Realize VoIP, March 2011

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In This Issue

Editor's Note

By Amir Zmora, VP Marketing & Products

This edition of our newsletter is dedicated to Android and its rapid adoption. One of the landmarks of the change in consumer electronics is the awareness of users of the OS they are using. Tsahi has touched upon this in his post titled, "Android - The OS Symbian Wanted to Be".

Users have become OS aware mainly because of the tight coupling of user experience and the OS of their device as well as the OS Application Stores. Android is no longer just a mobile phone OS, nor a tablet OS. It is moving into any consumer electronic device with a graphical user interface. We see it on media phones, TVs and netbooks.

Left: Lava's Android TV. Right: Toshiba's Android Netbook

In this newsletter we review the Android revolution of 2010 in general and video calling on Android devices in particular--technical challenges as well as service options, challenges and opportunities.

What Went On With Android in 2010

By Sagee Ben-Zedeff, Director of Product Management, Video Solutions, TBU

2010 was the year we all got smarter -- smartphone smarter. It seems that feature phone officially threw in the towel in 2010, making way for smartphones. And while the iPhone4 got most of the media buzz, 2010 marked the most remarkable surge of Android, Google's operating system.

Android actually dates all the way back to 2007, but until 2010 it only gained around 5% market share in smartphones globally. Today, according to ComScore, Android has nearly 25% of the global smartphone market, and is growing at an amazing pace. In fact, Canalys reports that in Q4/2010 Android was the world's best-selling smartphone platform, dethroning Nokia's Symbian after more than 10 years in that position.

2010 also marked the bloom of consumer awareness for tablets, jump started of course by Apple's iPad in April. According to Strategy Analytics, Android's market share in the tablet market went from just 2.3% to 22%.

Source: Gartner research

One clear indication that Google's Android is skyrocketing, is the great success of Google's Android Market, the Android app store. Year-over-year revenue soared more than 800% in 2010, totaling at $102M.

In 2010 Google released a few Android versions to the market. The first was V2.1 or Éclair, released in January. V2.2 or Froyo was released in May, with various optimizations in terms of OS speed, memory and performance. V2.3 or Gingerbread was released in December, targeting extra-large screen sizes and resolutions and updating the user interface. Just recently (January 2011) Google previewed V3.0 (Honeycomb), which will be optimized for tablet, with a new user interface and other enhancements, including support for multi-core processors.

In terms of devices, this was definitely the year HTC and Samsung gained great success with their Android-based devices. The HTC Desire series, running Froyo, was a great success, with HTC marketing it as an "entertainment device" rather than a phone. The only real match for the Desire HD was the Samsung Galaxy S, the "iPhone killer", which showcased a lot of class-leading features. Motorola's Droid and Milestone were also very successful on the market, and the Sony-Ericsson Xperia and Google Nexus One also deserve to be mentioned.

Android dominated all the major shows in 2010, and gained a lot of market awareness. I believe that in 2011 we will see Android continue to mature and develop, gaining traction with customers, handset vendors, service providers and application developers.

You can learn a lot more about Android and keep updated, on Tsahi Levent-Levi's RADVISION Blog VoIP Survivor.

Android and Mobile Video

By Ran Arad, Software Technologies Expert, TBU

Let's start with the fact that Android has nothing to do with mobile video. At least, not obviously. Let me clarify: I'm only talking about Android versions up to 2.2. Gingerbread (V2.3) and Honeycomb (V3.0) should have some improvements on this issue, but I haven't worked with these yet.

To illustrate my admittedly contested point, I refer to issue 3434, which has been open since 2009: the available support for audio on Android is (1) Java based and (2) high latency. In contrast, Android supports Open GL, enabling low-level native support for graphics and putting real-time media developers in a bind: they can create the graphics, but have to compromise on the sound effects. Developers of real-time multimedia applications have double the pleasure (literally): they have to synchronize the video and audio streams, while keeping the latency as low as possible - over the round trip.

Photo: Silveira Neto

I mentioned the Java-based APIs as a problem earlier, and I would like to explain the issue further. Encoders and decoders usually work in the 'native' C/C++ layer. It is more efficient and produces faster code. However, there are no standardized native Android APIs to work with encoders and decoders. The developer must extract the libraries from the device, reverse engineer them, and get support from the hardware manufacturer if they get into trouble - which they will, since their codecs were designed and tested to work in two scenarios: decoding a video stream from a local file or decoding a network stream, and encoding a video stream from the camera to a local file. Decoding an incoming stream while at the same time encoding an outgoing stream was simply not tested. Moreover, latency and bandwidth constraints are much less of an issue in the tested scenarios.

Working with non-standardized APIs has another disadvantage: even if you are working with semi-standard APIs, such as the OpenMAX Integration Layer, each hardware vendor implements them a little bit differently, with their own quirks and 'to do's saved for later. For each new device you have to do some porting work to find out which features work, and how. Sometimes you have to log bugs with the manufacturer and get fixed drivers; sometimes you have to improvise to get what you need out of them. One thing's for sure: it's never boring.

I hear it's different in the new builds. I'll believe it when I'll see it. In the mean time, developing a real-time mobile video application is better left to the experts.

Will Android Rise to the FaceTime Challenge?

By Tsahi Levent-Levi, CTO, TBU

When Apple launched iPhone 4 in June 2010, it placed a new challenge in front of the Android pack: providing video calling services.

While Apple is capable of providing its own closed-garden end-to-end video calling service, called FaceTime, and make it run on mobile handsets, laptops and (in the future) tablets - doing the same on Android isn't that easy.

Ran covered the technical challenges of adding real-time video telephony on Android. But there are business challenges, as well - challenges that are bound to put strains on the Android ecosystem.

Photo: Tsahi Levent-Levi

Video calling as a service is closer to what cellular service providers offer their customers. This brings us to the question: assuming that video calling is a mandatory feature for smartphones, what type of ecosystem and business solution does it require? Here are some options:

Using downloadable applications to try and bridge the gap. This strategy can be adopted by handset vendors and service providers alike. It comes at a price of eroding the brand name of the handset vendor and the service provider.
A handset vendor branded solution, in the spirit of Apple's FaceTime, where a handset vendor sets out to become his own service provider. In this case, connectivity to devices by other vendors is crucial to bring the critical mass required for such a service.
Google's homegrown Gtalk service, which is planned for the Android 3.0 Honeycomb release, does video calling. It works in Google's infrastructure, where Google is the service provider. Operators can decide to either adopt it or ditch it.
An operator's own branded solutions, similar to what Verizon Wireless has showcased with LG at MWC 2010. In this case, handset vendors need to adopt the VoLTE specification and implement it on their handsets while operators deploy the service.

2011 will shape the ecosystem of mobile video calling, but the end result will need to be interoperable for video calling to become ubiquitous. To this end, RADVISION has developed its BEEHD for Personal Devices client framework, which is capable of integrating into any Android device and connect to any standards-based network.

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Product News and Updates

The following are new RADVISION product releases:

BEEHD for DesktopBeta version 2.2 was released. New features include SVC support, NetSense, Trial and Evaluation versions, and more.
BEEHD for Personal Devices Demo version was released. The Demo version runs on HTC Desire HD and enables video calling between Android devices, desktop clients, and video conferencing bridges (MCUs).
We have also released the JNI API documentation for the upcoming Beta version (end of March).
SIP Server version 4.0.0.6 Beta was released. This version includes a new B2B add-on module, new built-in services (blind transfer, pickup, retrieve), a new sample application running the Blind Transfer service, relay of in-dialog subscriptions, and updated documentation.
ProLab Version 6.0 was released. This version includes new Video Quality measurement, full-HD support, H.239 presentation, more audio codecs and H.264 packetization, and enhanced 3G features.
eVident version 2.5 was released. This version bringsfull HD emulation and analysis, more audio codecs, and H.264 packetization, including CISCO CTS Profile.

The new versions above are available to customers under maintenance agreements.

Blog Highlights

Here's a quick glance at some recent relevant and interesting blog posts on our blog network:

Android differentiation: Sagee Ben-Zedeff explains why video calling is becoming mandatory on Android
Android chipsets and video calling: Tsahi Levent-Levi provides an overview of the different chipsets used for Android and their readiness for video calling services
What helps us code: Ran Arad checks out what prescriptions developers use to get into the zone.

Here are two more posts that have interested our readers in the last two months:

The distinction between service providers, device manufacturers and independent software vendors is thin at best. Tsahi Levent-Levi lists the different service providers we have today on our smartphones
The term SVC has been overly used and marketed, often with high promises. Sagee Ben-Zedeff explains if and how SVC helps in bandwidth optimization.

We are also starting a fresh batch of cartoons this month. Here's the first one, on the hottest trend of 2011: Android tablets.

Webinars and Events

Past Webinars

Title	Where?
The Evolution of UC Clients - Visual Communication	View online
Making Real-Time Video Work over the Internet	View online
Realizing "FaceTime" on Android Devices	View online
The Hidden Challenges of Developing HD Visual Communication Products	View online
Voice and Video over IP Communications: Assessing and Improving User Experience	View online
Unified Communication HD Visual Communications for the Masses	View online
LTE - The Future of IMS	View online
SIP Beyond Telecom	View online

Customer Satisfaction Survey

Your opinion matters to us. If you are (or were) a RADVISION customer of any of our developer tools, we would appreciate if you would complete our Customer Satisfaction Survey. It will only take a few minutes of your time and would help us a great deal. We will be leaving this survey open for you to fill in at your own leisure -- but why wait? Take the survey now.

In Closing

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