IP transitions are continuing apace when it comes to supporting video conferencing in enterprise environments—but some sectors are lagging behind. Notably, the federal government vertical has been slow to migrate their systems from old-school ISDN lines. A pilot program from the Army Information Technology Agency (ITA (News - Alert)) aims to kick the change into high gear.
IP-based video conferencing has a number of advantages over its legacy ancestors, notably flexibility: IP makes it possible to deliver video to any number of endpoints, be they a mobile devices, laptop screens or large telepresence installations. Using IP also eliminates the need for purpose-built networks and architecture, thus eliminating much of the upfront cost in putting in the capability. And, it can be combined with other collaboration tools like instant messaging, whiteboarding, conference recording, file transfer and presence, along with WebRTC-based services and VoIP.
It is this all-in-one collaborative environment that the ITA is looking to implement. The pilot will vet new technologies for security, privacy and data protection compliance, as well as examine potential cost-savings and productivity enhancements.
The Pentagon's existing video conferencing systems (there are 584 of them) rely on point-to-point ISDN circuits and dedicated, purpose-built appliances, according to FederalNewsRadio. When it does upgrade its gear—which it does at the rate of about 20 installations per year, it simply puts in newer versions of the same technology, to the tune of $200,000 and $500,000 each.
"It costs us between to upgrade our VTCs today, because in the end they're really multimedia renovations in big rooms with mohagany-clad walls, and you have to replace big, big appliances and multiple screens," explained Tom Sasala, ITA's CTO, speaking at an event for the Association for Federal Information Resources Management.
He added, "And the users want to be able to push slides, do Web presence and then bridge together telephone calls with VoIP and ISDN, and it's a very complicated thing. I would be very happy if we could get everything on IP, put a computer in there and just click an icon. But right now we've got these consoles that are circa 1980s, and they're not intuitive.”
Edited by Alisen Downey