An area of technology I’ve been watching closely is the video conferencing. It comes with my involvement in a couple of non-profit organisations where travel expenses are a natural enemy and the volunteer side of engagement sometimes makes it difficult to maintain a close coordination. When I first researched the market, 2-3 years ago, I had an offer of 400.000 DKK for a single multipoint and three single point communication units. This was of cause including a communication unit, camera, microphone and TV. This was at the time the lowest low budget units conceivable, which was Lifesize – only a mere 40.000 DKK (7.500 $) a unit. At the time I also considered looking into used equipment with older standards. At the time Polycom and Tandberg both had obsolete equipment delivering H.323 communication over a double ISDN connection which would for our initiating use prove sufficient. It was however difficult finding used equipment – now I think it was because the technology moved to rapidly to become implemented in organisations and deemed obsolete.

Well the frontier has defiantly moved a great distance to the point where technology is almost available to the man on the street.

The three drivers of this technology:

• Internet capability has greatly improved. Almost every teenager is running around with a 5 Mbit internet connection in his or her pocket. This relieves the development of technologies from bandwidth restrictions.
• Cost of technology has greatly improved with first Skype being a free service and hardware prices naturally being driven to the ground.
• The scope of technology use has been a great benefit to the video technology. Where first Skype was a standalone application with a separate webcam and separate microphone, it is today included in computer to facilitate “business communication” and also included in multimedia products such as Blueray players and social platforms as Facebook and G+ and so forth.

The technology facilitating the man on the street for video conferencing is primarily the (partially free) video services by Google and Skype.

Skype has been implemented in Samsung and Sony Hifi products such as TVs and Blue Ray players. The offer a great cheap access to video calling from a 1000 DKK (199$) which is kind of cheap when you think about it, though it is not multipoint but I look forward to that changed in the future.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/01/skypes-living-room-invasion-continues-coming-on-sony-blu-ray-players.ars

Skype offers multipoint communication on their standalone application, which is beautifully illustrated by this fantastic promotional video. But don’t let you be tricked by the lovely tune – it is not free.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqd7ds2mEbY&feature=related

G+ have introduced videoconferencing as a native service in the Hangout feature which is pretty effective when participants having a G+ account and large bandwidth (reducing lag). The video is Lifehacker.com demonstrating how it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLf9jzFvkTA

And finally in this blog post, there is a new contester on the scene bringing video over IP technology to the man on the street. Biscotti are promising to release a box in two weeks’ time, which brings High Definition video point to point communication to your TV. They seem to utilize the Google Talk protocol rather than Skype, which gives access to communication with Android devices and everyone using a Google account. It does sound pretty neat. The box is small and seems pretty simple in usage. However there are two issues that annoy me. 1. They have yet to release a demo video displaying how well it works. 2. The box ONLY utilizes wireless connection, which in my book is a bad idea when trying to deliver quality video and voice of a network.

http://www.biscotti.com/buy/biscotti-tv-phone.html/#5

I’m still excited on the development of the technology and I’m defiantly looking forward to the future products.

Jeg faldt for noget tid siden over en norsk gutt på youtube der laver nogle ret fede videoer! Beklageligvis glemte jeg hans navn og havde naturligvis ikke tænkt på at subscribe på hans stream. Men nu fandt jeg hans bruger igen og nu må jeg hellere dele det med jer.

Jeg har fundet de par stykker jeg syntes er absolut bedst i blandt hans:

Den første er en lille introduktion til det norske sprog.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkJf0md1kG8

Lidt musik.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqumbhfxRo

Ja et eller andet.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ncOAJpr3n0

Hvor sød kan en lille hund være?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkLjtWHjySM

Tilsyneladende en musikvideo for en der spiller Cello

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldPf3yqq3-8

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3NkQ00_ZbI

I Aalborg er der hvert år en Jazz festival, i år er det også en Blues festival. Så på gammeltorv kan man høre Jazz og et par 100 meter længere ned ad gaden, nede ved havnen kan man høre Blues. Som i nok kan se på videoen var der en ret god stemning og en hel del mennesker. De fleste var godt nok af ældre årgang, men det var nu meget fedt.

Et af de fede ting ved den måde det afholdes i Aalborg er at det afholdes i det fri og i den forbindelse også er gratis for offentligheden. Udgifterne ved afholdelsen bliver sikkert dækket af salgsvognene. Det er meget modsat Jazz festivalen i Oslo hvor alle koncerter er flyttet ind i koncertsale.

I kan læse meget mere om Den blå festival og dens program på deres hjemmeside!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=owpMBo69Bcc