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September 22, 2005
H.323 Video Conferencing
H.323 Video conferencing
The Internet2 conference took us out to the University of Pennsylvania. A great reception was held at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, one of the biggest anthropology museums in the world.
The head of the museum then welcomed us in the auditorium to introduce himself and wanted to engage us in a debate that showed promise. It was to be a debate with Delaware and Croatia on new technologies used for analysis and preservation of human fossils.
What follows is in no way meant to be disrespectful to the HUGE amount of work put down by everyone... having said this, here goes:
A couple of years ago, Magnus and I wrote a Marratech benefits versus H.323 document and got some angry email from industry people that we were spreading FUD. Yesterday night proved that all the work we have put down in developing our system is justified.
Here is what happened at the prestigious event, which was using H.323 Polycom equipement (from what I could see)
- The video quality was extremely nice, but we could barely hear anyone because of network issues and because of noises (AC and fans and echo) We could hear the codec struggling to play the audio in bad network conditions.
- Connections where dropped very frequently.
- Participants had trouble taking the lead and talking in the debate.
I was literally squirming in my seat, feeling bad for the people that put down hard work in making this Internet2 event work. But then, when I talked to Joe, I started remembering why we started Marratech.
H.323 comes from the ITU, an organisation linking the big telephone companies of the world. H.323 is based on H.320, the ISDN predecessor to the IP based H.323.
These standards come from an organisation that is used to dedicated circuits, not the packet based Internet. Dedicated circuits provide dedicated bandwidth and stable network conditions... something you will not find on the Internet and Internet2.
When using the Internet, one must build for the unexpected. While our solution is not perfect, we try to adapt to this reality by dropping video quality and lowering audio quality dynamically if necessary, so that the meeting continues. Our software continuously adapts and tries to compensate for network issues. If the network is cut temporarily, we try to keep it alive as to not have to rejoin the meeting.
This seemingly simple steps have not been so simple to implement, but they have been a priority at Marratech. After seeing yesterday's event, it is obvious H.323 video conferencing did not follow this path.
How can one justify the precedence of video over voice? Seeing debaters move at 30 fps but not hearing them because the audio could not adapt to packet loss is not understandable to me. I guess this is why it is called VIDEO conferencing.
How can a connection be dropped when there is a little network congestion? maybe I have been in my Marratech bubble too long.
Another important lesson I learned from yesterday was how an off-the-shelf computer with a camera and headset can beat the quality offered by a very expensive video conferencing solution with echo cancelling microphones. The participants could have used a much more normal voice (instead of having to scream) yesterday and the audio would have been a lot better had they used headsets.
Echo cancelling microphones and similar technology are very practical and nice, but it does not beat a cheap headset when it comes to quality. And we all know how sensitive our ears are.
I know, things can go bad with our software as well. Badly set up or outdated computers, badly plugged cables, or a network dying all together can really hurt a Marratech meeting. But considering our price difference with the Polycoms and the Tandbergs of this world, and considering our goal to provide reliable and built for the Internet solution, I must say that we have a strong advantage.
This blog entry is on the eve of the release of our H.323 bridging capability, which is a bit ironic. But perhaps this will introduce the H.323 users of the world and make them see how easily and reliable a laptop with a headset, camera and free client software can be!
What do you think?
Posted by Serge Lachapelle at September 22, 2005 07:36 PM
Comments
There are so many vested interests in selling H323, ISDN and audioconferencing and so much money at stake.
The machines that are WebEx, Breeze, Polycom etc seem able to convince people that the moon is made of cheese.
Unfortunately their size and profile means that they are able to convince users that H323 (or even ISDN!!!!!!) is the only viable answer (that is until they themselves switch to SIP in a year or two - that's great for them as they can then sell expensive H323 units this year and then replace those with expensive SIP units in 18 months, or at least sell expensive bridges and firewall traversal devices as a temporary solution before a full migration in three years time). This all adds up to $$$$$ wasted by the client.
There is the same nonsense with the idea that everything must pass through port 80, and you must use audioconferencing as there will not be enough bandwidth to use VoIP. Who peddles this nonsense, yes you've guessed it the phone companies! Who also strangles Internet access with high charges and low uploads - you've guessed it the same phone companies that sell ISDN and audioconferencing!
You can imagine the frustration when after six months of trials with a potential client in France who loves Marratech but then we find that someone at the very top level in their organisation has been convinced by France Telecom and Polycom to deploy an ISDN solution in 2005!!!! (thats like buying a horse and carriage instead of a motor car!!!!) Well the unfortunate side effect is that with all the budget wasted on ISDN there is little left for Marratech.
What can we do about this? Well we are fighting against some very powerful interests who are trying to retard adoption until they are ready with their own solutions. But we are also changing behaviour and attitudes from the 'ground up'. This means that we need to encourage more users to use Marratech for the network effect.
If only Marratech Free were available as a hosted service (say at a very low fee and maybe with a SIP/PSTN audioconferencing service attached say Marratech Free and X minutes phone connection for 5 Euros per months) then Marratech could really take off with the Skype/Google/eBay effect.
Skype and Google are trying to do this but won't be ready for months. Marratech could offer this tomorrow!
How would 60.000.000 Marratech Free users in 12 months sound like!!!
Posted by: Peter Cunningham at September 28, 2005 12:17 PM