Visual Collaboration For Small To Medium Enterprise

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Visual Collaboration for Small to Medium Enterprise:

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By David Maldow, Esq. August 2013
4 Reasons Why Visual Collaboration Will Make Audio Conferences Extinct

August 8, 10 am PST 1 pm EST
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V I S U A L C O L L A B O R AT I O N F O R S M A L L T O M E D I U M E N T E R P R I S E
Table of Contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Right Time Is Now. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Benefits of Business Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Customer Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Customer Example #1: The Morris Bart Law Firm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Customer Example #2: KaBOOM!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Considerations When Choosing a Solution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Solution Snapshot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Vidyo Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 VidyoPanorama. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 VidyoRoom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 VidyoDesktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 VidyoMobile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 About the Sponsor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Copyright 2013 Telepresence Options
TELEPRESENCE OPTIONS
Introduction
We are now all in the business of doing business. The days when a good company could simply make a great product and expect viral success are long gone. To survive in todays market, companies need to deploy business processes that deliver a clear advantage over the competition. Various management systems from the personal (like David Allens Getting Things Done) to the organizational (like the Agile / Scrum methodology popularized by Sutherland and Schwaber) have infiltrated the workplace. Whats notable about many of the more popular productivity systems and philosophies is how much they rely on an open and active communication and collaboration network within the organization. In order for your team to achieve its full potential with todays modern project management methodologies, you must first empower them with the right tools. Offering your employees proper individualized productivity tools can foster their individual talents. It doesnt take a managerial genius to realize workers will make better spreadsheets with MS Excel than with graph paper and pencils. Similarly, there are tools (communication and collaboration tools in particular) that provide the same kinds of benefits for teambased productivity. You can offer your working teams anything from tin cans and string to a cuttingedge, highdefinition videoconferencing environment, but you must understand that your choice of communications tool may limit your groups productivity. The late Steve Jobs explained the importance of choosing the right tools with the following story: I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. Humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing about a third of the way down the list That didnt look so good, but then someone at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle. And a man on a bicycle blew the condor away. Thats what a computer is to me: the computer is the most remarkable tool that weve ever come up with. Its the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds. Steve Jobs While Steve Jobs was clearly talking about tools for individual productivity, the same concept Figure 1: Actual Values: Kilometers per calorie per weight applies to teamwork. The first step to truly empower a working team is to increase its connectivity with each other, customers, and partners. What good is it for your top talent to generate incredible ideas if they arent connecting to the people who can put these ideas into action? Steve Jobs also had something to say about the value of teambuilding: 2
My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each others negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are never done by one person; they are done by a team of people. Steve Jobs Great things may be done by teams of people, just as Steve Jobs said, but it certainly helps if they are connected by the proper tools to synergize their talents. Just as individual efficiency tools empower the people in your organization, collaboration tools can empower the groups and teams in your organization. In other words, a Figure 2: Theoretical Connectivity Values proper remote collaboration solution is a bicycle for your teams collective creative productivity potential. Imagine increasing the connectivity between your team members and your company and its clients (see the chart above). With greater connectivity comes enhanced synergy and increased productivity.
The Right Time Is Now

There have been countless reports over the last decade on the advantages of upgrading a business communications network with highdefinition video. Yet many organizations have still held off on implementing a solution of their own. In the past there were many reasons for holding off and waiting for the technology to further develop. Now there are several reasons to believe it is safe to invest in videoenabling your working teams.
The Shift to Software

As recently as 2008, the videoconferencing industry was almost completely appliancebased. Both the endpoints in the meeting rooms themselves and the infrastructure items (video bridges, gateways, etc.) in the server room were purposebuilt appliances with specialized hardware (which equated to limited flexibility and high costs for users). At the time, generic servers and PCs simply werent powerful enough to support highquality videoconferencing. However, due to the constant (Moores Law) improvement in generic hardware, as well as advances in videoconferencing protocols and architectures, things are much different today. Not only can a typical PC host a businessclass videoconferencing meeting, a common tablet or phone has enough power to support a great session. Furthermore, advances in virtualization have all but eliminated the need for specialized infrastructure hardware, allowing for simple software installation on standard servers or even hosting all infrastructure in the cloud. Finally, a software deployment is futureproof since it is relatively easy to update, at least compared to the burden of purchasing and installing new hardware every few years.
The chart below is a real world example of the how the shift to software enables viral adoption and usage of videoconferencing. The solution in use here is the Vidyo platform (sponsors of this document) in use at an undisclosed (but high profile) educational / research organization. The visible drops in usage over weekends and winter break are due to the fact that this is the actual raw data generated by the videoconferencing platform itself. In a few short months, the environment grew from a test deployment, supporting ~500 calls a day, to full saturation at ~3000 per day. This type of rapid growth would be extremely difficult with a traditional, hardware based, videoconferencing deployment. The high cost of hardware infrastructure, combined with the logistic and support burdens involved with a hardware rollout, generally tend to limit hardware VC expansions to a few meeting rooms at a time.
Quality / Reliability
Potential videoconferencing users have shown almost no tolerance for low quality or failed meetings. If a video meeting starts late due to connectivity issues, or fails due to interoperability issues, or drops due to network issues, users are very quick to simply shift the meeting to a standard phone conferencing. Unfortunately, the next time they are asked to participate by video, they remember this failure (and the associated wasted time) and will often insist on just using the phone. In other words, less than perfect reliability, or less than acceptable quality, doesnt just ruin a meeting, it turns off potential users to video. Todays customers are just as quality sensitive. Fortunately, great progress has been made in this area in the last few years. Todays solutions (including those offered by the sponsor of this document, and highlighted below) are well designed to deal with the vagaries of the public Internet and can selfrepair an impacted meeting, hiding issues from users. The bottom line is that by carefully choosing a cuttingedge videoconferencing solutions, you can all but eliminate meeting failures which may block adoption by your users.
Affordability
In the past, videoconferencing was costly. Fortune 500 companies first deployed visual collaboration in their boardrooms not because they are the only organizations to benefit but because they were the only ones with the resources to install and operate an expensive, hardwarebased, videoconferencing environment. Today, softwarebased deployments for videoconferencing can be implemented at audio conferencing price ranges. 4
Cultural Readiness
There has been a major shift in the workforce over the last few years. We have become video savvy. In the past, videoconferencing adoption in the workplace was strictly a topdown affair. Videoconferencing (VC) salespeople would convince the CLevel executives at a company about the benefits of videoconferencing, and those execs would then purchase and deploy the equipment and order their workforce to use the new systems. This approach offers mixed results. Todays demand for video in the workplace is bottomup as more and more employees say, Hey, I use VC at home to talk to my kids at college, why cant I use it to be more productive with my coworkers and partners? With this type of bottomup demand, viral adoption is much more likely, which means a much higher ROI for purchase of visual collaboration services. A modern communications network can no longer be qualified as a nicetohave or a someday technology. Your competitors are using visual collaboration technology TODAY to get an edge in the marketplace. Big business has been using it for a decade, despite the technologys previous growing pains. The results of their struggle led to todays solutions, which are now affordable and manageable by even small to midsized enterprises. Keep in mind, the shift to a modern communications network will not happen overnight. Your workers have been conditioned their entire lives to reach for the phone when they need to meet with someone. Adjusting to the power of visual communications will take some time, so you need to get your team started now before they fall too far behind the competition.
Benefits of Business Video

While the benefits of visual collaboration have been well documented, it is worth noting that the focus has recently shifted. Traditionally, videoconferencing was primarily sold as a cost savings over travel. This made sense, as the ROI was easy to calculate and the concept of saving money by reducing flights is easy to understand. Although millions of dollars worth of videoconferencing equipment was sold on the basis of saving flights, travel cost savings are actually just a small fraction of the true value and ROI of a full featured visual collaboration environment. Consider this: most videoconferencing users will participate in dozens, if not hundreds of video calls per year. Only a small fraction of these meetings would have required air travel if video was unavailable. Therefore, the vast majority of videoconferencing meetings provide some value beyond travel avoidance. Increasing productivity, and empowering the Beatleslike teamwork so admired by Steve Jobs are the ROI drivers for todays video deployments. The return is being further sweetened by the availability of lower cost, high quality, software based, solutions. Videoconferencing isnt about replacing the airplane, it is about replacing the telephone and the commute. While it is great to avoid lines at the airport, much more significant is the increased connectivity with team members, increased impact during presentations, increased retention of shared information, and increased productivity by visually empowered teams.
Customer Examples
The time to empower your working teams with visual collaboration is now. The benefits of video arent theoretical gains you might experience in the future. Companies of all sizes are deploying visual collaboration in new and fruitful ways TODAY. We investigated a few companies that recently deployed environments powered by Vidyo, the sponsor of this document. What we discovered was impressive and greatly exceeded our expectations. We found that the days of videoconferencing as primarily a meetingroom function are long past. These companies, as you will soon see, have wisely taken advantage of the increased flexibility of a modern visual collaboration solution.
CUSTOMER EXAMPLE #1: THE MORRIS BART LAW FIRM

The benefits of the typical meetingroomvideoconferencing dynamic are well established and documented countless times in papers like this. To show the true potential of a modern softwarebased VC solution, we specifically sought out an organization with a reputation for successfully using cutting edge technology and efficient business practices in innovative ways to thrive in a hypercompetitive market. This led us to Morris Bart, the leading personal injury law firm of New Orleans as well as all of Louisiana and the Mississippi gulf coast (http://www.morrisbart.com/). Morris Bart is well known in New Orleans (and much of the South) for his longstanding and undeniably effective One call, thats all advertising campaign. To the Bart Law Firm, customer satisfaction is the key to survival, and an effective advertising campaign can only sustain any business for so long in an environment where word of mouth and recommendations from neighbors and friends travel fast.
Morris Barts Video-Empowered Legal Team

In 2003, Morris Bart donated $80,000 to his alma mater, Loyola Law School, to establish the Morris Bart Electronic Classroom, which features videoconferencing and related collaboration technology. Since at least that time, he has been applying his talent for efficient process and his vast experience with the psychology of the attorneyclient relationship to integrate the power of visual collaboration into his firm in a way that enables his attorneys to quickly move a case to trial while providing his clients with the information they need to feel reassured in their representation. The flexibility, quality and reliability of Vidyos offering was the integral part to bring Morris Barts vision into reality. Morris Bart chose Vidyo after a lengthy search and an extremely close look at the competition. The company previously used another vendors VC endpoints for its meeting rooms. One of the big factors in the decision to use Vidyo was that Vidyo can use Port 80, a firewallfriendly way to access the Internet, allowing for connections at any location. Another big factor is Vidyos compatibility with so many devices (including iPads, iPhones, Androids, and desktops), which leads to increased access. To summarize, 6
while competing companies pushed the roomtoroom model of VC, Vidyo was pushing the personto person model. We spoke with the IT Department at Morris Bart to learn exactly how they use Vidyo. As expected, the firm uses Vidyo to communicate with satellite offices throughout the south and expert witnesses throughout the world. But we were pleasantly surprised by the innovative way the firm leverages Vidyo while establishing new client relationships. Ideally, an initial conference with a client should be at the clients preferred location, usually his or her home. The client will be more comfortable and relaxed, which can lead to them sharing more accurate, relevant and comprehensive information with the attorney. Furthermore, many people can find the idea of going to a lawyers office so intimidating that they put it off, potentially letting evidence go stale. Unfortunately, it is simply impossible for a lawyer to give house calls to all potential new clients and still have the time to effectively manage any reasonable caseload. Morris Bart addressed this problem by using a specially trained team of investigators to act as a legal concierge service. These investigators meet with prospective clients at the clients preferred location. This is clearly a great service for potential clients, who need a little guidance with the process of getting legal representation. However, there are limits to how far a nonattorney working for a law firm can take the process since only lawyers can advise the client. So, this initial interview would then be followed by the investigator debriefing a Morris Bart attorney, which would then lead to subsequent meetings between the attorney and the client. The Bart Law Firm is initiating a new program, with the use of Vidyo technology (see more about VidyoMobile below) and tablets, that will ensure the very first visit can end with a signed, happy client and an attorney at the office already drafting the initial pleadings. The benefits of having an actual Morris Bart attorney talking face to face with with potential clients, in their own home, are extremely powerful. Aside from the obvious value of a fully informed, connected and happy client base, the company will also benefit from free marketing. New Orleanians like to share the events of their day, whether at the local bar or the neighborhood crawfish boil. When someone from Morris Bart shows up at their house, puts a tablet in their hands and lets them talk to their personal Morris Bart attorney, you can bet all their friends and neighbors will hear the story. As if that wasnt enough, the entire session will be recorded, providing incalculable additional value. Clients often share tons of information at initial meetings, more than handwriting can capture, and some of those pieces may become more relevant as the case proceeds. With the session recorded, the attorney and investigator can really focus on communicating with the client rather than on taking notes.
Other Innovative Vidyo Uses at Morris Bart

While the process for assisting clients with the representation contract/agreement is revolutionary, it is just one of the many uses of Vidyo at the firm in all office locations. Vidyo room systems are installed in
every Morris Bart meeting room, VidyoDesktop is installed in every attorneys office, and VidyoMobile is being installed on attorneys personal devices. As a result, attorneys can communicate with other attorneys at all times. They also use Vidyo to take depositions of remote witnesses (another application where recording provides massive value). While lawyers may not always be able to make house calls, they are often forced to travel to take depositions when the witness cant be compelled to travel. The cost of attorneys sitting in traffic is unacceptable, and the use of Vidyo to conduct depositions remotely saves the firm significantly both time and expense. Their use of Vidyos gateway even allows them to conduct and record depositions taking place in remote meeting rooms with traditional video systems (Polycom, Cisco, LifeSize, etc.). The firm often uses its Vidyoenabled meeting rooms to provide access to expertise throughout its various locations. For example, an attorney at a remote office may need to speak with his or her chief litigator at headquarters. These rooms are set up following the principles of telepresence to provide a natural meeting experience. For example, they position cameras with eye contact in mind, use 60 screens for lifesized images, position screens and furniture to mimic a natural, acrossthetable, faceto-face meeting, etc. As a result, the remote people feel like they are in the room with the local expert. This leads to a more productive meeting, as attendees are not distracted by the technology and are focused on the work at hand. The firm leverages Vidyos powerful multipoint support as well. Mr. Bart himself regularly holds meetings that include attorneys and office managers from multiple remote offices. Before he put this system in place, all office managers traveled to headquarters every month for these meetings. Now they only need to do so twice a year, holding the other 10 months of meetings over Vidyo. Aside from the cost savings, think of the time saved. Instead spending all that time traveling, these office managers can be doing their jobs. Furthermore, eliminating that unnecessary travel is a benefit from a qualityoflife perspective. It isnt just the attorneys at Morris Bart using Vidyo. The IT staff uses it constantly. If someone needs help troubleshooting at a remote location, he or she can take a tablet or phone into the server room and show another IT staff the problem so they can directly assist and resolve the issue. The firm also uses the Vidyo environment for training. They have configured the environment to push webinars to users on their Vidyoenabled devices and conference rooms. These sessionseither live interactive or prerecordedcan include training for new technologies as they are being added to the Morris Bart environment, recordings of real client meetings (reviewed for training purposes), or even messages from Mr. Bart himself. The firms main conference room uses a massive 80inch monitor accommodating sessions with multiple onscreen participants. This dynamic is particularly effective in an environment like Morris Bart, where numerous remote offices are reporting to, and coordinating through, a central headquarters.
Training the Attorneys

To maximize the effectiveness of communication over videoconferencing, the firm trains lawyers on proper VC behavior and etiquette. This includes simple pointers such as when to look directly into the camera to give the appearance of perfect eye contact. More nuanced tips include how to avoid interrupting or talking over people if a little latency is slowing the exchange on the network. Since lawyers already 8
know quite a bit about how to present themselves, it is interesting to watch them adapt their skills to this new dynamic. Mr. Bart personally involves himself in such matters, down to details as the lighting and background his attorneys use when videoconferencing. When you live in a wordofmouth community like New Orleans, every aspect of the client experience is worthy of the bosss personal attention. Mr. Barts success is 100 percent attributable to client satisfaction. The clients get the complete experience they want: the compassion, the attention, and often the verdict.
Conclusion
Technology cannot make a bad lawyer into a good one, but the capabilities of a fully enabled Vidyo environment can clearly mean all the difference in keeping clients informed and happy during the sometimes painful litigation process. Lawyers have dreamed of effectively using videoconferencing for decades, but it was just too expensive and complicated. With the simplicity, affordability, flexibility and reliability of Vidyo, not only is VC now available for basic communication in the legal community, it is being used in ways we never even imaged.
CUSTOMER EXAMPLE #2: KABOOM!

This national nonprofit is dedicated to building neighborhood playgrounds by partnering with local communities. With a goal of solving the play deficit problem, KaBOOM! (http://www.kaBOOM.org) provides children and communities with safe, inspired play environments. The results are not only healthier, happier and smarter children but stronger, more connected neighborhoods. The process involves several weeks of coordination with the local community, resulting in a oneday design and a oneday build of the actual playground. The organization has built or improved over 15,000 playgrounds throughout the United States.
Background
How can a nonprofit working with a local community possibly achieve the level of coordination required to organize, prepare and manage a oneday build? Previously, the answer was a lot of phone calls. The KaBOOM! team needs to coordinate with funding partners and community members, as well as remotely located KaBOOM! resources. The entire process of building a playground can involve between 200 and 300 people. In even a single build, the audio conferencing minutes quickly start adding up.
Unfortunately, that can get expensive when we are talking about group audio conferences. With over 1.5 million phone minutes a year, KaBOOM! was feeling the pinch. Furthermore, these meetings often involve documents and plans, which forced KaBOOM! to use a separate webconferencing solution. This not only adds cost, but doubles the complexity of scheduling and organizing the countless meetings required to build a playground.
The Vidyo Decision

KaBOOM! took a long, hard look at its existing telephony and webconferencing expenses and functionality and decided it needed to make a change. Its expected needs and requirements were pretty straightforward: Ability to connect remote workers spread throughout the country. Ability to invite interviewees/partners/community members with a simple Outlook invite. Individual accounts/virtual rooms for everyone on the team. Support for data collaboration (webcast/screen share). Support for multipoint meetings (specifically multiple people on screen at the same time). Aside from the ability to meet all these needs, Vidyo was chosen because of its easy user experience. You can train your employees to use a complicated solution, but if you plan on a lot of collaboration with people outside your organization, you need a solution that allows for basic click to join invite capability and easy operation once within a meeting. Considering how many guest participants (i.e. community members) KaBOOM! communicates with on a daily basis, the simplicity and flexibility of Vidyo was extremely compelling. Initial adoption within KaBOOM! went viral. Even during the trial phases, everyone was clamoring for their Vidyo accounts. As a result of user demand, over half the organization was up and running before the program was even announced. This is impressive considering how comfortable people are with the telephone and how tricky adoption of new technology can be. To be clear, Vidyo provides more than the videoconferencing component of the KaBOOM! communications network. In addition to the expected video meetings, Vidyo is also the basis for the nonprofits audio conferences and hybrid meetings (audio and video participants), in addition to supporting its webconferencing and video recording needs. While KaBOOM! still uses the phone, its staff prefers Vidyo whenever possible. Although Vidyo doesnt claim to be a UC solution, it has gone a long way towards unifying the KaBOOM! communication system. 10
The Benefits of Vidyo for the KaBOOM! Team

For KaBOOM!, switching to Vidyo provided a host of benefits. From a hardline budget perspective, the nonprofit saves an estimated 15 percent in communications expenses by avoiding audio conferencing charges and eliminating the need for a separate webconferencing solution. From a logistics perspective, Vidyo solved the problem of having to reserve audio conferencing lines. Every member of the KaBOOM! team has their own Vidyo account, allowing them to host group meetings (audio, video and screen share) in his or her own virtual room at any time. Interestingly, when going through the list of Vidyo benefits for the KaBOOM! environment, one might overlook the massive benefit of shifting from audio to video communications. The benefits of video are just as powerful here as in any other organization, perhaps even more so. For example, the ability for KaBOOM! team members to actually see the potential partners face to face and show them the value of what they do is incalculable. Likewise, the ability to quickly form trusted relationships over distance with community members clearly helps the process. In addition, as with all remote planning projects, the use of video for planning sessions greatly increases productivity and efficiency.
The Sandbox
One particularly notable use of Vidyo is for KaBOOM!s biweekly all staff meeting. In the organizations Washington, D.C. headquarters, the primary meeting room is known as The Sandbox, featuring two massive 70 monitors. During the meeting, a large number of remote participants are displayed simultaneously Brady Bunch style on these monitors. There can be over 100 people in these meetings, some on audio only, some using VidyoMobile, or VidyoDesktop from home, all connected with the best experience available from their particular endpoint. In fact, since empowering their team with Vidyo, all three meeting rooms at KaBOOM! headquarters are in heavy use. For the most part, all three rooms are hosting videoconferencing meetings at any given time. These are hardcore, productive working sessions saving KaBOOM! countless hours of time due to the efficiency of working over video, as compared to remote project work with the limited power of the phone.
Conclusion
With heavy use internally and externally, Vidyo has transformed the KaBOOM! conferencing dynamic. The result is reduced costs, more productive and efficient project meetings, a quicker and more powerful human connection with the community members involved in specific projects, and a better, more flexible work environment for the KaBOOM! team.
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Considerations When Choosing a Solution

As the case studies above show, each environment is unique. Thats why it is important to choose a solution that supports the specific needs of your team. Even so, there are some obvious factors which should be considered in most situations: Scalability: The solution must be supportable and manageable, regardless of your organizations growth. Traditional hardwarebased solutions may require the purchase of additional infrastructure appliances to support larger deployments. Virtual appliances simply require users to request additional licenses or accounts. Affordability: A VC solution should be affordable enough to provide accounts for all users to allow for truly pervasive use throughout the company. Mobile support: The days of limiting use of personal devices is at its end. Users simply love their phones and tablets too much to give them up. A wise organization will support these users by providing a businessclass visual collaboration client for these devices. Interoperability: There are thousands of existing meeting rooms with traditional videoconferencing equipment already in place. Any new deployment should be able to connect to these rooms. Deployment Flexibility: A vendor looking to serve all needs must offer flexible deployment options. While many smaller organizations will take advantage of the newer cloud services due to their ease of maintenance and deployment, other companies may require the advanced network control and other benefits of installing virtualized infrastructure locally on their standard servers. Adoption Support: It has been proven again and again that videoconferencing adoption is not a given. Many systems have been installed in meeting rooms and rarely used. While todays solutions encourage adoption through better user interfaces and easer workflows for the user, it is still a good idea to partner with a vendor who will provide support in ramping up your new visual collaboration program. Usability: As mentioned above, ease of use is a key factor to adoption. In the past, videoconferencing systems required tech support even to place a simple call. A modern solution should allow users to easily conduct both scheduled and ad hoc conferences with little or no training or IT support.
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Solution Snapshot
Vidyo (the sponsor of this white paper), offers leadingedge solutions designed with the above considerations in mind. In fact, the key advantages of a Vidyo environment (listed below) clearly address these considerations in order to overcome the challenges that historically impeded adoption and ROI. Quality: Vidyos unique architecture (described below) provides a business class experience with exceptional resiliency. Device / Network Friendly: Vidyos software based offerings are optimized to provide business class quality on the devices and networks used every day in the typical SME workplace. Affordability: The cost savings come from a number of sources. - Vidyo users avoid the expense of specialized or dedicated network and/or hardware. - Vidyo is user friendly. Users can manage their own calls, avoiding support costs. - Vidyos actual cost is comparable to audio conferencing, whereas traditional videoconferencing could be orders of magnitude higher. Please note, the advantages of Vidyo technology go far beyond this top level list. The following sections contain more information regarding the unique benefits of the Vidyo platforms architecture and related offerings.
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Vidyo Architecture
The Vidyo product portfolio is powered by the VidyoRouter architecture, which leverages Adaptive Video Layering (AVL), the ability to dynamically optimize the video for each endpoint. During a videoconference, Vidyos core technology continuously monitors the performance of the underlying network and the capabilities of each endpoint device and adapts video streams in realtime to optimize video communication. Video compression is layered into multiple resolutions, frames rates and quality levels. The combination of the VidyoRouter delivering just what the endpoint needs combined with endpoints software using whatever it gets to create seamless video results in unprecedented error resiliency and natural HDquality video communications. Vidyo is the first multipoint video conferencing solution that delivers ratematching and continuouspresence capabilities without additional video encoding and decoding. This unique capability allows a 10X reduction of the endtoend latency of MCUbased solutions, which is crucial for a natural communication experience.
In addition to the VidyoRouter as an appliance, the VidyoRouter is offered as a virtual appliance, which means it can be installed on a standard server or hosted in the cloud. VidyoRouter is the only solution to virtualize the media plane and deliver videoconferencing capabilities with incredible efficiency and reach. And with VidyoRouter you can spin up VE instances on demand with the flexibility to choose private, public and hybrid clouds.
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BENEFITS:
Outstanding video quality with resolutions up to 1440p/60 Dynamic adaption to changing network conditions Remarkable efficiency, where each physical or virtual VidyoRouter delivers 100 or more concurrent HD connections Meshed architecture delivers global scalability: to increase capacity, add another VidyoRouter instance anywhere in the network Software and virtualization economics eliminate the need to purchase and maintain proprietary hardware components Reliable performance, even over lessthanperfect network connections Interoperability with all types of conferencing devices, from handhelds and desktops to multiscreen telepresence studios
VidyoPanorama
VidyoPanorama is the industrys first affordable telepresence solution that delivers truly immersive interactions on up to nine screens of 1080p at 60fps resolution at 10 percent the cost of current telepresence solutions. With VidyoPanorama, companies can empower their employees to work from anywhere there is an Internet connection and promote a higher level of collaboration with highquality video conferencing using mobile and desktop devices and room systems, as well as immersive telepresence rooms. For too long customers have been constrained by costly, inflexible immersive telepresence solutions that provide experiences far from immersive. A typical deployment costs $1 million when factoring in the network and ongoing maintenance costs. Even after that expense, the experience is not truly immersive and often imperfect due to limited screen space, as well as high video latency and poor video quality when incorporating mobile and PC endpoints. VidyoPanorama overcomes these limitations by leveraging Vidyos patented Adaptive Video Layering, which dynamically optimizes video streams to the capabilities of each endpoint and network conditions.
BENEFITS:
More screens provide more room to collaborate See content shares from multiple participants at the same time Modular system can be customized for any size and shape of room
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VidyoRoom
The VidyoRoom system is easy to configure and use, with multiple layouts for video display including active speaker, continuous presence, data sharing or any combination thereof. Each participant can dynamically change his or her preferred layout at any time during a meeting, independent of other participants. Flexible conference control options are a snap using either the VidyoRemote app or a standard handheld remote control device. Support for farend camera control from other VidyoRooms and VidyoDesktops enables remote participants to control what they see as if they were in the room with other meeting participants.
BENEFITS:
An affordable way to Vidyoenable a conference room or collaboration space Professional PTZ camera options with farend camera control No extra charge for multipoint, dualscreen, and HD quality
VidyoDesktop
VidyoDesktop brings unprecedented telepresencequality video conferencing to a companys most commonly used business toolpersonal computers. The VidyoDesktop software client delivers low latency HDquality video for natural communications, and singleclick simplicity with an intuitivegraphical user interface or mouse control. Vidyo puts the productivity power of video conferencing into the hands of users.
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BENEFITS:
Superquick installation Windows, Macintosh and Linux* computers *(certain versions only) Realtime monitoring of participant video quality and network performance Customizable personal screen layouts, including preferred speaker and continuous presence formats and dualmonitor support Highly flexible application and data sharing options Integration with Microsoft Lync, IBM Lotus Sametime, and Adobe Connect
VidyoMobile
The VidyoMobile app transforms your Android or iOS smartphone or tablet into a virtual meeting place so you can collaborate with others from wherever you are. Now you can join or host single or multipoint video conferences over every day wireless networks as easily as making a phone call or sending email. VidyoMobile consistently delivers a telepresencequality experience to your mobile device and familiar gesture and layout controls allow you to participate productively in every meeting.
BENEFITS:
Available as a free app for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets Ideal for multipoint conferencing on WiFi, 3G and 4G wireless networks Dynamically decodes up to 720p and encodes up to VGA quality
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Layout control of dynamic continuous presence or active speaker switching Native gesture support includes pinchtozoom and pan VidyoMobile integrates seamlessly with the softwarebased VidyoConferencing platform and with other Vidyo endpoints, including VidyoDesktop, VidyoRoom and VidyoPanorama systems, as well as H.323 and SIP endpoints via the VidyoGateway component or the free VidyoWay interconnectivity service.
Conclusion
The time is now for every competitive organization to begin implementing a modern, softwarebased visualcollaboration environment. The benefits go far beyond the travel savings and schedulemeeting dynamic of yesterdays videoconferencing solutions. Today, visual collaboration can be used to connect your team anytime and anywhere to immediately enable a productive working session. Steve Jobs was well aware of the power of the ad hoc working session, which he described as follows: ...innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how weve been thinking about a problem. Its ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea. Steve Jobs With todays remote and disparate workforce, the old water cooler isnt as heavily trafficked as it used to be. However, that doesnt mean we cant have effective, ad hoc, facetoface meetings. We just have to make it as easy and natural as meeting at the water cooler. A businessquality videoconferencing solution can do just that, and is now in reach of small and medium enterprises. Visual collaboration is no longer an expensive tool for the Fortune 500. We have passed the inflection points of cost, reliability and ease of use. There is nothing stopping you from giving your entire workforce the ability to vastly improve their productivity and effectiveness through visual collaboration. The only question is whether you are ready to get started now, because your competitors arent waiting.
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About Telepresence Options

Telepresence Options is the worlds leading publication covering telepresence, videoconferencing, and visual collaboration. The brand includes: the flagship Telepresence Options website which hosts 35,000+ unique visitors a month from 190+ countries, the annual Telepresence Options Magazine, and the monthly Telepresence Options Telegraph newsletter.
About The Author

David S. Maldow, Esq. is a visual collaboration technologist and analyst with the Human Productivity Lab and an associate editor at Telepresence Options. David is a graduate of Tulane Law School with extensive expertise in testing, evaluating, and providing in depth coverage of telepresence and other visual collaboration / rich media solutions. David is focused on providing third-party independent analysis and opinion of these technologies and helping end users better secure their telepresence, videoconferencing, and visual collaboration environments. You can reach follow David on twitter.com/letsdovideo or contact him directly at David@TelepresenceOptions.com
About Vidyo
Since its launch, Vidyo has steadily gained industry recognition, attracted prestigious partners and customers from a variety of global markets, and earned the sought-after moniker of technology disruptor from media and analysts alike. Simultaneously, Vidyo has changed the business model for telepresence-quality, multipoint video communications from one thats dependent on expensive hardware and high QoS networks, to a highly flexible and scalable software solution that is affordable, easy to use and manage, and universally available.
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4
SPEAKERS
Ofer Shapiro
CEO & Co-Founder Vidyo Inc.
Reasons Why Visual Collaboration Will Make Audio Conferencing Extinct

Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013 1:00 PM EST | 60 Minutes
REGISTER NOW
Many people have long predicted that video conferencing would one day become the communication tool of choice for organizations large and small. At last, thanks to four tectonic shifts in technology and the business environment, the future is upon us. Learn why leading companies are now saying goodbye to audio-only conferencing in favor of the productivity gains of face-to-face visual collaboration. Webinar attendees will: Explore four trends that now make it simple for small and medium enterprises to video-enable their workforce. Discover why business-class video conferencing is now as affordable as audio conferencing. Learn how companies use visual collaboration to improve productivity, reduce project completion time, and enhance employees quality of life. Learn about key technology considerations and how to choose a solution that supports the specific needs of your team.
David S. Maldow
Visual Collaboration Analyst, Human Productivity Lab Associate Publisher Telepresence Options
MODERATOR
Howard S. Lichtman
Founder and President Human Productivity Lab Publisher, Telepresence Options

Visual Collaboration For Small To Medium Enterprise

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Visual Collaboration for Small to Medium Enterprise:

4 Reasons Why Visual Collaboration Will Make Audio Conferences Extinct

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The Right Time Is Now

The Shift to Software

Benefits of Business Video

CUSTOMER EXAMPLE #1: THE MORRIS BART LAW FIRM

Morris Barts Video-Empowered Legal Team

Other Innovative Vidyo Uses at Morris Bart

Training the Attorneys

CUSTOMER EXAMPLE #2: KABOOM!

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The Vidyo Decision

The Benefits of Vidyo for the KaBOOM! Team

Considerations When Choosing a Solution

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Copyright 2013 Telepresence Options

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Copyright 2013 Telepresence Options

About Telepresence Options

About The Author

Copyright 2013 Telepresence Options

Reasons Why Visual Collaboration Will Make Audio Conferencing Extinct

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