Video plays a crucial role in modern organizational communications and operations.
From presentations and training to digital signage and control rooms – reliable, high-quality video distribution across local networks is essential. While traditional methods relied on dedicated wired connections, organizations today need flexible, scalable solutions to deliver content over their IP network infrastructure.
This has led to the widespread use of AVoIP (Audio Video over IP) solutions within enterprise networks. When deployed effectively, AVoIP provides high-quality, low-latency video distribution across an organization’s network infrastructure, leveraging the existing data network and reducing total cost of ownership.
Despite the back-end technicalities, users expect seamless, consistent audio-video quality. Maintaining those high standards while leveraging network efficiencies requires deployment of smart AVoIP solutions from an expert technology partner.
And that means organizations must add AVoIP capabilities to their local area networks; packaging and delivering the AV signal across the LAN for high-quality, low-latency video transmission.
“If you have a dedicated cable, an AV signal passes seamlessly from A to B. But when transmitting over a LAN, success is reliant on having sufficient bandwidth and low latency – AVoIP solutions cleverly compress the signal at one end and decode it at the other in order to optimize quality over the network,” says Dorit Bitter, Executive Vice President of Research and Development and Product Technology at leading global AV technology provider Kramer, whose extensive range of AVoIP streaming solutions ensure exceptional user experience.
“The end result is an effective balance between bandwidth capacity; the extent to which a video is compressed; and the speed at which the signal can be transferred, which is otherwise known as latency. The simultaneous optimisation of those three factors is what delivers a high-quality user experience. Also, as well as enabling high-quality audio video via mobile devices, AVoIP technology enables easy scalability if an organisation needs to increase its number of endpoints.”
In the case of Kramer, its established KDS-7 and recently-launched KDS-17 and KDS-100 AVoIP solutions enable System Integrators to perfectly match their end user customers’ AV requirements with their network capabilities and simplify deployment, set-up, and management with Kramer’s easy-to-use cloud-powered Panta-Rhei platform.
By seamlessly bridging IT and AV environments, the platform allows organisations to efficiently manage, monitor and support their audio-visual systems remotely; increasing uptime and enabling more effective device usage.
“The worlds of AV and IT have converged and often the IT department of an organisation is now responsible for it all,” says Bitter.
“Now everything is over IP so IT professionals are comfortable with that technology. In turn, it is often third-party System Integrators that are tasked with deploying AVoIP, for example working with architects in the planning and construction of a new building. Our Panta Rhei platform removes all of the complexity of AVoIP; tracking the life cycle from the point of implementation, to the handing over to the IT manager, and to supporting the end user.
“Users do not want to know about compression and decoding and the other things that have to go on in the back-end. They simply want their AV to work as it should and to provide them with the best possible experience.”
- To learn more about how Kramer can help your and your customers’ businesses leverage the benefits of AVoIP, click here.
