Video Exchanges: What Are They and Who Needs Them

By Bob Seidel

In the race to succeed in global business, quick, versatile and decisive communication is key to staying on top of your game. To stay plugged-in, businesses require immediate, real-time, face-to-face communications with customers, partners, vendors and suppliers. A Video Exchange, in its most basic form, gives you the ability to network over video outside your own enterprise, connecting with other companies around the globe, via telepresence technology. Global Video Exchange allows you to have expanded collaboration opportunities and quick communications.

Here's an example: Let's say you run the Operations division of a global computer manufacturing firm that sells its products to consumers via big-box retailers.  What would you do if your supplier of motherboards had a fire, and their entire warehouse burned to the ground?  Due to the losses in that fire, your company's production line will be idled in three weeks due to lack of inventory of those important motherboards.  What do you do to keep up with your promised deliveries to retail stores around the world? 

Well, prior to the advent of Global Video Exchange, you would dispatch your top people to travel and call around the globe to get with other manufacturers, and try to procure a new vendor of motherboards as soon as possible.  Your production line might be down a while until the new supplier is up to speed on your specs, but you eventually would be up and running again, albeit it might be a bumpy road to getting back online.

But with Global Video Exchange, you now have a better option.  Instead of spending those unbudgeted "shoot from the hip" dollars on unnecessary travel, you can utilize your telepresence video system with Global Video Exchange, to connect up with new potential suppliers and vendors over video conferencing, to get someone lined up to make your parts quicker.  By getting your problems solved quicker, you not only save the travel dollars it would take to physically travel to those suppliers, but more importantly, you gain back that TIME it would have taken to do so.  Everything from tracking down a new vendor, meeting with them, negotiating the terms and specs of the deal and establishing goals and timelines can all be done via telepresence and Global Video Exchange. 

In addition, with Global Video Exchange you can also communicate the situation swiftly to your customers and factories, so that if there is a slight delay in the new parts arriving, you can better prepare them for the situation, and be seen as a proactive, competent vendor, that handles unforeseen situations swiftly to mitigate any repercussions down the line.

Telepresence anywhere?  Really?

Absolutely.   As you know, immersive video systems push visual communication to the forefront with high quality conferencing systems that allow people to meet as if they were in the same room. There is only one problem: secure MPLS networks result in islands of connectivity that prevent B2B communication between your company and your vendors and partners. Global Video Exchange is a nodal service that negotiates connectivity between these islands of MPLS connectivity.  

How does it work?

Global Video Exchange negotiates connection from your sites and your partner sites via publicly routable phone numbers.  Session Border Controllers sit within the Exchange and not only route the calls between sites, they maintain access lists of who has authorization to call whom.  For the first time, this allows point-to-point B2B calling to take place between private VPNs without a bridging mechanism.  For multipoint calls, each Exchange node is equipped with Cisco CTMS switches.

Who does this?

BT Conferencing is the first to bring this service to the global market.  BT's Global Video Exchange includes nodes in London, UK, and Denver, Colorado. Network neutrality and connectivity for TelePresence is the principal idea behind the Global Video Exchange concept. This allows point-to-point and multipoint TelePresence calls between sites within EMEA, US, and APAC.

Member Directory

As a member of the BT Global Video Exchange, you elect to participate in calls with other members.  The BT Global Video Exchange Member Directory list is maintained within Onward by BT Conferencing.  You can fully choose to have your name published in the Member Directory list, which allows members to see which other companies with whom there is the potential to conference.

To maintain site privacy and security for those companies that do share their name, no site data is shared.  The Member Directory is considered an "open" directory; meaning that no advance configuration of the SBC is required to have a CTMS negotiated call between sites.

The Partner Directory is in essence a pre-configured relationship that is secured and controlled through white- and black-listing within the Exchange architecture; and through configuration within Onward.  During onboarding, customers choosing the Direct Dial and Automated Self-Service conferencing types must have established partner directories through written authorization from the participating parties

More Information

Telepresence and the BT Conferencing Global Exchange provide customers with the ability to communicate internally and across the globe with other organizations, vendors, partners and customers.  Global Video Exchange is based on entirely new technology, one that goes far beyond traditional video conferencing.  Life-size video images, ultra-high-definition clarity and CD-like spatial audio create a unique "in-person" experience.

I urge you to visit our web site at www.btconferencing.com to learn more about Global Video Exchange and see how you can network outside your network.

About the Author: As Vice President of Marketing and Sales Operations for BT Conferencing, Bob Seidel leads the Product Marketing and AV Integration teams.  Bob's extensive range of experience includes leading sales and marketing organizations for over 20 years in the video conferencing industry.  Bob holds a Bachelor of Science in Education and a graduate degree in Educational Media from Temple University.