InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
June 7, 1999
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Bigger changes are on the way in the next 12 to 18 months, thanks to the rise of the Internet and IP-based networking. While ISDN connections are still the standard way companies handle videoconferencing, IP systems are gaining in popularity. Many systems being designed and developed today are capable of handling IP and ISDN traffic.
As data and voice networks converge, it's likely that videoconferencing will become just one more set of bits on the network. The result should be even more affordable videoconferencing access. IP video, like IP voice, is cheaper to deliver and more flexible than ISDN.
Conferencing vendors are also beginning to build streaming video capabilities into their products. Once companies are set up to handle the bandwidth requirements of a converged network, vendors say IP video alone shouldn't pose a problem.
Vtel Corp., for example, has built its product line on the assumption that IT managers will plug its products into an IP data network. The videoconferencing vendor has built a multipoint conferencing system, gateway, and network-management software designed to manage IP videoconferencing end units. The conferencing system and gateway are PC-based, run on Windows NT servers, and plug into 10-Mbps or 100-Mbps Ethernet networks.
Videoconferencing becomes easier once it is just another application on the LAN, vendors say. "Once you solve the bandwidth problem--by rearchitecting your LAN if necessary--video quality is actually better over IP," says Richard Moulds, VP of marketing for VideoServer Inc. in Burlington, Mass. "Once someone has upgraded their network to handle IP conferencing, they tend to conference at 700 Kbps or even 1 Mbps, whereas it's typically only 100 Kbps over ISDN."
This kind of network convergence is already in motion at Entergy, where videoconferencing has become a mainstream technology on the company network. The New Orleans power supplier serves five states and has a high-speed network that connects all of its various sites. Entergy runs its videoconferencing across its own backbone network, letting company executives discuss crucial day-to-day management and engineering problems, including regulatory matters related to running its five nuclear plants.
Though Entergy carries its own videoconferencing traffic, the company spent about $350,000 last year on videoconferencing equipment, including multipoint control units and end-unit upgrades from Vtel. Even with that expense, the company projects that it saved $1 million to $1.3 million in travel costs thanks to videoconferencing technology.
While Entergy isn't running video over IP now, it does plan to migrate to IP shortly, says David Horn, an IT consultant in Entergy's video area. "If it's not videoconferencing, it'll be streaming video, but the delivery mechanism will be there," Horn says.
Eventually, as bandwidth levels go up and IP becomes standard, videoconferencing capabilities should become a standard part of LAN equipment. That should push prices down even further, researchers predict.
Over time, both voice and video capabilities will be embedded routinely on enterprise switches, says Emmy Johnson, senior analyst in the networking services area of Cahners In-Stat Group. "You would have one box instead of all of these different boxes," Johnson says. "That will probably be cheaper than buying a bunch of different pieces."
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Illustration by Dennis Harms
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