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The communications space has certainly come a long way since 1996, when Motorola’s StarTAC flip phone reinvented the mobile phone market. The new era of fixed and mobile devices, from phones to PCs to business platforms connecting colleagues from New York to Tokyo is an evolutionary wonder — but it is also a work in progress.

 

VoIP has grown into its own, thanks in no small part to companies like Skype (News - Alert), but even Skype’s “old” service is no match for the wideband audio in its latest release (not to mention HD business phones from the likes of Polycom, snom, and AudioCodes). Conference calling, which also has grown by leaps and bounds, also is being reinvented on a regular basis to include mobile convenience, desktop point-to-point video conferencing, Web-based conferences capable of connecting hundreds of callers, and large HD telepresence systems.

 

Video, though, has perhaps had the most profound impact on the overall communications environment, thanks largely to the explosion of HD technology found in home TVs, digital signage systems, conference rooms, and desktop monitors. It’s helped drive the gaming industry (e.g., Wii, PS3, Xbox), video conferencing systems, the DTV transition (thought that’s been a debacle of sorts due to the inability of the FCC to develop an effective, actionable plan), and more. In fact, if you head to your local electronics retailer, you may not even be able to find an SD set — Best Buy has two available online, compared to the dozens of LCD and plasma screens available.

 

The HD video market also is a key driver of the growth seen in the IPTV industry today — the North American IPTV market more than doubled in 2008, and an increasing number of industry players are committing to the HD video space — and why not. It’s hardly a stretch to say that, once you’ve watched HD feeds, going back to standard def is nothing short of miserable.

 

Looking to take advantage of the HD movement, two companies that have had a longstanding place in the video space — Texas Instruments (TI) and RADVISION — have announced plans to collaborate on technology that they say will significantly lower the cost of developing interactive HD video terminals for both business and consumer use. That includes not only TV monitors, but also projectors, room video systems, STBs, LCS screens, surveillance products, netbooks, and digital photo frames, as well as video phones and mobile devices.

 

The idea is that, while HD sells itself, but the mitigating factor in many cases is cost. According to Adi Paz (News - Alert), Vice President Products and Business Development for RADVISION Technology Business Unit, the partnership with TI will result in a new, lower cost base for developing professional quality video communications solutions for today’s IP, 3G and IMS networks — and presumably up and coming 4G networks as well, since they offer greater bandwidth than their 3G counterparts.

 

The solution combines TI’s video communications demo board, including its DaVinci-based digital media processors, and RADVISION’s BEEHD high definition interactive video engine. With TI’s sophisticated codecs and RADVISION’s video telephony platform, developers have a solution that, as Paz says, will allow them to turn any video-enabled device into a high-definition two-way communications solution. 

 

RADVISION, in fact, is developing the entire video engine for TI’s media processors, including customized technology for enhanced media quality and development of a reference application for OEMS, allowing wider distribution of the new technology.

 

The result, according to J.B (News - Alert). Fowler, Video Communications Business Manager, Texas Instruments, is shorter time to market with high quality video components for any number of deployment scenarios. 

 

“The solution incorporates all required components, leaving only minimal mandatory effort, such as GUI design and integration, for OEMs,” according to the companies.

 

While voice continues to be the dominant method of communication, the video conferencing industry is booming — with a boost provided by a recessionary economy — and many in the industry are looking to drive video telephony in both the enterprise and SMB markets.

 

Khris Kendrick, Grandstream’s senior director of business development, recently noted, “As you will see, demand for media phones will only increase with the delivery of even more fresh real-time media and content to the device (RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook (News - Alert), Internet Radio, Flickr, Hulu, etc.).”

 

Yes, video telephony has been attempted by many with little success. Since then, however, many of the initial hurdles have been overcome, including bandwidth constraints and network readiness, and with vendors like Grandstream, Polycom, and others pushing new video products, and with the lower-cost and faster time to market enabled by TI and RADVISION, the time may well be right for video calling to take hold.