VTAS (Video Technology Advisory Service)

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The VTAS service has now been retired (May 2017). In a new partnership with Ajenta, Jisc are planning the next evolution of the Vscene videoconferencing service. As part of this change Jisc has decided to retire the VTAS service. The content below is part of the VTAS archive. The Janet Video Technology Advisory Service (VTAS) provides unbiased technical advice on equipment and issues related to videoconferencing. Product evaluations are published via this web site for all of the Janet community to access. The team of advisers are all experts in various aspects of videoconferencing technology which provides an excellent knowledge base for any queries they receive. Janet also offers courses in videoconferencing to provide a working knowledge of the technology for those who are new to the concept. The summary table of various videoconferencing systems can be found on the community site. Most recent evaluations include: Cisco Telepresence SX80 - Evaluation document Clearone Collaborate Room Pro 600 - Evaluation document Vidyo HD40 and HD100 - Evaluation document Vidyo HD40 and HD100 - Manufacturer's comments Cisco SX10 - Evaluation document Cisco SX10 - Manufacturer's comments AVer EVC130p - Evaluation document AVer EVC130p - Manufacturer's comments Starleaf GT Mini and PT Mini - Evaluation document Starleaf GT Mini and PT Mini - Manufacturer's comments Huawei TE30 - Evaluation document Huawei TE30 - Manufacturer's comments Other evaluations can be found in the library area.

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Summary of Polycom Telepresence m100 evaluation

Phyllis Callinan

9 September 2013 at 9:31am

The evaluation of the Polycom Telepresence m100, a desktop videoconferencing client, was carried out by our advisers Geoff Constable and Shafiq Latif. A summary of their conclusions appears below. The full document can be read by following this link to our library page.

The PolyCom m100 is an excellent desktop videoconferencing client. With sufficient bandwidth and in full-screen mode it successfully emulates an H.323 CODEC. It handles low bandwidth very well and supports a wide variety of audio and video encoding standards. The picture and audio quality were consistently of a very high standard. In the opinion of the testers, however, to call the experience Telepresence is still inaccurate as the experience is not as if you are in the same room as the remote caller.

This fully standards compliant software worked well with all but one of the other H.323 compliant endpoints that we used in the testing process. It also interoperated with the JVCS and would have no problem passing a JVCS QA test. It also offers SIP which was tested and worked fine.

The user interface is kept clean and simple. Configuration options are clearly laid out. But there is some wasted space in the user interface and also a lack of user control over the interface itself.

However, the user doesn’t have a fine degree of control of the encoding algorithms and other video and audio formats that the software selects as is available in other desktop videoconferencing products. This may not be a consideration for many users, and it does help to keep the options and interfaces simple; but some users would appreciate having the options available.

Pros: