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Contents
Appendix 2: A selection of currently available PC integrated videoconferencing
products.
AT&T TeleMedia Connection
Provider: AT&T Global Information Solutions.
Description: Video/Audio/Tools over ISDN running on a PC.
Requires a386 or higher, 8MB RAM, VGA with VESA feature connector, Microsoft
Windows 3.1+, ISDN adapter or telephone.
Price:About £3500 including camera.
Multipoint: Yes (application sharing for point-to-point only).
Collaboration Features: Whiteboard, Application Sharing of Windows applications, File
transfer.
BVCS (Bitfield Video Conferencing System)
Provider: Bitfield OY
Description: Video/Audio over ISDN, LAN and other networks. Bitfield provides a set
of application programming interfaces for Windows (as a Dynamic Linked Library) and
DOS, allowing video applications to be integrated into existing systems.
Platforms: PC
Requirements: Microsoft Windows 3.1+, video overlay board.
Multipoint: No
Cameo Personal Video System
Provider: Compression Labs Inc.
Description: Video over Switched 56, ISDN, and Ethernet. Audio requires ISDN or
Analog phone line. Computer-based version of the AT&T VideoPhone 2500. An
external image processor unit and attached video camera encodes and passes data to an ISDN board. The performance is relatively slow, but the system is aimed at low-end
requirements rather than full-blown videoconferencing.
Platforms: Apple Macintosh
Requirements: System 7 or higher, QuickTime, ISDN card for ISDN use, analogue
telephone or speakerphone.
Price: about £2000 with camera.
Multipoint: No
Collaboration Features: File Transfer.
CommunicatorIII
Provider: EyeTel Communications Inc.
Description: Video/Audio/Tools over Switched 56, ISDN, T1, Ethernet, or Token Ring.
Platforms: PC
Requirements: Novell Netware 3.11+, 386SX or higher, 4 MB RAM, Super VGA w/256
colours and feature connector, Microsoft Windows 3.1+, audio input/output, 5 MB hard
disk space.
Price: About £5000, includes camera, microphone, speakers, CODEC and video capture
board. Optional motion estimation board $995.
Multipoint: Yes
Collaboration Features: Whiteboard, File transfer.
Communique!
Provider: InSoft
Description: Video/Audio/Tools over ISDN, Frame relay, FDDI, SMDS, Ethernet,
ATM.
Platforms: Sun SPARCstation, HP9000 Series 700, DEC Alpha AXP (running OSF/1),
RS6000.
Requirements: Video card and camera.
Price: About £600
Multipoint: Yes
Collaboration Features: Shared Whiteboard, Shared Applications, Shared Writeboard,
File Transfer, Groupware Tools.
Connect 918
Provider: Nuts Technologies
Description: Video/Audio/Tools over Analog, Switched 56, ISDN, or Ethernet.
Platforms: Macintosh, PC.
Requirements: 386 AT or higher, 2 ISA slots, VGA/SVGA monitor, Microsoft Windows
3.1+, 8MB RAM.
Price: About £2000 - £3500 depending on ISDN or LAN options.
Multipoint: Yes (up to 3 parties).
Collaboration Features: Whiteboard, Screen sharing.
DECspin (DEC Sound Picture Information Network)
Provider: Digital Equipment Corporation
Description: Video/Audio using standard network protocols. DECspin uses packetized
audio and video to allow for desktop teleconferencing. DECspin uses standard
networking protocols (TCP/IP and DECnet) along with either hardware or software
compression of digitized audio and video.
Platforms: DEC
Requirements: DECstation 5000, ULTRIX 4.3 or higher, TURBOchannel, DECmedia
hardware (DECvideo,DECaudio), XMedia Tools Runtime license, 24-32MB memory,
500MB - 1GB disk storage.
Desktop Videoconferencing
Manufacturer: Fujitsu Networks Industry
Description: ISDN-based desktop videoconferencing for MS Windows. It combines
simultaneous screen sharing and remote control of live applications with real time
pointing, writing and annotation files. It uses Novell Netware software to enable these
ancillary collaborative features, over a LAN or WAN network.
Platforms:PC running under Windows
Minimum requirements: 4Mb RAM, VGA monitor, Winodws 3.0 or higher
Multipoint: Yes up to eight participants
Collaborative features: Application screen scharing,remote control, file transfer,
clipboard transfer
ES+F2F (Electronic Studio's Face 2 Face)
Provider: Electronic Studio
Description: Video/Tools over ISDN, Analog, Ethernet. Audio requires ISDN or Analog
phone line. A package which allows two way desktop video conferencing with text and
image exchange. The people involved in the conference can see and interact with the
same document, highlighting areas of a diagram, for example, which are also highlighted
on the recipient's screen. Speeds of 15 fps are achievable without compression hardware.
Appletalk and ISDN networks are supported.
Platforms: Macintosh
Requirements: Apple Communications Toolbox, video capture board.
Price: £1000
Multipoint: No
Collaboration Features: Text and image exchange.
InPerson
Provider: Silicon Graphics
Description: Video/Audio/Tools over Analog, Ethernet. A conference includes a shared
whiteboard and a "shared shelf" for visual file transfer.
Platforms: InPerson runs on any SGI platform with graphics. For machines without
video hardware, a static image is used instead of live video. For machines without audio
hardware, the InPerson whiteboard can be used with an analog phone line for voice.
Bandwidth usage for video is dependent on the resolution selected as well as the amount
of motion in the video scene. The formula for determining maximum required
bandwidth for each participant is...
video height * video width * frame rate * 1.4 = kbits / second
For instance, video with 160x120 resolution, at 15fps, consumes approximately 400
kbits/sec. This is the maximum amount of data bandwidth used for just the video for a
single participant. Actual bandwidth used may be less if there's not much motion in the
video scene. InPerson uses multicasting for audio in conferences with more than two
participants. Unicast networking is used for a two-person conferences. InPerson uses an
early draft of RTP, a transport protocol for audio/video data that's being developed by
the Audio/Video Transport working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force. IETF
is part of the organization that develops Internet standards. Will InPerson run over
Ethernet? Will InPerson run over ATM? Will InPerson run over FDDI? InPerson will
run over each of these networks as they use standard TCP/IP networking protocol. If the
network topology doesn't support multicasting, then the size of the conference may be
limited. InPerson was designed to operate within at least an Ethernet bandwidth and
network topology. While InPerson is limited by available network bandwidth, there is
no support to take advantage of additional (greater than 10 Mbit) bandwidth. This
support will be available in a future release. The additional bandwidth will allow for
more simultaneous conferences as well as conferences with a greater number of
participants.
Requirements: No additional hardware needed.
Price: About £350
Multipoint: Yes
Collaboration Features: Text, image, 3D model sharing. Whiteboard can include
graphics, as well as text and images. Sharing 3D models are not currently supported in
the whiteboard, except as image "snapshots" of the model. InPerson also includes a
"shared shelf" for visual file transfer between participants in a call.
INTERVu
Provider: Zydacron, Inc.
Description: Video/Audio/Data over IsoEthernet (802.9), ISDN, Switched 56, or
V.35/RS366.
Platforms: PC
Requirements: 386 or higher, Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher.
Multipoint: Yes
Collaboration Features: File Transfer, runs most collaborative software already on the
market (i.e. talkshow, vis-a-vis, person to person, farsite, terminal, carbon copy,
proshare, etc.)
It operates at fixed frame rates of 15fps at CIF and 30fps at Q-CIF. INTERVu is
completely CPU independent. Future plans to come out with a multiplatform product
capable of 20(fixed) fps at Full CIF.
InVision
Provider: InVision Systems Corp.
Description: Video/Audio/Tools over ISDN, Switched 56, Ethernet, FDDI, Frame
Relay, Token Ring, ATM.
Platforms: PC
Requirements: 386 or higher, Microsoft Windows 3.1+.
Price: About £700
Multipoint: No
Collaboration Features: Whiteboard, Shared Clipboard.
IRIS
Provider: SAT
Description: Video over ISDN. A hardware/software package which allows bilateral
desktop video conferencing. Compressed colour video is carried over ISDN, and audio
over a normal voice telephone channel. JPEG compression is done in hardware.
Platforms: Macintosh
Requirements: Macintosh II or Quadra, Planet ISDN board, 4MB RAM.
Price: £5000-£6000.
Multipoint: No
IVS (Inria Videoconference System)
Provider: RODEO Project, INRIA Sophia Antipolis, France.
Description: Video/Audio over the Internet. ivs is an integrated audio/video
conferencing tool used in RIPE and Internet remote conferencing research. A window
is presented to the user giving a couple of menus, one for selecting a video encoding and
one for selecting an audio encoding. At the bottom of the window a list of participants
in the conference is presented and whether each of them is broadcasting audio or video
or both. By clicking on the buttons next to these labels you can either hear the audio
through the loud speaker or pop up another window showing the video image.
The video is encoded using a H.261 software codec. Output from the encoder is
approximately 30 kbyte/s. The audio stream can be encoded with either PCM (64 kbit/s),
ADPCM (32 kbit/s) or VADPCM (variable rate ADPCM) compression.
Platforms: Sun SPARCstation, HP9000, DECstation 5000, SGI Indigo.
Requirements: A workstation with a 1, 4, 8 or 24 bit screen depth. Multi-host
conferences require kernel support for multicast IP extensions (RFC 1112). Video frame
grabbers supported are VideoPix, SunVideo or Parallax boards for SPARCStations,
RasterOps board for HP stations, IndigoVideo or GalileoVideo boards for SGI IRIS
Indigo and Indy workstations, or the VIDEOTX board for DEC stations. No special
hardware apart from the workstation's build-in audio hardware is required for audio.
Requires a camera compatible with the video board.
Price: Free, by anonymous ftp from ftp://zenon.inria.fr/rodeo/ivs.
Multipoint: Yes
Collaboration Features: None
MacMICA
Provider: Group Technologies
Description: Video/Audio over Appletalk networks. Conferencing system which
provides multipoint, real-time interactive conferencing between multiple workstations
over Appletalk networks.
Platforms: Macintosh
Multipoint: Yes
MMDC
Manufacturer: ISI
Description: Runs on Sparcs over the DSI network (ST-1.5). It's a video conferencing
tool used in research.
Nevot
Manufacturer:Henning Schulzrinne, hgs@research.att.comAT&T BL
Platform: Sun (SunOS), Silicon Graphics, DEC Ultrix (soon)
Description: The network voice terminal (NEVOT) allows audio-capable workstations
to participate in audio conferences across local and wide area networks. Features:
compatible with NVP (network voice protocol) as used by 'vat' (LBL) and VT (ISI)
compatible with 'vat' native packet format upward compatible with 'vat' session protocol
versions for: Sun SPARCstation; SGI Indigo (4D Series); Personal DECstations [soon]
GUIs: XView; Motif [in progress]; curses; dumb terminal can serve as gateway for
protocol and encoding translation network transport protocols: TCP; unicast/multicast
UDP; ST-2 several independent concurrent conferences, each with different encoding
and compression DES-based voice encryption (U.S. only) audio encodings: 64 kb/s (u-
law PCM); 32 kb/s G.721 ADPCM (Sun only); 32 kb/s Intel DVI; 24 kb/s G.723
APDCM (Sun only); 4.8 kb/s LPC codec each site can use different audio encodings
playback and recording of AIFC and .snd audio files extensive statistics and tracing
facilities arbitrary voice packet length, which may differ for each site lost packet and
silence substitution setable audio buffer occupancy configurable adjustment mechanisms
for playout delay, VU meter, silence detector and automatic gain control redefinable
session identifier string with variable substitution
Price: Free
Ntv
Provider: Peregrine Systems
Description: Video/Audio/Tools over Ethernet and Token Ring.
Platforms: PC
Requirements: 386 DX/25 or higher, 4MB RAM, Microsoft Windows 3.1+ or Windows
for Workgroups, Network connection, Video capture board, Audio capture board,
Camera, Microphone, Speakers.
Multipoint: Yes
Collaboration Features: Application sharing of Windows-based applications.
NV (Network Video)
Provider: Xerox/PARC
Description: NV provides video over the Internet. It is commonly supplemented with
VAT (Visual Audio Tool) and WB (Whiteboard) for full-featured video/audio
conferencing and collaboration. nv is a videoconferencing tool that transmits video
images across an internet using UDP/IP. Images maybe sent point-to-point or can be
broadcast to a large number of receiving stations using multicast IP. It is widely used in
the DARPA remote conferencing research effort.
An X window with a list of video sources is presented to the user and video images to
be viewed can be selected by clicking with a mouse on the label of the appropriate
sending station.
The picture is built up using a slow-scan method which means that only the changes
between each frame are broadcast. Typically frame refreshes happen at about 2 to 5
frames per second.
Both PAL and NTSC video standards are supported.
No specialist hardware is required for receiving the video image. If video images are to
be transmitted using nv then a VideoPix framegrabber (available from Sun
Microsystems) and a video camera are required. There is no integrated audio support.
Platforms: Sun SPARCstation, DECstation 5000 and Alpha, SGI, HP9000, IBM
RS6000.
Requirements: All platforms require a camera that is compatible with the video capture
hardware. Sun/SunOS 4: Parallax, PARCVideo, VideoPix, X11. Sun/SunOS 5:
SunVideo, VideoPix, X11. DEC 5000/Ultrix: PIP, X11; DEC Alpha/OSF 1: J300,X11;
SGI/Irix 5: SGI VL (Indy, Galileo), X11. HP9000/HPUX: VideoLive, X11.
RS6000/AIX: IBM VCA, X11.
Price: NV, VAT, and WB are all free and available by anonymous ftp
Multipoint: Yes
Collaboration Features: None
PCS100
Manufacturer: PictureTel
Description:PC integrated videoconferencing running under Windows. To be used in
conjunction with LIVEShare software to enable whiteboard, and colaborative working,
as well as file transfer. Runs on ISDN network, compliant with all ITU standards
Platforms: PC
Requirements: 386 or above, Microsoft Windows 3.1, SVGA or VGA monitor, 4 MB
RAM(8MB recomended).
Multipoint: No
Collaboration features: whiteboard, file transfer, application sharing.
Person To Person
Provider: IBM
Description: Video/Tools over Analog, ISDN, Ethernet, or Token Ring. Audio requires
separate ISDN or Analog phone line. Person To Person/2 is a two way
videoconferencing system which incorporates a shared "chalkboard" window. This is
a shared, interactive workspace that shows the same information on everyone's screen.
The chalkboard can mirror any OS/2 application window, or can be loaded with bitmaps
or scanned images. The chalkboard can be annotated, and each participant can see the
other's mouse pointer. The next most important facility is ĪClipā which, as the name
suggests, connects the system clipboards of all the participants of a P2P Īcallā. This
means that anyone can pass just the right information to a colleague using the clipboard
commands found in most applications. The data comes in just the right format, instantly
and without extra training.
Compressed digital video and graphics are carried either over ISDN, or over a Token
Ring or Ethernet LAN using NetBIOS. There is an option to carry video over a
physically separate analogue video link. Voice is carried over the telephone system.
There are several other facilities in P2P that each play their part. ĪFile Transferā like a
minimalist e-mail system, lets you pass groups of files to colleagues. ĪTalkā is a shared
minute-taking tool, like the Īchatā programs you may have seen but with the addition
of date, time and author stamps that make the transcript useful when the virtual
meeting is over.
Platforms: PC
Requirements: 386SX minimum, OS/2 2.x or Microsoft Windows 3.1+, 8MB memory,
ActionMedia II hardware. Camera.
Price: £195 (educational discount available)
Multipoint: Yes
Collaboration Features: Whiteboard, File transfer, Talk window, Shared clipboard.
Personal Viewpoint
Provider: ViewPoint Systems
Description: Video/Audio/Tools over Analog, Switched 56, ISDN, Ethernet, Token
Ring.
Platforms: PC
Requirements: Microsoft Windows 3.1+, VGA graphics, 1 available slot.
Price: About £1000 without camera, £1500 with camera.
Multipoint: Yes
Collaboration Features: Whiteboard, File transfer.
PICFON
Provider: Specom Technologies
Description: Video/Audio over Analog and ISDN phone lines. PC-based video
telephone system which uses a 14.4 kbit/s modem. Video is captured and compressed
using the CAPICOM board and transmitted using the PICFON card.
Platforms: PC
Requirements: 386 or higher, 4MB RAM, 40MB hard disk, DOS 5.0 or higher, camera.
Multipoint: Yes (maximum of 3 parties).
Collaboration Features: Still-image sharing.
PictureTel Live PCS 100
Provider: PictureTel
Description: Video/Audio/Tools over Switched 56, ISDN.
Platforms: PC
Requirements: 386 or higher, 2 ISA slots, Microsoft Windows 3.1+.
Price: About £4000
Multipoint: Yes (maximum of 16 parties).
Collaboration Features: Whiteboard, File Transfer, Screen sharing.
PictureWindow
Provider: BBN
Description: Video/Audio over the Internet.
Platforms: Sun SPARCstation.
Requirements: Sun SPARCstation (1,1+,2,IPX,10), 8 bit color or grayscale frame buffer,
24MB memory, SunOS 4.1.1 or later with IPC_SHMEM option, OpenWindows 2.0 or
higher or X11 R4 or higher with an 8-bit PseudoColor visual, VideoPix card.
Price: About £350 software only, £1000 with VideoPix and camera.
Multipoint: Yes
Collaboration Features: None
ProShare
Provider: Intel
Description: Video/Audio/Tools over ISDN.
Platforms: PC
Requirements: 486/33 or higher, 8MB RAM, 7MB hard disk space, DOS 3.3 and
Windows 3.1+, VGA resolution or higher, 2 ISA slots.
Price: About £1800
Multipoint: No
Collaboration Features: Whiteboard.
Notes: Current whiteboard supports OLE but does no allow application sharing yet.
Future versions will support H.320.
PSVC (Paradise Software Video Conferencing)
Provider: Paradise Software, Inc.
Description: Audio/Video/Tools over ISDN, Ethernet, ATM.
Platforms: Sun SPARCstation
Requirements: Parallax XVideo/PowerVideo boards, SunOS 4.1.3 or Solaris 2.3,
OpenWindows 3.x, 1MB disk space, 16MB memory, 16 MB swap.
Price: About £700 (without any hardware)
Multipoint: Yes
Collaboration Features: Whiteboard, Video Mail, Screen Capture.
Notes: Support for HP 700 series, Motif forthcoming.
SD
Manufacturer:Van Jacobson Lawrence Berkeley
Platform: Sun SPARCstation + SunOS 4.1.x + IP Multicast extensions, X windows
Description: This is a session director. It lists all the audio/video conferences available
on the Internet. Information about each conference (what it is, who created it, when it
starts and finishes, which address and conferencing protocol it uses) is presented to the
user.
When the user selects the desired conference from the list, the appropriate tool is started
(eg. nv or vat) with the correct address and port number for that conference.
A facility for creating conferences is provided and these conferences can be limited to
being site-wide, region-wide, or global. This is currently achieved by setting the time-to-
live on the broadcast packets.
This tool is being developed as part of the DARPA remote conferencing research effort.
Future plans: Ongoing development of the tool and underlying protocols.
Available from: ftp.ee.lbl.gov
Price: Free
ShareView 3000
Provider: ShareVision
Description: Audio/Video/Tools over Analog phone line.
Platforms: Macintosh
Requirements: System 7.01 or higher, 4MB RAM, 2 NuBus slots.
Price: About £3000
Multipoint: No
Collaboration Features: Whiteboard, Document sharing.
ShareVision
Manufacturer: ShareVision
Description: Desktop videoconferencing and real-time document sharing over POTS
(Plain Old Telephone System) lines for Macintosh
ShowMe
Provider: SunSolutions
Description: Video/Audio/Tools over the Internet. ShowMe is a computer conferencing
tool. Virtually any information that would be presented or recorded in a conference
room can be interactively presented to that same group from the desktop using this
software.
ShowMe supports global workgroups connected via any TCP/IP based local or wide are
network. Conferees can import information from their desktop such as slide
presentations, documents, graphs, images, and spreadsheets onto ShowMe's shared
conference board, and then augment their verbal discussion visually and interactively
using ShowMe's on-screen markers to gesture or mark-up the information. With the
Active Window feature you can make changes to your applications and then pop these
changes onto the ShowMe conference board for further discussion.
Voice is carried over the normal telephone network.
ShowMe was released in September 1992.
Platforms: Sun SPARCstation
Requirements: Solaris 2.3 or later, X11 R5, OpenWindows 3, 1 SBUS slot, SunVideo
board, SunMicrophone.
Price: ABout £2500, including SunVideo board and camera. Educational discount
available.
Multipoint: Yes, with and without IP Multicast.
Collaboration Features: Whiteboard, Application Sharing for X11 R4/R5-based
applications and Wabi 1.0 supported MS Windows applications.
Slate
Manufacturer: BBN
Platform: UNIX workstations
Description: Slate provides real-time conferencing and multimedia electronic mail on
UNIX workstations. Slate allows shared access of documents (images, desktop
publications) in real time. It's all based around a mail system so that there's a natural
archival system for the various sorts of media being shared.
Future plans: Investigations into the use of (Internet-compatible) videoconferencing
facilities within Slate are proceeding at BBN.
Price: Slate is available to educational sites (at least in the US) at $100 a license (site
licenses are also available).
TeleView 1000C
Provider: VCC (Video Conferencing Communications, Inc.)
Description: Video over Analog phone lines.
Platforms: PC
Price: About £3000 includes boards and software.
TELES.VISION
Manufacturer: TELES GmbH, Berlin
Platform: PC running under Windows
Description: In 1991 TELES claimed that the TELES. VISION system was the only PC-
integrated videoconferencing system on the market. In runs over an ISDN link, or across
an ethernet connection, and provides some collaboration features.
Requirements: 486 with 8Mb RAM, running under Windows 3.0 or later.
Multipoint: Yes, up to 15 particpants
Collaboration features: Shared files, shared views.
VAT
Manufacturer:Van Jacobson Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory University of California
Berkeley.
Platform: Sun SPARCstation, SunOS 4.1.x + IP Multicast extensions, X windows
Description: vat is an audio-conferencing tool which supports both point-to-point and
broadcasting of audio using multicast IP. This tool is extensively used in the DARPA
remote conferencing research effort.
A window is presented to the user showing a list of names of all the participants of the
conference. The tool allows you to set the gain on the microphone and loudspeaker. You
can select whether the audio received goes to the loudspeaker or headphones. You can
select individual members of the conference and either setup a side-conversation with
them or block out the audio coming from that station.
Different audio encodings are supported: pcm 64Kb/s 8-bit u-law encoded 8KHz PCM
idvi 32Kb/s Intel DVI ADPCM gsm 16Kb/s GSM lpc1 18Kb/s Linear Predictive Coder
lpc4 8Kb/s Linear Predictive Coder vat can act as a filter between these different
formats.
Encryption of audio data using DES is supported, thought there is no automatic way of
propagating/generating the encryption key.
Future plans: Work is underway on U.S. Federal Standard 1016 4800 bit/s CELP (a very
low bandwidth codec that could be run over 9600 baud dial-up SLIP links).
Price: Free
VC7000
Provider: Tandberg Telecom
Description: Video/Audio. Videoconferencing system and document transmission
system. Conforms to H.261 coding. Audio is synchronised to full motion video.
Platforms: PC
VCI/oem
Manufacturer:VistaCom
Platform: PC
Description: VCI/oem is a set of H.261 video codec boards for the OEM (original
equipment manufacturer) market, designed for use over a number of different network
types with bandwidths from 56 kbit/s up to 2 Mbit/s. A JPEG compression option is
available.
The basic video codec consists of two PC/AT bus boards. Six additional boards are
available for various networks interfaces.
There is a development kit, called CDS-261/100, which consists of one set of all codec
boards, one fully assembled and tested codec in a standalone chassis, development
software and technical manuals. A 3-day course is also available.
The products were released in October 1992.
VicPhone
Provider: VIC Hi-Tech Corporation
Description: Video/Tools over Analog, ISDN phone lines or Ethernet. Audio can be sent
over the same analog line with a voice-modem. No additional line required for voice
over ISDN.
Platforms: PC
Requirements: 486/33 or faster, 16-bit ISA bus, Microsoft Windows 3.1+, VGA board
with feature connector, 9.6 - 28.8 modem or network, CCD camera (NTSC,PAL,S-
VIDEO).
Price: About 450, includes video capture/display card,videoconferencing software and
additional multimedia video/audio capture/edit/playback features.
Multipoint: Point-to-point modem operations, Multi-point LAN/WAN operations.
Collaboration Features: Shared image/document workspace with mutual chalkboard, file
transfer, text chat window.
VidCall
Provider: MRA Associates Inc.
Description: Video/Tools over Analog, ISDN, Ethernet, Token Ring. Audio requires
separate phone line or voice/data modem to send voice and video over one telephone
line.
Platforms: PC
Requirements: 386/33 (486 recommended), 2M disk space, 4 MB RAM, VGA graphics,
Microsoft Windows 3.1+ or Windows NT, Microsoft mouse, video capture board
(compatible with many boards including Video For Windows compatible boards),
MNP/V.42 modem (14.4+) or Windows compatible LAN, WAN, TCP/IP network, still
or motion camera.
Price: About £50, includes software for two stations and documentation.
Multipoint: Point-to-point modem operations, Multi-point LAN/WAN operations.
Collaboration Features: Whiteboard, Image sharing and annotation.
VISIT Video
Provider: Northern Telecom Inc.
Description: Video/Tools over ISDN or Switched 56. Audio requires separate ISDN or
Analog phone line. Desktop videoconferencing via switched-56 or ISDN for Apple
Macintosh and IBM PC. It integrates desktop video conferencing, screen sharing,
electronic voice mail.
Platforms: PC, Macintosh.
Requirements: PC: 386 minimum and hard drive, Microsoft Windows 3.1+, AT-bus
expansion slot, DOS 5.0 or greater, 8MB RAM (12 MB RAM max on ISA PC, 16MB
or more possible on EISA w/ memory re-mapping), 256-color VGA board and color
monitor (Super VGA w/ thousands of colors support recommended). Mac: Macintosh
II family or other NuBus-equipped Apple computer, NuBus expansion slot, System 7
or greater, 8MB RAM, Color monitor. Camera included with product.
Price: About £4000
Multipoint: No
Collaboration Features: Whiteboard, File transfer.
Vivo320
Provider: Vivo Software, Inc.
Description: Video/Audio/Tools over ISDN.
Platforms: PC
Requirements: 486 66-MHz PC, Microsoft Windows 3.1.
Price: About £1500, includes MovieMan video capture card and digital camera,
Logitech mircrophone, IBM WaveRunner ISDN card, hands-free speaker, privacy
earpiece, and Vivo320 software.
Multipoint: Yes, using H.320 compliant MCU (Multi-point Conferencing Unit).
Collaboration Features: Document Sharing (Databeam's FarSite 2.0 collaboration
software included), Image Presentation and markup.
VS1000
Provider: Mentec International Ltd.
Description: Video/Audio. Videoconferencing system for MS Windows. A codec card,
screen window update card and camera are required.
Platforms: PC
Requirements: Microsoft Windows.
Price: £10,000
The information included in appendices 1 and 2 has been primarily collated from
manufacturers publicity material. However in order to be as complete as possible, some
of the summaries have been derived from sources on the World Wide Web.
These surveys can be accessed at the following addresses;
http://www2.ncsu.edu/eos/service/ece/project/succeed_info/dtvc_survey/products.html
http://cui_www.unige.ch/OSG/MultimediaInfo/mmsurvey/
Contents
Graphics Multimedia
Virtual Environments Visualisation
Contents