Page 357 - Asterisk™: The Future of Telephony

The challenge of video-conferencing
The concept of video-conferencing has been around since the invention of the cathode
ray tube. The telecom industry has been promising a video-conferencing device in every
home for decades.
As with so many other communications technologies, if you have video-conferencing
in your house, you are probably running it over the Internet, with a simple, inexpensive
webcam. Still, it seems that people see video-conferencing as a bit gimmicky. Yes, you
can see the person you’re talking to, but there’s something missing.

Why we love video-conferencing
Video-conferencing promises a richer communications experience than the telephone.
Rather than hearing a disembodied voice, the nuances of speech that come from eye-
to-eye communication are possible.

Why video-conferencing may never totally replace voice
There are some challenges to overcome, though, and not all of them are technical.
Consider this: using a plain telephone, people working from their home offices can
have business conversations, unshowered, in their underwear, feet on the desk, coffee
in hand. A similar video conversation would require half an hour of grooming to prepare
for, and couldn’t happen in the kitchen, on the patio, or... well, you get the idea.
Also, the promise of eye-to-eye communication over video will never happen as long
as the focal points of the participants are not in line with the cameras. If you look at
the camera, your audience will see you looking at them, but you won’t see them. If you
look at your screen to see whom you are talking to, the camera will show you looking
down at something—not at your audience. That looks impersonal. Perhaps if a video-
phone could be designed like a TelePromptR, where the camera was behind the screen,
it wouldn’t feel so unnatural. As it stands, there’s something psychological that’s miss-
ing. Video ends up being a gimmick.

Wireless

Since Asterisk is fully VoIP-enabled, wireless is all part of the package.

Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is going to be the office mobility solution for VoIP phones. This technology is
already quite mature. The biggest hurdle is the cost of handsets, which can be expected
to improve as competitive pressure from around the world drives down prices.

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