Remote Access Solutions for Video Presentations
Remote and dialup mobile users remain the last bastion of technical solutions for
AVVID applications. Even the IP SoftPhone previously discussed required the
usage of compression and advanced hardware tools to provide quality voice presentation.
Add to this the same high level of quality for video, and you have a
daunting task ahead.
The least problematic of these is to use audio only presentation, which was
achievable in VoIP solutions.The presenters can prepare a slide show of the event
so the audio-only presentations follow along with the voice presentation. Until
analog dialup solutions find higher speeds, this area of frustration will remain one
of the last sticky points with travelers.
There is one solution currently being tested at various sites in the U.S. and
Europe: wireless Ethernet.This 11 Mbps solution places the mobile user on a
higher plane of communications, albeit at a higher cost, by using the medium for
Internet connectivity instead of xDSL. If the performance proves acceptable in
tests, wireless communications could easily surpass xDSL as the next Internet
solution of choice.
Not to be outdone, satellite systems place Internet access of up to 400 Kbps
at remote and home-based sites that are sufficient to carry both the audio and
video presentations, plus the VPN access required to get back to the head office.
Even when the increased cost of satellite systems is inserted into the ROI equation,
small sites with slow copper access may find this an attractive solution for
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remote and mobile users.While these wireless solutions are usually geared to
sites, network adapters for laptops and desktop computers alike are being tested
that provide equal speed access to the Internet.