The latest generation of videoconferencing systems supports high-quality MPEG4 video, prefers IP to ISDN connections, and costs you less than a couple of business-class tickets to New York.
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Perhaps more importantly, since we last tested VC there have been some new standards that have worked their way into the products' firmware. When we last visited VC, MPEG4 (H.264) was not quite there yet, but this time only the Penteview as tested did not feature this standard. The Penteview should however be provided with updated firmware that will include H.264 by the time you read this.
So what improvements does H.264 bring? Quite simply the video coding algorithm provides equal picture quality at half the bit rate of H.263, so if you have limited bandwidth issues, H.264 will be a sight for sore eyes.
The Polycom and Sony also don't have data conferencing or collaboration supported as standard. Both vendors supply optional equipment to bring this capability to the units, but the facility adds significant cost.
We evaluated five products from four vendors:
