Q3: What is it that a ProAV dealer needs to learn that's different for IP vs. ISDN VTC installs? Is it really that different, and, if so, what makes it different?

The world of IP is very different indeed! The ProAV dealer will need to understand the basics of the network: IP addresses, subnet masks, bandwidth, ISDN gateways (for those who still want to have ISDN flexibility to the 'outside world'), Gatekeepers for bandwidth management and the big issue of network firewalls! This is very different from the ISDN world, which is fairly standard now - globally - and requires (hopefully) minimal planning and support for video conferencing usage.

Q4: Has there been much resistance from the corporate IT departments to placing VTC technology over TCP/IP? If so, what kind of advise can you give to help others who are seeing the same resistance? What's worked to convince them it's OK to do it?

There is - understandably - tremendous resistance from Corporate IT departments. Video is a 'bandwidth hog.' Over a 10baseT network, the video signal is half-duplex, which means that a single video call at 384kbps will eat up 768kbps on a network. This is a sizable chunk of bandwidth. With good reason, the network managers have been waving garlic and crosses at people who mention video over their network.

The only clients that I have that are comfortable with putting video over their networks are those clients who have planned to put the bandwidth in place to support video specifically. They recover the additional network costs by charging back to internal or external clients for video conferencing usage. It is commonly acknowledged by IT people that IP is the future for VTC, and they are not quite ready to tackle the challenges yet.

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