VoIP Watch

Ins and Outs Are Hurting Conference Calls

Like many of you, I live on conference calls. Meet me on the bridge is a standard part of our vocabularly, with calls on the calendar to avoid a call you're expecting being missed by a call you didn't expect.

Yesterday on a conference call using Citrix's GoToMeeting with James Tagg, CTO and Founder of Truphone, as well as a few others. James and I were calling in via the GoToMeeting client on our Mac Book Pros. One of my team was calling in via a mobile phone on AT&T, another person on the Truphone team was calling in via a SIP based PBX, and others who were doing more listening than talking were hearing clearly via GTM's clients on Macs or iPads.

The call quality ranged from crystal clear for those using the GoToMeeting clients, to muddy, depending who was doing the talking, and who was doing the listening. And this was on a conferencing bridge that actually mixes the audio (and video) to provide a combined stream back to all participants (Note Citrix is a former client, and they incorporated technology from former client Hi-Def Conferncing which they acquired.) 

James and I heard each other like we were across the table from one another. But my colleague, on an iPhone over AT&T sounded very tinny, and almost mechanical to James, but not to me. One of James' colleagues calling via an IP phone, but like my colleague, was dialing in via a local dialup POP number provided by GoToMeeting in the USA and UK. James' comment about his colleague was even though he was one floor down, sounded "unintelligable." To me the other Truphone person was slightly audible, but not as clear to me as my colleague on the iPhone who to James wasn't.

Here's the problem. I call it ins and outs.

Ins and outs are the way calls connect to the conferencing bridge. It includes the number of hops and number of network handoffs. It's the routing and it's the conversion of codec mismatches. It's the Session Border Controllers from multiple manufacturers and most of all, it's the conversion from IP to TDM, back to IP, vs. the all IP calling that James and I were experiencing that was crystal clear and coming through in beautiful Hi-Def audio.

I'll compare this experience to calls on bootstrapped startup Voxeet, where the audio, over 3G, 4G or WiFi is amazing. No calls ever touch the PSTN. None are dependent on a SIP based PBX that has to dial out over the POTS line. Pal Craig Walker's company, UberConference, uses WebRTC inside Chrome. There, if everyone uses WebRTC and calls from the browser, the experience is much like using CounterPath's Bria and either ZipDx or TurboBridge, if everyone calls in via a SIP URI and has the g.722 wideband audio codec installed.

So the issues-the SIP providers don't peer with Citrix's Go To Meeting, so an IP based call that should stay IP, has to go in and out a few times. In the case of AT&T Mobile call, the dial in POP was not in Georgia, but in California. That caused latency in addition to going from and to and back between IP and TDM. 

The problem isn't new, but it's getting worse and worse each month. It's a subject I've discussed in the past with Walker, as well as founders of Voxeet, TurboBridge and even with Alec Saunders, back in the day when he was leading iotum which operates Calliflower.

It seems I'm not alone in sensing the problem. Leading headset manufacturer, Plantronics is conducting a survey about conference call quality. Sadly, this is not an issue that is simply related to the input, but what's all going on in the middle. And that's something, the headset, or input device can't solve.

 

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WebRTC Chatter, Thoughts and More

Recently WebRTC has come into the forefront with active discussions on the VUC and now a back and forth on Twitter with some of the brighter minds I know on the subject of technology adoption chiming in. The Twitter back and forth reminds me of a group of guys sitting around the bar discussing the latest new player on a sports team, minus the beers and shots. And since we do it in 140 characters, comments are not exactly always fully explained. But I digress.

What is happening with WebRTC is actually very exciting. It means that inside the browser will be all the communications elements that allow for a high-quality audio or video call, plus the guts to wrap other real-time collaboration around (screen sharing is likely the first and most logical) but also other services like remote desktop, personalized messaging (think presence based comms) and more.

The chatter on Twitter though surrounds mobile and when WebRTC will be there. My gut tells me we'll see it first on Android, but I wouldn't rule RIM out with BB 10 given how BBM and WebRTC would be a killer combo. Some think Windows Mobile, but even if Microsoft does implement the technology inside Internet Exlporer, given their history of things not always working right, it would need to be a Skype port, as they now have too much invested in the property. Skype has been working in that direction, but so far, there hasn't been much follow up to the talk that Jonathan Rosenberg gave a few years ago on the subject at eComm so I'm not holding my breath there. And, as for Apple, right now they continue to push Facetime, so hopefully, they take what they learned from it, and put it inside Safari but again, I think it will be Chrome on Mobile that leads the way, with Firefox right behind.

What do you think?

Standards Don't (Always) Apply

Over the past week what should be standard isn't anymore. First was the fact that Pay as You Go SIMs on SFR in France and the iOS on iPhones stopped working. After some work and a day later, SFR support admitted that the settings needing updating, and are different than the ones that are published everywhere.

Then there was the hotel/resort that this past July that everything worked perfectly. Then Apple changed what it does with Java and voila, I can't log on with my MacBook under OS 10.8.2 without the IT guy doing what we used to call Sysop magic. It seems the service that provides the gateway will be changing in January so they're not keen on doing much.

Now with their gateway, IP calling works with Skype but Bria is another story, not because of any thing CounterPath has done, but because ONSip and they both follow standard, and the gateway, and the network NAT or in this case double NAT making some things like conference calling and vido conferencing a bit of a challenge.

Speaking of conference calls, there's the never ending signalling and media issues, coupled with echo and latency. Ever since the demise of HiDef Conferencing via Citrix which incorporated what made it great into GoToMeeting, nothing has ever really sounded as good or worked as well.

You see, when standards don't always get applied the same way by everyone, nothing really is standard. Back in the day, when everything was PSTN, everything was the same. Now, with so many different ways to do the same thing, nothing is really the same.

A Very Video Christmas

Image via CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

Ten months ago, pal Michael Graves wrote a very detailing post about two new hardware devices, TelyHD which works with Skype, and Biscotti, which uses GoogleTalk as its signaling and media transport layer that on face look very similar. Like many of us who live on the cutting edge, those devices and news of them was very early in the making, as the early adopters took to them, but not much in the way of mass adoption. You can read Michael's post to get the lowdown on both companies, but this post is about the implications I see coming from the developments both companies have made.

You see, when it comes to video in the home and small business offices, I think there is going to be change in adoption and use cases this year, and the reasons are:

Processors inside smartphones, Mobile networks with LTE, Cloud and Broadband to the home getting faster.

Those four reasons together all spell the ability for mobile and fixed line video calling to work more easily together, as well as to propel it's growth. Gone are the days where developers at services and apps like SightSpeed (now part of Logitech) needed to/prayed for the next generation of processors, while figuring out how to get more compression into video and audio streams. Now we have the power in the processors and the speed in the networks to produce and deliver full motion video without much hesitation to use it. 

We are also seeing total integration into the endpoint, the camera, with upgradeable software and encoding tools. By putting codecs in the endpoints, that can be updated, much like Apple TV's, video cameras become like telephones of old. We never updated our phones, the telephone company upgraded the network and our phones kept working. And that's the beauty of both TelyHD and Biscotti and once they go 1080P will be even better than 720p, but when you think about carrying video, sometimes size doesn't matter as much, or actually, it does.

What TelyHD and Biscotti both do is bring video calling to the home and office for less than the price of expensive Polycom and Cisco desktop phones. They also use two widely deployed networks with millions of users already connected every minute of every day. While Biscotti seems to be angel backed, TelyHD has funding from both Comcast and Rogers, two of the biggest cable MSO's on the planet. It will be interesting to see just how integrated the programs to sell in TelyHD into business markets really are, because both Comcast and Rogers are very siloed as companies go, and like many venture arms of large communications companies, not always knitted to the fabric of the business. 

Perhaps, Yahoo wll jump into this space with an acquisition of one of these companies because as Yahoo moves mobile, one of its biggest strengths is Yahoo Messenger, an app that has always had video and never really exploited it. On an International level it remains one of the most installed chat apps around.

Watch video get even more in home use, as apps and devices from Biscotti and TelyHD arrive under the tree this year.

 

 

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Voxeet Launches Amazingly Super Conferencing Service

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to sit down with the founders of Voxeet, a new audio conferencing service that just launched their iOS and Android apps after finishing on top in a competition sponsored by Bandwidth.com. Previously they had a Windows app and are promising a Mac client shortly.

In an era where pal Craig Walker launched UberConference, which I subscribe to and enjoy has set a new bar in user interface and completeness of offer, I was delighted to see how very much alive and well imagination is in the conferencing space today without WebRTC being at the core, and that someone can take an idea and deliver a very different call experience.

Not since HiDef Conferencing (former client, now part of Citrix and embedded inside GoToMeeting) have I had the kind of audio experience that Voxeet gave me, as their binaural audio approach, and the visual user interface on the iPhone and iPad Mini was simply mind blowing in an era where not much has been new. 

Because Voxeet uses binaural audio, the sound comes from inside your head. Because you can move the location around on the iPhone of where the other parties are on a call, you can really seperate the participant in a call.

Pal Tom Keating, who loves to test things, goes into detail on what the experience was like, and I agree. My experience with Voxeet was clearly head and shoulder past anything on the market today, for people who want to be on an all IP based conference call. This will put a lot of pressure on companies like ZIPDX and TurboBridge, given the pricing model and the quality.

What's more impressive is the team that built Voxeet, did all this for under one million dollars in seed funding proving that imagination, technical prowess and desire can bring great things to life.

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WebRTC World -Tells It All about WebRTC

I was thinking about adding a section to VoIPWatch called WebRTCWatch, so I was happy to see that the folks at TMC (Rich, Eric, Tom, Paula) have powered a new site called WebRTC World.

It's a very nice compendium of news edited and compiled by Phil Edholm. 

With WebRTC taking a center stage this year as the "next big communications thing" its nice to see attention being given to it by people who are passionate about the technology and it's implications.

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BBM Voice Out Now On RIM OS 7

English: BlackBerry Bold 9000 connected to T-Mobile USA and a DD-WRT Wi-Fi access point. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While the BlackBerry loyalist community eagerly awaits the release in late January of new RIM BlackBerries and the new OS 10, RIM has been updating to OS 7 with a key feature that those who still talk will like. As GigaOm's Kevin Tofel reports, RIM has officially released the previously  in beta BBM Voice, making the compatable BlackBerry devices now a dual OTT device by making Voice an over the top play just like BBM is to texting/SMS as long as the device is connected to Wi-Fi. Ironically, it comes out at about the same time that T-Mobile is shutting down USA hotspots, and basically neutering their UMA based calling service as recent BlackBerries have not had that service book active on the soon to merge carrier.

This is important because it basically means that bundles of voice minutes can be reduced and that mobile operators to RIM are now being relegated to being pipes for distribution and connectivity, as they no longer can be seen as the only game in town for customers to connect to make voice call on a BlackBerry smartphone.

Wi-Fi calling on BlackBerries was always wanted, but never really easy. Vopium, a former client, cracked the code, and ShoreTel acquisition Agito also had hacked the Wi-Fi stack, to the ire of former RIM leadership. But fresher eyes, like Alec Saunders, who understand what was missing, have turned things around. 

Client Truphone has also shown off Wi-Fi calling at BlackBerry Developer events, but for OS 10. My view is that everyone in the VoIP world that wants to crack the enterprise market will be working on an OS 10 BB client, except for Skype. Last I heard from their folks, there's no desire from them to be on BlackBerries any time soon.

 

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Windows Live Messenger-Going. Going. It's Gone.

With Microsoft looking like they are killing off Windows Live Messenger by consolidating the functionality and back end engineering into Skype, one has to wonder if the interoperability that never really came of much between Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger (if it still worked) will still be in place. I doubt it.

One of the benefits early on of Windows Messenger was the access it had to the SIP stack inside Windows 98 and ME, long before VoIP was en vogue. Microsoft also has a very long history of using VoIP inside XBox Live, so one has to wonder if Skype and the Skype codecs like Opus and Silk are finding their way into XBox Live now. 

Next will be full blown Skype-Lync integration with one platform for them all. Or, at least, that's my guess.

Skype Goes Pre-Paid In the UK

Engadget reports that Skype is adding Pre-Paid as a way to top off, making them look more and more like a mobile operator. They're retailing Pre-Paid cards at a slew of technology and consumer shops across the UK, much like they are already doing in Mexico.

What this means is those without credit cards, or those who wish to create a disposible account can easily do so. Think about "burner" phones that one buys at Wal*Mat from Tracfone. Now, the same crowd that needs them in the UK can set up a disposable account on Skype, pay for it using a pre-paid card, and shut the account down. Basically, this adds a new wrinkle to annonymous account creation and at the same time opens up Skype's more advanced services like Skype IN and OUT, multi-party video and more to the unbanked or crowd that doesn't want to use a personal credit card for business use.

Boingo VPN is Content Owner Friendly

As someone who has been using Boingo's VPN service on my iPhone and iPad, I love how elegantly it works, and what it does to protect sensistive transmissions in places where one never knows who may be snooping, so when I saw the news in Engadget about Boingo adding their VPN feature to Mac and Windows clients I immediately thought about what that meant to many of us who travel, and want to watch broadcaast programming from back home.

For those who don't know how much of rights owned content works on the Internet, the most common way of blocking access is by an IP address lookup by the CDN (content delivery network) which verifies the receiver is in the proper country, or is authorized to receive the content by license or subscription (which is how Apple iTunes works around the IP address issue.) Well, with a VPN from companies like Pure VPN the user can identify where they want to appear to be coming from, syou can get around those content restrictions.

Boingo's VPN, on the other hand doesn't allow this to happen, because Boingo sets up a secure tunnel to the nearest VPN concentrator, which are all local by region.  So if someone is in Europe, the VPN endpoint is in Europe. If they''re in Asia, the VPN endpoint is in Asia. This means users still have a regionally-assigned IP address, so IP-restricted content will still likely be restricted.  What it also means is Boingo can preserve as much of the speed one needs to maintain a nice Skype, VoIP or GoogleTalk call or even a Hangout.

What Boingo has done with their free VPN service is given users the security they need. For everything else, those users will have to find a VPN provider who lets them appear to be elsewhere.