Skype reportedly will be rolling out a new function that will let up
to five people participate in a video call at the same time, a
capability that will let it counter the video conferencing capabilities
of such vendors as Cisco Systems and Polycom.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Neil
Stevens, general manager of Skype's consumer business segment, said
that it will launch a public beta program for the feature, which
initially will be available for free but will become a paid service
within the next three to four months.
The beta program will start the week of May 10.
Stevens said in the interview that group video chat was a feature that
users had requested the most. It initially will be available to those
who use Skype on PCs running Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
Later this year, a version support Apple’s Mac OS will be released.
Skype’s move comes as vendors such as Cisco, Polycom
and LifeSize Communications—which was bought late last year by
Logitech—continue to expand their video collaboration capabilities as
demand for such tools continues to grow.
Businesses that were hard hit by the global recession
are looking for ways to increase productivity while reducing expenses.
Video collaboration is one of those ways, enabling greater
communication with employees, customers and partners without the
expense of traveling for face-to-face meetings.
In an interview in March, Chuck Stucki, vice
president and general manager of Cisco’s TelePresence business, said
that since the TelePresence products were first introduced five years
ago, the business has grown to more than 600 global customers, with
revenue that could climb to $1 billion once Cisco integrates Tandberg
into the business. Cisco bought Tandberg for about $3.4 billion.
The global market could for telepresence solutions
could grow from $3 billion this year to $10 billion over the next five
to seven years, Stucki said.
Cisco is looking to increase the interoperability of
the disparate multiscreen telepresence systems on the market by
releasing TIP (Telepresence Interoperability Protocol)
into the public domain. Most video collaboration vendors have signed
on, though Polycom officials have refused, saying the dominant player
in the market should not be the one heading the push to make its own
technology a standard.
Cisco also has unveiled the IME (Intercompany Media
Engine) and ViPR (Verification Media Engine) protocol designed to make
it easier for companies to communicate with business partners,
suppliers and customers through video communications rather than
traditional telephone calls.
During a presentation in March about the new IME and ViPR offerings,
Cisco officials said the technologies would require upfront costs from
the businesses, which prompted a couple of analysts to question why a
company would pay for Cisco’s products when Skype offers video
collaboration for free.
Cisco officials said end users might not see much
difference, but that IT administrators will have much more control over
the IME than they could with Skype.
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