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Echoing sentiments often expressed by John Chambers – the head of Cisco Systems (News - Alert) Inc., the world’s largest maker of computer networking gear – officials with a provider of products and technologies for unified visual communications over IP and 3G networks told TMCnet in an interview that video-enabled communications represents the industry’s strongest segment.

 

According to Anatoli Levine, director of product management for the Americas at Radvision – an international company with U.S. headquarters in Fair Lawn, N.J. – both video conferencing and video streaming are emerging as strong segments in this down economy.

 

“Ubiquitous IP connectivity makes it easier than ever to deliver video to a myriad of connected devices, and the introduction of scalable video codecs maintains quality video delivery over any kind of network connections, even ones with packet loss, making video more and more accessible and acceptable,” Levine told TMC President Rich Tehrani (News - Alert) in an interview that’s printed in full below.

 

Levine – who is speaking during ITEXPO West 2009 in September in a session called “Leveraging Video in an Enterprise Setting” – also told Tehrani that Radvision (News - Alert) is seeing an uptick in interest because more and more companies are reducing travel expenses, outsourcing work, utilizing global suppliers and increasing teleworking.

 

Their full exchange follows.

 

 

AL: The video conferencing market has moved rapidly to high definition and telepresence solutions and there is an increased need for advanced desktop solutions. We have increased our investment in development of new platforms to support these environments and we have created unique a partnership with Samsung to bring a HD desktop appliance to market at one-fourth the price of current solutions.

 

 

AL: It is no doubt video-enabled communications. Video-enabled means both real-time bidirectional video – that is, video conferencing – and video streaming in all kinds and shapes. Ubiquitous IP connectivity makes it easier than ever to deliver video to a myriad of connected devices, and the introduction of scalable video codecs maintains quality video delivery over any kind of network connections, even ones with packet loss, making video more and more accessible and acceptable.

 

 

AL: WiFi is a great networking technology, extending network connectivity beyond the reach of other access capabilities. WiFi will continue to grow, however both WiMAX and LTE will have an impact on WiFi deployments once they become economically feasible.

 

 

AL: Our technologies and solutions are utilized worldwide as video is become more widely deployed everywhere. So all regions – North America, EMEA and APAC – have very good growth potential. In general the North America market is our largest and will continue to be but we are seeing great opportunity in APAC in the next couple years.

 

 

AL: The fact that President Obama widely uses available technology for social communications and other needs is definitely helping to increase the awareness of the technology for everybody. The policies and incentives towards ubiquitous broadband coverage and enforcement of open device deployment in cable and carrier networks is also very essential.

 

 

AL: I heavily rely on my BlackBerry for all the communication needs. And on my short wish list is a good digital camera with 3G and WiFi interface to be able to instantly share and file the pictures. And yes, I would love to have a Radvision VC240 HD device on my desk ASAP.

 

 

AL: iPhone really created a revolution in two areas. One is the user interface and this has set the trend which will evolve for a very long time. The second is the App Store distribution concept which allows anyone to reach the customer market and sell without having to set up any distribution. Playing catch-up for the other smartphone vendors will be hard. Palm Pre is nice and neat but it can be only be placed into the evolution path of iPhone.

 

Google Android has not had a huge impact yet but it is interesting. It is not as impactful as Google Search has been for example. But in any case, all smartphones will continue to steadily grow in popularity and at some (not so distant) point exceed the market for regular cell phones in terms of sales and market adoption.

 

 

AL: The subject of the talk is “Leveraging Video in an Enterprise Setting.” Video is becoming a habitual part of communications within the enterprise and beyond, and it is also an integral part of the “Unified Communications (News - Alert)” umbrella. In the talk, we will look at the Video communications potential, trends and issues. We will also discuss how to ensure a “Quality of Experience.”

 

We will also discuss high definition video and whether it is practical for day to day use within the enterprise, whether you can talk to your customers in HD and what tools are available to add HD video to a multitude of communication devices? These and many other questions will be answered during the presentation. The talk should be attended by developers of the visual communication devices and applications, UC and Video architects, technologists and anyone who is interested in the state of high-quality video communications in enterprise and beyond.

 

AL: For more than 15 years, Radvision has provided best-of-the-breed technology to more than 700 partners world-wide, powering millions of devices and systems. In all these years Radvision has remained the most innovative company while maintaining leadership in standards and technology and ensuring the highest attention to product interoperability. Market and time-proven best technology, coupled with excellent support and service create a winning proposition for Radvision customers and partners.