Has the quality of consumer solutions for internet audio and video evolved to the point that it’s good enough for use in a business or university application?
Specifically: I am trying to decide on a solution for my academic department. We have up to a few thousand dollars to spend, and need to set up regular conferences so that colleagues who are away on leave can participate in faculty meetings. In my experience, the most important thing is the quality of the audio, since if the participants do not understand one another, the rest is moot. Good quality video is also desirable, of course.
In our particular case, we have very high bandwidth connections coming into the conference room, but people are using a variety of connections where they are; I guess mostly DSL and cable modems. They also have a mix of macs and PCs, which complicates things. Also, I imagine that some people will just want to call in using their cellphones, occasionally, so a setup that only allows online connection may sometimes be limiting.
So the issue is, have solutions like Skype, iChat, AOL, SightSpeed, etc., developed to the point that a solution from a company like Polycom is unnecessary? Or is a hybrid solution the way to go?
