HD puts resellers in the picture

Higher-quality visuals are now within the reach of more businesses as HD technology evolves

A prominent online reseller forum recently discussed high definition (HD) technology and its adoption ­ or otherwise ­ by the corporate world. The general sentiment was somewhat cynical; few VARs had seen much in the way of business purchases involving HD and those deployments that had been made were either incidental ­ where HD appeared not to be critical to the buying decision ­ or consumer focused.

HD has been promoted for years by vendors as a must-have for organisations buying and implementing AV technologies. Yet while it is undoubtedly nice to have better quality images, IT resellers may rightfully wonder whether HD is really necessary or if there is any genuine business benefit in return for the higher price.

What is HD?

People define HD differently ­ it is a relative term that changes over time. Generally, though, it can refer to anything above standard definition. Until very recently, this has usually meant anything with a display resolution of 1,280x720 pixels (720p) or more.

Pierre Gillet, vice president for European sales at digital video specialist Roku, said full 1,920x1,080 pixel-resolution HD is rapidly becoming standard on all its BrightSign digital signage products. That is partly in response to customer demand.

“When you look at our customers’ applications, more and more are using HD content and HD outputs,” said Gillet. “It is for the quality. We are about to install a couple of thousand products in a large retail chain in France, with displays via Samsung monitors with HD.”

Gillet said customers are even opting for the new H.264 format, which offers HD quality at a lower bandwidth, mainly for advertising. Most hardware from Roku is now either HD or supports HD.

“This is becoming standard, although it is a nice-to-have rather than a must-have,” he said. “Customers ask for it ­ although that doesn’t mean they will all use it.

"Sometimes they are using standard definition content and displays, but they want to make sure their equipment is capable of supporting HD in the near future.”

Some customers do buy on price but many do not, considering fut-ure-proofing and overall quality of a system more important ­ especially since the price of HD kit has come down.

“You can find very cheap standard-definition equipment that is good enough, but our customers want to go full HD for the better quality,” he said.

Efficiency and affordability

The 720p resolution has been adopted widely in the last two or three years but in the last few months 1,080p deployments have begun to ramp up, as has lighter, efficient H.264 support.

“People tend to use signs of five to 10 minutes [long]. That used to take maybe 2GB, but now 1GB is enough if you are using H.264,” said Gillet.

Aki Obara, senior marketing manager at Sony Professional, agreed with Gillet. HD videoconferencing is the area that Sony is concentrating on, although customers are also finding HD beneficial in surveillance deployments, for example.

“With HD, you can realise some presence. As long as a customer has the bandwidth, a more true-to-life feeling actually facilitates communication of information.

The result is beyond that achieved by a face-to-face phone call or older ‘comic-book’-style videoconferencing, said Obara.

“Displays are getting bigger so it is very easy to participate in videoconferencing and also the resolution itself is improving,” he added.

Customers are also increasingly aware of a need for HD to support bigger monitors that accentuate the quality of images.

“The latest H.264 format, superseding H.261 and H.263, makes it easier to transmit HD, at 1Mbit/s,” said Obara. “And you can see more detail.”

At the same time, quality videoconferencing enables companies to save money by reducing their travel expenses, which in turn boosts their green credentials.

That said, many broadcasters have yet to go fully HD ­ not least because it is still expensive and will be a long time before all their customers have HD-ready kit at home. But HD will happen, claimed Obara.

Geoff Taylor, channels manager at Tandberg, said customers want HD as soon as they see it and understand how much better it can be.

“In today’s economy people are looking to do more with less and, yes, digital communications help improve productivity and cut costs,” said Taylor.

“In 2006, Vodafone spent $4m (£2.5m) with us on a broad videoconferencing deployment ­ both at the desktop and room-based ­ and two years later they have saved $46m (£28.5m). That was 27 locations in 19 different countries.”

Vodafone also saved 17,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions ­ equivalent to 46,000 individual trips by plane, said Taylor.