Hello Steve,
> I guess what I'm wondering about now is where this whole broadband
> thing is going to end up. So we know that most of us will soon be
> able to get cable modem or DSL access.
Yep ... the build-out is occurring ...
> This will be a huge improvement over how we experience the net now.
> But will cable/DSL be fast enough to provide enhanced video as well
> as audio capabilities?
Yes ... I don't think this is the problem ...
> Right now, most group conferencing is video only, no audio. When
> will it be commonplace to have both?
So I've used both, but the real problems come at the conferencing server side. The issue becomes "Whos audio to send?"
If we all are able to pick and choose the video that we see, then the audio becomes more complicated because the audio streams have to be mixed. This is something that White Pine has been working on with their server capabilities. In the past, the server would just send one person's audio at a time, based on who was sending audio, or had the loudest audio signal. This isn't good enough ... instead, the server needs to mix the audio from all sources on the fly, and then send the resulting stream to everyone. This becomes a little more tricky. I haven't tested the lastest WPNE server code, but I heard from them that they have this worked out for the most part.
> Will there need to be a further upgrading in broadband beyond
> current limits and what will be the primary technological
> breakthrough?
I think that in the near term the server technology is evolving rapidly and that the bandwidth will be enough. Some of the next steps will be trying to locate the right conferencing server that is closest to the people using it. Closest being measured in the "least latency" path ...
> I've used Realplayer through a fast connection and have seen how
> smooth that can be, but that is a different technology than
> CU-SeeMe.
Yep ... the video streaming is actually very similar ... but Real has an advantage that, except for live material, they can process the video more to get a better compression. With live signals you can't process as much since you have to get the video to the viewer as soon as possible. So processing power of the various workstations comes into play ...
> Scott, anytime you want to set up a conference through your server,
> please let me know.
I'm going to work and try to get something going ... I'm upgrading a bunch of my hardware and am going to see what I can get going ... ;-)
Scott C. Lemon |
