August 13, 2012

ClearSea


ClearSea is a desktop and iPad application. I did not know going into test that a ClearSea server (either hardware or virtualized) was required to use it. Once I found that out, the test was essentially over I will most likely never invest in this sort of hardware.

When calling from desktop to a Lifesize codec (on the other end was a Lifesize employee I know through LinkedIn), the image and audio were fantastic. Likewise, my call from the iPad to the codec had a great image and audio. The codec was a Room 220 if that matters to anyone. However, and a big one at that, calls from desktop to desktop or iPad to desktop were poor in both latency and image quality. There was no way to test to see if the bandwidth could be ramped down though so it may just be that we were trying to throw too much data at each other. If I had to guess, frame rate was maybe 15fps at best during these short calls.

This isn’t recommended for a SMB looking for a month to month solution.