Bob Romano gave me a briefing on the latest release of the RADVISION Scopia Desktop v5.7 which encompasses several
big enhancements to the previous release v5.6. Specifically, RADVISION now offers HD – 720p at 15 fps – on the uplink using the Quickcam Pro 9000 webcam from Logitech with MSRP of $99.99. This PC performance is achieved through a complete rewrite of the audio/video PC codec subsystem and the integration of the desktop client with GIPS' wickedly capable codecs. It helps that Logitech has deployed a 2 Megapixel sensor and Carl Zeiss optics for autofocus. If the PC has super processors (2.8 GHz dual core recommended), 30 fps can be achieved.
This release also supports the higher performance video-at-low-bandwidth algorithm – H.264 for screen/data sharing, while the previous release relied on H.263. This improves presentation clarity and enable video playback sharing.
At the same time the v5.7 release can support 720p at 30 fps down to the PC, and integration with IBM SameTime.
The Scopia MCU release 5.7
Included with the desktop release 5.7 is several new features on the MCU (actually, it's the other way around – the desktop is included with the MCU). In particular RADVISION is introducing:
- a Video Fast Update feature such that whenever one endpoint is experiencing more frequent visual updates due to packet loss, the MCU delivers updates only to that endpoint and none of the other sites are affected.
- TV mode to account for low resolutions and geometries of older TV monitors that may still be in production in customer environments.
- a Lecture mode where the MCU cycles through the class one after the other for the professor, the students see the professor and whenever a student speaks the professor sees them.
- Support for Alcatel-Lucent's My Teamwork collaboration system.
