It's a small Skype promotion for a good cause. The Food Network, a US cable channel, and Skype are auctioning video calls with chefs Emeril Lagasse (a charming New Orleans favorite, known for saying "let's turn things up a notch" and "Bamm!!!!") and Bobby Flay (telegenic with a tough New York attitude). Proceeds benefit a charity to fight hunger and poverty. Bid on eBay until 3 December for a 7 December call, and get some kitchen tutoring and troubleshooting before you dive into Christmas cooking.

Video is the difference, and a clue to Skype's positioning in 2007. Don Albert told me Skype is emphasizing qualitative features over price in the United States. This contrasts Skype with cable and Vonage VoIP: Skype does video, those don't. 

Darn. Now I'm hungry.

This morning Skype announced the gold release of Skype for Mac 2.0; finally a released Skype for the Mac with video support. Just in time to take advantage of all those iSight cameras built into more recent models such as MacBook Pro and MacBook. And, of course, one can now hold two party cross-platform video calls between Mac and Windows versions of Skype.

We would appreciate receiving your feedback via comments on your experiences using this much requested and long awaited version. I am working with one test case to check out this statement:

We've improved the video quality and made changes so that video calling can now work on older systems allowing more of our Mac community can use it.

The next challenge for Skype is to develop video conference calling similar to that already available with SightSpeed.

We look forward to hearing your feedback. It gives us an incentive to get the handling of Skype Journal's Comments fixed asap.

Update re Test Case: My acquaintance had attempted to use the beta Skype for Mac with his G4 800 MHz Mac - now the minimum requirement for Skype for Mac 2.0. He had reported problems with the beta version; however, on downloading the released version, we were able to establish a cross-platform Windows-to-Mac video session this afternoon with no problems - backing up Skype's statement quoted above. The biggest issue was that his three year old Mac's video camera does not provide the sharpest quality but it certainly delivered an acceptable quality for a video conversation. [As an aside, this G4 800MHz Mac does not meet minimum specs for use of SightSpeed on the Mac. On the other hand, SightSpeed's ability to do a three party conference with his two daughters in two different cities has become one inducement to upgrade to a new Mac soon.]

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I just reinstalled SightSpeed on my "rebuilt" laptop and am always impressed with the video quality. It is reminiscent of the days about 25 years ago when the first color monitors became available for the mini-computer-based instrumentation I was selling at the time. My budget-limited customers (mostly university based researchers) thought they could get away with budgeting for a black and white monitor until they actually saw the color monitor ... it took all of two minutes to change their mind once they realized the features color added. Somehow the additional funds for color magically appeared quite quickly. (I won't mention the price they paid for simple monitors at that time!) When you see a SightSpeed video its quality just hits you instantly as being the benchmark for video communications.  And this week PC Magazine thought so also.

While it is a challenge to market in a space containing the GYMAS-five, SightSpeed CEO Peter Csathy and hist team seem to be ringing up the wins by working with partners who can take advantage of SightSpeed's video messaging functionality.  Two of note: a deal with MTV who is using SightSpeed on their Total Request Live offering to bring viewers into the show; SightSpeed is also making its debut in politics as a campaigning tool. Would be interesting to see if my university colleagues Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae start to use SightSpeed in their tight run for the leadership of Canada's Liberal party this fall where they need to approach 4500 delegates spread across 4,000 miles.

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Skype moved their Mac 1.5 from beta to "gold" release and launched the Mac 2.0 beta today, Beta version 2.0.0.2 is Universal, needs OS X v10.3.9 Panther or newer. Congrats to Skype's Mac team; someone should buy that group brews for shipping under intense pressure. 1.5 offers a stable release of Skype video. Change log (just a few bug fixes).

This morning's news release puts the number of Skype users worldwide at 113 million.

Screenshots from Skype's PR team confirm what we've been saying for a long time, and what 21talks summarized: "Compared to Apple iChat, the new feature still is limited. Multi-person video chatting isn't allowed. No 3D view that makes user experience a lot richer. No fancy video backdrops." Still on our video wishlist:

• recording of video conversations
• a "lenscap" privacy button that does for video what the "mute" button does for audio
• piping screen areas from your PC into Skype video, for application sharing
• piping video files from your hard drive into an existing video call to share your video

The secret sauce used by Skype that results in the excellent voice quality of Skype-to-Skype calls and facilitates quality in Skype-to-SkypeIn/Out calls is the Voice Engine for PC and Voice Engine for (Windows) Mobile licensed by Skype from Global IP Sound ("GIPS"). Combining codecs, echo cancellation technology and other voice and packet management features the various GIPS Voice Engines eliminate or minimize the impact of inherent (wired or WiFi) network problems and deficiencies introduced by factors such as delay, jitter, packet loss, clock-drift, acoustic and network echo.

In a press release last Monday, Global IP Sound announced the extension of this relationship to include Skype's licensing of Voice Engine for Embedded such that the GIPS features and technology can be deployed in voice-enabled hardware devices. In an interview with Wendy Toth, VP Marketing, and Dr. Jan Linden, VP Engineering at GIPS, we learned:

• This agreement will permit the incorporation of GIPS Voice Engine technology into future WiFi phone offerings. (It is not included in the recently released WiFi phones announce last month.)
• It would facilitate the offering of a Skype for Symbian phones (such as Nokia's N-Series) although no such client has yet been announced by Skype.
• In July Skype/eBay and GIPS resolved the patent dispute that Skype effectively assumed upon Skype's acquisition of Sonorit and Camano Networks.

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"Skype video is fantastic. I had three video IP surveillance cameras installed in my retail store to monitor the cash counter and they just did not have a useful frame rate. I need Skype. It will work great but I need it to operate without popping up when I call the remote Skype Client. What can I do?"

I understood this man's problem instantly. I met a woman who ran a cappuccino shop a few years back who was losing a ton of money by staff pocketing the money instead of ringing it in the cash register. Her profit was back the moment she installed a video cam surveillance unit.

However, you cannot eliminate the pop up of the Skype Application when the call comes in. So how did this man solve his problem and get Skype working in stealth mode?

Easy. Set the Skype Application to run under another account in XP while the computer runs in the normal log-in account. Do not use the "Right Click and select, Run As... to set up the second Skype Client. Insead set up the surveillance Skype Client using "Log-in" command at the Start Menu.

Skype now has a happy retailer somewhere in the middle of the Mediterranean.

Since its introduction at the final Fall Comdex in 2003, I have been following the SightSpeed video communications service as it has evolved into one of the more highly respected personal video calling services. Today they are releasing a new version 5.0; last week I spent an hour talking with Peter Csathey, CEO of SightSpeed, about SightSpeed, its direction and their forthcoming new version.

Peter, who has been CEO since last December, has SightSpeed focused on offering "best-in-class" personal video services. These services are envisioned to come in the form of

• Communications: private, secure video and voice calling communications;
• Community/Content with the introduction of a public directory, video blogging and other user generated content and SightSpeedTV
• Commerce: video-enabled e-commerce,  video mail marketing; "click-to-call" video sales and support.

Previous versions of SightSpeed, a cross-platform service running on both Macs and Windows PC's, have included video calling (with up to four in a conference), video mail messaging, video blogging support, chat and, recently, a beta outbound PSTN service. SightSpeed operates using direct (node-free) peer-to-peer connectivity for 1:1 video and audio calls. Multi-party video conferencing with its additional processing demands passes through a server.

SightSpeed 5.0 fleshes out what Peter calls "a complete personal video services suite", offering several new capabilities;

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Recently a couple of posts discussing VoIP Quality:

Om Malik reports on a Brix Networks study, based on data collected on Acceptable Call Quality via their TestYourVoIP.com site.  Note that Brix also announces the availability of this service as a Google Gadget (for Google Desktop) providing ongoing measurement of the quality of your connection for voice and video activities. The study reports an ongoing decline in VoIP Acceptable Call Quality from 84% to about 80% over the period December 2004 to May 2006.

Andy at VoIP Watch found  MyVoIPSpeed Internet Connection Test and was using it as a tool to measure the connection speeds and QoS at the hotel he was staying at. I checked out my own home office connection and got this report:

Om talks in his post about degrading quality of calls received from callers using Vonage. I have been a Packet8 subscriber for almost three years and have found the quality to consistently improve over time to the point where I have minimal problems. I also find I am getting a high quality level with my Skype and SkypeOut calling with one exception: SkypeOut calls to some wireless phone services.  Too much compression/decomprssion going on? first via VoIP, then at the wireless end?

I also ran the Brix TestYourVoIP and got a MOS score of 4.2, close to the MyVoIPSpeed result shown above of 4.0. The tests appear to have some level of consistency across the tests and do appear to reflect the quality of calls that I am experiencing.

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See the Mac 1.5 Beta announcement. BETA release: 1.5.0.48. Also: Interface refresh, import contacts from Apple's Address book or Entourage, more languages (French, Spanish, German, traditional Chinese, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch), support for presence and SkypeMe buttons, and Mac starter packs. For OS X v10.3.9 Panther or newer. The last minor update was May 11, and the last major update (1.4) was in January 2006. Download the Mac 1.5 beta.

Correction: (Thanks, Ryan) Video calling is only in version 1.5.0.47. 47 is the same as 48, but it has the only-modestly-tested video component added. Read about the video preview or download the preview. Known video issues from the Change Log:

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Over the past week there were a couple of news items about video communications services:

• Out of Japan, Novac has released a product, Skype TV, that lets you stream your TV across Skype video. More commentary from Gizmodo.
• Last Monday came news about the forthcoming SightSpeedTV, a new feature to be included in SightSpeed's next release at the end of the month.

But moving beyond the place-shifting domain, last week I had a demonstration of Tele3DWorld from Mellanium, a 3D design and modeling studio. Using 3D texture rendering CAD software with output via a video capture card, they have Skype or SightSpeed recognize it as a webcam for video.

One of the people behind this has already used it on a sales call for the remote dynamic 3D presentation of a new anode metal refining furnace where different types of refractory brick are used within the furnace depending on the high temperature profiles.. Using this tool, Joe was able to walk his customer through the interior of the proposed furnace, zeroing in on critical heat sensitive areas and showing how they have addressed issues related to the different types of brick. In another demonstration, he walked me through a tour of a proposed palliative care unit; a third demonstration is a walk around tour of a WWII Spitfire bomber, initially drawn up in AutoCAD.

In the course of my experience with desktop sharing or web conferencing services, one frustration has been the inability of web conferencing products to do 3D CAD viewing in real time within the desktop sharing tool sets due to the intense real time graphics demands. With video configurations such as demonstrated by Mellanium perhaps we can see this methodology become the standard for this business requirement.

Bottom line: Personal video services, such as Skype's video and SightSpeed will eventually deliver more than basic video calling. They will require either special hardware (Novac) or TV-tuner-equipped PC's, such as Windows Media PC's (Mellanium and SightSpeed) as the video source. Obviously the creative juices are flowing in developing webcam emulations that can flow video through Skype and SightSpeed.

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Yesterday Phil referenced the Skype/SanDisk press release announcing that Skype 2.0, featuring Internet video calling, would be preloaded on all SanDisk U3-enabled Smart Drives such that a user could access and use Skype from any Windows computer, such as at an Internet café.  But there is a caveat; from the Help for U3:

A U3 program is a special version of an application that has been created to run from flash drives. Once you install a U3 program on your device, you can run it from any Windows computer. The U3 environment ensures that the application data and settings are stored on the device. The environment also caters for multiple applications running simultaneously from the device and for the possible situation in which the device is ejected or removed from the computer while applications are still running.

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Jaanus has put up a post on the Skype Blog announcing the much anticipated Skype for Mac with Video; however, it is not a release announcement -- not even any dates for release. He has put this announcement up because there is a so-called unreleased beta version out on the web but attempting to use this version can cause significant damage to your Skype installation.

What you need to know about this version is that it is an internal unstable development version, and thus it is extremely buggy. It may and will destroy your contacts and other data. It is completely unsupported and if you experience problems due to using this version, you're on your own.

Looking forward to being able to communicate with our Mac Skype Contacts using an "official" version.

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Yesterday I received an email from SightSpeed announcing

On May 24, 2006, SightSpeed will release the next version of our award-winning video calling service. This new release will include significant new beta features, including SightSpeed Phone Out, which you can use to make great quality, low-cost telephone calls from your PC or Mac.

Key Points:

• SightSpeed expands its voice capability from pure 'VoIP to VoIP" to "VoIP to PSTN" (Phone Out launched yesterday) and "PSTN to VoIP" (PhoneIn to be introduced soon).
• Rates for calls within North America are 2 cents per minute; rates to Europe start at 2 cents per minute but vary by country and modality (land line or mobile)
• Ability to make voice only calls (no video required)
• Improved video via a beta codec
• Enhanced Contact List Display options

I have followed SightSpeed since it was first introduced as a high quality video service at Fall Comdex 2003. From the initial press release:

SightSpeed Web matches the speed of the telephone, delivering audio/visual synchronicity at 30 frames per second through patented, human perception-based technology that is based on more than seven years of research at Cornell University.

SightSpeed has always been recognized for its video quality. It has also always had a VoIP capability for those who had headsets to use it as audio accompaniment to the video. Their "SightSpeed Pro" service offers additional features such as multi-party  voice and video conferencing for up to 4 participants. Unfortunately not many of my acquaintances were enamored enough to make it a viable communications service I could routinely use. And I did not find a real need to use their Video Messenger service; but that may just be me.

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Orb Networks has done it again with the release of a video messaging plug-in for Outlook and Thunderbird. Will streaming video be the next snowboard or skateboard for the digital-MySpace generation? I don't know, but what I do know is when grandma got this video message from her granddaughter, more than video was streaming. Gramma, oma, nonna, mormor, baba, oba-san, abuela; no matter what language you use a video message will touch a heart.

View the stream on YouTube

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by Stephen Klosky, Director, Federal Systems Engineering, Dataline, Inc.

I often demonstrate Skype and its capabilities to business associates. Crowding around a monitor is sometimes awkward. At my desk, I have a laptop, a docking station, and a second monitor which works well for me and one or two guests. For larger groups, I needed a better setup, so I decided to "Skypify" the nearby conference room.

Before

The typical setup in conference room before the upgrade was to take a portable LCD projector and connect it to any of the laptops in the office. The projector pointed at a whiteboard or a blank wall. This setup was functional, but had some drawbacks. Cords ran across walkways, image quality took some time to tune and setup correctly, there was no audio support, and there was no pc based VTC support.

I did have some gear available for the project. The IT department had purchased a Polycom ViewStation H.323 station with a TV for a monitor. This setup was on an A/V cart. This was attractive because the remote controllable camera could be used for the video part of Skype. Also, the mic pod could be used for the Skype microphone.

View Stephen's complete photo set on flickr as a slide show.

Shopping on a $510 budget

So, there were definitely some areas for improvement. My plan was to add a stereo for sound reinforcement, a USB video capture device for the video support, a ceiling mount kit for the projector, a wireless keyboard and mouse setup, a ceiling mount kit for the stereo speakers, a manual pull down screen for the projector, cables, mounting hardware and power strips.

I was on a non-existent / small budget, so, after a brief eBay session, I found the items I needed. Fortunately for me, I work for an office with quick approval processing and was able to get the upgrade approved in about an hour or so. After getting the approval, I went back to eBay and ordered up the gear. Here is a spreadsheet I used to track the gear.

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In early February I wrote up a post about my acquisition of a SlingBox to allow me to watch the Canadian (CBC) version of the Turino 2006 Winter Olympics while working in southern California. In a sequel post on my personal blog I mentioned how I was able to watch the Women's Gold Medal Hockey game on CBC from a Starbucks in Palm Springs.

This past Monday (two months after the initial post) I received a call from an Ottawa-based CBC Newsworld business reporter who had read my blog post; she wanted to do a story on SlingBox since it is becoming available in Canada this month. Just completed the interview an hour ago. For those with access to Canadian channels on their cable/satellite or SlingBox it will apparently run next Monday or Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. They took shots of SlingBox running on both my laptop PC and my Dell Axim. (Of course, you can only demo on one at a time.)

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Lots of fun is to be had on wigi these days. A bunch of us have been playing with Ashod’s new 10 party video conferencing system. For me, it doesn't get better than this.

The latest version ( vwho4100x,exe) can be found here But that can change every few hours.

You need to register to join the foum to download. Takes about 1 minute.

Try it. For each participant my upload bandwidth is 120 kilobits per second and CPU is only about 15%. That is pretty phenomenal performance. The frame rate appears to be around 30 Frames per Second. Try it, you will never use Skype video again. I know you will, but I hope you will tell me and my readers why. Please leave us a comment.

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Techdirt reminded us last year how broadcast IPTV is a dumb idea, as the future’s all in faster-than-real-time downloads. (Usual nod of head to Odlyzko for being a decade ahead of us all here.)

In future you’ll only want to watch stuff that’s gained a strong reputation for quality. But you won’t know it’s a quality offering until plenty of people have watched it and the data’s been passed through the collaborative filters. Furthermore, anything that isn’t live TV can be sent to your DRM’d video store awaiting the unlock key to be sent at the anointed viewing time.

Only a very small number of shows will have a reputation that precedes them. The recurring nature of sports events is one such example. A drama will have to have an exceptional star writer or actor to make a new series compelling in advance of its release. But drama is rarely live (possible future trend - ImprovTV?) so doesn’t need real-time streaming.

Another small batch of programs will offer true interactivity, maybe via SMS if not something richer.

You have to ask yourself whether the current TV schedules of non-live, non-interactive programs make the slightest sense. The legacy technologies of broadcast and satellite TV might be plenty to absorb 90% of the demand for this kind of “right here, right now” TV. Expensive IMS-based bandwidth reservation systems look increasing irrelevant to the type of traffic that is actually likely to go over these networks.

I’d hate to be a progra