Picture This

The president and CEO of Ascentra reviews a video communication system from C-Phone Corp.

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Techniques: Off the Shelf: Hardware

Need a simple way to videoconference with one or two satellite locations? Look no further

The Product: C-Phone DS-324 video communication system, from C-Phone Corp., in Wilmington, N.C. (910-395-6100; $2,200)
Requirements: ISDN or POTS line and a standard television set
Reviewer: M. Frances Sponer, president and CEO of Ascentra, a group of diversified companies, based in Las Vegas

One picture is worth 1,000 words, they say. I agree. Face-to-face communication with my business associates is nearly always better than a phone conversation, which precludes body language and what it tells us. But my company's numerous divisions--which span health-care systems, insurance, and trucking--employ people in Utah, Nevada, Michigan, and Mississippi, and our pharmacy-benefit-management company, Scripnet, works with more than 40,000 pharmacies nationwide. So travel for meetings can run up a hefty bill. I was curious, therefore, to discover what C-Phone could do.

Sam Tamura, our information-technology manager, had no trouble connecting the VCR-size unit to a standard television and an ISDN line we already had in place. However, owing to the lack of detailed instructions for configuration, it took us a while to make our way through the on-screen selection of zoom, freeze, and other setup options, which, as it turned out, were fairly simple to use.

Because I had been expecting a gadget aimed at the scattered-family market, I wasn't prepared to be impressed. But C-Phone's video is as clear as a television broadcast, and I liked several of its features. At the touch of a button on the handheld remote-control device, a privacy feature clicks on to allow users to speak off-line with others in the room, while the person at the other site hears nothing and watches a static freeze frame. Another useful feature is the small window on each user's screen, in which participants can observe themselves. They can see what the people on the other end of the conference are seeing. At one point in our first test conference, as I proceeded to hold forth, I happened to glance at that box, and my own freeze-framed image reminded me that I had forgotten to release the privacy feature on my end.

We also liked the system's audio option. Its two volume settings allowed us to adjust to the size of the room we were calling, but I was a bit troubled by a noticeable lag between seeing my conference partner's lips move and hearing his words.

Once we'd figured out the setup, I found the system simple to operate, and it convinced me that videoconferencing is a technology our company could use. But although the system seems affordable, its $2,200 price tag is misleading. A single unit is about as useful as one shoe. Each participating site needs its own unit, television, and ISDN line. Installation of our ISDN line cost us about $150, and in addition to the long-distance costs, we pay $45 in monthly charges.

For my company, with its extensive computer network connecting our 13 locations, PC-based videoconferencing through the Internet or over our wide area network would be a more practical and less expensive solution. The C-Phone could, however, be an excellent communication tool for smaller enterprises that have only a few locations and limited access to PC technology.

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