Videoconferencing over the Internet is on the cards for PictureTel, according to a company business development manager.
Albert Li, in charge of PictureTel's regional personal systems division, said the service had to suit corporate needs before the company would manufacture products to facilitate it.
A major drawback was the limited availability of ISDN (integrated services data network) lines for the Net, he said.
Videoconferencing over leased lines was the best solution at this time, Mr Li said, as the Internet had potential security and bandwidth problems.
'We need to work with the ISPs [Internet service providers] to make this thing work.' PictureTel has released a line of videoconferencing products for desktop PCs linked to local area networks (LANs) and intranets. Its LiveLAN 3.0, LiveGateway 3.0 and LiveManager 3.0 all support the H.323 network-based videoconferencing standard and are scaleable to allow network expansion.
As H.323 was an IP-based standard, it was in demand due to the emergence of the Internet, Mr Li said.
Compliant to Windows 95 operating systems, LiveLAN consists of a PCI codec card, colour camera, speakers, microphone, software and CD-Rom documentation.