Video Calls Within The Walls (and outside too) Corel Corp. CorelVIDEO Before gaining fame with its own graphics software and the acquisition of Novell's WordPerfect, Corel was an integrator of hardware and software systems. So it was natural, when management sought to provide desktop videophones for more than 800 workers in its new Corel Tower, it would design its own CorelCONSOLE and CorelCAM enclosures. CorelVIDEO is designed for enterprise campus applications where plenty of unused Category 3 or Category 5 UTP wire is available, whether in a high-rise or in closely connected buildings. Such buildings typically have four pairs brought to the phone jack and four more pairs brought to the "data" jack on the wallplate in each room. The enterprise's network usually is presented on conductors 1, 2, 3 and 6 of the eight-pin data jack. If a standard eight-conductor cable is run from the wall jack to "LAN-in" on the CorelCONSOLE and another cable is run from "LAN-out" to the PC's NIC, network hookup is complete. CorelVIDEO uses one pair--either on conductors 4 and 5 for Ethernet or on 7 and 8 if a Token-Ring network is present. The Corel selection is changed simply by turning the eight-pin jack over as it is plugged into the Corel CONSOLE. In most existing UTP wiring environments, CorelVIDEO can be added without repinning wall jacks or making special punch-downs. CorelVIDEO
	PC upgrade	50	CorelCAM	$499	$24,950
		52	CorelVIDEO console	$499	$25,948
		50	Hauppauge WinTV video card	$350	$17,500
	Hubs, trunks	7	CorelVIDEO line cards in PC	$2,300	$16,100
		27	CorelVIDEO line module	$95	$2,565
		11	CorelVIDEO trunk module	$95	$1,045
	Multipoint  conferencing	1	CorelVIDEO VCU	$4,995	$4,995
	Gateway to PSTN	2	CorelVIDEO console	$499	$998
		1	Corel CODEC (128 Kb)	$1,675	$1,675
		1	Corel 384 ISDN upgrade kit	$3,400	$3,400
	Server		Portion of call setup server	$2,100	$2,100
	Total for 50 seats				$101,276
	Cost per seat				$2,026
CorelVIDEO sets up nearly independent of the desktop PC, which is routinely used only for call placement and collaboration activity (whiteboard graphics sharing). If the PC is not equipped with a video windowing board, a freestanding TV monitor can be plugged into the CorelCONSOLE to view the conference. The CorelCONSOLE, also freestanding, functions as an external video interface with video inputs that can handle NTSC or PAL broadcasts. The CorelCAM enclosure is designed to hang the lens down over the video or PC monitor so that eye contact appears to be direct. A microphone in the lens mount can be selected as the audio source. The CorelCONSOLE accommodates auxiliary audio and video, in and out, plus an RJ-11 handset/headset jack. Corel's audio is modulated and incorporated with the video signal. It operates independently of the desktop voice telephone system. By running on a dedicated wire pair, CorelVIDEO has more than enough bandwidth for full-motion video and acceptable monaural audio. A baseband square wave is modulated to transmit full-duplex video at 4 Mbps and audio at 3.5 KHz. Our benchmark test measured about 30 frames per second (fps) with no lost information using CorelVIDEO. A small amount of in-band signaling is carried over the dedicated audio/video channel between a server computer and each CorelCONSOLE for audio, video and display monitor selection. However, call setup and conference collaboration information is carried from de sktop PC to the server system via NetBIOS, NetBEUI or TCP/IP over the enterprise network. Microsoft Windows-based software on the PC supports picture- or name-based directory search to find the party you want to call. That person's picture, dragged and dropped into a call setup folder (along with three other parties, if it is a conference call), will initiate a connection. If a special multipoint "continuous presence" VCU is added to the system, CorelVIDEO can provide four-party conference calling.

Videoconferencing standards and communications problems SOHO to the Enterprise: End-to-End or Dead End? by Christopher Smith and Ron Bunal Updated May 23, 1997