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[ NNSquad ] The next frontier in upstream data - HD Videoconferencing?


Greetings.  While the issue of downstream video data volumes is always at 
or near the top of the list when it comes to Internet bandwidth
discussions, we don't hear much about upstream video data -- logical enough
since it hasn't been any sort of big deal up to now.

But given that most persons' Internet access circuits are very much
asymmetrically provisioned to provide much more downstream than
upstream capacity, any significant new application that uses more
upstream data is at least worthy of note.

It's beginning to look like practical high-quality videoconferencing
is actually becoming real on a large scale.  Relatively inexpensive
USB webcams are now capable of providing excellent quality up to and
in some cases exceeding 720p HD rates (at least as initially
captured).

Various video conferencing programs are beginning to support image
sizes at much higher data rates than previously, and with quite solid
performance given a fast PC and reasonable bandwidth.

I was experimenting in this area over the weekend, and I wonder if
we're not finally sitting on the cusp of a drastic expansion in the
use of these systems.  The webcams are easily affordable to
individuals, and some now feature integral microphones that work well
enough to make cumbersome headsets finally unnecessary.

The move from small, relatively crummy video webcam images to
potentially full-screen "HD" versions might have dramatic impacts on
users' upstream data usage.  Will the Internet be ready to
appropriately handle this on a large scale if necessary?

I'm not suggesting that everyone will switch to video phone calls.
The same old related social factors (who wants to bother looking nice
to answer the phone?) have been around since AT&T demonstrated
Picturephone service in 1964.

But I do sense that we may be approaching a point where relatively
massive adoption of this technology by consumers could occur with
surprising rapidity.

By the way, in my testing, I saw rather amazingly good results with
Skype, but had problems with Gmail Video Chat.  If anyone in the
readership is a regular user of GVC and would be willing to
participate in a brief connectivity experiment, please let me know.

Thanks.

--Lauren--
NNSquad Moderator