White Pine Software Inc claims that video conferencing software has shaken off the sense of gimmickry that surrounded the technology in its infancy. The loss-making Nashua, New Hampshire company says that the exponential growth that market analysts have been predicting for years will start to happen from the middle of next year.
To this end, the company has revamped its client and server videoconferencing software and claims that the products are now more business focused. James Meakin, sales manager for the UK and Europe, says that over the last six months, the company has totally rebuilt the software it originally acquired from Cornell University so that it uses the industry standard H.323 videoconferencing protocol. This means disparate client software such as Microsoft Corp’s NetMeeting and Intel Corp’s NetStation can now link into White Pine’s MeetingPoint Server which has a H.323 Multipoint Conferencing Unit (MCU). The revamped server software also offers video streaming capabilities for broadcast applications.
On the client side, the CU-SeeMe Pro, has a redesigned user interface, multiple screen views and audio and video enhancements. The product retains the multiple windows of the original product – the only desktop client that allows up to 12 views onscreen. It also has more collaborative features, allowing application sharing, in addition to integrated T.120-based data collaboration via Microsoft’s NetMeeting. CU SeeMe Pro is priced at $105 for a four license version, with a four license version of the server software costing $5,995. Both products will be out in May.
Meakin notes that the problem for videoconferencing software is, as it always has been, the bandwidth available on corporate networks, as well as the internet, and processing power needed for the audio/visual number-crunching involved. When a customer tries to buy a 50-user license for MeetingPoint, White Pine will often liase with the customer to check that their infrastructure can deal with that kind of traffic, alternatives such as server splitting may be suggested. However, as Meakin comments, even 25 people online is a fairly busy conference. He claims that some of the technical issues on the client have now been overcome, saying that the picture quality is perfectly acceptable for business usage on a desktop using anything from a 166MHz Pentium upwards. However, he admits that videoconferencing is likely to remain a niche market.
White Pine mainly sells to the educational market and large ISPs and telcos, which sell bandwidth and conferencing services onto corporate customers. Tele2, Sonera, Belgacom and Belgium ISP Win are among its major customers. Meakin claims that the company’s recent losses have been due to engineering costs incurred by redesigning its key products and claims that the next few months will see a turnaround for the company.
