Kaleidoscope Videoconferencing

Lifesize announces a new product to bring HD to the desktop:

Today, we are very excited to announce some big news that will be sure to shake up the video conferencing industry. Once more, LifeSize shatters the price-performance barrier previously established by LifeSize® Express™ last Fall.We’d like to introduce you to LifeSize® Focus™ – the most affordable high definition video conferencing camera on the market. Like all LifeSize products, LifeSize Focus provides stunning picture quality and, combined with LifeSize Express, provides a complete video communication solution at unparalleled price for performance – MSRP for LifeSize Express with Focus is just $4,999. LifeSize Focus can also be used as a secondary camera for LifeSize® Room™ - in this stand alone configuration the camera MSRP is $1,499. With LifeSize Express with Focus, organizations can now bring telepresence to any room.LifeSize Express with Focus features include: * Full High Definition video quality supporting 1280×720 resolution at a full 30 frames per second * A fixed focus, wide angle lens with 70 degree field of view and a focused field depth from 8 inches to infinity * Full Audio Support through two Omni-directional, beam-forming microphones helping to simplify implementation and usage * LifeSize Focus is an ideal solution for Executive, home or small offices, as well as Industrial, Medical and Education cart-based solutions Now more than ever, video communication can bring people together. LifeSize Focus symbolizes yet another milestone for LifeSize, LifeSize partners, and LifeSize customers and we look forward to continuing to provide you with top quality video products at the lowest cost in the market.Datasheets, support documents, and additional information on LifeSize Focus are all available on Partner Portal (under Documents / LifeSize Express). If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact your Regional Sales Manager.Regards,

LifeSize Shatters Price-Performance Barrier Again

With gasoline now at over three dollars per gallon (likely headed to $4, I imagine) we thought it might be a good time to remind our customers that videoconferencing is not an expense–it’s an investment that saves money. When filling your gas tank costs fifty or sixty dollars or more, and when airfare is taking off faster than the airplane, it doesn’t take much travel to break your budget. But it also means that eliminating even a portion of your current travel mileage can result in surprisingly big savings.

That is what videoconferencing does for you. Studies show that, on average, companies tend to save about 60% of their travel expenses when they incorporate videoconferencing into their business environment. Even with historically cheap gas this has meant a return on investment that is difficult to turn down–with today’s gas prices it might just be mandatory.

So just how much can videoconferencing save you? Every company is different so the answer varies with your business needs. Kaleidoscope has software tools that allow any business to input historical travel expenses and easily and accurately calculate the expected return on investment. Our customers who take the time to do this are often shocked to find that the payback period is unexpectedly short–often around a year.

How many investments do you know of that pay for themselves in a year?

Eh?

And I’ve only been talking about the “hard” savings that you can expect from videoconferencing. Never mind the “soft” savings that accrue from better communications between your companies locations, having more time to work (and relax!) and the competitive edge you get from being in instant touch with your coworkers. Trust me on this: Our customers never seem to regret investing in videoconferencing.

Kaleidoscope’s Return On Investment Calculator is an Excel spreadsheet based tool that allows any company to figure out whether videoconferencing is a money saving proposition. Please contact us and we will email you a copy of the worksheet so that you can find out for yourself.

Everybody likes ceiling microphones. They don’t get in the way, they don’t clutter the tabletops, they don’t clash with the upholstery and, they often don’t work very well. Or at least that’s the way it use to be.Nowadays, new technology allows ceiling microphones to function superbly in videoconferencing and public sound applications. These systems can pick up normal conversation, filter out unwanted room noise and cancel out reverberations from most acoustical environments. But getting good results is not necessarily easy. A ceiling is a pretty hostile environment for microphones as it puts the microphone far from the speaker’s voice and close to sources of extraneous noise such as ventilation grills and buzzing fluorescent light fixtures. Even building vibrations can be transmitted to the pickups. Pulling a clear signal out of all that noise requires more than sticking up a few standard microphones.Fortunately, digital technology now provides us with equipment and techniques that make ceiling microphones not only practical, but also desirable. The components of a successful ceiling mic installation are:

1. High performance, digitizing microphones. 
2. A Digital mixer/sound processor with advanced filtering capability.
3. Precise microphone placement based upon room acoustics.
4. Extensive fine tuning by an experienced sound engineer.

Put all this together and you can, in most environments, obtain excellent results. However, a word or two of warning: First, don’t skimp on the equipment. However tempting it might be to save a few dollars you will be rewarded for buying top quality microphones and mixers.Secondly, be prepared for some extended fine tuning. Digital sound processors possess a marvelous range of audio adjustment but dialing in the settings perfectly can take some time — even for an experienced audio engineer.But the results are worth the effort. Here at Kaleidoscope we used to discourage our customers from specifying ceiling mics — the sound quality was never quite good enough for the money spent. But things are different now and we suggest that anyone planning a conference room or classroom A/V project should seriously consider the installation of an engineered ceiling microphone system.

Like the swallows returning to Capistrano in California, technology coordinators from Missouri’s schools and colleges will make their annual migration to the Lake of the Ozarks on April 2-4 for the spring HELIX and Connections conferences sponsored by MOREnet. This year, Kaleidoscope will be exhibiting (in space number 51) during the conference and will be featuring the LifeSize express codec and the new Lifesize 3.5 software. If you’d like to schedule a private demo at the conference or at a time that is more convenient for you, please contact Del at 573-268-6034 or by email at del@kalvideo.com.

The Polycom Soundstructure has two c-link connections, allowing for connection to HDX videoconferencing systems or directly to HDX microphones. However, the original hardware that was shipped is not capable of supporting the HDX microphones directly; the hardware must be shipped back for modification in order to support the HDX microphones. Also note that each of the microphone elements in the HDX mics will use up the resources for one of the input ports. So, if you have a C8, with two HDX mics (which each have three elements in them), you will only be able to use 2 of the analog input ports (6 will be used up by the hdx mics). Watch out!