Home videophones soon might seem commonplace, and it's about time. They were first demo'd by old Ma Bell and The Jetsons back in the 1960s. It is broadband Internet that now has a number of companies racing to the videophone market. An early model from a small Dallas company called Viseon (related story) shows their promise: The video and sound quality can rival a television broadcast. But even as usable videophones finally arrive, there are still a few kinks in the connection.
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Getting that quality requires especially fast Internet connections, which are rated both for incoming and for outgoing signals. Most broadband customers, with service from either cable TV companies or the local phone company, have plenty of incoming bandwidth—as much as 3 megabits per second. But the outgoing, or upload, speeds are much slower. Many folks, particularly those with digital subscriber line—DSL—service from telephone companies, can send only at 128 kilobits per second. At that speed, video quality on the Viseon phone is acceptable, but if anyone in the picture is moving around, the image can appear blocky. Good quality emerges at 384 kbps or higher, and DSL lines at that speed are expensive. Cable customers usually are sending at speeds of 256 kbps or higher.
The video quality also can depend on the device's internal technology, such as the camera lens and software. Manufacturers constantly tweak the software that compresses the video and sound. "It's 90 percent science and 10 percent art," says Viseon CEO John Harris.
Competitors say their gear will be better than Viseon's. D-Link, which already sells a videophone that uses a television for the display, is readying a desktop version like Viseon's with a built-in screen. And WorldGate is testing its Ojo, a unique-looking phone with a neck that lifts the screen and camera off the desktop. That not only makes it easier to see the screen, WorldGate says, but the camera is no longer looking up at you—and up your nose.
