HD Communications Summit
Conference Wrap Up
Jake MacLeod
Principal Vice President and CTO
Bechtel Fellow
September 15, 2009
New World Stages, NY, NY
September 15, 2009
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Jeff Pulver – Pulver.com
Accelerating the conversion to HD
1.
Moldova/Orange 2M on line with HD. Incubator. Most of Eastern Europe will go HD
in the near future.
2.
Change will happen – encourage market disruption and accelerate change to HD.
3.
1995-2009 we were hobbyists - now it is a serious technology and business
4.
Hyper-communications – Overloaded / overwhelming – hyper-connectedness; what
will it be like 5 years from now?
5.
Embassies, Nuclear Risk Reduction, State Department, all are interested in HD voice.
6.
The existing carriers are investigating the technology as well as the cable
companies.
7.
Possible summit like this in Europe – possibly Paris due to the presence of Orange.
Follow up event in March in Silicon Valley
8.
Introduction of VoIP = Lower costs, wider distribution, lower profits, more
competition
9.
Creation of HD Connect Now – consortium of 12 companies; Working on
interoperability among the chip vendors
10. Need global awareness and promotion
11. Need to assemble a cohesive ecosystem
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Alan D. Percy – AudioCodes
1.
Goal – Awareness –
A.
B.
C.
D.
starts with education – technical and societal benefits
Bloggers – promotion of vision
Formation of HD Connect Community – development of the ecosystem
What’s Next?
1)
2)
E.
Where
1)
2)
2.
3.
We have created the hype
Need demonstrations, case studies, success stories, product introductions, etc
Moldova deployment
Japan developments
Applications
Peering – toughest hurdle
A.
B.
C.
4.
Skype caller cannot call Orange caller – must nnect thru the PSTN due to interoperability issues of the codecs
Metcalfe’s Law - Percy’s corollary
Proposal – HDConnect Peering Committee for the carriers and vendors
Equipment
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
Equipment is available
Which voice coder?
There will not be one codec. Specialization e.g. wireless versus wireline
Continuous improvements - Stereo not far off
Look what happened to video – to mobile devices
Transcoding resource – AudioCodes Mediant 3000 – will connect the various codecs
Summary – Full and effective ecosystem is essential for success
September 15, 2009
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Jan Linden – Global IP Solutions
1.
2.
3.
True HD Voice End User Experience
HD Voice – Hear the Difference – Audio Demonstration
VoIP Design Considerations
A.
4.
Impact of IP Networks
A.
5.
Packet Loss, Network Jitter, Latency
Acoustic Design –
A.
6.
HD Microphone, Speaker
HD Voice Quality Enhancement
A.
7.
Echo Cancellation; Noise Suppression; VAD, AGC, etc
Implementation Issues
A.
8.
PC Limitations; Mobile Device Limitations; Time to Market
HD Codec is Only Half the Story
A.
9.
Speech Codec, Network Degradation, Echo Cancellation, Voice Processing Components
Network Impairments; Environmental Disturbances; Software can mitigate audio quality
issues
Codec is important, but the E2E environment must be addressed
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Michael Eastman – WYDE Voice
1. Announcing new conferencing soft bridge
A.
B.
Supports G722, G722.1, G722.2, iSAC, Softphones; G711
Target = service providers and telcos
2. Shape Shifting Bridge
3. New HD Conferencing Service – many operational
variables
4. Building the Market for HD – Need full ecosystem of
industry partners
September 15, 2009
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Robert Graves – ATSC (Advanced Television
Systems Committee) Forum
1.
Case Study: Lessons Learned from Digital Television Transition
A.
B.
Screaming need for a formal forum for promotion and coordination of HD Voice.
ATSC Mission (200 members – supposed to be a temporary forum – will end this month)
1)
2)
C.
D.
Standard for DTV with well defined interlayer interfaces
Variety of Business Models & Services
1)
E.
F.
G.
H.
B.
C.
B.
C.
K.
L.
M.
N.
O.
Recovery and reuse of spectrum
FCC required that all TV’s in US be digital
Analog Transmission ceased on June 12, 2009
FCC established an advisory committee in 1987 (1000 people over a 9 year period)
A.
J.
Wireless; Broadcast;
Spectrum Efficiency – 108 MHz Recovered
HD - key to survival of free (advertiser supported) Over the Air Television
130 M ATSC receivers sold to date – all TV’s sold in the US are now HD – 50% of US Households now own at least 1
HDTV
Key decisions to success
A.
I.
Educate
Advocate
Competitive period – 23 proposals – only 1 digital
Six systems tested – all digital – tests were inconclusive
HDTV Grand Alliance was formed
Be ware of half steps – Increased quality was essential
Single common Transmission Standard was indispensable
Consistant government policies were key
Flexibility and extensibility in the standard were essential
Three most important things about DTV are Content, Content and Content
When Cable Cos started offering HDTV, the market took off
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HD Innovations Panel – Part I
Robert Messer – ABP Tech
Tobias Kemper – Nimbuzz
Alan Percy – AudioCodes
Ryan Heidari – Qualcomm
TK – working with global companies to develop HD on wireless phones. VoIP is available on current handsets by pressing one button.
AP – Father-in-law test – demonstration and reaction – Accepted HD readily – ease of use and simplicity is required for market success
RH – number of products available now – but when E2E communications occur you have conflicts and lack of interoperability without a
mediator. Must guarantee that the call does not drop. Must detect the capabilities of the other end and the n download the proper
code.
TK – doesn’t agree with downloading code. Download before talk –
AP – like adobe download before view approach – need predictable common resource. We need to come to agreement on a fall back
position. By picking a single codec, you stop or stifle innovation.
Transcoder Innovation
AP – first innovation was the multiple coder transcoders – multiple coders on DSP’s. Can do Transcoding to accommodate E2E quality.
Starting to learn how to mitigate some of the loss of quality in the transmission stream.
RH – Problems of adding additional delay – 40ms. More reason for using one common codec. Transcoding is not the solution.
AP – too late – the markets have already chosen and have deployed millions of devices. The horse is out of the barn.
RH – in the long term, a unified approach is the solution.
AP – larger carriers may require specific interfaces for HD access thereby requiring transcoding prior to network access. If you stay on my
island, then you must use my resources – Affinity
Question – Headsets and Ecosystem
AP – starting to see many HD certified accessories
RH – Bluetooth is adopting WB coding. The problems are they are low power devices and cannot handle the complexity of the processors –
the power consumption.
TK – Market demand must be developed for these devices prior to their success
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HD Innovations Panel – Part II
Ben Lillenthal – VAPPS
Jim Toga – Vivox
Tim Panton – PhoneFromHere
Richard Romagnino – VoiceAge
JT - There is more to HD Communications than voice; Quality control E2E; Content was applications and the people were using those applications; 2B
MOU/Mo of gaming and virtual worlds – HD communications
RB – how do we make this codec available to most of the world – not free – must license patents in AMR WB; HD voice is happening now. The question is
the process for use.
Roadblocks to Innovation
TP – easiest platform to innovate in is the PC. Roadblocks – licensing codecs.
JT – No barriers to innovation – trying to figure out the right areas to innovate; Hurdles are the business models and the iterate in order to survive.
Complex and hard to run – but must make it simple.
RB – All components are there for HD to happen. Business models are the hard part. HD has been viewed by the dominant carriers as a means to keep
customers rather than a revenue generating service.
JT – there are viable business models for virtual words and on line gaming. Statistics show that real revenue is available with HD gaming. A whole series of
virtual goods can be developed as additional revenue sources.
What Premium will the customer bear in the device if equipped with HD? 5% of 50%?
JT – no uplift for HD in the device
TP – we see a definite potential for increase in device cost if e/w HD. (E.g. Stereo Speakers and accessories).
E2E Quality Control – e.g. Headphones
TP – codecs can help with that. Piece of junk headset is still better than my PoJ phone.
JT – headsets and microphones are essential for a quality end user experience
RB – components are there – its an end user option.
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Jeff Rodman - Polycom
End User Demand
Why do we need HD Voice?
Who is not convinced of HD Voice?
Human speech – 80 to 14,000 Hz; C Message = 300 to 3400 Hz. HD = 50 to 7000 Hz.
There’s a bad moon on the rise = There’s a bathroom on the right
10 reasons for HD voice
1.
you can understand the new overseas team
2.
You can hear the kids (Demo - piano in the background)
3.
It’s lots easier; get it the first time, more accurate, fewer mistakes, can you speak up? What did
you say?
4.
Save your energy for dancing
5.
It’s like being there
6.
Enhance Emergency Abilities; accented speech; background noise; talkers too far away
everybody’s tired and under stress; “We’re going to be in the Hudson”
7.
HD voice is cool
8.
“HD voice is too expensive” is so Yesterday.
9.
Everybody is making it. – Networks and Endpoints (devices)
10. Your competitor sounds good – competitive disadvantage without HD
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Rick Krupka - Uniden
Focus on Cordless Phones
Must be where the customers are buying the products –
Best Buy, WalMart, Radio Shack, Staples, Target, Office
Max, Fry’s Electronics Office Depot
Economic Value, Progressive Design, Uniqueness
Loud & Clear – hearing aid compatible; ergonomically
appropriate for aging population
Measurement of Phones using TIA WG TR41.3.5 Measurement methods for amplified phone –
conversational gain – launching a new logo at CES
2010 to certify TIA CG value of the device.
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HD in Action - Panel
Daniel Petrie – SipEz
Joyce Kim – Global IP Solutions
Jeff Rodman – Polycom
David Beckemeyer – Televolution
DB - Improved audio quality in a recent AQ test was unexpectedly very important statistically. Significant WOW factor
JR – HD audio was important since the 80’s with PictureTel. Starting with 7 KHz is good but it will eventually move to
20 KHz. All Polycom desk phones are HD equipped. Sometimes difficult to evaluate HD because E2E
capabilities at this time are not certain.
JK – Intersection between content and business model. Lots of activity on the applications side. Focus on WOW
factor – HD voice and stereo. Will the customer pay extra for the experience? Until the apps drive recognition
and awareness, the business model will be difficult. The applications are not available yet. 2 steps to HD.
Codec only = high quality crap. Need the network (tools and technology) as well. Echo cancellation, jitter
buffers etc.
JR – Enterprise customers are “getting it” very quickly. Already configured as communications islands. IP VoIP to IP
HD step is very small. The challenge is connecting unconnected islands. Transcoders are a requirement.
Must move from Island mode to single ocean mode.
DB – Service provides want to know how much will the customers pay. Right now the businesses understand the
advantages, but don’t want to pay extra. Carriers must be threatened by market competition before they will
move to spend capital dollars for HD.
JR – Codec question will be around for a while. We do need to settle on a limited number of codecs.
JK – the problem is much more than just the codec.
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Chris Fine – Goldman Sachs
Field Report: HD Voice in the Enterprise
Focus: Unified communications and collaboration
1.
Macro Picture: State of IT spending is forecasted to turn around and increase (+3%) over the low of 2009; What drives IT spending
and where does HD voice fit? Priorities for spending:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
2.
HD Voice Evolution Possible scenarios
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
3.
Inevitability Scenario
PBX product cycle scenario
Business Driver scenario
Productivity scenario
Consumer pull scenario
Service provider pull scenario
Wildcard scenario
Challenges
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
4.
Risk Reduction
Revenue Increase
Cost Reduction
Productivity Increase
Everything Else
The PSTN
Network Overhead
Installed base of terminal equipment
Installed base of PBX
Competition from embedded HD
Unclear rationale
Remaining issues
What are we seeing
1.
2.
More HD videoconferencing
Move from TDM to VoIP PBX
September 15, 2009
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Josh Bottum - Cisco
Ecosystems – Which Segment?
1. Many sub segments – adjacent bowling alleys; What
will change demand? Ease of transition / Turn over
2. Recognize the benefits – Demonstration & promotion;
Word of Mouth Viral appeal; Check box
3. Sense of urgency.
A.
B.
C.
Ecosystem Purpose
Endpoint interoperability
Cisco Investment: Enterprise, Small Business, Consumer
September 15, 2009
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Mike Rude - DSPGroup
Enabling HD Voice in Consumer Devices
1. Residential – OTT VoIP; DSL Gateway; Cable Gateway; USB Dongle
2. 4M HD devices deployed around the world – most in Europe
3. CAT iq certification for DECT around WB Voice
4. Why DECT for HD Voice?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
5.
Standardized HD voice
Interference free spectrum allocation
Low cost multi-line multi-handset capability
Avoid premises wiring and installation
DECT handset size allows acoustic cavity for low end bass and greater user comfort for
longer calls
Integrated data capability for handset applications and widgets
Service Provider Excuses re HD voice
A.
B.
C.
Cost
Codecs and Transcoding
Interoperability
Summary – Delivering low cost endpoints equipped with HD Voice
September 15, 2009
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The HD Value Chain – Panel
Michael Stanford – WireEvolution (MS1)
Michael Jablon – Time Warner
Tony Stankus – Gigaset Communications USA
Mike Storella – snom (MS2)
MJ – need to fully understand the drivers to HD Voice
MS2 – Who makes money? Conference bridges may lead the way to profitability. The intelligent buyer who knows to ask if the product supports HD.
TS – We built it – will they come? As part of the value chain we are dependent on the ecosystem to perform. How do you demo HD voice?
MS2 – VARs must buy into and sell HD. Education of the VAR community is essential for success. Most business buy a telephone system for 7-10
years. HD voice must be a part of the sale on the front end.
MJ – Audience Survey – value questions for HD Voice. $3/mo OK. But then who could we call and experience HD? How does Skype compete in this
world? Migrating away from free service to charging for premium services.
MS1 – in order to move to HD, you must have IP E2E. Skype cannot do that right now.
Much like Caller ID and touch Tone, they were initially chargeable as additional features, however they eventually became free.
MJ – Customers don’t want to buy additional equipment to experience HD. The incremental cost to add HD to DECT devices is very low. The CPE
manufacturers should seed the market with capable devices. Establish a base then turn on the marketing machine.
MS1 – if a customer bought an HD phone today, 99% of the calls would not be HD. It would result in dissatisfied customers and customer complaints.
100% would be non HD because these phones are SIP phones and require provisioning, therefore none of the calls would experience HD.
MJ – Although HD is seen as a value added service that customers would pay for, it is actually quite complex to implement. The jury is still out on
how we are going to deploy and penetrate the market.
Until we can guarantee that the end user can make an HD call anywhere any time, this is a circular argument.
MJ – How long would it take the MSO’s to turn on HD – In 5 years, 100% of the MSO subscribers could be ready.
There must be competitive pressure in order for the market to move.
Must figure out how to do IP Peering.
The subscriber line interface card in the existing class 5 switches limit the 16KHz transmission of HD.
September 15, 2009
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HD Carrier Interconnection - Panel
Candice Malmstrom – FreedonVoice
David Frankel – ZipDX
Kevin Groth – XConnect
Rodrigue Ullens – Voxbone
DF – Presentation –
1. Calling within an enterprise system everything works well. If an external call accesses thru the PSTN, the game gets complex and feature limited.
2.
Challenge – end users do not want to do anything special to call in HD
3.
PtP peering thru an IP cloud. Explanation of processes.
A.
B.
C.
4.
Service Provider reluctance
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
5.
Who will run the directory
Who will pay for the directory?
How will the directory be policed?
Which directory to use
Don’t want to pay
Security of network
Don’t want to lose termination revenue
Not worth the trouble
Nervous about sending calls over the public internet
What can we do?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Education
Encourage and evangelize
Partnering
Engage with directory providers and publish” How to Book”
Establish working groups
KG – must address the individual commercial terns with providers
RU – the migration will occur similar to the SMS migration. Gradual. The US followed the rest of the world and now SMS is a huge part of the US
communications market.
KG – The market will move to HD when a major carrier feels competitive pressure in the market place that challenges its market position.
September 15, 2009
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Alla Reznick - Verizon
Is there a future in HD?
1. Case study – Opportunities and Challenges
2. Large, global enterprise customer (Verizon) initiated HD voice in HQ –
thousands of users – Implemented an island that does not work outside
the HQ location.
3. VZ needs to experience HD voice globally to its own facilities and
others.
4. Need to figure out Peering and interconnect
5. Need FCC support. Need to get to 100% VoIP. Only ?% today.
6. Will make money by offering new features, unified communications,
monitoring and control features, etc. HD voice will propel IP into the
future.
7. How do we get there? Need to figure out peering and interconnect.
8. State regulations apply to voice in every state. Need to treat voice as IP
and have uniformity of regulation. This is a huge impediment to
progress.
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Thomas Lemaire, FT - Orange
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Voice quality is a key expectation of customers and HD is already deployed in
France
50% of VoIP users would change providers to get better quality
30% of non-VoIP users would switch to VoIP if it had F2F voice quality
Mobile with the quality of fixed
Orange one of the first in the world to launch HD on VoIP (June 2006)
Maintain a large quantity of handsets and “Livephones” All are plug and play. No
complex set up. Dialing process is the same. No extra cost for HD call. Bundled
pricing packages.
Key countries in the deployment; France, Spain; Then UK, Belgium and
?(Scandinavia?) in 2010
HD voice quality is a complex, long term endeavor.
Key steps required for enabling HD voice for mobile are coverage, network and
devices.
Mobile HD subscribers will not be able to connect directly to wireline HD
subscribers. It will not be a full HD call due to requirement for transcoding from
G.722 to AMR.
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Julian Spitka, Skype
483 million potential HD voice users.
Two major trends in telephony; CS to VoIP; Processors are more general purpose
and functionality is determined by software
All applications require scalability especially voice. Not all devices have HD enabled.
Processor complexity must be low for battery conservation.
Most devices now are multipurpose. Downloads of applications are more common
for feature enhancement. Royalties for applications must be kept low.
What is needed – codecs must be optimized for IP networks – widely distributed –
royalty free – open source code – no proprietary solutions.
Operating space should be covered with a minimum of codecs. Ideally one but
logically more than one.
Skype proposed in May 2009 to IETF to standardize a WB Codec.
Others have proposed WB codec and super WB codec standards
Will Skype support G.722 at some point? JS – G.722 is not scalable. As soon as it
goes over WAN’s it falls apart. Max is 64 kbps. There is no interest on the part
of Skype to adopt pure G.722.
September 15, 2009
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Mobile HD VoIP - Panel
Brough Turner – Dialogic
Mahesh Makhijani – Qualcomm
BT - VoIP in the enterprise – the decisions are made on budget issues. The decisions will not be made on
features and functionality; Operators may move to HD based on desires of its subscribers. When Orange
rolls out in the next 18 months, they will have the first market mover advantage. It will be the tipping point
in the competitive arena. Others will follow (Vodafone and O2). It will “just work” without complexity.
That’s why Skype is successful - it just works.
MM – VoIP HD call over the VZ network. Optimized for the wireless network. Bandwidth versus Spectrum
Efficiency. (B/S/Hz).
BT - AMR wideband can run on 88% of the wireless phones available today.
BT - T-Mobile Ericsson HD trial in Germany. Few hundred users but statistically significant. User impact was
very positive and voice quality was a significant positive item.
MM – Korea – government mandated that in-building coverage must be the same quality as outside. This
stimulated femtocell deployment.
Femtocells may be a lever that will promote HD acceptance in the market place.
BT - Latency in the transport layer is always a serious concern because it seriously limits mobile VoIP. HSPA+
will be the first enabling mobile technology for mobile VoIP.
BT - AMR WB – carriers are focusing on AMR- Profile 0
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Perspectives on HD Tipping Points - Panel
Doug Mohney – HDConnectNow
Richard Buchanan – Ooma
Ben Arnold – Consumer Electronics Association
Anatoli Levine – Radvision; IMTC (International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium))
RB – new product Oct 1, G.722
BA – How do we increase penetration of HD Voice? Follow the lead of HDTV. Content availability, competitive pricing, seed devices,
etc. Peak interest on the part of consumers.
AL – IMTC is a platform for promotion of HD voice.
Why are we going to be successful?
AL - HD voice is an enabler for other applications. I don’t know the business model that will make money for stand alone HD Voice
RB – chip companies are poised to provide a dominant level of silicon – Broadcom; Intelipeer (?) and XConnect (?) are companies to
watch on the network side.
DM – Digium (?) is a company to watch. Infrastructure play – Open source.
Are Service providers going to make money?
RB – in essence we are a service provider as well. HD will reduce churn which will prevent churn in the short and medium term.
Eventually all service providers will go HD voice. We are deploying G.722 and are considering other codec technologies.
What is the one stumbling block about HD Voice?
AL – Consumer awareness of the value of HD voice.
BA – Consumer Education. You must experience it to really appreciate it.
Best Buy initially was running 10% returns on HD TV because the subscribers did not have an HDTV source.
There is so much quality left on the floor by crappy hardware that we need to ensure that the devices are of very high quality.
September 15, 2009
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Overall Message
Are you all crazy?
Yes – but so was Alexander
Graham Bell!
September 15, 2009
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