Videoconferencing with an Assist

Dave Andrews

Hauppauge's new VideoTalk package combines videoconferencing software and a PCI card for improved audio and video performance. VideoTalk includes Microsoft's Netmeeting 2.0 and VDONet's VideoPhone 2.1, which let you hold videoconferences and whiteboard/application-sharing sessions over LANs, WANs, the plain old telephone system (POTS), ISDN, and the Internet. The package also supports video and frame capture.

The software gets hardware assistance from MediaSonic's iCom-H.32x PCI card. The card uses Analog Device's ADSP-2181 DSP to improve audio quality, supporti ng full duplex and echo cancellation even on low-end Pentiums (e.g., 66-MHz).

Thanks to the audio-processing boost, VideoTalk delivered better quality than software- only solutions I've tried using Pentium PCs to do point-to-point videoconferencing over POTS. Of course, today's new MMX processors and optimized software applications can deliver better videoconferencing over POTS and LANs than yesterday's PCs, but not everyone can pay the extra money to buy a new system. And VideoTalk's price ($299) includes the camera.

VideoTalk can deliver acceptable audio even in times of bandwidth constraint. I used VideoTalk in a POTS videoconference that went overseas via a modem connection that dropped to just 12 Kbps. At that speed, the video performance understandably suffered from pixelation and low frame rates, but the audio that came through the PC was slightly better in quality than a regular analog phone call.

I hope the final VideoTalk manuals are more useful than the documentation I received, which was at times less than explanatory (and I'm being charitable). Company officials tell me the documentation will get a much-needed sprucing up by release date. But for better videoconferencing using high-end or even low-end PC hardware, check out VideoTalk.

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Product Information

VideoTalk............................$299

Hauppauge Digital
Hauppauge, NY
Phone:    800-443-6284
Phone:    516-434-1600
Fax:      516-434-3198
Internet: 
http://www.hauppauge.com
 
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