The 16 Best HD Videoconferencing Solutions launched in 2010 (Editor’s Choice) – 8. The HP Visual Collaboration Desktop software client for PCs and notebooks using 720p video
24 January 2011. With HP Visual Collaboration Desktop, you get High-Definition, multipoint video conferencing from your computer anytime, anywhere. Your computer becomes your personal video conferencing platform for quality, face-to-face interaction in the office, at home, on the road and around the world.
The HP Visual Collaboration Desktop is a software-based video solution for desktops and laptops that offers high quality 720p, 60fps video at a relatively low cost point per seat. Each license is $5 perpetually but requires the back-end Visual Collaboration Portal to manage and license, the Visual Collaboration Router for multi-point, and the Visual Collaboration Gateway for interoperability with H.323 & SIP end-points. The licenses must be purchased in 25 seat lots.
Features like expanded multipoint capabilities, personalized video layout and application sharing mean you will experience rich, live, communication without having to move to a dedicated VC conference room.
Using scalable video coding, the HP Visual Collaboration Desktop provides High-Definition video with minimal bandwidth and network requirements. And since the visual collaboration desktop is software based, it’s easily downloadable for high quality, portable conferencing without the cost of proprietary hardware.
By operating on software-based x86 server infrastructures, HP Visual Collaboration solutions can significantly reduce infrastructure costs while allowing video to run more efficiently. This infrastructure can be on-premise, hosted or offered in the cloud by service providers.
At the core of the solution is the HP Visual Collaboration Portal. This comes preconfigured on HP ProLiant DL360 servers and allows IT administrators to handle remote configurations, authentication and licensing of system components.
The HP Visual Collaboration Router provides distributed media routing and is built on HP industry-standard server appliances. By connecting to both H.323 and SIP protocols, the HP Visual Collaboration Gateway provides an easy migration path for companies wanting to continue to use legacy videoconferencing solutions.
HP Visual Collaboration products provide reliable, HD-quality video while reducing network requirements and bandwidth needs over enterprise or best effort networks. This is enabled by HP’s agreement, announced in June 2011, to use software-based scalable video coding technology from Vidyo Inc. Scalable video coding (SVC) is an adaptive technology that optimizes the user’s video experience, reduces latency and also eliminates the need for a costly multipoint control unit.
It was on 17 November 2010 that HP announced the general availability of visual collaboration products for the desktop and conference rooms that enable people to enjoy High-Definition (HD) video experiences anytime, anywhere. The new HP desktop and conference room solutions include:
- The HP Visual Collaboration Room 100 and Room 220
- The HP Visual Collaboration Executive Desktop; and
- The HP Visual Collaboration Desktop software client
In addition, HP plans to offer technology to connect its HP immersive collaboration studios to desktop and conference room solutions in 2011.
Rob Scott, general manager and vice president, Visual Collaboration, HP, said:“Customers need to collaborate inside and outside their companies – whether they are travelling, working at home or at the office. HP’s full range of high-quality, HD videoconferencing solutions, especially at the desktop, make that possible.”
The HP Visual Collaboration Desktop software client can be deployed easily on PCs and notebooks. It is certainly one of “The Best High Definition Videoconferencing Solutions of 2010.”
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