Most LifeSize customers who want to record telepresence sessions are doing so with one-to-many presentations such as training or executive messages to employees, according to Michael Helmbrecht, director of product management. The company isn't hearing demand for recording the kind of immersive virtual meetings with multiple participants that are the hallmark of telepresence, he said, partly because of confidentiality.
"Boardroom conversations tend not to be something to record," Hembrecht said.
The University of Colorado Denver, along with its medical school and partner hospitals, holds thousands of videoconferences every year, including lectures, medical demonstrations and administrative meetings, and records many of them for playback later. For most, it uses Polycom standard or high-definition systems, said Betty Charles, associate director, educational support services.
Given its needs, the university has run into capacity issues with Polycom's RSS (Recording and Streaming Server) 2000 product because the system can't stream enough sessions out to the network while recording ones currently going on. So the content is sent to a separate video server for distribution. The university doesn't have enough videoconferencing content that it needs to use a SAN (storage-area network) or NAS (network-attached storage) yet, but Charles said she could see that becoming an issue in the future.
Privacy and security are concerns, as well as compliance with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) rules for patient data. The university uses password protection to control access to both live streaming content and stored sessions, Charles said.
Participating in virtual meetings that can later be played back may present some peril for employees, warned Yankee's Kerravala.
"It's easy to tell when someone's not paying attention," he said. "Facial expressions mean a lot."