PictureTel Corp, Peabody, Massachusetts has launched a trade-up programme under which companies using videoconferencing systems can swap outmoded codecs – coder-decoders – for new codecs that will support the Px64 standard for $10,000 plus installation: the programme allows companies to trade in any codecs purchased before January 31 this year from other vendors; the codecs traded in will be replaced by PictureTel’s C-3000 codecs with HVQ software, which are claimed to provide excellent picture quality even when using dial-up digital services such as switched-56 and ISDN; the C-3000 is software upgradable to support the CCITT Px64 (H.261) videoconferencing standard slated for adoption this November.
