The Jeff Pulver Blog: High Definition (HD) VoIP will be BIG in 2009

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December 28, 2008

High Definition (HD) VoIP will be BIG in 2009

During my recent trip to Israel, I had a chance to sit down and catch up with my friend, Shabtai Adlersberg, Chairman and CEO of Audiocodes.

I have known Shabtai for more than a decade and I appreciated the support Audiocodes gave the VON events over the years.

One of the things we spoke about was my list of trends / predictions for 2009 and we both agreed that high definition (HD) VoIP would be big in 2009. We believe the time has come for HD VoIP to become part of our everyday lives and we are both looking forward to this becoming our reality.

We believe the time has come to eliminate the limitations that the PSTN enforces on traditional analog and digital telephones and the “3.4 kHz sound barrier”. The adoption of VoIP and broadband networks have given us the opportunity to break through this barrier with a whole new range of wideband and high-quality voice coding algorithms that make communications more efficient, more effective and more natural. The adoption of HD VoIP will empower carriers to differentiate their services with a much improved audio experience, which will increase customer loyalty and affinity. After all these years, HD VoIP will change the communications infrastructure with a platform that supports presenting sound the way it was meant to be heard.

Shabtai wasn’t the first person I spoke to about the promise of HD VoIP. In fact, this is a conversation I’ve had with quite a number of number of people in the past. But speaking with Shabati was refreshing for me and reminded me of the the promise of VoIP to have a positive affect in our everyday lives.

With the advent of the broadband internet, I believe the time is NOW for HD VoIP to finally happen. I fully expect HD VoIP to become the default method of communication regardless of the device being used. The technology platforms exist today to support HD VoIP across mobile phones, consumer VoIP and enterprise VoIP platforms. 2009 is a great time for the VoIP industry to work together and support this. I believe the widespread adoption of HD VoIP will mark the start of a renaissance in the VoIP industry and this is one of the things on my to-do list for 2009.

I look forward to watching HD VoIP become BIG in 2009.

(Shabtai Adlersberg, Chairman and CEO of Audiocodes.)

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Tags: VoIP, Shabtai Adlersberg, HD VoIP, Audiocodes, Jeff Pulver

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Posted by jeff on December 28, 2008 10:40 AM | Permalink

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Posted by: 情趣用品 at May 16, 2009 08:14 AM

I'm not really sure what the definitely of HD is in this post, but most VoIP softphones already support 16kHz audio codecs. Speex has a wideband mode and is free, so most support that. Global IP sound has iSAC (which means Google Talk and Yahoo have it as well), and CounterPath uses Speex Wideband and Broadvoice 32.

Ultra Wideband (or 32kHz) is only marginally better since the voice band in most speech doesn't extend much past 8kHz (I think it tapers off rather quickly at 11kHz).

Posted by: Duane Storey at January 1, 2009 11:20 PM

I agree that we should make a push for HD-VoIP. That was a consideration I made when I started desiging FreeSWITCH (http://www.freeswitch.org) 3 years ago. Since 2006 we were able to support many sample rates in our VoIP channels. In the last few weeks we are proud to announce that we support the Polycom Siren codec at 32khz as well as the CELT codec which is not only free but also able to move VoIP at 32khz and 48khz.

About a year ago I wrote this article anticipating the importance of HD-Telephony

http://www.freeswitch.org/node/104

Posted by: Anthony Minessale at December 29, 2008 12:30 PM

I am also betting on HD voice (that is why we are using only Speex codec in our implementation). But a precondition for it to become big is that end-to-end VoIP must become big. Otherwise it will end up like AT&T TrueVoice. You remember that right. That was the catalyst for the "Stupid network" paper.

Posted by: Aswath Rao at December 29, 2008 07:20 AM

I don't see wideband VoIP as the major catalyst in the kind of renaissance that Jeff describes. However, it will be a factor in helping to drive IP peering, driving more calls off the PSTN.

It has to be experienced to be appreciated, and even then only on appropriate hardware. One comment mentions Grandstream phones. Their BT series offer the G.722 codec but don't have the physical quality of hardware to deliver its promise. Thus with those phones the only way to deliver the wideband call quality is with a headset.

It'd be great from someone in the space to do a shootout with all the current crop of wideband capable end-points. Maybe TMC Labs?

Michael Graves

Posted by: Michael Graves at December 28, 2008 03:47 PM

I don't see wideband VoIP as the major catalyst in the kind of renaissance that Jeff describes. However, it will be a factor in helping to drive IP peering, driving more calls off the PSTN.

It'd be great from someone in the space to do a shootout with all the current crop of wideband capable end-points. Maybe TMC Labs?

Michael Graves

Posted by: Michael Graves at December 28, 2008 03:46 PM

Although HD voice makes perfect sense to me, and I do enjoy HD phones at home and office, I have not seen any market response to the feature.

I see a 6k (HD) spectrum for voice more of an entitlement than a feature. 3k voice spectrum has been the standard for 50 years. High-end IP phones need to add a lot more than 3k hertz to justify their prices. An always on IP device that costs $350-$600 needs to offer much more. Although the micro-browsers make features possible, they are not intuitive or easy.

For IP phones to really gain growth and excitement, the basic value prop needs to dramatically change. The device has to stop being looked at as a phone, but rather an IP appliance - a networked computer with a handset.

Ceasars Palace LV had IP phones in their rooms on my last visit, but they only used the screen for advertising. Static advertising too. I had to dial a person to request a wake up call.

From a hotel perspective, I should be able to order my car, see restaurant specials, have personal speed dials programmed (based on my loyalty card profile), the weather should be displayed, as well as in the case of Vegas progressive slot current values.

At the office it should be my primary calculator, offer access to my calendar, offer presence information, offer google map look-up (based on callerid), and access to my key business apps. Oh so much more.

At home, it should be my youtube screen, show me movie showtimes (theaters and HBO). Look at all the widgets available on a Chumby IP device.

Or it could simply offer me HD voice and I will use my cell phone for all of the above like everyone else.

Posted by: Dave Michels at December 28, 2008 02:59 PM

I am not saying that you'd need a Polycom to enjoy HD- I'm not saying that the difference between narrow band and wideband is not something close to a miracle- Super Science even...

Basically I was stating that the Polycom gear is the bar in which all hard phones will be measured. IMHO.

Think of it like this...

I guess a good comparison would be looking at a Movie in 720i vs. 1080p - There is a pretty deep gap between the two right? As HD video definition progresses buyers are migrating to devices that offer the best quality right? I paid more for this feature and most will too.

I'll speculate that the same can be said for sound quality on wideband VoIP devices. Why buy an HD phone that offers less than others- Price? Possibly.. But I have never catered to the buyer looking to simply get the cheapest solution. There are enough opportunities out there that demand measurable value and quality.

My 2 pennies- Kindest regards!

Posted by: Mike White at December 28, 2008 12:01 PM

Michael - I have to disagree. We've done our testing for HD calls and conferencing in SoftIVR mainly using Grandstream phones and Eyebeam on Macs and PCs.

The difference between these and lo-fi standard telephony is astonishing; you don't need a Polycom to enjoy HD voice. Not that the Polycom on my desk is a bad phone ;-)

--Dave
e: dave@3c.co.uk
w: http://www.softivr.com

Posted by: David Knell at December 28, 2008 11:19 AM

Great post Jeff, Fascinating subject indeed.

Posted by: Yarin Hochman at December 28, 2008 11:10 AM

I'll agree that HD will be huge- However, most players looking to occupy this space will need to step up their game a bit- Having evaluated just about everything out there from a HD SIP (not much here yet) phone perspective, quite simply put, nothing compares to what Polycom is offering from a speaker (hardware) perspective.

My advice for vendors would be to buy a Polycom HD phone... Then manufacture a speaker of similar quality or find a company that can match the sound quality output of their speakers. Do this both in the handset and the chassis speaker... There will be little value in your HD device if you can't hear a distinct difference. With the mindset surrounding "HD" being that it is of better quality than narrowband, end-users will migrate to devices that have a true noticeable difference or a wider gap between the quality of narrow and wideband. After all, it is all about the way it sounds no?

Michael S. White
.e4 Technologies

e: mwhite@e4strategies.com
w: http://www.8774e4voip.com
T: http://www.twitter.com/e4VoIP

Posted by: Mike White at December 28, 2008 10:52 AM

December 28, 2008

High Definition (HD) VoIP will be BIG in 2009

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