I would like to tell you about one of our customers that has been using an IOCOM solution for many years now. From their customized room systems in 5 countries, they are able to create and edit design and engineering documents in real-time with customers. They are able to have the designers and engineers virtually in the same room with the customer, so that the customer is able to see and speak to the designers and see the edits as they are made. In many cases, this reduces design time by weeks. The travel savings is significant as well.

Just prior to implementing the IOCOM solution, there was a design meeting planned with one of their customers. The customer was flying internationally into the U.S. However, the customer was not granted entry into the U.S. So, our customer had to organize the design meeting in Canada, flying their customer there and then also the entire U.S. based design team. That will never happen again now that they use IOCOM. All of the people and data are available anytime from anywhere.

Each room system was installed a bit differently, but each room is composed of three 65 inch plasma screens with 2 of the screens having Smartboard overlays. The designers are able to share the design documents using IOCOM and customers or other designers in other locations are able to mark up the document by drawing on the Smartboard. The room is equipped with multiple cameras so that everyone is seen at the same time (using IOCOM’s unique ability to send multiple video streams from one location without telepresence type costs). The room has standard microphones and speakers as well for high quality audio. Finally, the IOCOM software is accessed and controlled by anyone in the room with the wireless keyboard and mouse from the familiar Windows desktop.

Very cool stuff, indeed.

–jim

One of the advantages of the Visimeet solution is having the flexibility to offer the same solution that we use for the Public Visimeet offering to private and semi-private organizations. A prime example is the great working relationship we have with the UK’s Education Network Body, Joint Academic Network or JANET. This body provides a highly available, high capacity network for the Education and Research community in the UK. This is a valuable tool that not only links schools, colleges and universities together, it also provides the high quality connections that are needed to get the most out of the latest network services. IOCOM has become a JANET Connected Partner, offering the same Visimeet service that is on the public network over the JANET network. The partnership with JANET provides the community with a number of important benefits. Having the Visimeet server on the backbone ensures that the highest quality connections for the meetings over the system. This is a critical factor for any IP Videoconferencing solution and a worry that is taken away.

The Visimeet service is software based with access to all. Users simply sign up at http://janet.iocom.co.uk for a free 30 day trial which rolls into a free subscription to use it. This provides enterprise quality video conferencing services to all educators and researchers in the JANET community. Teachers can now utilize VC for classroom, student interaction, guest lecturers and expansion of class room availability. Students and teachers no longer need to be in the same location to interact and can indeed be anywhere that a network connection is available.

Researchers now have a tools that can allow them to not only meet to discuss a project or idea, but also a method to work together remotely in a seamless fashion. Visimeet was born out of the Access Grid project that was designed by researchers, for researchers. The system provides connections for external data inputs that allows links high value, low availability equipment such as electron microscopes, colliders, high computational graphic analysis, basically anything with an output that can be renders on e computer display. This data can then be shared in a virtual meeting place so that many researchers can have access to the data and share thoughts and idea without needing to travel to the same location. Having this link on the JANET network provides a very high quality link so that accurate real time data is provided.

This also provides high quality links to the JANET Video Conferencing Services (JVCS) that many schools also use. The use of a the low cost, high availability Visimeet service with the fixed, embedded traditional systems is a great fit. Users can now download the software to their Mac or Windows machine and have access to the rest of the JVCS endpoints through simple user interface. This can be used by teachers joining in from office or home, guest lecturers, or any other location. As both systems are on the JANET backbone, the connections are of the highest quality and easily setup.

Along with the performance and ease of use of Visimeet, JANET also negotiated special pricing as part of the agreement. This provides the community with a low cost option for setting up a virtual classroom. The school or university can purchase the paid for Room system and invite students that are on the free version. Students receive the full audio, video and data feeds from the classroom while the classroom sees an image of all the students. For the cost of some off the shelf hardware such as a projector and Smart Board, which may already be in place, and the Visimeet service, effective and versatile virtual classrooms can be setup.

These are just some of the advantages that the JANET users enjoy on the Visimeet. The versatility and adaptability of Visimeet makes it a great solution for any large organization looking for an edge.

Recently there has been quite a bit of chatter about the security of videoconferencing end point systems and how their availability to the public network can allow the nefarious type to eavesdrop on private meetings.  Users of traditional videoconferencing systems often leave their systems on and in  auto answer mode so the system can easily be joined to a meeting by a more technically capable person so as to reduce the burden on the untrained participants.  This works to solve that problem but allows other, uninvited guests to connect to the systems and view the room without having knowledge of this.  This of course causes a security breach where an unknown person has joined into the corporate boardroom while critical company decisions are being made.

There are a few reasons why the systems are left in an unsecured manner but the overriding element is that the traditional H.323 style systems that are being used were not designed or intended to be used on the public internet.  The technology has grown out of standard telephone call technology and is meant for point to point to point calls on a private network or leased lines that are known only to the participants.  As demand from users has mandated the move to the internet, the same technology has been adapted, but works as the original concept.  The systems are difficult to operate so are often managed by a technician or a service that begins and ends the meeting for the users.  To reduce the costs of needing a technician in each room, many systems are set to auto-answer so that one technician in a control center can manage the meeting and  start multiple endpoints at once.  This does make using the system very easy but also leaves the endpoint vulnerable to other, unfriendly users to join as well.

IOCOM’s Visimeet platform was designed from the beginning to provide enterprise class videoconferencing over the public internet securely and safely.  The software has an intuitive interface that runs on standard computers and operates like any software.  This keeps the operation simple and is something all computer users can easily understand.  The operation was modeled after another very popular communication method, Instant Messaging, which again simplifies operation and uses operations known to the users.   This simple known method allows the individual users to operate the systems without a lot of training so that systems do not have to sit awaiting a call in from an outside source.  Users simply find the other endpoint on their list of accepted contacts and invite the user or users to a meeting.  Once accepted, the users are all joined and the images display on the video screen.  Both simple and effective.

The system does allow for an automatic acceptance of meetings if desired.  This can prove to be handy and can be used to remote in to specific endpoints.  One big difference though is that the IOCOM endpoints can only be invited by an accepted contact and not just any endpoint device.  This control allows the owner of the system to determine who can have the access and blocks uninvited guests.

Visimeet also includes other security specific functions that are incorporated in the design of the system.  Client endpoints can sit securely behind the corporate firewall and have access through a single outgoing port to a specific point.  Being client-cloud based, the clients do not allow point to point contact.  All meeting are arranged by the central servers in the cloud so that the communication only goes to the known point.  This provides greater security as the IP traffic only goes to a trusted source rather than needing to allow access to any point in the network.

At IOCOM, we often overlook these benefits as they are a basic part of the function of the system and we take them for granted.  It is only when other systems are looked at does the advantage become apparent.

The buzz of cloud computing can be heard everywhere. A wide range of software applications and service offerings boast that they are cloud-based. Video conferencing can be included as a tool that can be cloud-based. So, let’s get to answering the question asked in the title of this post.

The IOCOM Visimeet software offers flexibility, scalability and low cost of ownership at the client or end user side as it utilizes commodity based audio and video components so that it can affordably scale from a laptop up to a full telepresence like room. However, the IOCOM Visimeet server is cloud-based which provides additional advantages for small or large enterprises.

An organization can avoid the high cost of hardware, infrastructure and network with the cloud-based IOCOM solution. For a few employees or a large scale organizational wide deployment, the cloud-based IOCOM solution delivers the value of high quality, immersive video collaboration without the up front costs of equipment and staff to implement it.

Other key elements of a successful cloud-based videoconferencing service are reliability, interoperability and security, all of which are the strengths of the IOCOM Visimeet solution.

Finally, the other major advantage of keeping it in the cloud is that you can connect with anyone, anywhere at any time. It is always available and accessible from any internet connection. You can literally be up in the clouds (as I was last week on a plane offering internet) and connect to your customers or co-workers.