Video Call Software Solutions

Video Call Software Solutions
Chapters 6 and 7 will cover in more detail the video call software solutions available. Here,
we will touch on some of the more popular solutions available for computers. Software
works much differently than hardware video telephone devices do.The protocols and
codecs used in hardware devices tend to be standard, while in software video call solutions
they are often proprietary or closed systems. Most video call software solutions cannot make
video calls with other vendors' video call software.The exceptions to this are AOL's AIM
client and Apple's iChat AV client. In my opinion,AIM does not work very well and is not
?rewall friendly at all, but AIM and iChat AV can be made to work.The reason Apple and
AOL did this was to enable a PC-to-MAC video call solution that links the two popular
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69
instant messaging applications.They accomplished this by adding a gateway that connects
the two video call solutions and their user database.
Ratings Criteria
We have criteria that we use when evaluating video call software solutions that form the
basis for the ratings you see in this book and on my Web site, www.VideoCallTips.com .We
evaluate many features, but the main goal is to provide criteria that enable a few solutions to
stand out as the best ones to consider for your video call solution and have a great experi-
ence doing it. It should be easy to install and con?gure and have many basic features that
are needed for two people to fully interact and work over many types of Internet connec-
tion options.
On my Web site we use the following criteria based on several years of use, the available
places one can place video calls, and the logical directions these companies are taking. Being
free versus commercial has little to do with the rating, but if two solutions are equal in
every way, free gets the edge with a "+."
1. A Work Anywhere con?guration.The solution should be con?gurable to work
in homes with personal ?rewall software and/or a hardware router with little or
no special con?guration—we call it "?rewall friendly."This way, the solution could
work somewhere other than a home, such as a hotel, WiFi hotspot (Starbucks), or
an airport. Operation from within a corporate network was not a requirement, but
extra points are given to those solutions that do work in a corporate environment.
2. Ease of installation and con?guration. We want applications to be simple to
install, test, and con?gure.
3. An easy interface or ease of use. We do not want too many features that make
a basic video call hard to initiate.
4. Audio quality. We do not want a time lag between audio and video, or video
that is out of sync with the audio, or audio that is just plain choppy or poor
quality.Also, the audio must be ?rewall friendly.
5. Video quality.There are two forms of thought here: image quality versus frames
per second or pixilation (also called dithering) of the video image. Basically, does
the video have a sharp image (like a photograph) and give up speed (frames per
second – ?uid video motion) for performance, or does it give up sharpness for
better speed and more ?uid motion? We conclude that image sharpness is the ?rst
preference and ?uid motion second. What good is it if your lips are in sync with
the audio if you cannot see the image clearly? We want the video to look as close
to a photograph as possible so that we can see the little features when communi-
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Chapter 5 ? Selecting a Computer or Dedicated Videophone Device
cating with our children or those that have a hard time seeing, such as grandpar-
ents and the elderly. We do not mind if the motion is not ?uid as long as the pic-
ture is sharp and clear. We want to be able to read letters from a book.Also,
Internet connections are getting faster every year, so frame rate will catch up as
speed improves.The exception to this is applications that will be used for signing
with the hearing impaired; frame rate becomes very important for these types of
applications.
6. See both sending and receiving video screens in an acceptable size.This
feature is important for reading books, showing text, or showing pictures to family
and friends and being able to easily see what video you are sending, if it is in
focus, centered, etc. Some solutions offer no view of the video you are sending or
offer a very small picture-in-picture to improve performance, but we found this
unacceptable.The video window of what you are sending needs to be at least 2 to
3 inches to be effective.The picture-in-picture feature can be hidden when
needed.
7. Additional features. We look for features such as ?le sharing, remote desktop,
instant messaging, phone calls, multiple person or conference calls, Web interface,
full screen or larger screen capabilities, etc.
8. Internet connection speed requirements.A solution should have the capa-
bility of working "home to home" or "hotel to home," because these places usu-
ally have slower Internet connection speeds than businesses. We look for DSL and
cable modem speeds of 128Kbps upload and 500Kbps download speeds as the
minimum.
9. The capability of having video without audio.This way you can use a cell
phone or telephone, or a second application that is better at audio, if needed.
Most, if not all, applications enable you to mute the microphone, but if the appli-
cation is still sending audio when you're not using it, video performance can be
affected by the audio overhead.This is important for good video applications with
poor audio or if bandwidth is an issue.
10. Reliability and consistency. Does the application function consistently across all
the testers in all the con?gurations? Or does the solution perform better in certain
situations, such as higher speed Internet connections?
11. Cost. Of course, we must look at the cost of these features. Free solutions tend to
have basic features, whereas commercial solutions have more features.Are the addi-
tional costs worth the extra features or performance? Cost was used as a tie
breaker if solutions were rated equally.
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71
12. We do not test for PC-to-Apple/MAC functionality. Only a few applications
even have this capability, so we decided to ?nd the best solution, and if it works
for PC-to-Apple/MAC, that's great. If not, make a request to the vendors for a
feature upgrade.
13. Parental Controls. Does the application have any parental controls to limit what
a child can do or whom he or she can contact?

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