Realize VoIP, June 2011

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RADVISION Realize VoIP Newsletter

In This Issue

Editor's Note

By Amir Zmora, VP Marketing & Products

This issue of Realize VoIP is the first and surely not the last to focus on video for verticals. In past newsletters we have talked about HD video communication in general and what it means for desktop as well as Android-based devices. We have spoken about video for consumers and how to make sure quality of video is maintained over different network conditions, and we have talked about IMS and LTE and video over these networks. This newsletter takes these technologies and puts them in the service of telemedicine. When going vertical with video, the importance of the overall video deployment solution becomes make or break for companies looking to launch such a service. As opposed to a large service provider that can take the time and resources to build and launch a service, the vertical application developer or system integrator needs someone to put all these parts together for him so he can quickly launch his service. Included are:

Multi-platform clients: desktop, mobile, tablet
Media quality solutions
Data center servers, such as conferencing bridges and GWs
Cloud-based control and management

Our new HD video on an Android-based tablet demo can serve as a great tool for providing easily accessible and operated devices for telemedicine applications.

This newsletter is in preparation for our upcoming webinar, "Unified Communication as Key Enabler for Telemedicine". Make sure you register to get more information on this topic.

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Desktop Video Communication Solutions for Telemedicine Applications

By Tomer Saar, Product Manager, BEEHD for Desktop, TBU

When I think of elderly people coming to a doctor's appointment I feel their pain. Not only is it difficult for the elderly to get off their chairs, they also need to get into a car, stand in line at the clinic, go to the pharmacy and then return to their homes. It may not sound like a big deal to you, the young, healthy reader, but it's a real hassle for the elderly.

Leveraging today's technology, patients can do all this from the comfort of their favorite rocking chairs. A fitted video client residing in the patient's home can connect to a scheduling system, schedule a virtual appointment and when the time comes, connect the patient to the doctor via video-conference, so he can have the appointment without leaving home.

Human index readers are available today as commodities. They may have wired or wireless (Bluetooth) connections and can interface with any PC. The readings can be transferred to the physician before or during the call.

The video client on the patient's side can be customized to be very easy to use. The interface can be a one-button interface connected to a doctor, and scheduling can be done by suggesting an appointment slot to the patient. The patient selects the slot by pressing the "yes" or "no" button.

The video client on the physician's side can be richer with controls. It can have the ability to share lab results or other documents with the patient and assist him with filling out forms.

Such clients can be built on top of RADVISION's BEEHD for Desktop client framework, a complete video communication client SDK that allows developers to build such solutions. The BEEHD for Desktop client framework consists of both signaling and media blocks and implements algorithms and means to overcome bad network conditions. With a reference GUI in source code, it makes life easy for developers, as only customizations need to be performed.

Together with RADVISION's solution offering, system integrators can get all of the needed components from a single vendor. Next time you're at a clinic, imagine a different reality!

QoE as a Key Factor of Success in Video Telemedicine Applications

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

Telemedicine solutions are all about accessibility. For this, video communication seems like a great fit - it allows hospitals and healthcare providers to supply a quality service for everyone, everywhere, in a scalable and economical manner.

However, for a solution to be effective for remote doctor-patient scenarios, as well as doctor-doctor scenarios, the remote consultant/physician needs to receive a clear, high definition video representation of the far end, as well as any instrumentation used, without any perceived delay or problems associated with the network. The same goes for the patient side, where seeing the doctor's face is essential to build trust and confidence, especially in cases of remote healthcare.

The importance of high definition video is clear: the answer in most cases is in the details, and without transmitting even the finest of details to the other side in high quality, the outcome of the medical procedure can be problematic. Any delay or artifact associated with transmitting video over the network can also jeopardize the process, and therefore must be avoided at all cost. Last but not least, syncing the video with various instrumentations, and allowing the parties to collaborate and communicate with video in the background, is essential for the success of the telemedicine experience.

While Quality of Experience (QoE) is traditionally associated with high cost, high end systems and costly leased lines, today's technology advancements allow healthcare providers to setup video infrastructures for telemedicine applications as described above, utilizing desktop and laptop computers as well as mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets, and using the public Internet as connection.

While this reduces cost and increases availability, it makes the challenge of maintaining high quality, regardless of the network, the connection and the topology much more significant. It also puts emphasis on the technical details of the solution: these devices must support high definition video, with a high frame rate and low delay. Fortunately, optimized video communication clients can already provide this for mobile computers and consumer devices.

With the growing popularity of desktop and mobile video calling, we expect to see telemedicine become more popular and much more available, as it will break out of the dedicated "rooms" and reach anyone and everyone. This will definitely provide patients with a better quality of experience with regard to their medical treatments.

Video Communication Applications in Telemedicine: Case Studies

By Anatoli Levine, Sr. Director of Product Management - Americas, TBU

If you are looking for a marriage made in heaven, you need to look no further than video communication, a.k.a. conversational video, and telemedicine.

You think this statement is (very) far-fetched? I don't think so. The reason is simple: in telemedicine, where video communication is used to allow the doctor to see a patient and the patient to see the doctor, there is a real need for video. It allows the sides to have eye contact. It allows humans to see humans. It allows emotions to be seen. It allows doctors to see exactly how the patient looks, rather than having to spend 10 minutes listening to a description of that suspicious blemish on the skin or the sudden rush on a baby's leg. Video allows patients to do one simple thing: to say, "Here, Doc" - and no further words are needed.

Using the term "telemedicine" might be a bit too broad here. If you ask Google to define "telemedicine", you will get the following definition: "The remote diagnosis and treatment of patients by means of telecommunications technology". That, of course, includes many different devices used for remote measurement of the heart rate, temperature, blood pressure, glucose level and many other health parameters. It also includes the ability to remotely administer various remedies (an option that is more and more common nowadays). It is important to note that video plays a dual role here. In the majority of the use cases, video allows a doctor and a patient to see each other. Additionally, in some of the use cases, video is also a critical diagnostic tool.

Let's get a bit more practical and look at some of the possible use cases. To do so, we will look at various special interest groups as defined by the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), one of the leading organizations in the area of telemedicine. Here are some of areas identified by ATA as separate use cases:

Ocular Telehealth: Covers areas such as ophthalmology (various eye diseases, dysfunctions, and so on). Video communication is used for both visual contact and remote diagnostics. As you can imagine, video quality and HD video is absolutely critical here.

Pediatric Telehealth: Used to remotely deliver a wide variety of services to children of all ages. Video is used mostly for communication and sometimes for monitoring and diagnostics. For worried parents, though, the ability to see the doctor is priceless.

Teledermatology: The doctor can remotely analyze skin conditions and make a diagnosis. Video, of course, is used for doctor-patient communication. However, the ability to provide a second stream of high definition, high quality real-time video of the affected areas is definitely more effective than just sending around still images.

Telehealth Nursing: Video communication aids nurses in guiding patients when using telemetric facilities, administering simple medical procedures, and so on. Even a simple video call to a patient to remind him to take his medicine on time has great value in itself.

Telemental Health: Areas such as telepsychiatry, which require simple video communication, are growing at a tremendous pace. Thanks to video communication capabilities, both the doctor and the patient can conduct a session from the comfort of their own homes, in familiar settings, helping to increase the positive impact of each session significantly.

Telerehabilitation: Video communication allows doctors and nurses to literally participate in and guide remote patients through the set of routine exercises or procedures, ensuring that the exercises are performed correctly, on schedule and with the appropriate effort.

Keep in mind that despite the number of use cases presented above, we are only touching on the tip of the iceberg; video communication is destined to improve the lives of both doctors and patients in a limitless number of ways. I'm sure future applications will cause a "wow effect" over and over.

Product News and Updates

The following are new RADVISION product releases:

We just launched a new product called ASF: Advanced Service Framework. It is a high level framework that allows developing fully-interoperable Advanced Presence Based Services.
BEEHD for Desktop beta versions 2.2 and 2.7 were released. New features include SVC support, NetSense, H.460 FW/NAT traversal, H.239 desktop sharing, FaceVsion H.264 camera support, Presence - SIP/SIMPLE, TLS, Trial and Evaluation versions.
BEEHD for Personal Devices Beta version 2.7 was released, running on the HTC Desire HD, providing the new audio engine, including G.722 (wideband audio codec).
We also released a demo version of BEEHD/PD V2.7 running on TI OMAP4, both on the TI Blaze platform and Blaze Tablet. This demo runs 720p@30 with BEEHD/D and is very impressive. Check out the video on the RADVISION YouTube channel.
H.323 ToolKit version 7.0 was released. This version includes support for the H.323v7 specification, support for conference lists, single transmitter multicast, updated H.225 and H.245 syntax, and additional enhancements in add-on modules, such as GEF.
The new ICE NAT Traversal Toolkit version 2.5 now supports Microsoft MS-ICE, allowing connectivity to Microsoft OCS and Microsoft Lync.
ProLab version 6.0 brings a powerful FULL HD and Full Video Quality measurement solution, with additional codecs, H.239 dual video support, 1080p and 60fps analysis.
eVident version 2.5 focuses on Full High Definition, Media and Video Quality measurement.

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

Blog Highlights

If you haven't yet, now is a great time to join our active and insightful blog network.

Here is a quick glance at some recent relevant and interesting blog posts published recently:

Testing Video Endpoints: Yotam Roch, our QA Manager, explains how to make your video endpoint work hard in the lab so that testing is effective and conclusive.
Which Protocol Do You Prefer - SIP or H.323: Tsahi Levent-Levi provides his expert advice on the question of which is the preferred protocol for visual communications.
Visual Communication Is Coming... To The Smartphone In Your Hand: Sagee Ben-Zedeff breaks the news about RADVISION's video calling applications for iOS and Android.
Customer One-on-One: Renovo Software: Tsahi discusses desktop video calling and its applications for inmate visitation systems, with Ehren Jarosek of Renovo Software.
There Is No "Invisible Hand" Of Interoperability: Sagee discusses how we keep talking about interoperability, but at the end of the day (almost) no one is moving in that direction.

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

User Experience Beats Everything Else (Including Software): there is the ongoing debate about software versus hardware solutions, but ultimately, when it comes to consumer applications, it's all about user experience.
What's Better for Video Calling - Android or iOS: mobile devices are bringing video calling to consumers, but which are better suited for video calling applications? Tsahi has the answer.
Connecting People, Not Devices: Sagee discusses recent M&As in the Social Network and Mobile markets, and what they mean for the visual communications market.

We are also starting a fresh batch of cartoons this month. Here's a funny one we really liked, titled "Too Much Technology, Much Less Sleep":

Webinars and Events

Upcoming Webinars

Title	Where?
Unified Communication as Key Enabler for Telemedicine	View online

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 leave this survey open for you to fill in at your leisure -- but why wait? Take the survey now.

In Closing

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