Lack of major Skype competitors

[oscarmartz]

So I have read all the news out of NAB and I'm shocked to see a lack of Skype competitors. Skype is coming out with a Hardware Software situation and Im surprised that we didn't hear from other companies that want to enter into this market.

Does anyone know of any other hardware/software solutions for broadcasters other than Skype?

[mcphillips]

The reason there are no competitors is that there is no money in it. The technology is there. Skype does have some benefits, such as bandwidth efficiency and firewall traversal, but the ability to carry high quality audio and video over the Internet is a quickly maturing technology.

[Dan Ortego]

The reason there are no competitors is that there is no money in it. The technology is there. Skype does have some benefits, such as bandwidth efficiency and firewall traversal, but the ability to carry high quality audio and video over the Internet is a quickly maturing technology.


Hopefully the tech will come sooner than later. That was my question or at least that is what I was trying to reference on Sunday's show. I was having terrible transmission issues with my new iPad Air but I have since resolved them.

Anyway, I need a new Mac so it will either be the new Mac Pro or perhaps the new Mac Mini when it's released. Either way I may be stuck with the whole mix mix/minus and dual audio cards as you mentioned on Sunday.

[mcphillips]

Either way I may be stuck with the whole mix mix/minus and dual audio cards as you mentioned on Sunday.
What do you mean that you may be "stuck" with mix minus and dual audio cards? Did you hear the discussion of the problems with the Mac Pro not having an internal sound card line input? Did you hear the part that the Mac Pro gets confused with two USB sound cards of the same model?

[cseeman]

I'm hearing good things about VSee although I haven't tried it myself. They have a comparison to Skype on their site.
http://vsee.com/skype

and their features
https://vsee.com/features

[mcphillips]

I tried Vsee a while ago, but the results were not as good as Skype. Maybe they have improved.

[AndrewSeabrook]

There is some intersting things happening in the Video Conferencing market. In particular a new company called PEXIP is disrupting the existing players. Why is this of interest to us, because they have the real potential to become a Skype TX killer. Have a look here: http://www.pexip.com/article/whitepaper/pexip-infinity-distributed-gateway-feature

[Dan Ortego]

What do you mean that you may be "stuck" with mix minus and dual audio cards? Did you hear the discussion of the problems with the Mac Pro not having an internal sound card line input? Did you hear the part that the Mac Pro gets confused with two USB sound cards of the same model?

Competition would be good. As for my sidebar comment I have to say no, I did not hear the part about the new MacPro and it's inability to deal with 2-audio cards of the same model. That's very helpful information although a bit disappointing. Hopefully, a solution will pop-up that may address the issue(s).

[mcphillips]

The solution is to use two USB sound cards made by different manufacturers. If you use a Behringer mixer, use a Griffin iMic sound card.

[jamesdelfresco]

Interesting link Andrew. I remember Vance from Studiotech discussing a skype killer a while ago. Cant remember what it was

[mcphillips]

I keep hearing about Skype killers, but they never pan out. Hopefully one will sometime soon.