MCS Forum Announces First Innovation Award to Gold Systems

Press Contact: Tom Cross 303-594-1694 cross@gocross.com

MCS Forum Announces First Innovation Award to Gold Systems

Innovation Award for Gold Systems Social Center - Social Networking Interface with Microsoft Communications Server Communicator and Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter

BOULDER – June 16 - MCS Forum (http:www.mcsforum.org) announced today the first MCS Forum Innovation Award has been presented to Gold Systems. "For almost 20 years, Gold Systems has been a proven innovator in emerging communications technologies and user interaction,” noted Tom Cross, CEO of MCS Forum. “Gold Systems Social Center takes a major leap in integrating the key business social networking tools of Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter together with Microsoft Communications Server, the leading unified communications presence tool. Users want 'one-click' communications and Social Center does that and more."

“We appreciate being honored with this award and recognized for Gold Systems’ innovation in developing applications for Microsoft Communications Server,” said Terry Gold, CEO of Gold Systems. “Gold Systems Social Center is an example of a value-added solution that developers can create quickly and easily using Microsoft unified communications technology to meet the changing needs of the market.”
Background on Social Center



Microsoft Communications Server provides a set of rich development tools and a comprehensive development environment for easily creating applications that increase productivity and add value for companies and users. Because Microsoft Communications Server interoperates with other Microsoft products, developers can respond to important customer requirements using the available application programming interfaces (APIs). The open standards and environment demonstrate the ability to deliver innovative software with useful communications features in the workplace.

Gold Systems turned to core technology in Microsoft Communications Server to build Gold Systems Social Center. The company wanted to combine the up-to-date information found on social networks with the power of real-time communications and collaboration tools. Gold Systems Social Center helps people work with the rich context provided through social networks and react with the seamless communications provided by Microsoft Communications Server.

Using the APIs from Microsoft Communications Server, Gold Systems developers created a “microblogging” application that appears as a Notes feature in Microsoft Office Communicator on each employee’s desktop. The Social Center application allows users to connect to social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn through their interaction with Microsoft Office Communicator. The Gold Systems solution makes it possible for employees to stay connected to their social network both inside and outside the workplace. The application can be modified by organizations for specific needs, such as security concerns or policies to protect information due to legal or compliance reasons.
Terry Gold demonstrated Gold Systems Social Center at the MCS Forum 2010 Expo, which was held June 15-16 in Boulder, Colorado. Gold also discussed other Gold Systems applications that bridge voice and data networks to add value to Microsoft Communications Server, demonstrating the power and flexibility of the technology to meet the needs of business communications.




About Gold Systems
Through its award-winning products and services, Gold Systems helps its customers identify where productivity can be improved with voice-driven solutions. The company’s unified communications implementation services, as well as its self-service speech recognition solutions, allow businesses to improve productivity and profitability. Gold Systems is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a 2009 finalist in Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference Awards in Unified Communications Solutions, Voice. Since 1991, Gold Systems software has automated more than 1 billion telephone calls around the world. More information about Gold Systems can be found at www.goldsys.com or by calling 303-447-2774 and saying “Sales.”

About MCS Forum
MCS Forum is a vendor-independent laboratory environment designed for learning, technical guides, knowledge resources and online “live” services. MCS Forum provides planning, project management, consulting, training, case studies, white papers, speaking engagements, market/customer research, network planning and other services.

For more go to http://www.mcsforum.org. Contact Tom Cross at 303-594-1694 or cross@gocross.com for more information. MCS Forum provides classroom and webseminar training as well as a non-production environment for those IT departments without additional equipment, budget or time. This allows planners and users to test ideas, dial in and dial back out, IM file transfers, remote desktop sharing, video conferencing, run scenarios, break linkages and learning about new telephony features and network access. MCS Forum is also designed for both the system integrator/consultant who wants to learn about MCS without having to build their own system, as well as the enterprise customer who doesn’t have the time or resources to develop one. MCS Forum Labs are designed to be “hands-on” or “over-the-shoulder” with experts available for Q&A and classes for feature-specific review. Free tutorials on MCS are also available on TECHtionary - http://www.techtionary.com

Innovations in Revenue Performance Via Tele/Presence

Innovations in Revenue Performance
By Thomas B. Cross – CEO
TECHtionary.com & OCSForum.com

This is a brief presentation on: - Challenges faced by sales manager of turnover of sales staff - the "hire-fire" cycle and the often negative impact on customers. - Communications challenges faced by sales executives in closing an enterprise or any sales with more than one decision-maker. In reality, this is any sale. - Solutions proven to:
1) reduce the sales cycle,
2) reduce customer support costs,
3) increase customer satisfaction and
4) increase user service/product usability-acceptance.
The animated presentation can be found at http://www.techtionary.com/sales

Key Problems

First, the never-ending challenge faced by sales manager of turnover of sales staff - the "hire-fire" cycle. One key point is that just adding more sales people does not by itself increase revenues and in fact, excessive churn in staff has proven to have a negative impact on customers. For anyone in sales management, the ultimate challenge is to predict, manage to and grow revenues. That’s easy to say. The sales “ramp slope” (think of a ski slope in reverse) is both enigmatic and frustrating. The “perfect day” of ramp slope is when revenues ramp to 100% of forecast and beyond rapidly. The “perfect worse case storm” of sales ramp is 0% and continues forever. Somewhere in between these “perfect” situations is where sales execs, managers and C-level’s live. The perpetual “hire-fire” cycle continues unabated unless solutions are found.

Second, you will never know all the people involved in the sales decision process but you need to sell all of them. Here are some of the communications challenges faced by sales executives in closing an enterprise or any sales with more than one decision-maker. In reality, this is any sale. That is, there is a lot of communications between all the players and you don't know who they are. It often begins with an initial sales call with decision-maker. Next, the decision-maker & CIO talk or meet with others including finance, operations, etc. Even the smallest companies may involve consultants and procurement (or outside accountant) to review. This may include meetings with staff, consultants and legal. Then a final meeting or review by decision-maker, CIO and consultants. Finally, a closing call or meeting with decision-maker for a decision. The remainder of this will focus on potential solutions to this problem.

Potential Solutions

Key point is that tele/presence doesn't always mean real-time "live" meetings, it means to "move minds, not matter" in providing the information from the "live" tele/presence meeting at any time after the meeting. One viable solution is with video and online animated/video presentations which can be shared easily, quickly with greater quality, consistently and more accurately. The documented benefits of animated/video presentations are, among others, 1) getting everyone on the "same page" is proven to reduce the sales cycle by "two weeks” and 2) these tutorials can also significantly increase your sales close rate.

In evaluating animated/video tutorials, numerous C-level sales consultants, have noted its three immediate benefits.
First, when technology sales animations are presented, complex concepts such as telecommunications, internet, integrated access, outlook integration, VoIP/SIP, and many other complex systems are reduced to an easy-to-understand format. In a number of tests, a number of consultants noted that a “pictionary” presentation reduces the days customers require to evaluate the process.

Second, support centers often receive large bursts of support calls, forcing many callers to give up their efforts to obtain explanations for their queries. One customer commented that "installation animations on Microsoft OCS, Polycom and others saved substantial amounts of time because support calls don’t come in one-at-a-time." Calls don't come in just from people with computers, they come in from many places where laptops are not ideal but tutorials already have been built for portable devices. Next, customer support costs can "break-the-bank." It isn’t the first or second phone call that causes support costs to skyrocket. These are the result of customer staff turnover and new-hires, one consultant added. These videos and animations provide a pictorial approach that greatly reduces the number and length of such phone calls, thus saving thousands of dollars while at the same time providing cost-efficiency and insuring increased customer satisfaction.

Third, when it comes to client satisfaction, customers seek a relationship with a vendor who will respond during the after-sale period. They want to be sure that new features can be added or changed as new services emerge. These videos and animations easily meet these and other business challenges.” A user who is convinced by such new video and animation tools for use in training is Cindy Johnson, Director of Technology, Lee County Schools, Sanford, North Carolina. “These tutorials virtually eliminate users’ training problems. They reduce the hours of classroom time and problems with scheduling. They simplify how and when to provide classes for those who missed a training session.”

Summary of Findings During this brief presentation we discussed 1) hire-fire cycle, 2) communications challenges faced in all sales efforts and 3) potential solutions provided by video and animated tutorials. To summarize, animated-video tutorials are able to: 1) Reduce the impact of sales churn resulting from hire-fire cycle. 2) Reduce the sales cycle by improving "visualization" of product/service being sold. 3) Improve accuracy of presentation for all players in sales cycle such as manufacturer, channel partner(s), agents, customer and internal decision-makers. 4) Reduce customer confusion regarding customer support and provide training tutorials for use anywhere. 5) Increase user retention on product/service training. Bottom-line results - faster revenues, lower support costs and increase in immediate customer benefits as well as long-term customer satisfaction.
Is the challenge so problematic that there is no solution? We recommend two options.

Recommendations
First, aside from quality HR screening in the hiring function, we think that effective, focused and timely sales training can have the most significant positive impact on revenues. With regard to technology sales and management skills, technical skills tests such as CompTIA IT For Sales Certification, CTM-Communications Technology Manager, VoIP Business Executive and SIP Technology Executive courses are designed to “weed out the meek.” Translated, this means that IF the sales exec or channel partner does not complete these courses successfully, they are not authorized to sell - end of story.

In other words, if you don’t pass the drivers license exam, you don’t get to drive. If you don’t pass the pilots exam, you don’t get to fly. So why let people sell who don’t have the right answers and are not even aware of what they don’t know? They are wasting thousands of dollars of time and risking possible good client relationships when they don’t know what the need to know and fall into that category so aptly referred to as “loose cannons”. Doug Green, Editor and Publisher of Telecom Reseller News, the leading channel partner as well as enterprise publication said it best, “you can’t sell what you don’t know.” So don’t waste any money or worse, irreplaceable time, on people who don’t know or what they clearly should know.

Second, create and build video and animated tools to educate and inform customers instead of waiting for internal execs and channel partners to help educate the client for you. In other words, build tools that customers can “sell themselves” on your products. The days of traditional selling are over and there is a critical need to build compelling exciting tools that don’t rely on the “hand waving” and “charm school” of the sales person. We know this works. We have built animated selling tutorials for channel partners that according to Mark Sharp, CEO of Vimenture “reduce the sales cycle by two weeks.” These same tools can also increase your sales close rate percentage by a significant amount. You have just illustrated one of the more obvious problems no one ever wants to attack” noted Peter Meyer Executive Sales Advisor. He added, “There is an eternal gap between the hiring, training and firing. This repeats again and again forever. The key is determined and continuous training of the existing sales staff to continue on the upward revenue trend with, with new tools as those like TECHtionary has produced.” This means you can sell more and sell it faster. The bottom-line for this program is – wasting money is one thing but to waste time is another. So, get going today. We can help. Email us, we can send tutorials that are proven to work.

Why Tele/Presence - Tele/Conferencing Has Failed For More Than Thirty Years

This piece is in response to another article where the authors naively discussed telepresence technology and fundamentally not understanding the issue.

As the author of the first book on Teleconferencing in 1985 when earlier AT&T PicturePhone Meeting Service was promoted on national television and hundreds of millions were spent by corporations on video teleconferencing. It failed then and is still failing. Back then, Arco spent $17 million on "immersion video" rooms and network to name one example. Immersion is not new, it's been tried by all kinds of companies. I have seen these rooms, AT&T's, the Intercontinental Hotels spent $2M on two rooms in London and New York - it was like the bridge on "Star Trek" and these are just a few examples. The issue is that you can't take your "room" with you. You can't take the room to the problem - look at the BP spill, Katrina, Afghanistan, etc. And, "you" may not look like Brad Pitt or Demi Moore either.

To drive this point home, Hal Josephson said 30 years ago and will again speak at our Tele/Presence Forum Expo (http://presenceforum.com) said, "if you are boring face-to-face, you will still be boring via video conference." The point if you don't get it is that most presenters have little training on presentations and just because you are the boss, doesn't mean you know how to engage an audience or keep their attention. As Hal says, it requires "tele-skills."
Why teleconferencing has also failed is because it's not just full-motion video, its low-high resolution still-frame, audio-graphic and a myriad of other forms. Even the ill-fated "electronic blackboard" had its practical uses.

My two sayings are "focus on the problem, not the person." This reflects the fact that most video conferences are with people who have meet each other face-to-face and you don't need to show faces for an effective meeting, hence why audio conferences are so popular. This also means that the reason for most meetings is to discuss a problem which may not always but in the room such as parts manufacturing, hospital operating rooms, etc.

The other "green" saying is, "move minds, not matter." That is, traveling for most internal meetings really makes no sense at all and you "don't have to take off your shoes," get stuck inline, have to lug around anything, go to the meeting in your pajamas and so on.

You can call it anything you like, however, until there are fundamental shifts in really training users in teleskills, focusing on problems-not people, making it portable and a myriad of others, teleconferencing will still be a failing, not a succeeding concept.

I only move matter, when it suits my mind - tele/presensence extends you anywhere-anytime . . .

need I say anything more - free newsletter

Tele/Presence Brings Focus to the Problem like the BP Oil Spill, Not Just People

Tele/Presence is a tool that brings focus to the problem when people can't go there and to bring advisors who can help solve problems. This is situation where "immersion" of the technology or problem can bring communications to people.

8 Specific Tele/Presence Room Design Configurations

Top Story - Tele/Presence Room Design Considerations
By Thomas B. Cross
go to http://www.presenceforum.com for Newsletter & Expo

In this issue, the focus is on "room design." However, room design is just part of an overall plan. The planning, engineering and implementation of a teleconferencing system can be a complex process requiring expertise and experience in some or all of the following areas:
- Audio engineering/acoustical analysis
- Telecommunications and satellite networks
- Devices such as computers, audio graphic, archival and video retrieval, cameras, headsets, speakerphones, monitors, hardware and more
- Video compression techniques and television production
- Designing high-performance or high QoS networks
- Human factors, user training, executive interviewing
- ROI and cost-justification
- Equipment specification and selection process
- Room design and buildout
- Scheduling systems and operational issues - "one touch"
- Support "room attendant" and technical support

We have discussed audio engineering in previous issues and in future issues; we will present ideas on these other topics. Without bias, here are some various rooms and suggestions for your consideration. To begin with or rather, in the beginning a long time ago, I visited (and still do) a large number of video rooms in the U.S. and Europe, interviewed users and room managers, spoke with industry experts and put together one "model" room - below.

The room I designed has a number of features not found in other planning documents, then or now. You should, in any case, look at your own needs, physical limitations and budget to determine what works. One of the key issues to be discussed at greater length in the future is onsite "room attendant(s)" and technical support. While the room below is not drawn to scale, there is a room at the back. It could also be at the front of the room for a room attendant as well as equipment storage, replacement parts of all kinds, cables, network management tools, supplies (paper pads, pencils, etc.) and even a coffee bar. The point is that a tele/presence meeting should be everything and more than any executive meeting and should be treated as such. That is, focus on all aspects of the meeting not just the audio/video network. The next recommendation is to record all meetings. This allows for later retrieval by participants unable to attend and presenters to review how they can improve their "tele-skills."

Next, none of the systems mention an overhead camera. This is ideal for showing documents, broken parts, body parts and others. Again, "focus on the problem, not the person" should be the mantra for all meetings. However, if the person is the focus, then train them for video and have rehearsals. I did a lot of video for a major telecommunications company and when the executives tried to "wing it," they failed. When they wrote a script before the video and rehearsed it then night and morning before, they often did it perfectly with "one take."

I will present more in future newsletters, however, this came out this week from the Chief Scientist from Accenture (click for full article), "Do you have executive telepresence?" Among the many great issues put forth by Mr. Kishore S. Swaminathan is "Videoconferences have a different conversational rhythm." He mentions the need for presenters to "manage the rhythm" which refers to having an understanding of the communications protocols and nuances in telepresence. One last comment is to always have a monitor showing you and your room to yourself. In a F2F-face-to-face meeting, you can always look around and see what you look like, so why not have the same experience in a tele/presence meeting.

Here are just few examples of tele/presence rooms I selected. Remember your needs and YMMV-your-mileage-may-vary, so these are just ideas for consideration.


The first one is from Polycom. I like this room as is shows not just a "sit down" meeting but a person "standing up" and presenting. You may want to have different rooms for these two specific activities since they are the most common but also very different in their design. The next part of this example was the use of "fill lighting" to add in more lighting on the presenter. This is also an example of portable, as needed, AV-audio-visual equipment which can be used and moved inside or out "on location." From my experience, you can install great lighting but like with any television studio, the lighting may need to be increased, decreased or just moved. In fact, this is a good time to recommend you get a tour of your local television studio to see all the equipment they used even for the news and weather as well as field broadcasts.

The next two examples are small tele/presence rooms. The first from Polycom is like the first one above but designed for small groups ideal for branch offices, factory floors, or even temporary and can be used as your "template model" for many installations. Note, see the "dry erase" board on the wall. You will need a video camera aimed and lighted appropriately at it.

Both of the Cisco rooms show a "side monitor" used for additional video sources or as I suggested to show the video image of the room. Both have a "greyed" image to show the "coverage area" of the camera. A good idea is to plan the coverage area desired in order to accommodate all the occupants. Too often the presenter has to move in order to be seen or, more typically, one person arrives late and there is no chair and may have to sit in a corner and may not be seen by distant participants. Images courtesy Cisco TelePresence Fundamentals - click here for book.

The next two are from Polycom. They are good examples of Large Conference and Classroom configurations. I especially like the classroom with the document camera. I would have added a monitor at the back of the room so that the teacher could see themselves and while it is not shown, additional fill-lighting on the teacher.

The last example in this series is from Cisco. I added it because it was the only reference to HVAC-heating, ventilating, air-conditioning. I am always amazed at how much money tele/presence is spent on video systems, network, etc. but forget the "tornado" noise generated by HVAC systems which can disrupt any meeting, video, audio or even a traditional meeting. Also, HVAC personnel rarely have any training on "quiet" air-handling systems, so they are often a hindrance to tele/presence rooms. In addition, there is generally a lot of heat (explained later) by the video and all the computers/people in the meeting. Simply, this means that most tele/presence rooms should have their own temperature, humidity and HVAC systems inside the room and are designed for extreme quiet conditions.

In summary, in 1,000 words I wanted to present an introduction to tele/presence room configurations and ideas on how to design them to suit all kinds of needs.


Polycom uses a portion of the book Basics of Audio and Visual Systems Design: Revised Edition, Chapter 12, "Videoconferencing" written by Scott Sharer, CTS, and Jim Smith, CVE, CTS, copyright 2003, with permission of InfoComm International®. For more go to www.infocomm.org. Here is just one example of excellent design considerations presented in the paper, "In architectural terms it is not uncommon to find a rule-of-thumb applied that allows for up to 15 square feet of floor space per participant in a traditional presentation or meeting room. If there is a front-of-room presenter position at a podium, and if there is some use of in-room technology (projection devices, whiteboards, etc.), then this figure may increase to as much as 20 square feet of floor space per participant, but rarely any more than that."

Tele/Presence Newsletter - Top Story - Video Tele/Presence

Top Story - Video Tele/Presence Configuration Options
The graphics with this story can be found in the Tele/Presence Newsletter here.

Here are just a few of the various types of tele/presence systems for your review and consideraton. This presentation focuses more on office and portable video tele/presence that other types of collaboration systems such as slow-scan, whiteboards, computer (wiki, blog) and others.

What I am trying to show is that most tele/presence video systems focus on people, rather than the problems the people are discussing. In my humble opinion, the focus should be on the problem, not people. There are many reasons but one of them is that most people don't feel comfortable being on video and really don't like the way they look (partially or largely due to the Aspect Ratio*). For example, I was looking for systems that show a problem such as quality control situation on a manufacturing assembly line, transportation disaster, environmental hazard, poor health conditions in food processing, or something like the situation on an oil rig and cleanup, to name but a few of the problems that businesses face. Here is a medical example, a medical diagnosis of a sick infant where bringing the "person (doctor) to the problem" is critical.

Below is a more recent example of tele-medicine, from Cisco. Please excuse the size of the image.

Tele-consultation is more than than using the video image of the to show medical problems, yet, provide "doctors without borders" to patients anywhere. However, both Polycom and Cisco interface medical systems such as from AMD Telemedicine and others. For example, in the Polycom system allows the Polycom Practitioner Cart HDX "to easily connect to medical peripheral devices with integrated switch box and connection panel (digital in-band stethoscopes and video scopes)."

Overview of Video Tele/Presence Options
The first example (below) is an overhead video system where documents, parts, objects and almost anything else can be placed and the problem discussed without ever showing a person.

In this example, the user sets up a portable video system easily and can again "bring the system to the problem."

NOTE: The following are examples of various kinds of systems. There is no bias as to which one is more useful or advanced than the others. Simply let the "function drive the features." However, I do like portable systems. Here is one from Polycom showing the user presenting in an outdoor setting.

Next, again from Polycom, we see an office desktop video situation. I liked this as it uses a large screen intended to give the "immersive-effect" of life-like images on by both parties.

This next one is a new approach. Originally, created and developed by Microsoft called Roundtable, now sold by Polycom is integrated with Microsoft Office Communicator part of Microsoft Communications Server and provides group video with 360° panoramic view of the conference room. In additon voice, and instant messaging are brought together into one seamless experience connected easily via a USB port and record the meeting using Microsoft Live Meeting.

The next one is from TelePresenceTech intended to provide for person-to-person conferencing with "eye contact." While it is often perceived that "look em in the eye" is a critical component in video conferencing, our research has indicated it is less important because one-to-one video conferences are nearly always done with people already known, even well-known to one another. That is, the vast majority of personal and small group teleconferences are done with people they have already met face-to-face. More on this issue in future newsletters.

This one is from Cisco. I selected this one as the unit moves away from the desktop opening up the system for more than one person on either end.

Here are three other options from Cisco: Wall-mounted, Free-standing single-screen and Free-standing multi-screen. I selected these as offering options as "flexible inplace" installations of video conferencing systems. That is, when the system is needed is can be installed without the cost of expensive room design and preparation. This also suggests that the "message is more important than the media."

Below from Asstra, is another variation of a free-standing unit. This unit can combined "live" broadcast video feeds from various television sources, prerecorded video feeds, including DVD and VCR, live and/or prerecorded security and surveillance video and PC-generated presentations, documents, and spreadsheets onto the presentation screen.

Next, are two of my favorite ideas, not necessarily these ones. That is, "rollabout" systems can be moved to the hospital operating room, to the assembly line, flown out to sea on a ship or oil rig and shipped almost anywhere. The first one is from TelePresenceTech.

This one is from Polycom brings the "expertise to the problem." That is, a group of subject matter experts can gather and send in the system to the problem or person for discussion, exploration and problem-solving.

Below in a portable slow-scan video system from long ago. The ease-of-use, portability and single-button use made this system for nearly all video teleconferencing situations because in most instances "nothing is moving." That is, nearly all PowerPoint presentations, business settings, crisis conditions, there is no motion, so there is no need for full-motion video.

This next set of examples moves into small group then large group. Here is an example from Cisco of a small group lecture where the presenter is live with one group and other students are remote but both groups can lecture-slides.

From TelePresenceTech, is a 3D lecturer designed with "aligned eye contact" in order for the viewers to get the "immersive-effect." While I like "immersive" video, there is little evidence, in my thirty years in this business, to suggest that it is required or even desired by the audience. We all watch TV and don't feel the need to be "immersed" with the newscaster or television program. Certainly 3D brings us closer in movies but may also have negative impacts in business meetings.

Speaking of "immersive-video," here is an example Cisco. Having used their single- and three-screen systems, it is very effective for small group meetings.

From Polycom, is another approach to "immersive-video." Both companies offer a wide range of solutions for small group (under 30, typically less than 15 people).

Here is one more example of group video teleconferencing systems (source: stock photo).

The last example is the Polycom's "cinematic video wall" with 16 feet of seemless; every participant is shown in high definition, true-to-life dimensions.

This has been a brief introduction to various video tele/presence systems (video conferencing, or teleconferencing, if you prefer). While the focus has been primarily on "room" systems including those that offer movable room-to-room systems, from my long-time experience, should give you an idea of what "car make and model" you could make a good choice to select for effective person-to-person or group meetings.

*Television suffers or rather television adds 33% more "weight" to you because of the Aspect Ratio. That is, television puts on the "pounds." The two standard Aspect Ratios are 4:3 or 1.33:1 referred to as Standard is used in home video which means the width is 33% wider than its height. The other standard Aspect Ratio is Widescreen used in HDTV-high definition television is 16:9 or 1.78:1. In other words, Widescreen nearly doubles your "weight." If you don't have a lot of experience with being on television or television production, you can understand why people don't like the way they look on it.

Building Resilient-Survivable SIP Customer Solutions

Click here for MCS Forum web site where there is animated tutorial of this written explanation.

One of the biggest concerns customers have when deploying SIP telephony is with the uptime of the solution. Uptime depends on many things including: reliability of the components, the resiliency of the hardware, software and network design and complexity-diversity of testing. In the SIP telephony world where this business critical applications have to transit through a multi-vendor world to be effective, resiliency aka survivability is a key differentiating feature in system performance.

1st Level Stateful Failover via Memory Shadowing where only one Media Server aka Gateway is managing thousands of endpoints and PSTN and/or SIP trunks.

2nd Level Multiple port/interfaces multiple and dual-homed interfaces from the servers to the media gateways.

3rd Level provides separate signaling and network bearer (voice) interfaces in the form of control LAN/H.323/SIP Proxy/Gatekeeper functions modules for signaling and resources for bearer traffic.

4th Level Enterprise Resilient Server(s) (ErS) solution allows up to n-number of backup/cloud servers which automatically distributed configuration modifications.

5th Level provides redundancy for Announcements and Queue Music critical to onsite or virtual contact center environments.

6th Level proactive monitoring and redirection capabilities of network management for multi-path redirection with split-second failover when WAN failures or power surge/sags (brownouts).

7th Level provides inbuilding gateway capabilities to protect against both LAN & WAN outages and can be provisioned for some/all users with zero administration, telephone brand neutrality, all features (including E911) support and other services.

"Market Dynamics Shaping the Adoption of Telepresence" Bob Preston - Chief Collaboration Officer Polycom

Tele/Presence Forum announces new Keynote Speaker talk on

"Market Dynamics Shaping the Adoption of Telepresence"

Bob Preston - Chief Collaboration Officer Polycom

For more on the Tele/Presence Forum Expo and weekly newsletter go to http://www.presenceforum.com

Here are highlights from Mr. Preston's presentation:

• Organizational
o Global economy
o Recession reset
o Do more with less
o Efficiency of operations
o Fast ROI

• Social Trends
o Gen Y life style
o Road warriors
o Instant communications
o Virtual & remote workers
o Green / CO2
o Social media

• Technology Enablers
o Unified Communications
o Open Standards
o Real time connection from single point of access
o Presence

Presenter: Bob Preston is the Chief Collaboration Officer at Polycom, Inc. His role at the company is to help organizations understand the application and benefits of voice, video, and telepresence collaboration solutions within industries and vertical markets such as healthcare, education, government, and enterprise. Bob is an expert resource in the area of increasing productivity and efficiency through collaboration solutions. He also leads the Industry Solutions group on a global basis - a team of industry experts developing strategic initiatives in targeted industries. Bob is a blogger and frequent public speaker on the topic of business value of collaboration solutions.

Noise Kills Tele/Presence - Multi-Part Presentation

For more on Tele/Presence Expo and Free Weekly Newsletter go to www.presenceforum.com

Noise Kills Tele/Presence - Multi-Part Presentation - Top-10 Tele/Presence Design Tips - Part 1 - Introduction to Tele/Presence Audio

Remember like the adage, "It's the economy stupid. In tele/presence, "it's not audio, its noise."

There are many kinds of noise, echo (discussed in the future), machine noise, static and others. Noise drives us nuts, ruins meetings and even kills. According to TopicPulse.com, "More than 600,000 potential years of healthy life are lost in Europe each year due to noise-related death and disability, New Scientist magazine reported. Traffic noise alone may account for 3% of deaths from heart attacks and strokes in Europe. Chronic night-time exposure to noise levels of 50 decibels or above was enough to cause cardiovascular problems." Meanwhile, here in the U.S, OSHA regulations state that sound exposure limits before permanent hearing loss is as little as one hour at 100 dB (eight hours at 90 dB). In tele/presence terms, excessive noise can kill the meeting.
Now back to the point of this work - This article is not about outbound voice microphones or inroom audio speakers which will be presented at a later date. This is a multi-part brief introduction, not an indepth analysis on room design and network audio.
Design Tip #1 - Get tele/presence smart and select a location in the building that is quiet to begin with. The most effective and least costly way to isolate the room acoustically is to choose a quiet location in the first place. Interior locations that are distant from coffee kitchens, drinking fountains, vending machines, elevator shafts, fluorescent lighting, lavatories, and fan rooms are most desirable in terms of controlling for noise. Understand that these devices generate an enormous amount of noise which can cause "crosstalk" interference with CAT5/6 cable. Ambient noise coming from outside traffic, ringing telephones, public address systems, among a multitude of other possible sources, can be blocked by soundproofing the walls or double glazing the windows with noise-reduction curtains. Acoustic treatment need not be expensive and can include simple techniques such as carpeting the room and placing screens or wall hangings in appropriate places throughout the room to reduce echoing. Internal sources of noise, such as noise generated by the audiographic equipment, can be controlled by placing equipment in sound-proof cabinets or in another room adjacent to the teleconferencing room.
Design Tip #2 - Get Noise Smart - in other words, know everything about noise and sounds. As you read in the last issue of the TPF Newsletter, the human hearing range is 20-20,000 Hz but in practical terms, 80-7,000 Hz is an effective range for tele/presence applications. Click here for an indepth report from Cisco on voice fundaments or there are many useful tutorials in TECHtionary.com.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6788/phones/ps379/ps8537/prod_white_paper0900aecd806fa57a.html
Shown in green is the typical human voice range 80-11,000 Hz, however the typical or practical range is 300-6,000 Hz. G.711 is based on the industry standard of 300-3,400 where more human communications can occur while minimizing the amount of bandwidth transmission. Higher frequency ranges are desired for complex pronunciations like P-T, M-N, S-F as well as a greater user experience. G.722 provides high-fidelity audio 150-7,000 Hz samples.
For example, ambient noise is reference sound level or average room noise level. To measure the ambient noise, get a device to measure SPL-sound pressure level and measure noise/sounds often. SPL measures are taken with respect to the minimum threshold for human hearing. A 20 dB difference in SPL represents a ratio of ten-to-one in sound pressure. For example, 40dB SPL would be a SPL-sound pressure level that is 100 times greater than the sound pressure level of the quietest sound that normal human hearing can detect. If you would like to test your own hearing go here: http://www.freehearingtest.com/test.shtml

170 dB = rifle fire at 1m
160 dB = personal protection air horn
150 dB = rock music
140 dB = firearms (which go even higher), jet engine
130 dB = jackhammer
120 dB = car stereo, band practice, threshold of pain
110 dB = manufacturing machines, rock music
100 dB = chain saw, drills, car horns, motorcycle
90 dB = lawnmower, shop tools, truck traffic, city subway, construction machinery
80 dB = inside sports car at high speed, outside busy street, alarm clock, telephone dial tone
70 dB = vacuum cleaner,
60 dB = human speech, conversation
50 dB = open office background level, dishwasher in next room
40 dB = maximum recommended background room noise level for tele/presence room
30 dB = soft whisper
20 dB = quiet interior house
10 dB = normal human breathing
0 dB = silence

SN or SNR-Signal-to-Noise or CNR-Carrier-to-Noise ratio is the difference between the signal also known as carrier or carrier wave and noise. The SPL of human voice is 60dB to 70dB. If you get an SPL meter you can test various sound conditions such as watching television, working, coffee shops, etc. In practical terms, according to Cisco's TelePresence Fundamentals book (ISBN-1-58705-593-7), "Because of the way the human ear and brain work, background sound that is 25dB to 30dB less than human speech generally goes unnoticed. In other words, the carrier/signal should be 60-70 dB and the background should be less than approximately 35dB. Noise levels exceeding 42dB are cause for concern, and levels exceeding 50dB can cause significant problems with the tele/presence experience."

Design Tip #3 - Get SPL-Sound Pressure Level meters/tools - I own the RadioShack Digital Display SPL and like the digital display, ease-of-use and value but would like below 50 dB measurements. Search for a SPL meter that meets your needs as they can be expensive but when you consider the investment in the room a very paltry sum. If you have an iPhone, you can get a number of different audio applications including a SPL meter, you can carry with you everywhere. There are many ways to use the SPL meter. First, the A-weighted test analyzes "noise" level 500-10,000 Hz the total range and the C-weighted 32-10,000 Hz is for music.

According to Cisco's TelePresence Fundamentals book, "Within each of the six zones, the ambient noise is measured with the decibel meter approximately 5 feet from the floor using a slow sweeping motion to capture the average SPL for that zone. These measurements are done using an A-weighted test (best SPL analysis for human ears). A seventh measurement is taken using a C-weighted (best SPL for all uses including music) test within the middle of the room (front of zone 5) to capture the C-weighted average SPL for the entire room. Note that the C-weighted target is approximately 52dB, compared to the A-weighted target of 36dB mentioned previously.

Here's the RED FLAG - "You should be concerned with any A-weighted measurements that exceed 36dB, a C-weighted measurement that exceeds 56dB, or any specific source such as HVAC vents that exceed 36dB at 3 feet (1 meter) distance from the source. For all these tests, you should choose a time of the day that represents the high average, ideally, when the HVAC is actively producing air flow through the vents." Measure the lighting system as well. These SPL tests should be conducted during the day at random intervals.

----
Reverberation is essentially a measurement of how long a sound continues to bounce around the room before decaying to the point that it can no longer be heard. The measurement used to denote reverberation is called RT60, which is a measurement of the time required for a sound to decay by 60dB.

Design Tip #4 - It's not from the room but from outside the room. In designing an audio or video tele/presence room is more about keeping outside noises from entering the room anytime. That is, it may be quiet at the moment but jet planes landing every hour or less cause the ambient noise to cause interference in the meeting. In addition to controlling for ambient noise, the tele/conferencing room should minimize reverberation. This can be accomplished if the walls are nonparallel and covered with noise-scattering and noise absorbing panels.

Design Tip #5 - test "under load." While it should be obvious but often not, as such it is separately and highlighted as a key Design Tip. Simply test and test often with different size groups and different discussion types.

Usage Tip #6 - Teach the users to minimize their own noise. Whispers, drumming on the table, paper shuffling—all will be transmitted. Confidential "side" conversations are picked up and transmitted. Place "Quiet" signs on the walls and on the tables to remind them. This also ensures effective user participation in the tele/presence meeting.

Design Tip #7 - Understand the voice telecommunications network being used. For example, discussed last week different voice CODECs provide different levels of audio quality. In addition, multiple channels are desirable for multi-screen implementations. For example, in the Cisco CTS-3000 system there are four separate audio channels; three wide-band ACC-LD-advanced audio coding low delay standard for 20 KiloHertz audio for mono and stereo and enhanced echo cancellation (discussed in next TPF Newsletter) and one G.711/G.722 channel for audio-only users or document/desktop sharing. Check with the provider to see what CODECs are supported, for example, G.711, G.722, G.722.1, G.722.1C, G.728, 64 bit & 128 bit MPEG4 AAC-LD are common to Cisco, Polycom and other providers. G.719 (licensed by Polycom) the wideband ITU-T standard is also available in many systems. There is an excellent though technical comparison of CODECs in Wikipedia - click here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_audio_codecs

SN or SNR-Signal-to-Noise or CNR-Carrier-to-Noise ratio is the difference between the signal also known as carrier or carrier wave and noise. SNR is measured in dBm-deciBel milliwatt. Since SNR is a ratio dB is referred to as 100 dB which would be a ratio of 100:1 (100 to 1). Zero (0) dBm equals one milliwatt. This is the same concept but dBm and dBA or dBa audio are different. dB(A) is used in sound volume or ear testing (70 normal to 130 pain level). A practical example of a high noise level is in LAN networks where noise from fluorescent lighting, soda machines, and other devices interferes with digital packet transmission causing packet loss (errors) and transmission is reduced forcing more packet re-transmission further reducing data throughput.

Design Tip #8 - Voice clipping, chopping or dipping occurs as the result of the VAD-Voice Activity Detector. VADs are used for silence suppression in packet voice systems, due to the need not to use bandwidth to send packets when there is no voice; think of this as not sending silence. VAD also reduces or suppresses echo suppression in echo cancellers. In addition, VADs are used to reduce room or background noise in IP phones, speakerphones and microphones. VAD systems determine the difference between human voice, tones, unvoice, "white noise" (similar in concept to white light (composed of equal amounts of all visible light frequencies) - a sound composed of an equal mix of all audible frequencies) and comfort noise (noise generated to let the user know the call has not been disconnected) and other sources. There are three or more types of noise or non-noise detectors: known energy level, adaptive energy level and spectral energy based on compression. Related to and part of VAD configuration is Comfort Noise or tone. Comfort Noise is the manufactured or artificial method of creating noise to alert the listener that the call has not been disconnected and/or the network is still operating. A human factor issue, comfort noise uses bandwidth to send nothing more than "white" noise.

Design Troubleshooting Tip #9 - Here are just a few of the common problems and potential solutions.
- Crackling and crosstalk – check for poor cable connections, cable network design and electrical grounding. - Static, hissing noise (white-constant, pink-less constant, brown-indescribable) – check the Voice Activity Detector (VAD). - Hum ("60 cycles AC-Alternating Current") – check wiring may be too close to electrical power sources, wiring and transformers such as lighting, water/soda/vending fountains. - Voice volume distortion of too loud, low, fuzzy, tinny – adjust or replace phoneset/softphone software.

Design Troubleshooting Tip #10 - Build a "shared FAQ" (e.g. SharePoint) online help system for other designers and users. Provide the means for users to submit their compliments/complaints to improve/fix problems. Encourage users to complete evaluation forms and contact users on a random basis to determine what they like/dislike. Tele/presence has failed on many occasions because system administrators assume users are satisfied when they "speak with their feet" by returning to their old ways.

Tele/Presence Forum Expo Speakers Update

“Tele/Presence Trends and Solutions”

Tele/Presence Forum 2010 Expo – September 28-29 – Boulder, Colorado

www.tele-presenceforum.com

St Julien Hotel - 2008 Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards - "Top 100 United States Hotels"
www.stjulien.com
Highlights – Speakers

Tele-Presence Forum 2010 Expo highlights the rising importance of Tele/Presence to businesses, organizations and institutions of all sizes. By all accounts, Tele/Presence will reduce travel and staff downtime, improve productivity, enhance communications, and lower costs. Tele/Presence will be a viable solutions in nearly all aspects of business management including for use in call centers, remote/branch offices, investor/corporate/partner meetings/events, telecommuter, mobile and other environments and will include such technologies as video, presence, webseminar, audio, multi-media, IM, conferencing solution to nearly every other aspect of communications. Speakers have been identified that can address present concerns, ongoing issues and the future outlook of Tele/Presence.

Tuesday – September 28

11:00-12:00 - Keynote – From Teleconferencing to Telepresence:
Making Virtual Meetings Work For You

• A brief history - thirty years of tele-meetings - what will meetings be like 30 years from now
• Best practices - developing valuable tele-skills – enhancing human communications with tele/presence
• Creative techniques applied: lessons learned – what has failed and what will it take to succeed

Presenter: Hal Josephson is President of MediaSense, a San Francisco firm that specializes in international business development, strategic marketing/communication and special project planning management services for high-tech businesses. Hal works extensively Pacific Rim companies focusing on assisting partnerships and alliances with Chinese companies. In addition, Hal is the annual Program Chair, Executive Producer and Host of the annual Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum (DELF) and the Cyberport Venture Capital Forum (CVCF) in Hong Kong, China.


1:00-2:00 – Presentation - Understanding and Troubleshooting Video Conferencing Networks
• The bulk of installed systems are H.323 compliant, how can H.323 work with SIP and other standards and protocols
• How does the ITU H.323 and SIP standards support advanced audio and video features
• What are the common problems in videoconferencing networks
Presented by Gary Thom, President, Delta Information Systems &
Thomas Smith, Program Director, University of Wisconsin

Wednesday – September 29

9:00-10:00 - Presentation – Future of Inter-Company Visual Communications . . . Today

- Building a Business Case and Modeling ROI for Tele/Presence
- The rising hard, soft, and opportunity cost of Tele/Presence
- Balancing Physical Travel Versus Tele/Presence
- Utilizing Tele/Presence for Economic Development and Global Expansion
- Enhancing and Accelerating Revenue Growth via Tele/Presence
- Integrating Tele/Presence into the Supply Chain for Improvement Channel Partner Communications
Presenter: Howard S. Lichtman is a productivity-focused technology futurist, author, publisher and consultant with specialties in telepresence and visual collaboration to improve organizational and personal productivity. He is the founder and president of the Human Productivity Lab, an independent consultancy and research firm that helps organizations design telepresence strategies and deploy telepresence solutions. He is the publisher of Telepresence Options and editor of the Telepresence Options Telegraph.

Tele/Presence Forum provides education, research, and events designed to improve awareness of the benefits of tele/presence whether video, audio, computer, multi-media, web and other systems.
Among the many benefits, Tele/Presence can:
- Reduce sales cycles - and are proven to increase revenues
- Reduce business costs - travel, downtime, meeting delays, business processes
- Improve productivity - increased coordination yields improved customer communications
- Accelerates communications - faster communications means faster product cycles
- Reduce customer communications disasters - reduce impact of crisis situations

The Tele/Presence Forum publishes a bi-weekly newsletter – signup at http://www.presenceforum.com

Tele/Presence Meeting Matrix

Signup for bi-weekly Tele/Presence Forum Newsletter at www.tele-presenceforum.com

Boulder - Happiest City in U.S.

Boulder - Happiest City in U.S. - http://bit.ly/brjB7X - Come see why - OCS Forum Expo - June 15-16 http://www.ocsforum.com and Tele/Presence Forum - September 28-29 http://www.tele-presenceforum.com

Isaac Asimov - Move Minds, Not Flesh - A View of Tele/Presence 40 Years Ago

Photo: Courtesy Cisco Press

Teleconferencing Is Moving Ideas, Not People

Time and energy can be conserved by using teleconferencing, because information and ideas, rather than people, can be exchanged. Making this point pragmatically and graphically, Isaac Asimov, keynote speaker at the first North American seminar on teleconferencing and visionary extraordinaire (author of more than 200 books on science and science fiction), noted,"It is much simpler to transmit a message than to transmit a human being simply because he is carrying the message. There is no need to carry 70 kilograms of flesh and blood for thousands of miles when at the speed of light any message in speech, in writing, in any image, can be transmitted.
The whole world becomes one with virtually zero energy expenditure compared to what would exist before the electronic age."

In other words, green has always been a good business strategy. Tele/presence, telecommuting and other information technologies that move minds without moving people are viable for many types of human communications as "being there without going there" makes both business and personal sense. For weekly newsletter on tele/presence, go to http://www.presenceforum.com

Tele/Presence Goes Portable Because Problems are Everywhere.

I generally don't like product reviews because it sounds like a sales pitch and while this product isn't ready yet, it sets a interesting talking point. This is interesting because is that the dominant forms of tele/presence are focused on fixed room systems. However, tele/presence takes place in a lot of situations where there there is a problem not just talking heads. That is, something I have said for thirty years, "show the problem, not the person." Simply put, when people conference they talk about issues, problems, situations, crises, ideas, presentations, strategies, and others but rarely need to show the people in the group as, for the most part, know and have met one another.

Meanwhile, this is a great concept and look forward to more from ooVoo.

What is driving the demand? Industry experts point to a simple reality: technology has caught up with consumer demand. Enhancements in networking, platforms and devices -- together with demand for anywhere, anytime connectivity -- has created a revolution of computing and communication centered around mobile devices.

Today developers are working with faster networks including 3G and 4G, and mobile devices have better operating systems -- iPhone OS, Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile. The combination of mobile computing with social networking applications is creating a powerful "always on" communication platform that allows consumers to choose the type of interaction they want at any moment.

"Visual communication is on the rise in enterprise and consumer worlds with each fueled by its own drivers as well as cross connections between the two," said Andrew W. Davis, senior partner & analyst at Wainhouse Research. "Mobile video communications represents a significant opportunity for companies like ooVoo who see themselves as game-changers in mobile video."

Smartphones are available with enough processing power to handle video chat and more cameras are now front-facing which will aid video chat conversations. Even as the trend continues, many mobile devices do not include two-sided cameras and the capability is missing from iPhone and iPad, which has raised questions in technology media, blogger sites and consumer social media. Experts predict the market will continue to push for face-to-face communication.

"We've listened carefully to what consumers are telling us about their expectations for mobile," said Philippe Schwartz, CEO of ooVoo. "We're excited about demonstrating the quality, ease-of-use and seamless experience of ooVoo's mobile video calling capability at Mobile World Congress."

About ooVoo
ooVoo, a privately-held company based in New York, provides a high-quality video-driven communication service to anyone with a computer, broadband connection and a web camera. ooVoo offers multi-point high-resolution video, video conversation recording, telephony, desktop sharing, video messaging, instant message chat and file sharing. Download ooVoo at www.ooVoo.com.

Keynote Speech Announced for Tele-Presence Forum Expo September 28-29 - Boulder

From Tele-Presence Forum - http://www.telepresenceforum.org/

Keynote Speech Announced for Tele-Presence Forum Expo September 28-29 - Boulder

From Teleconferencing to Telepresence - Making Virtual Meetings Work For You

Hal Josephson is President of MediaSense

· A brief history -- thirty years of tele-meetings - what will meetings be like 30 years from now
· Best practices -- developing valuable tele-skills - enhancing human communications with tele/presence
· Creative techniques applied: lessons learned - what has failed and what will it take to succeed

Hal Josephson is President of MediaSense http://mediasense.org/, a San Francisco firm that specializes in international business development, strategic marketing/communication and special project planning management services for high-tech businesses. Hal works extensively Pacific Rim companies focusing on assisting partnerships and alliances with Chinese companies. In addition, Hal is the annual Program Chair, Executive Producer and Host of the annual Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum (DELF) and the Cyberport Venture Capital Forum (CVCF) in Hong Kong, China.

Hal has specific industry experience in satellite communications, teleconferencing, interactive media, IP licensing, as well as conference design, event promotion and media production, with decades of experience
in international business development and strategic marketing.

Hal was a co-founder of the International Teleconferencing Assn. (ITS) and has served on the Board of Directors of the Australian-American Chamber of Commerce. Hal has been an Advisor to New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, The Banff New Media Institute and the City of San Jose.

Hal was a founding instructor of San Francisco State University's Multimedia Studies Program, and is co-author of the book, Careers in Multimedia: Roles and Resources. In addition, Hal has authored a variety of articles about communication and media in diverse publications including Digital Media, New Scientist, NewMedia, Information Week SMB,
Conferenza, New Zealand Business and Australia's Metro Magazine.

Hal has keynoted more than 100 industry events during his career, both nationally and internationally, and has appeared as a guest speaker at the World Congress for Information Technology, in Adelaide, Australia, at Unitec's New Zealand Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and at Calgary, Alberta's Westlink Innovation Center. Hal's presentations include: "Doing Effective Business in a Shifting World Marketplace", "Smart Marketing for Entrepreneurial Businesses" and "Business Development by Design: Strategies that Generate Results".

Cisco TelePresence Fundamentals - Book Review

This from the Tele-PresenceForum.com

Part 1 of many parts of a Book Review on:

Cisco TelePresence Fundamentals

www.ciscopress.com

By: Tim Szigeti - CCIE No. 9794; Kevin McMenamy; Roland Saville; Alan Glowacki
Publisher: Cisco Press
Pub. Date: May 28, 2009
Print ISBN-10: 1-58705-593-7
Print ISBN-13: 978-1-58705-593-5
Web ISBN-10: 1-58705-911-8
Web ISBN-13: 978-1-58705-911-7
Pages in Print Edition: 624

First of all this a great book on tele/presence. I like the / (slash) between tele and presence just like I preferred it in the term tele/conferencing. This is a multi-part book review and interview with one of the author(s) Tim Szigeti who is a member of the Enterprise Solutions Engineering Design Team at Cisco Systems.

To be brief, I will address three issues - technical, design, and human factors in each review and even if I did that for a year it would only cover a fraction of the very useful information in the book. You can read snippets that I will include in the TPF-Tele/Presence Forum newsletter or just go buy it from Amazon or Cisco Press Book Price: $49.50 and eBook Price: $15.40 - a great value at ten or even 100 times the price. How can I say that - because TP-Tele/Presence design is like the web ever-finished, final or friendly. That is, TP systems are very complex and the network design can be daunting, then there are the human factors which have, IMHO, held this concept back for more than thirty years.

Meanwhile not to waste any more of your time.

TECH-Tip - The authors recommend the implements of IEEE 802.1p/Q within TP networks. The IEEE specification defines a standards-based system for providing VLAN-Virtual Local Area Network tagging and COS-Class of Service (why the o is in lower case in CoS and in upper case in QOS is a mystery) across Ethernet networks. This is accomplished through an additional 4-byte tag (called a label in MPLS-Multi-Protocol Label Switching), which carries VLAN and frame prioritization information. The 802.1Q tag has a specific formation of four fixed-length fields. Two of the four fields carry the frame prioritization and VLAN information. If you want to see "visually" what this looks like click here or go to www.techtionary.com where you can the details in an animated tutorial. To conclude, the PCP-Priority Code Point bits provide eight levels of priority traffic priorities for Ethernet or Layer 2 frame level. For example, different classes of traffic are assigned to different CoS values such as VoIP/SIP/OCS might used CoS 5 value, tele/presence CoS 4 value and data traffic sent with a default of CoS 0 (zero). Bottom-line is if you are going to do voice, video or other multi-media communications you need to implement 802.1p/Q on the LAN. That is, QOS is important on the "last foot" as much as the "last mile."


DESIGN-Tip - It's the economy stupid, is common joke about what politicians should be really doing. In TP its audio, stupid. Why I say this is because we talk everyday often all day on cell phones where the audio skips and gaps occur all too often. In TP, it is really doubtful that that the video will ever be done correctly because it would simply take too much money to have sound stages used in network broadcast news along with makeup, news gathering and just good presentations skills. These issues are not forgotten and will be addressed in upcoming TPF Newsletter issues. However, the authors do an excellent job in room design and audio issues. They give specific valuable recommendations addressing the problems with audio. Paraphrased, the authors indicate, "Background noise and reverberation in the room can degrade acoustic qualities and even disrupt the audio switching behavior in multipoint (multi-location) meetings. Therefore, careful engineering of the environment must be done to ensure that ambient noise and reverberation levels with the room are kept in check. The goal is to re-create the experience of an in-person meeting. Cisco has defined precise targets and thresholds for ambient noise and reverberation . . . . providing a comprehensive test methodology for measuring levels and recommendations for remediating typical sources interference. The key point is to have a test and measurement methodology for all aspects of TP and a means for providing periodic auditing and improvement.


HUMAN-Tip - The book excels in many areas but it is the human factor that has kept TP or tele/conferencing from really being a part of mainstream business communications. Certainly businesses use it but there were video tele/conferencing systems thirty years ago (that's right 30) that were more advanced than what is commonly found available today. In the spirit of not wanting to wait another thirty years, here are a few human factors or as Mr. Hal Josephson, the keynote speaker of the TPF Expo calls it "tele-skills." In my book, Teleconferencing - Linking People Together Electronically focused on a wide range of human factors. For example, evaluation of the tele/presence experience should be an ongoing effort from the onset. Ultimate success depends upon a good starting point or base. When there is a basepoint or baseline is known, change, good or bad, can be measured. Here are a few examples of what to measure. Of course, you can come up with your own questions. How do people perceive and adjust to tele/conferencing? How is the speed, type and nature of inter-personal communication affected? How does tele/conferencing affect the duration and organization of the meeting? To keep this brief, please think of all the different communications patterns that existing in typical face-to-face meetings as shown by the very funny graphic shown here.


Then consider how communication changes in a tele/presence meeting.

Part 1 – Telepresence Visualized Dictionary

Tele/Presence Forum – “Innovations in Being There Without Going There”
Tele-Library – Technology Visualized – “Putting Motion to the Notion”

Tele/Presence Forum Explains Trends, Technology, Human Factors and Management Issues

The Tele/Presence Forum (http://www.telepresence.org) announced a new library of technical terms on telepresence and related topics. Initially, there are more than one hundred visually-animated terms related to tele-presence, telepresence, teleconferencing, audio conferencing, audio, computer conferencing aka Microsoft SharePoint® (group conferencing), video technology, and other aspects of tele-presence and part of an animated library of more than 3,000 tutorials available at http://www.techtionary.com. Here is a sample of the terms on telepresence:

- Anti-Aliased Display
- Acoustic Echo
- Atoms - MP4
- Color - International Standard
- CMYK-Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black
- Composite Video
- Component Video
- Chroma Subsampling
- Cr/Cb/Y Video

Part 2 – Telepresence Visualized Dictionary

Tele/Presence Forum – “Innovations in Being There Without Going There”
Tele-Library – Technology Visualized – “Putting Motion to the Notion”

Tele/Presence Forum Explains Trends, Technology, Human Factors and Management Issues

The Tele/Presence Forum (http://www.telepresence.org) announced a new library of technical terms on telepresence and related topics. Initially, there are more than one hundred visually-animated terms related to tele-presence, telepresence, teleconferencing, audio conferencing, audio, computer conferencing aka Microsoft SharePoint® (group conferencing), video technology, and other aspects of tele-presence and part of an animated library of more than 3,000 tutorials available at http://www.techtionary.com. Here is a sample of the terms on telepresence:

- Deflection Yoke - CRT
- DVB-T-Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial
- Dither - Gamma - Video Display
- Dot Pitch - CRT
- dB-deciBel - dBi, dBm, dBSPL
- FPS-Frames Per Second – Video
- Fx-Tx - Media Converter
- 4:4:4/4:2:2/4:1:1/4:2:0 Video

Part 3 – Telepresence Visualized Dictionary

Tele/Presence Forum – “Innovations in Being There Without Going There”
Tele-Library – Technology Visualized – “Putting Motion to the Notion”

Tele/Presence Forum Explains Trends, Technology, Human Factors and Management Issues

The Tele/Presence Forum (http://www.telepresence.org) announced a new library of technical terms on telepresence and related topics. Initially, there are more than one hundred visually-animated terms related to tele-presence, telepresence, teleconferencing, audio conferencing, audio, computer conferencing aka Microsoft SharePoint® (group conferencing), video technology, and other aspects of tele-presence and part of an animated library of more than 3,000 tutorials available at http://www.techtionary.com. Here is a sample of the terms on telepresence:

- G.7xx - Audio & H.323 - Multi-Media
- Gamma - Video Display
- Gamut - Standard Color
- H.323 Multi-Media conferencing
- Hue - Standard Color
- Interlaced Scanning – video
- International Color Consortium

Part 4 – Telepresence Visualized Dictionary

Tele/Presence Forum – “Innovations in Being There Without Going There”
Tele-Library – Technology Visualized – “Putting Motion to the Notion”

Tele/Presence Forum Explains Trends, Technology, Human Factors and Management Issues

The Tele/Presence Forum (http://www.telepresence.org) announced a new library of technical terms on telepresence and related topics. Initially, there are more than one hundred visually-animated terms related to tele-presence, telepresence, teleconferencing, audio conferencing, audio, computer conferencing aka Microsoft SharePoint® (group conferencing), video technology, and other aspects of tele-presence and part of an animated library of more than 3,000 tutorials available at http://www.techtionary.com. Here is a sample of the terms on telepresence:

- LCD-Liquid Crystal Display
- Liquid-Crystal Switch: Optical
- Luminance – Color
- Magnetic Deflection Yoke – CRT
- Media Converter - Tx-Fx
- MP3-Motion Picture Experts Group
- MPEG1/2-Motion Pictures Expert

Part 5 – Telepresence Visualized Dictionary

Tele/Presence Forum – “Innovations in Being There Without Going There”
Tele-Library – Technology Visualized – “Putting Motion to the Notion”

Tele/Presence Forum Explains Trends, Technology, Human Factors and Management Issues

The Tele/Presence Forum (http://www.telepresence.org) announced a new library of technical terms on telepresence and related topics. Initially, there are more than one hundred visually-animated terms related to tele-presence, telepresence, teleconferencing, audio conferencing, audio, computer conferencing aka Microsoft SharePoint® (group conferencing), video technology, and other aspects of tele-presence and part of an animated library of more than 3,000 tutorials available at http://www.techtionary.com. Here is a sample of the terms on telepresence:


- MP4/MPEG4-Motion Pictures Expert Group
- NABTS-North American Basic Teletext
- Oersted - Video Deflection
- Overcrank/Undercrank – Video
- Phosphors – CRT
- PCS-Profile Connection Space
- Progressive Scanning – video
- Pulldown – Video

Part 6 – Telepresence Visualized Dictionary

Tele/Presence Forum – “Innovations in Being There Without Going There”
Tele-Library – Technology Visualized – “Putting Motion to the Notion”

Tele/Presence Forum Explains Trends, Technology, Human Factors and Management Issues

The Tele/Presence Forum (http://www.telepresence.org) announced a new library of technical terms on telepresence and related topics. Initially, there are more than one hundred visually-animated terms related to tele-presence, telepresence, teleconferencing, audio conferencing, audio, computer conferencing aka Microsoft SharePoint® (group conferencing), video technology, and other aspects of tele-presence and part of an animated library of more than 3,000 tutorials available at http://www.techtionary.com. Here is a sample of the terms on telepresence:

- Pull/pushcasting in content delivery nets
- Pulse - width, rise/fall time
- Printing - RBG-CMYK Transforms
- Push Model - Dense Mode
- Quantizing
- Quantizing - MPEG4
- RGB-Red-Green-Blue
- Ripper-MP3-Motion Picture Experts

Part 7 – Telepresence Visualized Dictionary

Tele/Presence Forum – “Innovations in Being There Without Going There”
Tele-Library – Technology Visualized – “Putting Motion to the Notion”

Tele/Presence Forum Explains Trends, Technology, Human Factors and Management Issues

The Tele/Presence Forum (http://www.telepresence.org) announced a new library of technical terms on telepresence and related topics. Initially, there are more than one hundred visually-animated terms related to tele-presence, telepresence, teleconferencing, audio conferencing, audio, computer conferencing aka Microsoft SharePoint® (group conferencing), video technology, and other aspects of tele-presence and part of an animated library of more than 3,000 tutorials available at http://www.techtionary.com. Here is a sample of the terms on telepresence:


- Sampling-Quantizing-MP3
- Shadow Mask – CRT
- Streaming video
- Streaming (pre-fetching) memory buffers
- SPT-Shortest Path Tree
- Source Tree – Multicasting
- SP-Spare Mode – Multicasting
- T.120 - H.323 - Multi-Media conferencing

Part 8 – Telepresence Visualized Dictionary

Tele/Presence Forum – “Innovations in Being There Without Going There”
Tele-Library – Technology Visualized – “Putting Motion to the Notion”

Tele/Presence Forum Explains Trends, Technology, Human Factors and Management Issues

The Tele/Presence Forum (http://www.telepresence.org) announced a new library of technical terms on telepresence and related topics. Initially, there are more than one hundred visually-animated terms related to tele-presence, telepresence, teleconferencing, audio conferencing, audio, computer conferencing aka Microsoft SharePoint® (group conferencing), video technology, and other aspects of tele-presence and part of an animated library of more than 3,000 tutorials available at http://www.techtionary.com. Here is a sample of the terms on telepresence:

- Triad - CRT Display
- T-Transform – Color
- Trees - Source, Shared, Multicast
- Undercrank/Overcrank – Video
- VBI-Vertical Blanking Interval
- Video Scanning Technology
- Video Streaming Case Study

Part 9 – Telepresence Visualized Dictionary

Tele/Presence Forum – “Innovations in Being There Without Going There”
Tele-Library – Technology Visualized – “Putting Motion to the Notion”

Tele/Presence Forum Explains Trends, Technology, Human Factors and Management Issues

The Tele/Presence Forum (http://www.telepresence.org) announced a new library of technical terms on telepresence and related topics. Initially, there are more than one hundred visually-animated terms related to tele-presence, telepresence, teleconferencing, audio conferencing, audio, computer conferencing aka Microsoft SharePoint® (group conferencing), video technology, and other aspects of tele-presence and part of an animated library of more than 3,000 tutorials available at http://www.techtionary.com. Here is a sample of the terms on telepresence:

- Video Switching Branch eXchange
- Voice and Video Compression
- VIR-Vertical Interval Reference
- Video Subsampling
- Web conferencing - audio bridging
- Y-Luminance – Color
- YIQ-YUV – Video