Question

Webcam recomendations for "Webex" type Video conferencing

Asked by: RKoons

Just looking for some recommendations here based upon other user experience.

We have pretty much decided against the higher end Procom type point to point video conferencing solutions for our company. We feel that the cost for such a system would not be appropriate for the usage we have in mind.

Typically, we might do a couple meetings a month between our two offices, and hope to expand into multi-video meetings with clients in the future.

For now, we are just starting at the low end of the tech pool, just to get our feet wet, so-to-speak.

We are looking at a Webex type solution where we could host a meeting, and invite up to 6 video attendees at a time.

So far, I have heard good things about the Logitech series of cameras, such as the Webcam Pro 9000 for around $100.00.

Is this really all that is needed to get a respectable display in a video meeting?

Are there other options I should consider?

For now, we will basically have one camera being used by one person in Wisconsin, connecting to a meeting in Chicago where there will be another camera showing 8  10 attendees of the meeting in a conference room. We may opt to use some type of Web / PC based sound for voice, like a headset for the one guy in Wisconsin, and the cameras microphone for the conference room in Chicago. The other option is just to continue to user Speaker Phone like we do now, and only use Video through the PC/CAM.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

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Asked On
2009-09-14 at 07:37:53ID24729669
Tags

Is a $100.00 Webcam really enough

Topics

Computer Web Cameras

,

WebEx Conferencing Software

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Answers

 

by: AnthonyRussoPosted on 2009-09-14 at 08:43:18ID: 25326595

Being in the Desktop VideoConferencing industry, I often get asked for Webcam recommendations. As far as a a webcam to use, in my opinion, the best Webcam on the market today is the Logitech QuickCam® Pro 9000. It's not just the megapixels, but the Carl Zeiss optics are outstanding on this camera. I am a provider of VideoConferencing and recommend it for all of my clients that ask what the best Webcam they can buy is.

For better quality even, and especially if you want to capture a full room, you can hook up a DV VideoCamera and have excellent image quality, much better than any webcam.   The service you use has to support the quality of the camera though. If your camera is HD quality, but your service is sending a 200k stream, it's not going to be worth the efforts of that good camera.

Thats why video stream scalability is important for your situation. Our solution is scalable and we can offer a 200k, 400k, 800k, or 1.2M stream when the client has a camera that supports it. Your situation is ideal for an 800k or 1.2M stream if you invest in the 9000 or DV camera.

Feel free to contact me if there are any other questions or you want to test out some providers. I'd be glad to help out.

Good Luck,

Anthony

 

by: RKoonsPosted on 2009-09-14 at 13:38:07ID: 25329097

OK...

When  you say a DV camera; is this a specific brand, or a technology type? Can you give me some examples?

As for Video Streaming / Bandwidth, although we do have a full T1 here in the office, and a fairly good A-DSL in Wisconsin, whe pipe is pretty busy most of the time. It gets used for VOIP, Exchange, FTP, Windows 03 forest domain traffic, and the usual collections of system and application updates & web browsers, Etc.

If I had to guess, I would say our 1.5 pipe is over half full most of the time, with spikes throughout the day that are much higher. Looking at a simple chart for this month  the average outgoing utilization is about 60% and the average incomming utilization is about 10%.

This means, on average, I have about 600K comming in and 1350K going out. During peaks, these numbers would be lower.

How does this fit in with your proposal/idea?

 

by: AnthonyRussoPosted on 2009-09-14 at 14:07:40ID: 25329352

As far as a DV camera, just about any digital video camera will provide an excellent picture for this kind of usage as long as you can stream the fee into your computer. In our HQ, we have a Cannon that cost around $600.00 or so.

I believe your Internet would be fine for either a 400k 320x240 stream or 800k 640x480 stream. You would get good quality and utilize the power of the DV camera with the larger stream. Keep in mind these numbers are based off of my company's service and your provider may offer different setups or options.

I'd be glad to help test out any setup. Just contact me through my profile here.

Good luck,

Anthony

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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