A quick guide to the choice of manufacturer VKS
This post should be considered only in the case of general acquaintance, everything written below is solely my opinion, and if desired, can be challenged. I hope that I am doing a useful job, and I will not hurt anyone.
On prices for VC solutions I would divide from expensive to cheap, as follows:
1. Cisco Telepresence (TANDBERG)
2. Polycom
3. LifeSize
But do not assume that the more expensive - the better, in this case it is not applicable. Each manufacturer has a number of advantages and disadvantages, and I don’t consider the rest of the producers, due to insufficiently developed line, or poor quality equipment. In order not to be unfounded, except for the manufacturers listed above, I am familiar with the equipment of such companies as Radvision, SONY, Huawei, Aethra, etc.
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Slightly departing from the topic, I note that at the moment there are a huge number of domestic developers who do not have adequate analogues to any iron solutions of leading manufacturers (at least I could not meet such people). Most often, software is an alternative to hardware, and the word alternative, like its counterpart, is only similar / “no worse than” in relation to a full-fledged adult system. If your company does not have enough funds for a full-fledged solution for video conferencing or you cannot improve the communication channel (which is often found in the regions), I would recommend playing on free Skype, it will give basic ideas about video conferencing in general, and an understanding of the necessary functions to build a serious project on videoconferencing. Also, I do not exclude purely specific tasks that can be built solely on software solutions, but most often such tasks are not correct, but follow from a misunderstanding of the basic principles of video conferencing and unwillingness to consider solutions that are different from the rigid framework (for example, in most cases it’s too high doesn’t lead to a multipoint to anything good, before setting the problem, it is necessary to get acquainted in detail with standard features, typical solutions for different manufacturers).
So, in short, what are the differences between the leaders of the VKS market (and for clarity, a comparison with German auto manufacturers):
Cisco TelePresence (ex-TANDBERG)
The most expensive solutions on the market, capable of solving difficult tasks, requiring wide quality channels, and massive financial injections. Designed for large state-owned enterprises, where there is a whole dedicated staff of engineers VKS, but can also be used in small organizations, with plans for expansion.
If you compare VKS with a car, then I would refer Cisco TelePresence to Mercedes, this user-friendly, comfortable, elite equipment will serve your company for a long time, and you will not agree to anything less, but with “TO” you must count on serious financial investments. Total, high quality, elite, but too expensive.
My vision of the future is that Cisco is slowly removing from the TelePresence line extra high-quality and interesting products, such as the Telepresence Studio T3, the notorious “President's Case” Tactical, built on the basis of 3000 MXP, a great personal 1700 MXP solution and a TMS management system, but if in cases with Telepresence T3, 1700, TMS, at least some kind of replacement already exists or will be, the powerful suitcase of the president has no analogues in Cisco. According to rumors, the past diverse vendors that Cisco has consumed are not selling as well and are not developing as rapidly as before, so I'm not sure that Cisco TelePresence products will develop as well as TANDBERG did.
An interesting point: the strength of Cisco hardware solution MSE-8000, capable of providing multipoint connection, a huge number of points.
Polycom
The glorious manufacturer, known for its innovations, used to be comparable in price to TANDBERG, but after the “merger” of Cisco and TANDBERG, Cisco strongly inflated prices for the VKS line, and Polycom, in turn, left prices unchanged. Polycom solutions are perfect for large enterprises, heavy tasks, mono-vendor combination of audio and video conferencing, and for small tasks it is fine.
Comparing with the car, I would refer the Polycom to BMW, high-quality, fault-tolerant cars, ideal for their own purposes, “MOT” for this manufacturer, as well as for Cisco will cost quite a lot.
My vision of the future - Polycom will continue to be high-quality equipment, will continue its innovative developments, will be higher, faster, stronger. Already, one can observe a serious development of the personnel situation in the representative office in Moscow, which proves the success and positive attitude towards the future development of the manufacturer in the world, and in the Russian Federation in particular. Nobody has “swallowed” Polycom at the moment and it continues to successfully develop new technological standards.
An interesting point: Polycom has an excellent DMA solution that allows you to combine several MCU servers (multipoint communication server) into one, and this server can intelligently route points from different regions to appropriate conferences to save traffic, i.e. all users have a single address that they use to collect multipoint communications, and the DMA server thinks about them, where to collect multipoint communications.
Lifesize
High-quality equipment, the first to release high-resolution video conferencing, among the basic principles of LifeSize is high-quality images, availability of solutions, compatibility with major manufacturers. LifeSize solutions are designed for commercial companies that can count money, for which, in the first place, functionality and resiliency are fundamental, and not the design of the hardware in the server room. I would characterize LifeSize solutions as an optimal price-performance ratio, and an ideal solution for small organizations that require compatibility with all VCS manufacturers.
When compared with a car, I would compare the LifeSize with Volkswagen, which are successfully trying to make good cars for reasonable money, so to say the perfect price-performance ratio, or, if you will, a happy medium.
My vision for the future is that at the moment LifeSize is in the TANDBERG stage, even before the purchase of Codian. LifeSize has chosen a different path of development than TANDBERG, which absorbed Codian (a manufacturer of serious infrastructure solutions), and plans to supplement the server equipment line with its own developments, which is very commendable, given the quality of their infrastructure solutions. With the acquisition of LifeSize, a well-known manufacturer of Logitech, LifeSize didn’t really change anything, they aren’t forced to change logos, impose new policies, products of other lines on partners, raise prices (as is the case with Cisco-TANDBERG), in my opinion, Logitech requires only formal reporting from LifeSize, leaving serious political decisions to LifeSize itself.
Interesting moments:
LifeSize has an MCU - Bridge multipoint conference collection server, which is one of the cheapest solutions in terms of port-price ratio, on the video conferencing market (I don't know about cheaper ones and the same quality ones). In the basic configuration (about 80k *), the Bridge server supports up to 16 simultaneous Full HD 1080p30 connections, and with a software extension (about 20k *) it can collect up to 48 Full HD 1080p30 participants, and that's only 100k!
Some words about mobile clients:
LifeSize absorbed Mirial with the ClearSea product, and now users of tablets / phones on Android and iOS were able to communicate via VCS with conventional systems in HD Ready quality (720p30). I tested it very much.
Polycom has released RealPresence mobile, but it has a number of drawbacks compared with the product from LifeSize - ClearSea. For example: ClearSea supports more devices than RealPresence mobile, ClearSea has a built-in multipoint onboard, and works as an HD Ready image, and RealPresence mobile only requires a separate server for outdated CIF and multipoint. On the other hand, at the moment, I have not tested RealPresence mobile, and honestly declare that ClearSea is better / worse than RealPresence mobile, I have no moral right.
TANDBERG / Cisco TelePresence has long stated that they also have full-fledged mobile video conferencing clients for Android / iOS, but in practice I could not find and test a full-fledged mobile client, unlike LifeSize, which has long been available on the market .
A bit about communication channels (IP):
Cisco is very demanding to the communication channel equipment, unlike Polycom, LifeSize, which try to make the best picture on the worst channel (for example, LS, POLY keep Full HD 1080p30 on a channel less than 2 Mbps, and Cisco on the same channel holds no more than HD Ready 720p30, which is half). It is also necessary to understand that most problems with video communication are caused by the channel and problems with iron are rare in all three manufacturers.
Cheap interesting glands:
From the cheapest equipment (I am sure, this question is interesting to many) I can note two positions: LifeSize Passport (personal system, the only one supporting both SIP and H.323, and even Skype!), And Cisco Telepresence E20, but this system supports only SIP and, in fact, is a personal videophone, rather than a system to which you can connect a large monitor (LifeSize Passport), so Passport is perhaps the most interesting of the cheapest hardware.
On prices for VC solutions I would divide from expensive to cheap, as follows:
1. Cisco Telepresence (TANDBERG)
2. Polycom
3. LifeSize
But do not assume that the more expensive - the better, in this case it is not applicable. Each manufacturer has a number of advantages and disadvantages, and I don’t consider the rest of the producers, due to insufficiently developed line, or poor quality equipment. In order not to be unfounded, except for the manufacturers listed above, I am familiar with the equipment of such companies as Radvision, SONY, Huawei, Aethra, etc.
')
Slightly departing from the topic, I note that at the moment there are a huge number of domestic developers who do not have adequate analogues to any iron solutions of leading manufacturers (at least I could not meet such people). Most often, software is an alternative to hardware, and the word alternative, like its counterpart, is only similar / “no worse than” in relation to a full-fledged adult system. If your company does not have enough funds for a full-fledged solution for video conferencing or you cannot improve the communication channel (which is often found in the regions), I would recommend playing on free Skype, it will give basic ideas about video conferencing in general, and an understanding of the necessary functions to build a serious project on videoconferencing. Also, I do not exclude purely specific tasks that can be built solely on software solutions, but most often such tasks are not correct, but follow from a misunderstanding of the basic principles of video conferencing and unwillingness to consider solutions that are different from the rigid framework (for example, in most cases it’s too high doesn’t lead to a multipoint to anything good, before setting the problem, it is necessary to get acquainted in detail with standard features, typical solutions for different manufacturers).
So, in short, what are the differences between the leaders of the VKS market (and for clarity, a comparison with German auto manufacturers):
Cisco TelePresence (ex-TANDBERG)
The most expensive solutions on the market, capable of solving difficult tasks, requiring wide quality channels, and massive financial injections. Designed for large state-owned enterprises, where there is a whole dedicated staff of engineers VKS, but can also be used in small organizations, with plans for expansion.
If you compare VKS with a car, then I would refer Cisco TelePresence to Mercedes, this user-friendly, comfortable, elite equipment will serve your company for a long time, and you will not agree to anything less, but with “TO” you must count on serious financial investments. Total, high quality, elite, but too expensive.
My vision of the future is that Cisco is slowly removing from the TelePresence line extra high-quality and interesting products, such as the Telepresence Studio T3, the notorious “President's Case” Tactical, built on the basis of 3000 MXP, a great personal 1700 MXP solution and a TMS management system, but if in cases with Telepresence T3, 1700, TMS, at least some kind of replacement already exists or will be, the powerful suitcase of the president has no analogues in Cisco. According to rumors, the past diverse vendors that Cisco has consumed are not selling as well and are not developing as rapidly as before, so I'm not sure that Cisco TelePresence products will develop as well as TANDBERG did.
An interesting point: the strength of Cisco hardware solution MSE-8000, capable of providing multipoint connection, a huge number of points.
Polycom
The glorious manufacturer, known for its innovations, used to be comparable in price to TANDBERG, but after the “merger” of Cisco and TANDBERG, Cisco strongly inflated prices for the VKS line, and Polycom, in turn, left prices unchanged. Polycom solutions are perfect for large enterprises, heavy tasks, mono-vendor combination of audio and video conferencing, and for small tasks it is fine.
Comparing with the car, I would refer the Polycom to BMW, high-quality, fault-tolerant cars, ideal for their own purposes, “MOT” for this manufacturer, as well as for Cisco will cost quite a lot.
My vision of the future - Polycom will continue to be high-quality equipment, will continue its innovative developments, will be higher, faster, stronger. Already, one can observe a serious development of the personnel situation in the representative office in Moscow, which proves the success and positive attitude towards the future development of the manufacturer in the world, and in the Russian Federation in particular. Nobody has “swallowed” Polycom at the moment and it continues to successfully develop new technological standards.
An interesting point: Polycom has an excellent DMA solution that allows you to combine several MCU servers (multipoint communication server) into one, and this server can intelligently route points from different regions to appropriate conferences to save traffic, i.e. all users have a single address that they use to collect multipoint communications, and the DMA server thinks about them, where to collect multipoint communications.
Lifesize
High-quality equipment, the first to release high-resolution video conferencing, among the basic principles of LifeSize is high-quality images, availability of solutions, compatibility with major manufacturers. LifeSize solutions are designed for commercial companies that can count money, for which, in the first place, functionality and resiliency are fundamental, and not the design of the hardware in the server room. I would characterize LifeSize solutions as an optimal price-performance ratio, and an ideal solution for small organizations that require compatibility with all VCS manufacturers.
When compared with a car, I would compare the LifeSize with Volkswagen, which are successfully trying to make good cars for reasonable money, so to say the perfect price-performance ratio, or, if you will, a happy medium.
My vision for the future is that at the moment LifeSize is in the TANDBERG stage, even before the purchase of Codian. LifeSize has chosen a different path of development than TANDBERG, which absorbed Codian (a manufacturer of serious infrastructure solutions), and plans to supplement the server equipment line with its own developments, which is very commendable, given the quality of their infrastructure solutions. With the acquisition of LifeSize, a well-known manufacturer of Logitech, LifeSize didn’t really change anything, they aren’t forced to change logos, impose new policies, products of other lines on partners, raise prices (as is the case with Cisco-TANDBERG), in my opinion, Logitech requires only formal reporting from LifeSize, leaving serious political decisions to LifeSize itself.
Interesting moments:
LifeSize has an MCU - Bridge multipoint conference collection server, which is one of the cheapest solutions in terms of port-price ratio, on the video conferencing market (I don't know about cheaper ones and the same quality ones). In the basic configuration (about 80k *), the Bridge server supports up to 16 simultaneous Full HD 1080p30 connections, and with a software extension (about 20k *) it can collect up to 48 Full HD 1080p30 participants, and that's only 100k!
Some words about mobile clients:
LifeSize absorbed Mirial with the ClearSea product, and now users of tablets / phones on Android and iOS were able to communicate via VCS with conventional systems in HD Ready quality (720p30). I tested it very much.
Polycom has released RealPresence mobile, but it has a number of drawbacks compared with the product from LifeSize - ClearSea. For example: ClearSea supports more devices than RealPresence mobile, ClearSea has a built-in multipoint onboard, and works as an HD Ready image, and RealPresence mobile only requires a separate server for outdated CIF and multipoint. On the other hand, at the moment, I have not tested RealPresence mobile, and honestly declare that ClearSea is better / worse than RealPresence mobile, I have no moral right.
TANDBERG / Cisco TelePresence has long stated that they also have full-fledged mobile video conferencing clients for Android / iOS, but in practice I could not find and test a full-fledged mobile client, unlike LifeSize, which has long been available on the market .
A bit about communication channels (IP):
Cisco is very demanding to the communication channel equipment, unlike Polycom, LifeSize, which try to make the best picture on the worst channel (for example, LS, POLY keep Full HD 1080p30 on a channel less than 2 Mbps, and Cisco on the same channel holds no more than HD Ready 720p30, which is half). It is also necessary to understand that most problems with video communication are caused by the channel and problems with iron are rare in all three manufacturers.
Cheap interesting glands:
From the cheapest equipment (I am sure, this question is interesting to many) I can note two positions: LifeSize Passport (personal system, the only one supporting both SIP and H.323, and even Skype!), And Cisco Telepresence E20, but this system supports only SIP and, in fact, is a personal videophone, rather than a system to which you can connect a large monitor (LifeSize Passport), so Passport is perhaps the most interesting of the cheapest hardware.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/136143/
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