It's no secret that many of us began to rely heavily on video conferencing during the first half of 2020. As a result, we saw an explosion in webcam use that has today become an integral part of our society. In December 2020, Zoom reported more than 350 million daily users of their platform and around 3.3 trillion minutes in 2021. While we expect this high usage to drop off as we get further away from the pandemic, it is clear that video conferencing is here to stay.
What quickly became apparent during the growth was a lack of webcams capable of consistently delivering high image quality. The industry lacked international standards, defined metrics, and test setup guidelines to improve image quality testing. However, in 2023, the VCX-Forum published the VCX-Webcam Standard, which defines metrics and test methods for webcam performance testing.
High-performing web camera systems typically do not degrade in low-light or other mixed/changing lighting conditions. They are also capable of handling continuous motion and other challenging scenes (e.g., changing backgrounds).
Many of our engineers have participated directly in the development of the VCX standard, and we have based many of our webcam test equipment and solutions on the guidelines outlined in the standard.
