Frequently Asked A/V Questions

Telepresence videoconferencing is a two-way, high-definition communication and collaboration tool that provides an experience to users as immersive as being in the same room. The technology allows companies to connect two or more locations and offers employees, customers, and business partners a level of flexibility and quality communication that significantly increases business productivity while streamlining work processes.

A firewall is an added layer of security on private networks; it essentially keeps unwanted network traffic away by only allowing traffic that conforms to a set of predefined rules. This presents a problem for video conferencing users that are on separate networks as video traffic from Network A does not conform to the firewall standards on Network B. Firewall traversal is a process used to implement a set of security policies that firewalls can be configured to accept and allows video conferencing systems on different networks to communicate without compromising security.

Interoperability is the ability to make systems and organizations work together; or in the video sense, the ability for two video conferencing systems to connect with each other. Systems that operate on the same protocol are interoperable with each other while systems on different protocols are unable to connect. For example, a Polycom video conferencing system can connect with a Cisco video conferencing system because they are both using H.323. However, a Polycom or Cisco system cannot connect with Skype or Facetime because neither of these uses H.323. There are numerous cloud based and hardware solutions that enable interoperability between otherwise disparate systems.

Advanced Video Coding (AVC) is a form of compression technology that allows high definition video to be sent across networks in an efficient manner. AVC compression sends video at a single specified resolution across a network, or in other words, a single frame rate with a single level of quality. The downfall to this approach is when there are network issues the quality of video suffers because it cannot adapt down to different resolutions like Scalable Video Coding (SVC).

A Multipoint Control Unit (MCU), also known as a bridge, is a device that is used to bridge multiple video conferencing connections. Video conferencing systems can only make point-to-point calls on their own, or in other words, they can connect to one other video conferencing system at a time. MCU’s allow multiple video conferencing units to connect to one call. Some video systems have the option for an internal MCU otherwise a separate piece of hardware or a cloud based Virtual Meeting Room is necessary.