Time is money. And it's never been truer for companies with operations spread across the globe. Equipment downtime, lost production, delays in project reviews and high travel costs or time to troubleshoot problems can kill the bottom line. If the best engineer is located in New York and a large structural design project is located in South America, costs mount quickly when decisions are delayed. Typically, the expert (or a whole team of experts) would board a plane to go and try to solve the problem, causing further delays and incurring expensive travel costs. With mobile collaboration, no one leaves their desk, let alone the country.

The standard form of video collaboration facilitates face-to-face meetings in video conferencing meeting boardrooms. For structural engineering firms, though, the heart of their business is often on the job site — where traditional video conferencing doesn't reach. Mobile video collaboration, quite simply, brings the problem to the expert, rather than the other way around. The system visually connects a person at the site of the problem to the right person at the right time to get the right answer.

Field staff use the mobile device to share video, voice, telestration (i.e., onscreen drawing) and images with the experts who interact live through the collaboration software. Remote experts can also share images or pre-recorded videos to play on the touch screen panel of the device. By sharing this visual content, experts can provide job site personnel or field technicians with visual instructions. The system can be used virtually anywhere as it can use standard wireless, satellite and cellular networks.

The wireless handheld video cameras are completely portable and hardened for durability. All communication and data is encrypted to provide tight security.

To enable excellent communications, the real time, high quality video streaming and two-way VOIP audio is enhanced through the use of a built-in speakerphone and microphone in addition to headsets. All participants in the discussion can also perform two-way onscreen drawing. For record keeping, the system provides bidirectional video recording and still image capture.

Handheld mobile devices come in two models, including a version that has Zone 2 hazardous location approval. This approval means the device can be used in potentially hazardous locations such as oil and gas, chemical processing plants, aircraft hangars and gas pipelines.

Reduced downtime
Construction project and production equipment downtime costs can be staggering and are often measured in thousands of dollars per hour. Trying to troubleshoot an equipment problem through pictures via e-mail or waiting for an offsite specialist to travel to the problem site adds costly hours that can be easily avoided with mobile collaboration technologies. Much of this delay can be reduced or eliminated by visually bringing the problem to the expert, as opposed to the other way around.

Secure mobile video
For some jobs, the field site contains competitive sensitive information; for this reason, cameras are typically not allowed. New video conferencing mobile devices overcome that concern by providing tight security over the wireless communication, media content and device usage. Security, encryption, authentication and even centralized administrator control have become table stakes for mobile video collaboration products.

Improved partner interaction
Structural engineers use mobile collaboration to streamline interaction. Design reviews and site modifications are an ongoing part of standard communication with clients and suppliers. Normally, team members would travel to the job site or supplier locations for live interactions, introducing delays into the process. Instead of travel, mobile devices can be kept or shipped to major suppliers or job sites to perform live visual communication when needed.

Camera optics within these mobile devices is so advanced that remote experts can see detailed design aspects, for example on circuit boards, where even a fraction of a millimeter matters. For clarity, the camera provides close up images with 1 centimeter macro zoom and a 10-times optical zoom. The newest mobile collaboration cameras can even attach external devices, like a microscope or borescope, to send additional visuals to the far-end expert.

In addition, engineers use mobile collaboration to perform acceptance test processes on newly installed equipment. The process was traditionally conducted at the site. Multiple skill sets were required to adequately inspect and test the new equipment, which equated to teams of people travelling to the supplier's facility.

Instead of sending a team of people, engineering firms now send one person with the mobile collaboration device to stream video and interact with colleagues to perform the acceptance test. By interacting live through mobile collaboration, engineers improve construction efficiency, reduce travel costs, and leverage scarce expert resources in their own company and that of their partners.

Network requirements
It is important to consider infrastructure requirements for the mobile collaboration system. Mobile devices require either an Ethernet or wireless network connection to access the Internet.

Wireless connectivity (i.e.802.11 b/g) is the most common method used in facilities such as a repair depot or plant. The bandwidth consumption typically ranges from 250 kilobits to 1 megabit depending on the existing infrastructure.

For field based applications, it is more common to see bandwidth consumption below 128 kbps due to narrow bandwidth backhaul connections. Even with only 128 kbps, mobile collaboration can include live video, voice, telestration, and image sharing between the field technician and the remote expert.

Wireless alternatives
Another alternative to consider is the use of 3G or 4G cellular networks through mobile Wi-Fi hotspot devices such as the MiFi or Cradlepoint. By using a hotspot device, a wireless network can be created for the mobile device anywhere there is adequate cellular coverage. For example, heavy industrial equipment manufacturers use cellular connectivity to perform live collaboration from the field when they need help repairing equipment.

Deferred collaboration is another possible alternative to a live video session. When access to the Internet isn't available or other challenges arise, such as problems in connecting with experts due to time zone differences, the video devices can record to a local SD card. The recording can be uploaded to a shared directory for the remote expert to access later, or the device operator can share the recording in a deferred live collaboration session with a remote expert. While the recording is playing, both parties can still talk, telestrate and share images in a fully interactive deferred session.

Extend existing video infrastructure
For organizations with investments in meeting room video infrastructure such as Cisco TelePresence suites or Tandberg videoconferencing rooms, mobile collaboration solutions also become immediate extensions. The mobile devices and collaboration software use the same industry-standard protocols and media Codecs as the room-based video technologies. For manufacturers, that means that these mobile devices can immediately deliver a "live feed" from the plant floor or the field to add value to traditional face-to-face video meetings.

In addition to face-to-face video rooms, mobile collaboration sessions can also be shared with multiple experts on their desktop computers. This "one-to-many" experience can be provided in many ways. One method is to simply call another desktop that has the collaboration software loaded. In this case, the additional experts can interact fully with capabilities like telestration and image sharing. Another way is to launch an online meeting tool such as Cisco WebEx. With this method, colleagues, suppliers or customers can be brought in to a collaboration session for ad-hoc meetings very quickly.

Multiple Benefits
With the advent of mobile technologies, securely extending the power of video collaboration across an enterprise is now a reality. Users in many different fields of business have proven that mobile video helps reduce downtime, drive quality improvements, accelerate project delivery, leverage experts and eliminate unnecessary travel.

Video is now an essential component of interaction between engineering firms, construction sites, manufacturing facilities, suppliers, customers and OEM vendors. Now, for many structural design engineers, engaging in a video collaboration session has become as simple as making a phone call.

Marieke Wijtkamp, vice president of marketing and client services, Librestream Technologies Inc., in Winnipeg, Canada. Contact her at marieke.wijtkamp@librestream.com or call 1-800-849-5507.