This morning Magor Communications announced the launch of the 3rd Generation of their TeleCollaboration HD WorkPlace product line.  Magor TeleCollaboration is a telepresence and visual collaboration solution that combines a multi-screen, high-definition peer-to-peer telepresence system with a revolutionary data collaboration platform that allows for accessing data on internet connected computers via a secure virtual private network and sharing data with both users on other Magor TeleCollaboration systems and on the internet participating using only a browser.




The company also expanded their product line with the announcement of the single screen executive system: The HDSolo which features a 46" screen, fixed camera capture, and all the data collaboration tools available to Magor's larger systems.
 

Multiple Options for Conference Rooms & Executives and Human Experience Design
The Magor TeleCollaboration platform is available in single, dual, and three screen systems with screen sizes ranging from 45 to 65 inches for the dual and three screen systems to a 46 inch screen for the new HDSolo. The Magor solution is designed to be deployed in a format that creates a virtual roundtable with other Magor systems to leverage their best practices around what they call: Human Experience Design.  Each dual screen system is optimized to capture two participants that are sitting behind the recommended table ideally in front of a whiteboard that is visible to all participants. (Click on Image to Expand) The 2nd screen is used for collaborating on data (and/or video) and the effect is a multi-site call that creates a virtual roundtable for participants.  The three screen HD Trio can be used for a flexible mix of video and collaboration.    

Peer to Peer High Definition Video & Magor's SVC++ H.264 SVC HiP Codec Platform
The Magor team has developed a codec agnostic framework they call SVC++ which, being software based, enables the Magor TeleCollaboration architecture to leverage any codec format (Release 3 uses H.264 HiP). Magor has extended the basic principles of  scalable video coding (SVC). They segment the video stream and distribute to multiple codecs.  This approach provides both scalability of video quality to match available network resources and adaptability when those resources change.  The main outcomes are the ability to smooth bandwidth usage by eliminating micro-bursts that plague other H.264 implementations and superior quality over best effort networks like the Internet and/or cheaper to deploy unprioritized private MPLS networks.

Magor's Video Handling - Adaption & Ability to Smooth Microbursts - (Click to Expand)

This approach also allows for 1080P 30 fps HD video using a relatively low 2.2MBps per screen, which can be reduced to 1.6MBps with SVC++ before changing resolution (720p), with a 2-1 recommended over subscription to handle peaks so figure on provisioning 4MBps per screen for ultimate picture quality.

Another concept that Magor addresses is that of "good network citizenship", Magor's Ken Davison explains:  "Most, if not all of the current implementations do not differentiate between network congestion (normally the problem in the access an aggregation part of the network - or by network limiters, such as policers, protocol control) and random errors (normally caused in the core of the network). SVC++ does (by monitoring each peer-to-peer session and adapting) and therefore Magor only applies Forward Error Correction (what we refer to as Adaptive-FEC) when we see Random errors, when we see congestion we adapt the quality of the video first... this congestion management of UDP (video) traffic is (I believe) unique to Magor...and an important factor for IT planners who normally expect UDP based traffic to have NO congestion/traffic management capability" 
   

Because the system is peer-to-peer the video doesn't have to connect to a centralized MCU for multi-party video calls with the associated expense and latency.  Each Magor TeleCollaboration end-point is capable of connecting to up to 7 other Magor end-points for multi-point calls. 

The Magor TeleCollaboration Systems are inter-operable with a significant number of widely deployed traditional videoconferencing end-points and MCU platforms.  Because Magor's data collaboration capability is a port 80 friendly, browser-based webconferencing application any traditional videoconferencing participants with a browser and internet connection can participate in the data collaboration session.






Telepresence Options Publisher Howard Lichtman's Thoughts and Analysis

I co-founded a telepresence start up in 2000 called Powwow Networks and our goal was to improve the data collaboration experience in visual collaboration environments by integrating an interactive whiteboard and webconferencing capability with videoconferencing over an IP network that provided true QoS between disparate carriers. The company's unofficial motto was the snowclone:  "It's the Data, Stupid".  Our premise was that to have an effective visual collaboration environment it was just as important or more important to focus on the data collaboration as on the visual experience. 

Magor seems to have the same philosophy.  The company has even branded their offering "Tele-Collaboration" to emphasize that "Collaboration" is as important as the "Tele".  The company is one of the very few to address data collaboration in a more sophisticated manner than the traditional "screen scrape" which can share a view of the host PCs screen but little else.  This release offers both the ability to access the desktop of any connected Tele-Collaboration connected user via VPN (after authenticating in) and the ability to drag and drop the feed from multiple desktops into a data collaboration session. The next iteration of the offering will extend the collaboration capabilities by allowing participants to cut/copy/paste between different user's desktops. For example, User A will be able to copy a phrase from a Powerpoint slide on his desktop and paste it into a Powerpoint slide being shared from User B's desktop.  If this isn't the most requested feature in the history of webconferencing and internet-based data collaboration then I don't know what it.     

What I Like:

The Price is Nice: The HD Solo is $20-25K, $40K for the Duo, and $60-70K for the Trio. Pretty good for a platform that also provides an unlimited remote collaboration capability with up to 80 participants.

 
MyView Advanced Filmstrip: The ability to control which video or collaboration window is maximized in a multi-site conference.     

Wish List:

Better Environment - Hide the camera; Spatial Audio, Options for lighting, acoustic treatment, interactive whiteboard, visualizers, etc.

Capacity: I would like to see a true six to eight seat group system with the ability to do telepresence multi-point with more locations.