Transition from site-specific video conferencing hardware
to General Purpose video conferencing solutions

When video conferencing was first introduced it used expensive ISDN telephone lines thus specific infrastructure hardware devices were needed. It is mostly IP enabled now, and of course the biggest IP network is the Internet. In the last decade alone, Internet bandwidth has increased out of all recognition and there are billions of dollars worth of switches, routers and gateways already deployed and it is constantly being improved.

It comes as no surprise that desktop conferencing has consequently come of age. The technology has been around since the late ‘90s but is too often confused with webinars, webcasts or webmeetings, etc. Most of these applications are little more than screen sharing - allowing participants to see what a presenter has open on his/her desktop. Thus it’s extremely important to differentiate those applications or services that include live video from those that simply don't. A pair of human eyes can do more image-processing than all the supercomputers in the world. Vision is no longer just a sense, it’s more of an intelligence in its own right.

Video collaboration is changing from a product industry (i.e. hardware) to a solutions industry (i.e. software & services). All too often, web based video conferencing is dismissed because of the perception created by applications such as Skype, MSN and Yahoo, etc. Most of these applications are adequate for personal use and one-to-one meetings, but not robust enough for the corporate environment.

Nefsis has addressed the need for scalable video conferencing, desktop to conference room. Nefsis is the first web and video conferencing solution that utilises a true Cloud Computing architecture. Some products claiming to offer 'cloud computing' are really just a large centralised data centre supplying Software as a Service (SaaS) without any of the benefits of cloud-based service distribution. Simply making the server component (of a client/server application) accessible via the public Internet does not mean that it is Cloud Computing.

A true cloud computing architecture off-loads and distributes the collaboration experience across the Internet. Nefsis does this by using a massive network of distributed computer clusters to ensure the highest quality VC experience, transparently minimising latency while delivering the benefits of load-balancing, failover and scalability. All connections are made through the corporate firewall, using secure encrypted transmission protocols. With high-capacity, corporate Internet access, HD video conferencing is readily available at the click of a mouse and there’s no need for hardware upgrades!

Nefsis rivals the most expensive Telepresence systems available today. However, it accomplishes all of this in a software application that can easily be upgraded and improved without the cost of replacing expensive, single-use equipment. The benefit to users is that the technology is transparent — it is as easy to use as Microsoft Office.

Some reasons for this are:

• Desktop PCs are far less expensive than dedicated video conferencing hardware
• There are no sunk costs - no “construction dependencies” to activate or utilise
• Nefsis can be installed, removed and relocated with no loss of investment
• Widespread use of desktop video conferencing will require far less bandwidth and connectivity than their telepresence alternatives.
• Nefsis is under user’s personal control — requiring no reservation and is always available — matching the long sought after promise of “video dial tone”

For an enterprise-wide Nefsis roll-out it is a simple process of providing the relevant users with an account. This gives them access to the organisation’s or department’s concurrent user license. Total deployment time can be less than one hour and there’s no longer a need to travel to a dedicated conference room. The cost of deploying Nefsis is typically less than 25% of a traditional hardware based video conferencing solution. With an intuitive user interface, minimum IT overhead and a significant cost saving compared to installing traditional video conferencing end-points, every cloud has a silver lining!

To see for yourself how Nefsis can improve efficiency and team collaboration, download the free 14-day trial — you’ll be up and running in no time!