ITS recently received a demo unit of Cisco’s new video conferencing system, the SX20. The SX20 was released early this year and offers a smaller footprint than the c20 but is very comparable otherwise with a few feature differences.
The SX20 does offer a paid upgrade option for multisite which the C20 does not. This allows the SX20 to add three remote participants to a call without the need of any kind of video conferencing bridging services. However, with Duke’s video conferencing infrastructure users have free access to Duke’s virtual conference rooms which offer the same functionality without the need for the paid multisite upgrade.
Both the C20 and SX20 use the same proprietary Cisco microphones but the SX20 has two echo cancelers while the C20 has one. The SX20 uses a proprietary HDMI/RS-232 cable. On the C20 HDMI/RS-232 are separate cables and allow for easier integration into a conferencing room especially when longer cable runs are needed. This will make integrating the SX20 into a conferencing room more difficult.
The SX20 can share content at up to 1080p15 while the C20 supports WXGAp15(1280×768). However, to support sending 1080p resolutions the premium resolution paid upgrade option is required.
The C20 and SX20 are both great video conferencing systems for basic room and office installations, and cart solutions. They even work great as portable room systems. If you have any questions about either of these or any other video conferencing system please contact oit-its-info@duke.edu and we be happy to talk with you about them.
