Did you see these blog posts yesterday?
- H.323 and Skype on the Blue Jeans Network (Thanks Wes for a great review!)
- LifeSize Enables Skype on the Passport (was hoping for this news after Logitech bought LifeSize)
And, in other news:
- Just got an iPad2 for a family member, and was very disappointed to find out that Skype doesn’t do video calling on the iPad2 yet. Read the forum discussion here.
- But, Mirial is offering iPad2 support (among many other mobile devices)
All these changes raise several questions:
- If schools want to connect to content providers and other classrooms globally, what should they buy?
- If content providers want to upgrade their current systems or start providing programs for schools what should they buy? (Seems to me a LifeSize Passport might be an interesting choice for the ability to send high quality content to both H.323 advanced videoconference systems and to Skype. But does it have enough inputs for all the great visuals content providers share with us?)
- Do all these changes make it so that teachers need less or more support figuring out how to connect to whoever they want to bring to their classroom? My gut is they need more. What do you think? Seems like full service support providers such as Whirlidurb can make this much more seamless for schools. The array of choices and options is getting dizzying!
- If you were going to use videoconferencing for full length courses now, what kind of videoconferencing would you choose?
Your Turn
What questions and potential changes do you see from these developments? Please comment!
I am out at Radvision’s headquarters in New Jersey this week for training on all their products. They have two products for the ipad. You can control your XT1000 endpoint with one (needed since the remote is not that friendly) and control and view content from Scopia Desktop calls. They plan to have an iPad2 app out this summer that will do video calls. Given Radvision’s history with H323, I have no doubt it will be the best video and have the best interoperability. However, given that Rad products are designed by great engineers, I fear that the user interface might not be up to par. We’ll just have to see. (Search for scopia in the app store to find the Radvision apps).
On another note, we did make some fun calls from their MCU to desktop clients and mixed them with telepresence units. Seems about the best way to inter-operate between H323, SIP and Telepresence. Very cool stuff.
Thanks for adding this additional info, Scott!
Sooo many industry changes and new offerings it is very difficult to choose a direction to steer our VC under constricting budgets. I continue to struggle with new installation choices between desktop VC and room VC equipment and the morphing of both.
Very recently I was informed about new Avercomm VC products. Although I do not have first-hand experience with their VC equipment (yet), the shocking price and features have caused me to seriously evaluate new h.323 system installations and/or upgrades. I feel they are definitely worth sharing as a very budget friendly VC option.
Jereme – I agree – all of a sudden it’s much harder to choose. I know several educators in Michigan who have been working with the new Avercomm products and are very happy with them. Thanks for suggesting that!
Janine