Source: www.voip-news.com

It’s good to be king . . .

An independent survey recently revealed 100 percent satisfaction with Global Crossing’s collaboration services — as in conferencing. The survey was conducted by KS&R, but was paid for by Global Crossing.

Eighty-five percent of respondents said that they were very likely to recommend the service to others.

“The latest survey results reflect our commitment to providing a superior customer experience and high level of account support that differentiates us from our competitors,” said Dan Wagner, executive vice president enterprise sales and collaboration services. “Now, especially as use of Global Crossing’s collaboration services around the world continues to accelerate, our award-winning collaboration services take the element of geography out of the business equation and allow companies to improve productivity, while reducing their travel costs and carbon footprints.”

Source: www.voip-news.com

Avistar Communications Corporation is going to be offering desktop videoconferencing through a partnership with City Information Services Limited.

“CityIS is a significant player in our strategy to deliver our C3 solutions through the reseller channel. CityIS has more than a decade of specialized experience in the videoconferencing space, and knows first-hand what its clients need to remain competitive in today’s challenging global marketplace. With offices around the world servicing global clients, CityIS offers a breadth and depth of channel coverage that will be instrumental in our goal of making Avistar desktop videoconferencing as ubiquitous as large room implementations,” said Darren Innes, General Manager of Worldwide Sales for Avistar.

The companies say that the product fills a much-needed area of the market as more and more companies seek ways to cut costs and travel less.

Source: www.voip-news.com

Avistar Communication’s C3 desktop and room-based videoconferencing and collaboration software will now have firewall traversal technology

“With Paradial, Avistar has taken a significant step forward in increasing the availability — and therefore the impact — of videoconferencing and collaboration tools in the workplace,” said Chris Lauwers, Chief Technology Officer at Avistar. “Our C3 software is now capable of independently managing interconnectivity with different vendor systems, and is a cinch to deploy and manage. These factors make it realistic, indeed even compelling, to extend the rollout of more effective video-enabled communications beyond the borders of an enterprise to include external clients, suppliers and home-based or mobile workers.”

Paradial’s RealTunnel Firewall/NAT is embedded into all versions of Avistar C3 including Desktop, Teamroom, Teamroom MP, Executive Teamroom and Mobile Teamroom.

“A key challenge for the video communications industry is to move from being an intra- to an inter-company solution. The agreement to embed our software within Avistar C3 means video and audio collaboration traffic can flow outside of the corporate network without hassle or compromise to security,” Ingvar Aaberg, CEO of Paradial, said.

Source: www.voip-news.com

Web conferences are great. You can get together with peers and collaborate without leaving your (often far apart) locations.

But there are so many choices out there. I loved the GoToMeeting I attended, but there are many other options from Adobe, Microsoft and others with different capabilities.

If you are trying to figure out which one is right for you, check out this feature on VoIP News.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

I’m a big user of both client SightSpeed and Skype video as the entire world I deal with is not all on one platform so seeing this stat about the anticipated rise in Video Conferencing use is no surprise to me, or many of my fellow VoIP bloggers out there.

What it shows me is the bloggosphere is usually very tuned into the future, and while some call it an echo chamber (bloggers talking to other bloggers) it really is more of a forward looking reflector of where things are headed. Bloggers are in my view the live along the first two blocks of what I have dubbed the

Boulevard of Communications. Those two blocks are where the Tastemaker and Trendsetter houses are, and its farther down the Avenue where Thought Leaders and Media Gatekeepers Live, with The Followers at the far end of the Avenue.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

While this story largely focuses on Skype, the reality is the stats will benefit all the players in the game of online conferencing. In this case it’s great news for three clients who many of you are already familiar with.

iotum has been hard at work with their Facebook Free Conferencing Calling platform racking up hundreds of thousands of registered users in a very short time, demonstrating the network affect of Facebook, and blowing away many of the insiders there with the both the simplicity and elegance.

VAPPS, with High Speed Conferencing, that offers the best and most robust High Definition voice experience around when used via Skype is also on a roll. Their uptake was only bolstered when AutoZone added them to be their voice portal to the stores regular conference call updates. Having sat through a six hour call yesterday with a client and my team, the audio experience was far and away the best anyone could ever have over a Polycom Communicator and Skype.

Then there’s SightSpeed. Consistently the award winner in video communications, their uptake keep growing and the industry pundits like Elliot Gold and Wainhouse Research have only the nicest of things to say (read the private reports and newsletters–but pay for them please).

All this bodes well, as the CBR report gives evidence that it’s a great time to be in the conference business.

Source: www.voip-news.com

Looking to deploy a videoconferencing solution that uses your IP system? Desktop videoconferencing and collaboration products are getting more focused attention from Avistar Communications Corporation. Avistar has created a new Professional Services business unit to support product developments, giving enterprise customers access to comprehensive design and planning for video networks. There is also on-site service available in the U.S. and the U.K.

“Avistar’s implementations of desktop videoconferencing are among the world’s largest,” said Mike Horn, VP of Operations at Avistar. “We have now established Professional Services offerings to extend this capability to other enterprises planning large scale deployments of Avistar solutions. Our customers, especially those who have deployed desktop video at scale, look to our extensive base of experience in order to maximize the value of their collaboration technology investment through improved adoption across their user community, technical network optimization and shared best practices.”
The Professional Services team can be used for both short- and long-term projects.

Source: www.voip-news.com

Microsoft announced a high-def camera for videoconferencing at VoiceCon in Orlando this week. The $300 camera is being developed with Tandberg. The camera will be used with telepresence technology - something that can make it appear as though people in different locations are in the same room.

“We are committed to investing in innovation that will extend access of high-definition video communications to the individual user at the desktop,” said Fredrik Halvorsen, CEO of TANDBERG. “This ground-breaking initiative reinforces our strong relationship with Microsoft and our commitment to unified communications.”

The video system will be interoperable with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.

“We believe that Microsoft has a strong position in the unified communications market,” added Halvorsen, “and we are making ongoing investments in Microsoft Office Communication Server development to ensure that we are well placed to realize the benefits.”

Source: www.voip-news.com

8×8, Inc., provider of Packet8 VoIP services, introduced a new product recently, their Virtual Office Tango Video Terminal Adapter (VTA).  The VTA offers a convenient and inexpensive alternative for those looking for videoconferencing solutions.  Not only will it enhance the Packet8 Virtual Office hosted iPBX phone system, which continues to be a popular choice amongst small businesses in the United States, it also offers a host of attractive features, including unlimited local and long distance calling, two or three-way videoconferencing, enterprise class PBX features and on-demand hosted call center capabilities.

“Many of our Packet8 Virtual Office voice customers have at least one employee located in a remote location, so being able to videoconference with these employees by just dialing their regular extension is an easy and inexpensive way to boost office productivity,” 8×8 Chairman & CEO Bryan R. Martin said in a recent press release. “When dealing with external customers and clients, the advantages of inexpensive, high quality visual communications go even further for those businesses that simply cannot afford the time and expense involved in travelling or purchasing high end videoconferencing and telepresence solutions which require heavy support and expensive, dedicated bandwidth.  With the Packet8 Virtual Office Tango video solution, these companies can now easily and affordably employ powerful desktop video communications right next
to their business phone to enhance the quality and success of their day-to-day interactions with colleagues and customers.”

Additional features include:

* Integration with Microsoft Outlook to allow users to import contact information and facilitate speed dialing and phonebook management
* Integration with Virtual Office calling features through on-screen icon navigation and one-touch radio buttons
* Compatibility with Packet8 Softalk ™ Office
* Built-in Router
* Digital Picture Frame capable of displaying up to 16 images
* Simple to Use Navigation
* Quick & Easy Set up
* Remote Surveillance Mode

Complete details on the Virtual Office Tango can be found here. 

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Digium, the Asterisk® Company, announced at Astricon, a new Hardware module and a Software-based High Performance Echo Cancellation Solution for carrier-class voice networks to improve audio quality and reduce VoIP infrastructure costs.
For Asterisk users that connect to the PSTN, the most common type of echo is hybrid echo - the echo introduced by the impedance mismatch between 2-wire and 4-wire telephone circuits. The echo manifests as a distorted and delayed reflection of the users voice while in conversation with an external party through the PSTN.

The new Digium High Performance Echo Cancellation (HPEC) solutions eliminate the need for the tuning and training sometimes required to control echo conditions in Asterisk-based voice systems. The HPEC is G.168 compliant and "toll-quality" as determined by AT&T’s Voice Quality Assessment Labs using a stringent series of subjective and standardized, objective tests. The Digium HPEC outperformed AT&T’s benchmark lab echo cancellers in all testing categories.

"As Asterisk continues its rapid rate of deployment on a wide range of telephone equipment from vendors around the world, Digium is committed to delivering our customers the absolute best quality possible," said Mark Spencer, CTO of Digium. "Digium’s new high performance echo cancellation solutions once again set the industry standard for open source, carrier-class voice networks."

Asterisk offers a strategic, highly cost-effective approach to voice transport over IP, TDM, switched and Ethernet architectures. Digium’s offerings include VoIP, conferencing, voicemail, legacy PBX, IVR, auto attendant, media servers and gateways, and application servers and gateways.

Pricing and Availability
Digium’s HPEC hardware module solution retails for $235 USD for up to 32 channels. Digium’s HPEC software is available at no cost to in-warranty Digium analog interface customers, and available for $10 USD per channel to non-Digium customers. Availability is immediate.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

TMCnet’s SIP Magazine is now online. I have written about this before but still would like to let you know about it because I enjoy reading it.
This months issue brings you;

SIP Big in 2007
By Richard Tehrani, Publisher, Pubilsher’s Outlook

• Session Border Control
SIP has gone through many changes since its humble beginnings. Still, SIP retains just enough of its simple former “endpoint-to-endpoint” characteristics to make it a bit difficult to pass across network borders and through firewalls.
• SIMPLE in the Enterprise
If and when IM (Instant Messaging) and presence eventually become an IETF standard, the SIMPLE protocol will undoubtedly be the principal component, thanks in part to its ability to integrate IM/presence with voice, video, data-sharing, and other elements of conferencing and real-time collaboration.
SIP Big in 2007
Both the above articles are by By Richard “Zippy” Grigonis.
There are many other information like regular columns;
Speaking SIP
• State of Emergency: VoIP and 911
By J.D. Rosenberg

Presence Enabled
• Present and Accounted For
By Joe Hildebrand

Special Focus
• SIP in America’s Heartland - NNU Deploys the First Ever Inter-Tel 7000
By Greg Galitzine

I think it is worth a visit.

LINKS;
SIP Magazine

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Another open source Asterisk based has come to bloom at 1bizcom. The open source software based 1bizCom is next generation web-based, multi-tenant, distributed, mulit-lingual, inbound, outbound Video enabled VoIP & VVoIP call/ contact center solution for Asterisk with Built-in phone, IVR, CRM, Predictive dialer, ACD, Chat, Mail, Fax, Video and other features.
The system runs on Windows IIs web server and the MySQL data base could reside on a Linux server if preferred. The system is in beta and the current version seems to be 0.8.0.0b1 and the application package is known as 1bC.
According to the 1bizcom site;

1BizCom has all the salient features which goes beyond with new creations like efficient call handling, Automatic Call Routing (ACD), Voice Logging/Recording, Authentication, Conferencing, Data base screen pops, Answering machine detection with detailed statistics and reporting for reduced response time, improved customer experience and quality management of the operations. 1BizCom is a highly scalable Call Center Solution supporting three-dimensional scalability, which will enable client to scale up and optimize the operations as per changing requirements with vendor independence. 1Bizcom helps users to take care of the entire value chain and continuously work on processes & help to generate value at peak places.
Exclusive Features

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
Call handling features
Call connection notification on the screen
Call transfer, Call Conferencing, 3rd party verifications
Voice Logging, Monitoring
Call Detail Record (CDR) and Reporting
Web based solution
Maintaining call history

I have not tested the application, due to the fact that builds were pulled off by the developer. The developer left the following message on the Sourceforge Forum;
"Thanks for outstanding support that has been landed to 1bizcom since its lauch few days back…Unfortunately, due to some critical issues, I have to pull the builds…But, please note that we are highly motivated by the initial community support landed and we are firm to provide you a very strong collaborative open source platform.
Please, give us some time and we will get you an improved version of the software very soon. "

But if you are handy with subversion, it is possible to grab the application and the code. See the links bellow. But I will watch out as the developer might have had a good reason to pull out the build.

I have gone through the demo provided on the side and I feel that his Asterisk add on has clear long path ahead.

Links;
1bizcom site
Sourceforge project
1bizcom SVN at Sourceforge