produces Skype video calls.

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Columnist David Pogue in a New York Time article reviewing Skype 4.0 starts with the AT&T video phone demonstrated at the 1964 New York World’s Fair and user experience from then. Not a lot of calls due to technical and psychological issues. He talks about why Skype has been so widely accepted (did he remind us it was “free”?) and why Skype has been a survivor when up against iChat, MSN Messenger, SightSpeed and others.

He goes on to mention several issues that have inhibited video calling in the past but then says:

The video quality still varies when you use Skype. Fast Internet connections and fast computers still work better than slow ones. But if you do have a good setup — wow. With certain Logitech or Philips webcam models, Skype 4.0 can deliver a picture that’s as big and sharp and smooth as a TV picture (30 frames a second, 640 by 480 pixels), with almost no delay.

In my test calls to friends in California, New York and Virginia, we were amazed at what a difference it makes when the delay goes away. (Maybe, for its next trick, Skype can lend its technology to the world’s cellphone carriers.)

He then went on to make calls using iChat, ooVoo and SightSpeed: “None of them matched Skype’s immediacy or video and audio quality.” He discusses Skype’s new level of audio quality (with the SILK codec) and reduced network bandwidth speed requirement. He mentions some features that he would still like to see and mentions what differentiates services such as SightSpeed. His closing comment places Skype video calling into a historical perspective:

….. Will we one day adjust to the idea of being on camera every time someone calls?

Nah.

In the end, video chatting isn’t a replacement for phone calls, but a supplement to them, a perfect way to check out someone’s new place, check in with distant family and friends or show off a new talent (or baby). They saw the possibilities back in 1964 — they just didn’t realize that we wouldn’t always want to use them.

Go read David’s post (free registration may be required); it’s an excellent yet objective review of the personal video calling space from the end user perspective. I guess David doesn’t watch Oprah; she seems to be using Skype High Quality Video almost daily according to reports from my wife.

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Screen sharing is a feature, not a collaboration service. Skype has left the door open for all its developer partners to continue to build their businesses with Skype embedded into their offering, especially when it comes to fully featured collaboration services.

When you come from a technical background it’s easy to confuse features with a complete business offering. For instance, “screen sharing” or “desktop sharing” is a feature appearing in many Web 2.0 offerings. But a full collaboration offering for a business environment involves bringing together several features that bring a significant ROI to the customers.

Just to recall my own career history, working with Quarterdeck we did have some “utility” products that initially generated revenues of  up to $50MM per year. But eventually they became features within a larger business offering – in this case the operating system itself. Memory management and multi-tasking were not always easy sells but had a market at the time. Today these features are hidden within Windows. It took Microsoft about six versions of Windows to get multi-tasking and memory management right. We also had the same experience developing a web browser; Microsoft eventually incorporate web browsing into the operating system as a feature.

I have also been close to the collaboration market for many years. In fact Webex is an outgrowth of a whiteboarding service that Quarterdeck had acquired. When Quarterdeck evaporated (was sold to Symantec for remnants of software intellectual property), the team with whiteboarding experience went on to found Webex. Recently acquired by Cisco, Webex is now a major player in large enterprise collaboration activities, including desktop or screen sharing. It requires an entirely different underlying robust and scalable infrastructure to meet large and medium enterprise collaboration needs

Yesterday Skype added a screen sharing feature to Skype for Mac. We can expect it to show up in Skype for Windows in the near future. But, as I mentioned in my post about Skype for Mac, it is a feature, not a full collaboration environment. There are several Skype Partners who offer a full business collaboration environment; they are not threatened by Skype’s screen sharing feature. In fact, they may make Skype users more aware of desktop sharing and start looking for a more complete collaboration environment.

What is in a fully featured collaboration environment?

• A common feature for all is that they support real time collaboration sessions for as many as 500 participants. That’s not going to happen in any basic Skype client.
• Secondly Skype for Mac’s screen sharing involves turning the user’s desktop into a virtual webcam that goes through the Skype video channel. In other words you can do screen sharing or Skype video calling but not both concurrently. With the offerings mentioned below, the desktop sharing and other collaboration activity is via TCP/IP channels that are independent of the Skype video channel.
• Take the recently launched InnerPass Skype Extra “Share and Collaborate, Communicate“. Here is an enterprise document management company that has found a way to add Skype features that ride on top of their document management infrastructure. That infrastructure supports engineering drawings, FDA records, and business contracts amongst other document-intensive, mission critical documentation. As a result they have developed a Skype Extra that creates persistent “document rooms” which business teams may access for real time conferencing sessions. But the documents rooms can be accessed by individual team members between these team conferencing sessions. Version tracking is an important feature here. (A more detailed post on InnerPass’s offering is coming soon.)
• Yugma provides the ability to collaborate across Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. There are session moderator features to switch presenter, start and stop recording, manage participants’ role as active or passive, etc. It’s a complete collaboration environment where the voice channel could be Skype’s multi-party calling or, for more robust voice conferencing, use HiDef Conferencing.
• Lotus Sametime Unyte has been the poster child for an entrepreneurial Skype partner. Now within the IBM fold, it is being targeted to IBM’s enterprise customers within a larger role of collaboration that was pioneered by Lotus Notes.

No, Skype is not going after Webex or Yugma’s or InnerPass’s or the Lotus Sametime markets. Skype’s screen sharing is another feature that’s a peer with file sharing, video calling, IM/chat or SMS messaging. It’s a person-to-person calling complement; it’s not for highly robust, readily scalable business grade collaboration services.

Phil, I’m sorry but Skype for Mac’s screen sharing, to which I had access about a week before yesterday’s announcement, is a feature not a collaboration service. Let my repeat my statement in my initial post on Skype for Mac:

Skype for Mac’s screen sharing feature is sufficient to support discussion issues as a complement to a voice and/or chat conversation; it is NOT by any means a replacement for fully featured desktop or application sharing offerings such as Yugma, Inner Pass or IBM’s Lotus Sametime Unyte. It’s “just” screen sharing. In fact, it is one of two options on the Skype for Mac’s “Share” button, the other being file sharing/transfer.

Bottom line: There are lots of opportunities for independent developers who want to develop a complete offering that makes an independent business.

Update: Alec Saunders, who as Microsoft’s original Internet Explorer product manager, led the effort to make MSIE a feature within the operating system – and effectively killed Quarterdeck’s web browser, has his comments on this situation. Bottom line here is that Inner Pass and IBM are embedding Skype into other services they already offer.

Over the past two weeks there have been several announcements and activities related to the personal conversation space:

• Skype announced its Skype 4.0 beta program trialing a “full desktop” interface.
• SightSpeed announced an improved SightSpeed client with many engineering improvements to enhance video and audio quality
• SightSpeed for Business announced a 9-party video conferencing capability
• iotum launched its rebranded CalliFlower voice conferencing platform
• Dell announced their new Studio line of prosumer laptops incorporating Dell Video Chat powered by SightSpeed.

And the combination of these announcements, along with my own experience in using these services, hit home once again that it’s all about the user experience. This market needs to remain competitive through innovation but at the same time it’s also measured against performance, process and marketing. Skype and iotum have set some standards to be met, including:

• High Quality Video that has turned my lethargy about video calling into an enthusiastic user whenever feasible. Its 640 x 480 @ 30 frames per second over widely available (cable and DSL) broadband connections, along with top quality webcam optics, sets the standard I am looking for.
• Echo cancellation: while I continue to use a headset for privacy and courtesy reasons, most of my Skype calls are to contacts who are using the basic microphone and speakers provided as the basic configuration of a PC.
• Wideband or HD audio: provides an clarity of sound that constantly amazes. Unfortunately, our legacy phone system makes compromises that we have to live with but when it comes to VoIP-based services I want that HD voice.
• Complementary services: iotum’s interactive participant interface richly enhances the voice conference call experience.
• Upgrades: when I do an upgrade I just want the new version to work. No hangups, no PC freezes. Whereas upgrades could be the cause of much angst ten to fifteen years ago, upgrades offered to the public today – especially if enforced – need to “just work”. And these days I find most offerings meet that standard.
• Auxiliary services such as conversation archiving and file transfer.
• Beta programs are just that: programs to try out new concepts and get user feedback. Pre-Internet I ran software beta programs out of the public eye; today many services and offerings tend to leave their offering in a state of “constant beta” in the public eye such that users don’t realize that beta means provide feedback and check out the various phases as the offering evolves. But please don’t equate beta with the “officially released” product.

And my “like-to-have” list includes:

• Multi-party video conferencing
• Improved conversation management; switch readily between multiple conversations and see a record of all activities with a contact.
• Improved marketing at all the service providers: give us the straight goods, what is the benefit to the user? Forget the technology accomplishments, yes we appreciate – it’s about the user uptake and experience.

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Last week Alec Saunders received an evaluation Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks; in a post today he comments on:

• the camera’s basic optics quality
• his previous objections to video calls that are overcome by Skype’s High Quality Video:
  • getting the right lighting
  • how previous cameras tend to focus, distractingly, on the forehead rather than the face.
• our twenty minute “across the Internet table” video call this afternoon.

and includes a couple of video comparisons. The outcome: he ordered an additional camera off eBay so he can do Skype video calls with his family while traveling.

Previous High Quality Video posts:

• High Quality Video: What’s the Benchmark?
• High Quality Video: Definitely a Winner for Skype
• Expanding the High Quality Video Experience and Observations

Tags: Skype, Skype Video, High Quality Video, Alec Saunders, Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks

Philips, Sony, IPEVO, Nokia, Belkin, Intel MID demonstrating Skype-enabled hardware.

As outlined in my recent Skype Primer series there are many dimensions to the Skype ecosystem: core real time conversation services, hardware, mobile and partner solutions. At CES we encountered two of these dimensions:

• Skype itself was promoting the spread of mobile access to Skype, supported by displays from three mobile device partners
• Skype hardware partners were demonstrating various phone, headset and webcam offerings.

While providing a brief overview here, there will be future posts as we gain more experience with these offerings.

Philips was exhibiting their 841 PC-Free Dual Mode Cordless Phone (lower left), introduced at CES last year, along with two new offerings:

• Their VoIP251 (upper right) allows for the addition of a DECT 6.0 cordless Internet phone for Skype calls to a home or office environment to complement an existing landline phone. Users are no longer confined to a USB connection. The VoIP251 integrates a built-in display so users can view active, online contacts at all times. And it supports both PC and Mac platforms.
• Their VoIP151 (center right) is designed as a travel companion USB Skype phone; it also supports both PC and Mac platforms. The integrated display lets users easily view their contacts; the handset has been designed for simple cable management by neatly rolling the cable around it.

IPEVO demonstrated their ability to craft unique solutions with their exhibit that included two unique products:

• Their POV WebCam that lets users share their “point of view” during Skype sessions. One feature that makes it unique for Skype users: snapshots captured with the camera can then be sent to other Skype contacts via Skype’s file transfer. It also includes software for remote monitoring via Skype Video. But its main differentiator comes from their press release:

Unlike conventional web cameras designed to focus on the user’s head, PoV is a detachable viewing tool that offers the freedom to capture images and video from any angle and vantage point.

With its pen-like form factor, PoV encourages picking up and pointing. When not held, the camera naturally rests on a base that stands on a tabletop or can be clamped to a laptop or monitor. A well-designed holder clip allows PoV to be attached or detached with a simple drop / pull motion.

Six newly WiFi-enabled IPEVO SOLO desktop phones allowed booth visitors to call anywhere worldwide via Skype or SkypeOut. I was able to make a call back home with excellent voice quality. (You can see people in the background of the picture above making calls.). From their press release:

An always-on device, SOLO lets users place Skype calls without a computer. Equipped with an RJ-45 Ethernet connector, SOLO works wherever a broadband Internet connection is available. In addition, the new Wi-Fi Dongle unveiled at CES brings wireless capability to the device, enabling both home and office users to choose the best spot for their Skype calls, as they no longer need a wired connection to a router.

IPEVO’s North American GM Edware Lucero emphasized to me IPEVO’s focus on “experience-driven” internet devices, responding to customer needs; they certainly demonstrated it here with these unique offerings. Much of this customer feedback comes from their previous affiliation with Taiwan’s PChome Online portal service from which IPEVO spun off last summer. They also need to be commended for finding a way to get a reliable and robust WiFi connection amongst the “WiFi” confusion and limitations that are often encountered at large exhibitions such as this.

Sony had two stands with Skype-enabled products: the PlayStation Portable and new mylo COM-2. Skype will become available to current PlayStation Portable owners via a system software update to the PlayStation Portable; the feature set includes, in addition to Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calling, contact list management, presence and acceptance of SkypeIn calls. No mention is made of Skype text chat in the press release. On the other hand a footnote to the press release mentions: “To enjoy Skype features on PSP, users will need Memory Stick DuoTM, a wireless Internet connection and a Skype compatible audio input device.”

The Belkin booth demonstrated a new dual mode Skype PC Free desktop phone with a full color display; while buried in a “model” bedroom, booth personnel were very aware of the Skype phone’s presence. More interesting at the Belkin booth was their Flywire system for wirelessly controlling home theatre systems.

The second generation Sony mylo COM-2 provides a variety of web entertainment applications including web browsing, a 1.3 megapixel camera, support for IM via Yahoo, AIM, Google Talk and Skype, widgets for Google Search and YouTube amongst others, a music player and games.

For Skype it builds on user experience with the original mylo by introducing a significantly enhanced Skype user interface as well as supporting additional traditional Skype features. Full Instant Messaging (presence and chat), Skype calling and a much more complete account management feature set are amongst the capabilities introduced on this version. In the demonstration I was given, they showed how one can take a picture and then use Skype’s file transfer to send the snapshot to other Skype users. MacSkype? According to the press release: “the new COM-2 mylo communicator devices will receive free access to participating Wayport® hotspot locations in the U.S. including more than 9,000 McDonald’s™ locations until Dec. 31, 2010.”

When I visited the Nokia booth I found that both of the Nokia 810′s available for booth visitor trials had the Skype client open. Obviously a popular feature. The slide-out QWERTY keyboard should provide a better keyboarding experience although I found it almost as difficult as an iPhone for getting the right keys. Also the limited WiFi connectivity in the booth did not allow for any serious evaluation.

Finally the Intel MID booth showed several manufacturers prototype Mobile Internet Devices; however, they were not able to locate the unit with the Skype demonstration. According to Skype’s press release the first implementation of Skype for Mobile Internet Linux on Intel MID’s will be made available “during the first half of 2008″. The full Intel booth also showed strong promotion of WiMax, which is to be supported in MID’s.

Tags: Skype, Skype Hardware, Skype Phones, Philips, Philips VoIP, IPEVO, IPEVO POV webcam, IPEVO SOLO, Belkin Skype Phone, Sony PlayStation Portable, Sony mylo, Sony mylo COM-2, Nokia N810, Intel MID

Those folks at Engadget have been reading through the FCC applications again and uncovered an application from Creative Labs for their (forthcoming?) inPerson wireless video conferencing phone. Interesting feature set claimed, including:

• VGA camera (640 x 480)
• 802.11b/g WiFi and Ethernet
• TI DaVinci graphics chip, designed for set-top boxes and handhelds
• 76-degree wide angle lens with “excellent low light performance”
• fully integrated with SightSpeed accounts
• TV out port
• Battery life: 2 hours, increasing to 5 hours using TV out
• no pricing available

Gallery of photos, probably taken from the FCC application. In order to attract an initial customer base, it seems like they’ve also partnered with SightSpeed as the device apparently incorporates SightSpeed support including “automatic SightSpeed account login, speed dials, call history and contact list management”.

From my experience with Skype’s High Quality Video and the subsequent reviews of the Logitech QuickCam 9000 Pro one would have to question if Creative has taken similar steps to Skype’s partnering arrangement with Logitech to allow 30 fps video at 640 x 480 resolution over a 384 kbps upload speed.. I can also see end user network configurations issues to make it a practical consumer device. At the moment SightSpeed requries a 1.5 Mbps upload speed (well beyond standard broadband upload speeds of < 1Mbps). to support 640 x 480 @ 30 fps. Or has Creative licensed webcam technology from Logitech?

To go out on a speculative limb, can this portend a future Skype Video phone from, say, Logitech using their Carl Zeiss optics and RightLight^TM2 low light sensing. Recall Skype and Logitech had to work together to adapt the Logitech Carl Zeiss cameras, through both device drivers and adaptation of Skype’s p2p technology, to work at these specifications.

And how many telecom platforms will we have on our desk, in our house or on our belt (mobile devices). The world is a long way from figuring out where and how it wants to wear video. I am slowly adapting just using the High Quality Video for my Skype calls from my PC as a standard component of my conversations.

Tags: Creative, FCC, Engadget, Skype, Logitech, SightSpeed, TI DaVinci, Logitech QuickCam 9000 Pro

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High Quality Video certainly places superior demands on technology resources; in testing yesterday evening with Phone Boy, Dameon Welch, we found superior performance for the user who has those resources.

In previous posts I have talked about doing a setup for High Quality Video and subsequently putting together the requirements, goals and benchmarks for High Quality Video. Working with a 1.6 GHz CoreDuo Laptop, Logitech 9000 webcam with version 11.5 drivers, Skype 3.6 for Windows and a 6Mbps download/800 kbps upload cable Internet connection at my end and a 2.6 GHz Core2Duo Desktop, and even faster Internet connection at Dameon’s end we did test video calls of both Skype’s High Quality Video and SightSpeed 6.0 to determine what constitutes the better user experience. In today’s post I will describe our High Quality Video results; tomorrow I will provide a summary comparison with SightSpeed. along with commentary on some other experiences that helped to define what to expect for High Quality Video.

As a preamble to our results, and building on my recent interview with Jonathan Christensen, Skype’s GM for Audio and Voice, their High Quality Video is the result of extensive co-operation between Logitech and Skype working together to optimize their codecs and drivers, often at some fairly basic levels to achieve a sustainable high quality video experience. Skype had set initial goals of having a sustainable user experience that could be achieved by a reasonably broad base of Skype users: 640 x 480 @ a sustainable 24-30 fps outcome over an entry level broadband connection (384 kbps). They tested out many webcams on the market to see if there was potential to meet this requirement; nothing worked.

Then Logitech provided a demonstration of a prototype QuickCam Pro 9000 while it was still in development; they had finally found a camera that had the potential to deliver the sustained quality and frame rate in a consistent and reliable way. At that point they launched a co-development effort involving Logitech, On2 and Skype to optimize the codecs along with the capture and rendering software required. They also found it necessary to specifically optimize for real time video conferencing scenarios involving mostly “stationary talking heads” in sustained lighting situations and perhaps people walking into and out of a frame as opposed to the requirements for full motion broadcast video such az YouTube movies. This allowed them to cut back significantly on CPU utilization amongst other modifications.

“The result is that we have certainly arrived at a state-of-the-art situation in terms of coding, capture at the sending side and rendering at the other side”, stated Christensen. Amongst other issues Skype and Logitech had to deal with CPU utilization management, low light conditions, image sharpness and intelligent adaptation to varying network conditions (especially at the end points) to deliver a service that could work at a minimum 384 kbps bandwidth. While the released service reduces the wide variability of outcomes seen with other webcam configurations and provides a fairly consistent result, they are still working on issues such as better and more intelligent network utilization but they feel they have the camera, driver and coding issues well under control.

The Complete High Quality Video Experience

Over the past few days I have tried out the High Quality Video with almost all my Skype calls, even if the other party did not have a webcam. While the sending (capture) end of the call requires relatively new hardware (Dual core processor, Logitech webcams with Carl-Zeiss optics) the receiving end can view High Qualty Video even with higher speed single core processors and have an excellent video viewing experience (based on comments of several viewers).

The real challenge was to find a situation where both parties met the requirements for High Quality Video; yesterday evening “Phone Bay” Dameon Welch (who normally uses a Mac) had finally put together a Windows configuration, using one of the Logitech Carl-Zeiss cameras where we could truly test bi-directional video calling over reliable network conditions. (In another post I’ll talk about how testing for High Quality Video is resulting in the exposure of underperforming DSL services.)

Display Options with High Quality Video

Launching a call: once connected the receiving party sees the window on the left in the active call tab of the Skype client; after about 30 seconds High Quality Video has been established. The promotional bar at the tope goes away after a minute or so. The white logo in the upper left appears when the frame rate exceeds 24 fps; why this particular number is a question we have put Skype. Using the “technical call info” we found that, while occasionally the frame rate would drop to, say, 12 – 15 fps, the picture quality did not deteriorate noticeably. Certainly a crisp, sharp picture, moving the head or hand across the viewing range would not result in “shadowing” or other artifacts, even below 24 fps. The “camera” icon on the left in the bottom frame allows you to capture the picture; in the resulting captured image window two mouse clicks trigger a “file transfer” of the captured image back to the other party while the image is also stored in your “My Skype Pictures” folder.

High Quality Video with Call Management Options

Above is a “Video in Window” image (reduced from 640 x 480 to accommodate the width available in this post). While not having the logo due to insufficient frame rate (~ 15 – 20 fps) it represents the quality of video image we saw. Most importantly we did not see any “shadowing” if he moved his head or put up his hand and raised his five fingers. On the other hand this image is an example of the “intelligent adaptation” inherent to the Skype software at work, where Skype will adjust to both CPU utilization and changing network conditions (jitter, return time, etc.) such as to maintain a high quality picture even when not working above 24 fps.

CPU utilization management is one feature of the new Skype video where the software is monitoring CPU usage such that Skype video does not consume all the CPU resources. In one situation where I found the video “capped” at sending 15 fps, simply turning off my SlingPlayer (which itself was using about 2.5 Mbps of bandwidth via an internal LAN connection to my SlingBox) allowed the frame rate to increase above 24 fps to invoke the High Quality Video logo on a sustainable basis.

Full screen video at 1650 x 1080 gave again a good picture, maybe with a bit of pixelation in going from 640 x 480. In the SightSpeed comparison tomorrow I will comment on the “intense” room light above Dameon’s head and how the Skype video adjusts for the saturation such an intense light can create.

Checking out the "close-up" focus with a High Quality Video webcam

Finally an image that demonstrates some of the optics of the camera: close-up of a Pokemon card showing both how the auto-focus feature adjusts and the quality obtained even when an object is only 4 to 6 inches from the camera. And in my image at the lower left I had reduced the room lighting to one 50-watt recessed “under-the-shelf” lamp above my work surface, yet Dameon was able to distinguish the stripes on my shirt. This is the Logitech “Right Light” sensing in operation where it can pick up images in very low lighting situations. (And the High Quality Video logo during this conversation had held at this point for over 15 minutes.)

Clearly Dameon and I agreed that Skype’s High Quality Video is a winner and provides, in hardware and software configurations meeting all the requirements, an excellent user video experience. The issues here include:

• Skype’s High Quality Video, as a free service, represents one more threat to the personal communications segment of business video conferencing, even at the enterprise level. Business model disruption at work again.
• Having enough Skype users using the Logitech webcam to take advantage of the Carl-Zeiss optics and driver optimization. Dual core processor PC’s have now been on the market for eighteen months and become the entry level standard; the new Logitech Carl-Zeiss optics cameras are priced at the same level as their previous generation webcams.
• Ensuring a good quality Internet connection at least meeting the minimum 384 kbps speed but, in subtle ways, High Quality Video works better (for instance ramps up to the desired frame rate faster) on higher speed connections.

Dameon’s post; (Link to come when available)

Tom Keating and Rich Tehrani have done some testing as well:

As always, Skype has over-delivered on their free offering, providing superior functionality at the bargain basement price of zero dollars. Obviously you will need a new video camera and possibly a new pc to take advantage of the highest quality Skype video yet but these seem like small sacrifices to make when you consider you will not have to pay a recurring service fee to videoconference at far superior resolution.

This new product is certainly a win for the world’s most popular IP communications software company and moreover for users of the popular software/service.

Tomorrow: the SightSpeed comparison, working with Macs, other experiences and a summary.

Tags: Skype, High Quality Video, Logitech, Skype 3.6, Dameon Welch, Phone Boy, Jonathan Christensen, QuickCam Pro 9000, On2 Technologies, Carl-Zeiss optics

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Lots of confusion out there: High Quality Video, HD Video, HD Voice, High Definition Audio? What do these terms mean? And what does High Quality Video mean when it comes to Skype Video calling? “Well, my configuration should work”, comes from both other vendors and some end users. Did a bit of research to try to find a baseline against which all these claims could be measured.

HD Video generally refers to video with a minimum 1280 x 720 resolution (720p). Common to all High ?? Video descriptions is the transmission of video at 25 – 30 frames per second (fps). “HD VoIP” was the subject of an excellent session at Fall VON and generally refers to audio transmission of voice covering at least 8kHz audio — primary range of the human ear (sometimes called wide band audio); Intel appears to have taken over the term High Definition Audio to describe some of their audio-related technology.

The aim of this post is to provide some background that allow us to move forward in testing High Quality Video. Without a standard to be achieved we are seeing lots of claims about various webcams and the ability to transmit video. In this post I will set some basic benchmarks to help identify High Quality Video when it happens. In future posts I will cover some of my experiences attempting to have Skype-based conversations using High Quality Video.

My first question to Jonathan Christensen, Skype’s GM for Audio and Voice, was “What defines High Quality Video?” Summing up his response it’s the sustained transmission of 640 x 480 (VGA) video resolution at 24 – 30 fps over a minimum 384 kbps connection. And the key word here is “sustained” as in “carrying on a reasonable length conversation” user experience. Previously one could get burst of VGA quality but sustaining it was not practical due to non-optimization of all the technology pieces that need to come together.

Skype initially considered a higher resolution involving the 1280 x 720 “true HD” Video spec but soon saw that as unrealistic within today’s network conditions and video technology limitations. According to Jonathan, his Skype Audio/Video engineering team did a significant amount of research looking at factors such as webcam technology, codecs, webcam drivers, end user configurations, network conditions (including user end point configurations), image sharpness, CPU utilization, and surrounding light sensitivity in coming up with a video calling product specification. And they had to settle on the type of video content that would be most commonly used: “talking heads” in a home or office desktop environment. (No Discovery Channel panoramic scenery video or high speed action sports such as hockey or football here.)

Basic requirements: many have heard about the Sender (Capture) requirements:

• Intel Dual Core (or CoreDuo) processor
• Logitech QuickCams with Carl-Zeiss optics (9000 Pro, Pro for Notebooks)
• QuickCam software drivers version 11.5
• Skype 3.6
• Internet Connection: (an industry standard minimum requirement for video transmission)

At the Recipient (Rendering) end these requirements are relaxed to:

• Fast processor (but not necessarily Dual Core)
• Skype 3.6
• Internet Connection: minimum 384 kbps upload and download speed

So how do you identify High Quality Video is being captured and transmitted by the sender and received. and rendered by the recipient? Simply put, Skype injects a logo into both the active call window’s video indicator and the recipient’s video picture, whether within the active call tab, a 640 x 480 Window or full screen. This logo only appears in situations where either the Sender is sending 640 x 480 @ 24-30 fps (above) or the recipient is receiving 640 x 480 @ 24-30 fps (left). Drop below 24 fps and the logo goes away; come back above an it appears. To add to the confusion, the Sender can be sending High Quality Video, yet the recipient does not necessarily see the logo unless certain conditions are met.

A few other notes:

• In my testing I have come across a couple of situations where High Quality Video was being identifiably received under the “Recipient” conditions (for instance an Inspiron 6000 with a single 1.6 GHZ Pentium M processor, shown above, and Phil’s 64-bit AMD processor PC, both of which had Skype 3.6 installed).
• Note that the Recipient can launch not only a Chat session from the video within the Active Call window but can also “capture” the picture as a still photo (camera icon).
• If a recipient is using an earlier version of Skype (3.5 or earlier), they may be seeing High Quality Video but there is no indication via the logo. The only way to check is via “displaying the technical call info”¹.
• It can take about 45 to 120 seconds for a High Quality Video connection to be established.. Using Skype’s “technical call info” feature¹, you can actually observe the Send fps rate ramp up; High Quality Video identification only occurs above 24 fps (and a 640 x 480 frame size). So there is obviously some initial handshaking/negotiation activity generated on launching a video call.
• It is worthwhile checking your own Internet connection speed and connection conditions^2. I have found using the Visual Ware VoIP Quality and Speed Test provides a relatively good measure (requires Java on your PC). However, other measures may be required on other continents as distance from the measuring server can play a role in the resulting tests. My cable connection appears to be running between 6 and 6.5 Mbps for download and consistently around 800 kbps for upload. QoS is usually above 90% with low jitter (<10 ms) — more than sufficient for High Quality Video requirements.
• The best SightSpeed can support for “Send” under my network conditions is 320 x 240 @ 30 fps; if my upload speed could be raised to 1.5 Mbps, it could then support 640 x 480 at this frame rate.

But the real challenge is the overall end user configuration including network conditions. And this is where Skype still needs to some testing and more experience to achieve a consistent and sustainable³ High Quality Video user experience. I have attempted Skype High Quality Video calls in several situations with significantly inconsistent results and continue to expand on that experience base.

A second question: In launching High Quality Video as a marketing tool “why did Skype let the situation get out of their control in terms of setting user expectations?” (Note: broken link to original post; no other reference) Can’t hit the target when there is no stated target to aim for. It’s insufficient to state what the requirements are; independently measurable benchmarks are also required:

• Resolution: 640 x 480 (VGA)
• Transmission rate: 24 -30 fps
• Time of call: 30 minutes meeting these requirements
• Time to reach transmission rate at stated resolution: < 2 minutes

And how does it deal with other considerations?

• Low light environment
• CPU utilization management
• “Intelligently” adaptation to network traffic conditions

Both subjects of upcoming posts.

¹ Tools | Options | Advanced | Connection –> “Display technical call info ….”; then run your cursor over the active call window to bring up the technical info for your call.
² In one instance the other party found his speed to be about 400 kbps download; he thought he had subscribed for a 3 Mbps service 3 years ago so checked with his service provider who confirmed he was only getting a 500 kbps service. At this point he is seeking compensation from his service provider!
³ Sustainable means to have a 30 minute or longer video call while maintaining the High Quality Video status as indicated by the presence of the logo at both ends.

I spent some time this afternoon interviewing Jonathon Christensen, Skype’s General Manager for Audio and Video. After reviewing with me how Skype came to be able to offer High Quality Video (which will be the subject of another post), Skype released this statement of interest to those Skype enthusiasts who had been using a video configuration option (i.e. – “hacking” the config.xml file) to allow Skype video to use a 640 x 480 mode of non-Logitech webcams.

Last year, we created a configuration option to enable better video performance on Skype for Windows for tech-savvy users with webcams that could handle it. In Skype 3.6 for Windows, the option was removed. While it’s true that the configuration option (which was essentially a garage hack) did offer better-than-average video, the quality was very unreliable. It worked for some users while frustrating others.

Any benefits of the removed option pale in comparison with High Quality Video, which was our focus in Skype 3.6 for Windows. High Quality Video has moved the video-quality bar significantly higher. That’s because, together with Logitech, we worked on all aspects of the video system — from optics to drivers to the video codec — to achieve reliable High Quality Video performance.

Very few people used the previous video configuration option, so we were surprised at the reaction of some of these users when the option was removed. We’ll therefore happily re-introduce the option very soon. However, we’d like to remind users that the restored configuration option will not provide the High Quality Video experience. In order to get that, users will need a combination of certified Logitech hardware and optimized Skype software.

Fundamentally Skype had set out some time ago high standards they wanted to achieve in terms of sustainable, reliable, robust video calling performance and evaluated many brands of webcams before partnering with Logitech. They then worked together on both hardware and software to achieve what has been released in Skype 3.6 as identified by a High Quality Video logo which appears when meeting all the appropriate conditions, including frame rate.

Skype listened to those who raised the issue. Of importance is to understand that users who deploy the video configuration option do so at their own risk; Skype can only guarantee High Quality Video to those whose PC, webcam, software and network conditions meet the High Quality Video specifications. No date has been given for the hot fix that will include not only the restoration of this capability but some other video operation improvements, but let’s hope it’s within the next couple of weeks..

Now as for Dan’s question about getting High Quality Video on the Mac. Recall the difficulty of getting any tools to allow third party development on the iPhone? Suffice it to say it’s not for lack of trying on the part of Logitech and Skype to work with Apple. When I tell the rest of the story about the level to which Logitech and Skype had to co-operate to achieve what we’re seeing in Skype 3.6, you’ll understand.

Take a MacBook with embedded webcam, add Skype video and mix into a WiFi Connection

Amber MacArthur is a local Toronto-based technology reporter who not only does daily television broadcast reports for CityTV but also has her own CommandN.tv online video podcasts. Last Wednesday at mesh 2007 I found her in one of the conference hallways broadcasting live to CityTV’s local cable information station, called CP24, being interviewed by an anchor back at the studio. The viewers would see the anchor while Amber appeared on a display monitor beside the anchor (unfortunately I had no way to capture the actual broadcast).

As her video source she was using her MacBook’s webcam, capturing the picture via Skype for Mac and sending it out over the conference’s WiFi network back to the CP24 studio where they were receiving the video on another Skype client and putting it up on the flat panel display monitor in the anchor’s studio. Because this was a live broadcast, she did use a mobile phone for the audio as they could not risk any audio degradation due to packet loss, etc. She did say that had it been a recorded event, they would have used Skype as they can then edit out any audio problems.

Amber uses Skype for Mac quite extensively for her own podcast interview recordings and has a Cyberspeaker for Mac to assist with these recordings. CommandN is produced weekly every Wednesday and can be uploaded to iTunes for viewing on a PC and is also available in several other formats. Recently she launched Webnation, another weekly technology show produced for broadcast on CityTV but also available for download via iTunes; once again Skype plays a key role in its production.

I’ll be watching for a future opportunity to capture an actual broadcast as viewed over my cable service. And there should be a contest for the most innovative application of Skype; this would be a winner!