In Idaho, HD videoconferencing eases wolf management

Some minor technical problems with videoconferencing transmissions have recently been solved with a network upgrade. Communications carrier Qwest recently upgraded to a MPLS network, improving bandwidth and allowing Potcher's department to push all the videoconferencing traffic onto a virtual LAN, instead of being mixed with data traffic as before.

The Qwest upgrade has allowed the department to move to a single carrier, while actually lowering costs. In one case between two cities, the monthly carrier cost dropped by half to $1,100. "We've had significant savings and triple the bandwidth," he said. The extra bandwidth also helps the department add Quality of Service (QoS), supports bandwidth demands from GIS applications and will help the department get ready for Voice over IP (VoIP) calling.

Even though desktop and room-size videoconferencing will grow, Potcher said it will be five years or more before video chat or one-way video streaming to smartphones occurs. While it might be nice for a biologist in the field to send live video from a remote wilderness location, or even conduct a FaceTime chat from an iPhone , the wireless infrastructure is not in place to support such functions, he said.

"We are moving towards more smartphones and handhelds, mainly to support data gathering," Potcher said. "But streaming video [and video communications] on those won't happen unless wireless communications improve."

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com .