Valve’s Steam MMO RPG game delivery system (rent, don’t buy; play without downloads; one identity across games; common APIs) will use the free SILKcodec. This will build SILK’s wideband audio quality into the Steam player, although games may exploit it. Correction: You do in fact buy games; but the games have the option of storing and using social elements from the Steam cloud: PTT, saving games, or achievements. Steam is one of the largest game sales systems on earth, “a license to print money” one customer told me. They moved from the Speex codec to SILK but the driving forces are customer engagement. The higher the voice chat fidelity, the better you communicate, the more you enjoy the team aspects of gameplay, and the longer you play. Good for all.
Steam’s voice chat system now leverages the SILK audio codec, developed and used by Skype, makers of the world’s most popular voice communication service. The SILK codec provides a significant quality improvement over Steam’s previous voice technology, at the cost of some increase in bandwidth usage. Steam Voice used to require 15 kbps of bandwidth, whereas SILK is a dynamic bit rate protocol which varies in its use of bandwidth between 8 and 30 kbps, depending on the range of data in the voice signal and current network conditions.
As of today’s Steam client update, voice chat using SILK is available to all users of Steam. To start using Steam chat with SILK, simply click the ‘Start Voice Chat’ button within a friend or group chat on Steam. You can access chat from both the friends list at the desktop, or while in game using Steam’s in-game overlay. You’ll find voice chat connectivity and reliability have also been improved with this release.
Steam chat with SILK is now also automatically available for all games that take advantage of the Steamworks Voice API. Valve’s own Portal 2, set to release in mid-April, uses this newly updated system to enable voice chat in its cooperative gameplay mode.
Video will not start until Skype sees needed bandwidth.
Skype’s SILK voice CODEC (8-40 kbps) will be used when possible.
No Facebook support.
Their “blue wall” firewall restricts users to the UNHCR version of Skype for Windows and to off hours.
I think it’s a worthy cause but it’s an even worthier investment. Dan York writes
“it definitely occurred to me that there are businesses and organizations out there who could also benefit from a low-bandwidth version of Skype. I think, for instance, of shipping companies with limited Internet connectivity to vehicles or ships. Or to companies with distributed offices with very small branch offices with very small Internet connections.”
The lessons from confronting the engineering problems are transferable to other products and markets. So is Skype’s practice at partnering with a smaller organization.
Here’s Skype’s video of a conversation using the new client, now deployed to sixty locales where the UN helps refugees.
Skype is offering SkypeKit, a UI-free engine so you can build Skype into desktop and embedded systems. It bundles the libraries, protocols, encryption, codecs, and media you’d find underneath the Skype for Windows user experience. From the newly revamped Skype developer zone:
SkypeKit, you can build Skype conversations right into your own products. Skype is currently making the SDK available to a limited number of beta partners, and there is a waiting list. Starting June 23, you’ll be able to sign up for an invitation.
More from the devzone:
At Skype, we believe that every connected device is, potentially, a communications device. We envision a future in which you’ll see and converse with the people in your life no matter where you are or what you’re doing — sitting in your car, watching TV in your living room, or just checking the time.
That’s why we’re so excited to announce SkypeKit, a collection of software and APIs that allows Internet-connected devices or applications to offer Skype voice and video calls. SkypeKit is designed to work with a wide variety of chip sets, operating systems, and audio/video devices. Think of SkypeKit as a "headless" version of Skype–that is, it runs invisibly with no user display. That way, developers are free to surface and deliver Skype functionality through their own products’ interfaces. Or, as we like to say, SkypeKit lets connected devices get Plugged into Skype!
SkypeKit is currently in beta release with a limited number of beta partners. Developers can register for an invitation to the SkypeKit Beta Program beginning on July 23.
Early versions of SkypeKit powered apps built for Panasonic, Samsung, and LG Internet televisions. The first release will be a runtime for Linux. Future runtimes are planned for x86 Windows and Mac OS X, and others as the community calls for it.
Nearly all of the communication, presence and profile management features are exposed to programmers through SkypeKit’s APIs, although multiparty video calling isn’t in this first release. One of the new capabilities is the ability to use your own audio and video interface. We’ll have more once we get our hands on the documentation.
Simultaneously, Skype is starting a new developer program and developer site. Like Apple’s, it will cost you a membership fee; under $20 per organization. While you can sign-up starting Wednesday, Skype will not automatically grant access during its beta stage. And Skype is censoring apps based on content: "our license terms prohibit using SkypeKit for gambling or adult-themed applications." We’ll review the SkypeKit EULA/ToS when we get it.
Congrats to Jonathan Christensen and the rest of the Skype Platform team for the launch.
Codec openness is the key to ubiquity. Today Google announced they are freely licensing the VP8 video codec, open sourcing it, and sharing it through the WebM project. Skype was listed as a software partner. Google is following the same path Skype did with Skype’s SILK audio codec; free and now in the IETF standards process.
Codec ubiquity is key to universality. When everyone has one codec family, developers need not encode for hundreds of different players. When one codec is in everyone’s hands, you have confidence your media and your web app will work.
Ubiquity and universality means your video works everywhere. Google brought Firefox, Opera, and Google Chrome into WebM. Still to go: Apple Safari and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Some people dream of Skype in your browser, car, clock radio and flashlight. WebM helps that vision come true.
Bottom right: five bars (signal strength? call quality?).
Center bottom: Add People, Webcam (on/off), and Share (social objects like files, contacts).
Bottom left: elapsed time in call, microphone on/off, speaker on/off, and End Call button.
But what do we need in a Skype multiparty video service? How might we judge Skype MPV?
Before a call:
Option to minimize audio interruptions/distractions during a video conference.
Test your webcam (and how you look) before connecting
One-click launch to video from multiparty audio or chat conversations.
Add a voice caller to a video conference. Drag-and-drop, please. And support leaving a member of the call in audio-only mode.
Invitation and scheduling service. Two people are difficult to calendar; five can waste more time negotiating when to call than in the call itself. Partner with companies like Tungle and Evite.
Addressable chats so we can share a skype: link or a web http: permalink to bring people to a meeting and to its archive.
During a call:
Moderator power for one or more of the parties. Sometimes you help the quiet person to speak, a dominant personality to pause, or a rude person to leave.
Lurking mode: mute your outbound audio and “mute” your outgoing video while continuing to see/hear the meeting. Sometimes you just need to adjust your clothing or divide your attention.
Desktop screensharing, one of the great collaborative features of Skype video.
Easily switch video/audio sources without interrupting the meeting. I should be able to control my contribution to the call. So let me switch from the webcam that shows my face to the Ipevo close-up cam that shows the product defect we’re discussing to the product specifications Acrobat file.
Play a video file or stream from your PC or the web to everyone in your call. Video is a social object, triggering conversation.
Multitask. Sometimes we must be in more than one video conference at a time; sometimes meetings overlap.
Live streaming of meetings through services like Ustream.tv and Livestream. Skype could easily become the talking-heads network.
Let third-party software overlay captions, speaker names, illustrations and effects atop live video.
Picture-in-picture video for full-screen viewing.
Studio controls, to decide which participant has the focus
Interoperability with Cisco, ooVoo, Logitech, and other video calling and conferencing networks.
After the call:
Meeting video archive. Save meeting to YouTube (and other services) and to a blog.
One-click fallback to voice conference from multiparty video. Sometimes you just want to downshift.
Profile the chat. Let me add notes to describe what we did and what we promised, and share them.
Performance concerns:
Video quality. How many participants can be in High Quality (640×480@30fps) or High Definition (720p) at the same time?
Connectivity robustitude. Does Skype MPV perform well under adverse field conditions, with Wi-Fi and 3G/4G connectivity?
Scaling Up with Fixed Bandwidth. How does adding a third, fourth and fifth person affect bandwidth consumption?
Anchor requirements. Do video conferences have an anchor party or host, the way audio conferences do? If so, what cpu/bandwidth/memory is needed?
Audio quality problems and solutions become more difficult with multiple parties. How well does Skype address echo cancellation? Multipoint noise reduction? Sound leveling?
Proprietary or public audio and video codecs?
Backwards compatibility. Will people with older Skype clients be able to join a multiparty Skype video call?
Platform:
Software Developers Kit for the desktop client plug-in architecture. So independent software developers can build MPV applications for Windows, Mac, and Linux desktops.
SDK for SkypeKit developers. So Panasonic, LG, and Samsung can build MPV into their televisions. So others can build MPV into desk phones, video phones, and automobiles.
Hosted web-service SDK. Please! The better to build SkypeRoulette.
Feature-complete SDKs compared to the desktop UI.
Policy:
Is the architecture centralized or decentralized? Where is a call’s jurisdiction? Are PCs used by the parties to a call the only computers used to conduct the call?
Can MPV be turned off through the enterprise IT .msi controls?
Are multiparty video conversations encrypted end-to-end?
Do you need to be a party to a call or be monitoring the desktop of a party to that call to intercept the call?
Can others contribute Skype credits to share a call’s cost?
Is everyone charged, or just the host? How is the host determined?
Priced for wealthy-nation corporate use? Or for developing world personal use?
Can’t wait to get my hands on MPV and walk you through the details.
I think this goes to two issues: adoption and competitive advantage.
Skype got all kinds of grief for keeping SILK proprietary and out of the public domain. That’s a barrier to adoption when there are other wideband audio codecs with less encumbered licenses. So publishing the source should, in theory, make this easier for companies and governments, big and small, to choose SILK. SILK is not in the lead when I asked operators at a CES wideband audio session whether they were interested. So anything Skype can do to make it more attractive is a good thing.
As for competitive advantage, Skype’s advantage in talk audio and video quality over other VoIM operators (Microsoft, Yahoo!, AOL) disappeared when GIPS licensed their wideband codecs. Skype’s advantage is really in the network effects (that more people have Skype dialtone than other networks).
So how do you put SILK to use? First, you make it a benefit of partnering with Skype. Make your embedded and mobile hardware sound better or use less bandwidth. Offer wideband audio at narrowband prices. You’re free to do this without Skype, but why not take advantage of Skype’s global marketing power and be the device/operator that not only sounds good but sounds good with Skype? Imagine that you’re a smart television maker; this would be one more reason to pre-install Skype codecs.
One last competitive advantage point: consumers don’t care about which codec gives them HD audio/video. Skype doesn’t much care either. What matters to Skype is that you define who they are competing against. Their grand enemy/obstacle/incumbent/dominator isn’t Microsoft or Google or Logitech or Apple. It’s the local and long distance carrier. So anything which helps Skype develop allies that make the PSTN look slow, decrepit, and obsolete positions Skype favorably by comparison.
This follows-through on Skype’s pledge to make superwideband audio cheap and ubiquitous.
On the business side, the SILK codec eliminates one of Skype’s three outside software dependencies: audio codecs from Global IP Solutions (GIPS). The two remaining are Skype’s high quality video codec, from On2, and Skype’s peer-to-peer directory, the Global Index from Joltid. Skype’s commitment to free themselves from dependencies should comfort investors and others worried about the Joltid/Joost litigation.
Here’s Jonathan Christensen speaking about the evolution of codecs (the software that turns your voice into bits and back) at the March 2009 Emerging Communications conference (slides, podcast).
Rodrigue Ullens, Voxbone CEO, is scheduled to participate in a panel discussion of "HD Carrier Interconnection" at the HD Communications Summit today. I talked with Rod as he walked between meetings.
[CORRECTION: iNum has not yet deployed Skype's SILK codec.]
Skype Journal: You’re going to the HD Summit. What are you announcing?
Rodrigue Ullens: We are announcing the iNum network now supports high definition voice calls. [See news release below the fold.]
There don’t seem to be phone handsets that capture voice in high quality. How do you solve the garbage in, garbage out problem?
Our only role is to play the middle man, pretty much. We expect, of course, to receive a voice call in high definition. For example, if today we were supporting the SILK codec. When you call an iNumber from Skype, we would receive the voice call from Skype with the quality that Skype hands it off. It depends of course on the handset and the phone that has transcoded the voice into a high def call. The only thing we do is convert from one codec to another and be the middleman helping networks talk to each other.
We’ve talked about high def audio for years. Why now?
Because I think it is the right opportunity in the sense that we see more and more networks that do support it. Maybe Skype has had it for a while but there are now other networks that are just coming up right now to support high definition. Same thing for some of the handsets, some of the phones. It’s just now getting some momentum. We want to be part of that momentum and enable different networks to talk to each other.
To benefit from high definition it has to be end to end. You still have a lot of networks that support high definition but just in their island.
I think we have another value to bring by having identifiers, item number that support high definition voice calls. And I think just now it’s starting to be interesting.
Practically speaking, what is high definition or high quality?
Technically, if you’ve been able to capture a higher frequency than the one from a traditional phone network. Where you sample eight thousand times per second with eight bits of data per sample; it gives you 64k of data uncompressed. A regular ISDN call.
With high definition you sample more and capture a higher frequency of the voice so you have an impression of almost speaking right next to the person.
The only codecs we’ve implemented in the network is the G722 codec. It’s the first one that’s available very easily, without royalty and so on.
Now we’re working with Skype to implement SILK. With Skype, when I’ve made Skype calls and when the speakers are high def and when the person has a high def mic, you really hear the difference.
For high def to become common and widespread, does the industry need to standardize on one or two codecs?
I suppose that’s also part of the reason why Skype and everybody is now trying to make its codec the standard one. I don’t know who will win. I haven’t tested yet, but I have the impression that just like you can transcode from a regular codec to another one, you can transcode between high definition codecs. You will never have just one codec. That’s just the way it is; everybody wants to push their codec. That’s also why you will always need people facilitating communication between enterprises for a long time. Codecs will coexist for a long time.
Voxbone Equips Globally-Local iNum Numbers With High-Definition Voice
IP-to-IP Calls to iNum Numbers Can Be Answered Anywhere and Convey in-the-Room Sound Quality
NEW YORK – Sept. 15, 2009 – Voxbone, a leading provider of international VoIP origination services and telephone numbers to communications service providers, call centers and multinational businesses, today announced that its international, geographically-independent number service, iNum®, now supports high-definition (HD) voice. iNum adds a missing piece – a uniform identifier – to enable HD calling.
As long as both endpoints are HD-enabled, calls to iNum numbers will convey a sound quality that far surpasses traditional circuit-switched telephony.
The new capability, announced at the HD Communications Summit in New York, adds the benefit of in-the-room sound quality to iNum’s location neutrality and cost savings on international calls.
Prefaced with the ITU-assigned 883 code, iNum numbers refer to the Internet in the same way that 44 refers internationally to the U.K. and 1 refers to the U.S. A call to an iNum number is routed first to Voxbone, which carries it over the expensive, long-distance leg of the route before delivering it to the appropriate service provider, which terminates the call to its subscriber.
A high-definition voice signal cannot fit through the frequency constraints of Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) – a fact that limits the HD benefit to end-to-end IP calls. However, most iNum calls should be able to support HD voice because most iNum traffic is transmitted by service providers that have migrated to IP or begun operation as VoIP carriers.
"In equipping our iNum numbers with high-definition voice, we are bringing a key piece – a uniform identifier – to the emerging HD ecosystem," said Rod Ullens, Voxbone CEO. "Many endpoints and a lot of isolated networks, such as Skype, already support HD, but there needs to be a standard way for any service provider to reach a particular HD endpoint. HD-enabled iNum offers the perfect solution."
For example, Ullens said: "The HD voice capability enables a global help desk to publicize one ‘local’ number for all English-speaking customers anywhere in the world, another for all Spanish-speaking customers, and so on. The clarity of high definition tremendously helps callers to these numbers, who often are listening in their second or third languages or listening to non-native speakers."
In another scenario, a call-conferencing provider could use iNum for an internationally "local" access number. In-the-room voice quality frequently has been noted for alleviating "ear strain" and improving attentiveness on long conference calls.
Voxbone is beginning its HD support with the wideband G.722 codec and plans to add other codecs in the fourth quarter of this year.
# # #
About Voxbone
Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, Voxbone provides worldwide local and toll-free phone numbers over its own private intercontinental VoIP network. The all-IP architecture of the Voxbone core network enables customers to rapidly deploy new communications services with local presence while reducing costs. It delivers high-quality call origination from 48 countries and 4,000 cities, as well as iNum numbers that enable billing as local calls when dialed through participating carriers anywhere in the world. Through its number inventory, network, self-administered provisioning and comprehensive SIP adherence, Voxbone’s global infrastructure enables its customers to expand to international markets quickly and efficiently. Founded in 2002 and privately held, Voxbone is the only carrier licensed in all 27 countries of the European Union. For more information, visit www.voxbone.com.
Photo credit: Copyright 2009 James Duncan Davidson.
I talked with Ben Lilienthal last week about his HiDefConferencing.com business at Citrix. HiDef is the only conference bridge that lets Skype directly into a call with Skype’s high quality audio, established in 2003 alongside Skype.
SJ: What are users’ biggest problems with audio conferencing at it is today?
Ben Lilienthal: Cost. Clarity around pricing and expected cost.
How does audio conferencing fit into the world of social software and social media?
I’m not sure it does. We offer asynchronous components that let you upload meeting recordings to blogs and other web sites. Could that fit in? Over half of users use the recording feature.
What does high definitions audio mean to you today? Is that changing?
It means 16×16 or 16×22 [bit rate x sample rate]. It’s becoming more prevalent. It’s not anything more ubiquitous. When we launched HiDef two years’ ago nobody had heard of high definition.
What companies or institutions need to support HD audio for it to be more than a niche offering?
We’re seeing it in Skype, Cisco, Polycom (Siren codec). Lots of siloed approaches. I don’t know how you make it a ubiquitous standard when they each have their own.
When will we see your iPhone app?
I’m not convinced that you will for the audio.
What do you make of Skype’s SILK wideband audio codec release?
It requires a significant engineering effort and we’re a little reluctant to make the investment because Skype seems to be eating their young. Nobody else seems to be using SILK. Besides, do I want a relationship with a partner who may throw me out the door?
What capabilities do you want Skype’s gateway to offer you that don’t exist now? What would you like to improve or change?
We’re pretty happy with it. We only use Skype as a means of access to our service. We probably do more than five million minutes a month in Skype traffic.
Citrix has a growing family of services, including GoToMeeting. Will the audio parts of your sister business units be adopting your audio infrastructure? Will HiDef Audio continue under its own name?
We are using the HiDef bridge with our GoToWebinar customers. Starting in the fourth quarter, you’ll have the option for HiDef when you buy the toll free option in GoToMeeting.
What are some of the big trends you’re following in the conferencing space?
It’s a race to the bottom, like what happened to long distance a decade ago. So we’re differentiating on quality, ease of use, pricing, packaging. We’re selling on features, ease of use.
Integration with web conferencing is a big one. Being able to go to GoToMeeting with high definition, for example.
Multiple points of ingress to a call: phones, Skype, and browser.
Y!M video calling is not backward compatible; all users must be on Y!M 10. Interop with MSN doesn’t extend to video calls, so friendship across networks is still limited to commodity text IM.
Yahoo! recommends at least 300 Kbps download and 128 Kbps upload, video cards with 96 MB memory, and Microsoft DirectX. This compute burden comes from the audio and video codecs.
Yahoo! adopting GIPS’s video plumbing is a coupe for GIPS. Yahoo!’s choices influence other software companies; GIPS just became a safer choice for video. Despite Yahoo! only using the GIPS VideoEngine for limited 1-to-1 video chats, this opens up room for Yahoo! to expand to video conferencing and game-related video applications.
So far this year Skype published its home-grown SILK wideband audio codec, Google bought On2 for its video codecs, the telecom industry held its first conferences on "HD telephony," Microsoft released a bandwidth-consuming HD webcam, and Yahoo! boosted the quality of its video codecs. Moore’s Law and mobile broadband seem to be pulling industry to higher fidelity.
Screenshots and comments:
Installing Yahoo! Messenger – Step 1 of 4 – Welcome to Yahoo! Messenger – Typical Install
"Typical Install" includes everything: two browser add-ins, setting Yahoo.com to your home page, and making Yahoo! your default search engine.
Installing Yahoo! Messenger – Step 1 of 4 – Welcome to Yahoo! Messenger – Custom Install
Installing Yahoo! Messenger – Step 2 of 4 – License Agreement and Terms
Progress messages set expectations and guide users to features they may not discover on their own.
Installing Yahoo! Messenger – Progress Message – "Keep Friends at your Fingertips"
Installing Yahoo! Messenger – Progress Message – "A better video and voice experience"
Installing Yahoo! Messenger – Progress Message – "Continue the conversation on your phone"
Installing Yahoo! Messenger – Step 4 of 4 – Installation is complete!
Yahoo! Messenger 10 – Login panel
It’s a loooong panel.
Import Contacts
The import contacts wizard suffers from the Password Antipattern, asking you to trust Yahoo! with your logins to other services. Most of the sites Yahoo! imports contacts from support OAuth.
Still no contact import from other Yahoo! properties like Delicious, flickr, and upcoming. Or from Skype.
Yahoo! Messenger Video and Voice Setup – 1 of 3 – Microphone
Yahoo! Messenger Video and Voice Setup – 2 of 3 – Speaker
Yahoo! Messenger Video and Voice Setup – 3 of 3 – Camera
Goofy face not included.
Yahoo! Messenger 10 Home Page
A Messenger "home page" isn’t new. This design keeps the distracting advertising apart from news and tools.
The Yahoo! Mail tab again shows messaging media are converging experiences, just as Web Messenger is part of Yahoo! web mail and the Yahoo! home page.
Global IP Solutions Powers The New Yahoo! Messenger Video Calling
New Video Call Feature Available for Everyone on Yahoo! Messenger
San Francisco — August 24, 2009 — GlobalIP Solutions (Oslo Børs: GIPS) announced today that Yahoo! Messenger, a leader in real-time communications with more than 133 million users worldwide, is using GIPS VideoEngine™ to enable new high-quality video calling with the launch of Yahoo! Messenger 10.
Since early 2006, GIPS has provided the underlying voice technology for Yahoo! Messenger, allowing friends, family and colleagues to communicate. Now with the addition of the video calling feature, everyone on Yahoo! Messenger can enjoy video calls enabled by GIPS VideoEngine for superior sound, picture quality and user experience.
“With the launch of Yahoo! Messenger 10, we’re allowing people to instantly communicate with friends and family around the world through new interactive and social features like video calls,” said Dave Merriwether, senior director of Yahoo! Messenger. “The GIPS VideoEngine enables us to provide the Yahoo! Messenger community with the best video experience possible. Now people can enjoy full-screen, face-to-face chats with friends and family at no cost, in the familiar Yahoo! Messenger environment.”
“Yahoo! Messenger is the leading communication platform that provides people with the greatest choice to stay connected to one another through text IM, PC-based calling, mobile text messaging and now video calling,” said Emerick Woods, GIPS’ Chief Executive Officer. “We’re proud to work with Yahoo! to deliver a truly differentiated high quality video experience for the hundreds of millions of people on Yahoo! Messenger around the world,” added Woods.
Your PC must convert all that video into streamable bits. The image encoding/decoding and compression take serious processor power, lots of memory, and real broadband bandwidth. Microsoft says this requires a dual core 1.6GHz processor, and recommends a 3GHz dual core processor and 2GB of memory. No news yet on which drivers and codecs they’ll use, how much burden using the Cinema will put on your system (will you be able to run Outlook while calling?), nor how much bandwidth a HD video call will take.
LifeCam Cinema Features: 4x digital zoom, glass lens, auto focus, Microsoft "ClearFrame" frame-rate doubling technology, noise-cancelling microphone, Windows Live calling button, aluminum body. For Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. £70 or $80.
I don’t work for Skype. Here’s advice I’d give to senior management on how to respond to Google buying On2, which makes Skype’s video engine.
1. It’s a threat. It may not have been Google’s intent, but Skype should consider this an attack by a rival. While the media and the blogosphere have been focusing on On2′s value to YouTube, Google could also apply these resources it to its realtime talk properties (Talk, Voice, Wave) and to the Chrome browser (the better to play/capture videos without an Adobe plug-in).
2. The deal isn’t done. I’m sure the lawyers can cook up ways to interfere, contracts and regulatory influence (monopoly power), perhaps raid the company for talent that doesn’t want to move. The low road. Better to engineer your way out of this exposure by making/buying the talent/technology/IP so you no longer rely upon On2 products.
3. It changes the video codec industry. Google hasn’t had a strong competence in codecs. Until now. They have the potential to promote On2′s codecs by licensing them freely or open sourcing them. That’s how industry de facto standards are made. Two effects: This could drain the swamp as all the small video codec makers starve, going out of this business. Frozen standards may also limit Skype’s ability to innovate around video codecs or strike interoperability deals as Google assumes industry leadership in that technology.
4. Act yesterday. While the deal’s effects are not immediate, Skype’s learning curve may be substantial and you’ll want every day possible to own your core IP. I’m sure you’ve started already.
5. Keep focus. Skype has a diverse product portfolio. An audio/video/signal engineering initiative (a center of excellence? a subsidiary that licenses the technology?) (The Skype Immersive Reality Institute?) could take resources and attention from other strategic investments. Keep balance. The right workflows around product lifecycles and product mix should help keep balance.
6. Short term, this may be a time to negotiate a better deal with On2. You can always leave them behind, but you may want to secure promises of technical support, ongoing maintenance, best prices, continued improvement in the product, etc.
Skype video development team is developing technology enabling high quality multi-way, multi-modal video communications experience over the Internet on x86 based Personal Computers as well as embedded platforms targeted for Mobile- and Consumer Electronic devices. We are continuing to expand this exceptional team and are thus looking for highly experienced, talented and motivated individuals capable of both working collaboratively with others as well as making significant individual contributions.
Responsibilities
As a member of the video team you will be engaged at the forefront of Skype’s innovation of breakthrough solutions to real-time IP video communication on heterogeneous networks. You will be expected to play an active role in the generation, development, verification and delivery of new concepts and methods for video coding as well as pre- and postprocessing of realtime video for enhanced quality.
Requirements
degree in image/video/signal processing/compression
minimum 3 years experience of H.264 AVC/SVC video codec algorithms development
must have developed algorithms for a video codec that went to productization phase
detailed understanding of underlying technology behind H.264 AVC/SVC
Understanding of realtime requirements and error resilience toolset of H.264
Understanding of signaling protocol for video
Excellent skills in technical communication and teamwork.
Command of programming languages including Matlab, C, and C++.
Excellent command of English.
Location – Stockholm, Sweden; Tallinn, Estonia; Europe, various locations; Bay Area, US
New features since 2.7: screen sharing (treats your screen as a webcam for a Skype video call), the SILK codec (better sound quality, less bandwidth, more reliable). Mac-only features: "Skype Access – Beta" (Pay for Boingo Wi-Fi by the minute with Skype credits at $11/hour); Sort and prioritize chats in the drawer; Show buddy mood messages in chat; add notes to contacts.
Join the Skype 6.X Text Chat Room