Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

Have you looked at the price of Cisco’s Personal Telepresence that was announced today?

$33,900 USD per seat

That’s 22 years worth of SightSpeed For Business for a ten (10) seat pack.

Granted SightSpeed is my agency’s client, but let’s get real and think about value and the budget. For every $33,900 a company can have hundreds of people inside the company using SightSpeed in the work place versus one glamour puss (CEO). Of course the IT director won’t get fired for buying Cisco, but if they tried SightSpeed to see how much use the video conferencing solution really receives they can quickly do some back of the napkin math to determine need and value to the company.

Oh. And here’s one more point. SightSpeed keeps getting better and improving what they do. All I’m seeing is that Cisco is carving up their Telepresence technology, as it drops down in price.

One has to really wonder if there’s that much difference in IP communications that’s worth an almost 300x investment when prices of technology always drop with each next generation of release. For me, the cost of Telepresence just don’t make sense (and I’m a Cisco shareholder and fan) given the ease of use, and low cost of a high quality service like SightSpeed already being on the market, plus having an award winning and proven track record clearly makes it a more than worthy option to consider.

Candidly, if I was the CFO of a company thinking of making the Telepresence investment, I’d at least want to SEE the comparison between the two with my own eyes before forking over $33,900 dollars for ONE SEAT versus $19.99 a month per seat.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

I have to admit upfront that having the best of breed clients all playing in the world of VoIP is probably one of the most exciting parts of my job. Just like the Master of The Mashup Thomas Howe gets to take the best of the best tools and make something new and different happen in the sense of great new Voice 2.0 applications, my team and I get to play mixologists when it comes to how our clients and their technologies, either amongst themselves or with our pals in the media and the blogosphere get to tell their stories. But more importantly, what we’re demonstrating is how to use the tools and media opportunities that exist today to flatten and level the 1.0 media world by being agents of change.

Yesterday iotum’s Alec Saunders continued to show off the feature rich capabilities of the iotum Free Conference Calling platform that works from within Facebook during his daily Sqawk Box podcast with the usual group of suspects including Voxeo’s Dan York and ATS’s Adam Somer to name a few. Alec artfully interviewed SightSpeed’s VP of Marketing, Eric Quanstrom about and extracted many of the key points that really paint the picture of where SightSpeed is headed. This wasn’t interpretive journalism or opinion based blogging. It was facts and information straight from the so called "horses mouth" as Eric took the group and listeners through the direction SightSpeed is heading with Google and Open Social.

Later that same day, Skype Journal’s new master of the microphone, Jim Courtney, proved that at any age, anyone can learn how to use the tools of podcasting after taking the VAPPS High Definition Conferencing service’s built-in record the call feature and turned his interview with VAPPS founder Ben Lillenthal into a podcast. During the call Ben signaled the market giving Jim the heads up on the new name change from High Speed to HiDef Conferencing and also revealed how more is coming from VAPPs.

Besides showing off his business acumen, Courtney showed that he did his homework as the line of questioning he took, and just like Saunders did with Quanstrom had a real conversation with VAPPS CEO and wove a story together in real time.

Add to it that he Courtney used the VAPPS new HiDef Conferencing capabilities that works with Skype and we all now are getting to hear just how simply amazing the audio quality is when all parties are using Skype endpoints. I for one have been using the HiDef service for a while, and actually was one of the first trial set of ears that Ben called on even before his company became a client. The difference is immediately noticeable between a regular audio conference and a HiDef Conference in what can best be described as tone and audio richness.

In both cases the information disseminated by the use of the call recording and podcast tools clearly demonstrates how VoIP in the middle makes for new ways to communicate. For broadcasters and podcasters the tools available today far outweigh what was there only a few years ago, and pretty much have to be putting companies who make high priced audio gear for broadcasters on the ropes. None of what was done cost anyone any money to record, encode, produce and publish. That’s flattening and leveling in my book.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

Yes that was Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi using SightSpeed

More and more government officials are realizing the value of video conferencing as it earns its place in reducing carbon emissions and enables more face to face interaction both near and far.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

Who says you have to be at the venue to participate in a conference. Not me. That makes IPDemocracy’s Cynthia Brumfield’s comment taste all the better.For the second time at VON SightSpeed came to the rescue via my laptop. I had to pinch hit for SightSpeed’s CEO Peter Csathy in a session during Video on The Net this past Monday. One of his panel members, Morgan Webb, a video blogger out of Los Angeles also couldn’t attend, but agreed to be a part of the conference by video link. Enter Sightspeed.Within minutes my laptop was out, hooked up by the PulverMedia crew, and we were seeing Morgan’s smiling face and hearing her in the session room and she was able to see and hear us. It all worked, just like we did a year or so with Om Malik.I look at VON as an event for my agency’s clients and others to not only talk about what they have to offer, but to really showcase them as well. The session, and the use of SightSpeed proved once again that you don’t have to physically be there to “really be there.”

Source: goebel.net

I always wondered about the power of Comunicano. That’s the marketing communications company of Andy Abramson, one of the most intesting bloggers in the VoIP industry. From some of his blog posts I already had gotten the vague feeling that he must be some kind of mastermind.

Many of my blog posts lead back to information that Comunicano spread. But I could realize that only recently, because Comunicano’s website is nearly empty. No press releases, no list of clients - while Andy, the company’s founder and head, is one of the most influential bloggers in the VoIP industry.

Some weeks ago I wrote how I feel about this situation:

Especially the VoIP area, which became a main focus of this blog, is dominated by blogs of entrepreneurs who have an interest in maximizing their profits. Luca, Andy, David, Alec, Pat and others run great websites, but there you will hardly find tipps on how to hack their companies’ services for free phone calls. They use their blog as a business tool.

Today I realized that my blog is full of Comunicano’s clients: Covad, Entriq, IntelePeer, iotum, Junction Networks, Mobivox, Nokia, PhoneGnome, SightSpeed, TalkPlus, Thomas Howe, Truphone, Voxalot and Vringo. Comunicano has set up a blog with their latest press releases and finally published their list of clients.

Thank you for this disclosure, Andy. I feel better now. It helps me to judge the posts on your blog which often are starting points for my own articles. I would have written these texts anyway because the topics were interesting. But it’s always better to know precisely who is feeding you an information.

Also now it’s easier to get first hand information about these companies without delay. Kudos to Comunicano for interesting and not annoying press relations so far!

I appreciate openness.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Sightspeed has released an enhanced version of their Sightspeed 5.0. Sightspeed 5.0 already had a good following already. With the new version, they really have done some enhancements.
If you did not know what sightspeed is; Through SightSpeed, users can place free video calls, leave video messages, or post videos to their blogs or personal Web pages. SightSpeed also offers unlimited PC-to-PC voice-only calling (works great for Macs, too), and provides calling to and from traditional and cell phones. And users can try SightSpeedTV, now in beta, for personal viewing of TV on a computer equipped with a TV capture-card—anywhere in the world, complete with real channel-surfing.

Here are the enhancements mentioned in the press release;
Enhanced SightSpeed 5.0:

* SightSpeed Pro plan subscribers (i.e., small-business and power users) will now be able to record three-minute video messages for e-mail or video blogs (vlogs)—a 50-percent increase in recording time, and six times more recording time than available to free users.
* All users who want to share their SightSpeed-produced video messages (in particular, bloggers who wish to vlog) can now easily copy and paste the relevant HTML snippet for the video player directly into their Web site or blog for a significantly more compelling overall user experience.
* SightSpeed “click-to-call” video buttons will now have greater visibility and usability, and can easily be pasted into community or social-networking profiles (such as MySpace, Facebook and others) or other personal or business Web pages. The benefit is that subscribers can give others the ability to easily click-to-call the SightSpeed user through a Web interface, without the need to download any software. This is significant for individuals and business users alike.
* The notification that is automatically sent to video-message recipients has been redesigned with a cleaner, more compelling look and feel.
* Checking out the latest SightSpeed beta service, SightSpeedTV will now be easier because the link is no longer hard to find. Users who want to experience this truly live video place-shifting functionality will now find SightSpeedTV front and center within the SightSpeed interface, thereby giving them a uniquely compelling personal television experience anywhere in the world.
* International users who want to upgrade to the Pro plan or make voice calls to regular and cell phones will now have an easier way to pay for those services and become power SightSpeed users. SightSpeed has now significantly improved its billing and transaction-processing operations to make it easier for users outside the U.S. to subscribe to fee-based SightSpeed services and pay securely by credit card.
* With the holiday season upon us, there’s no better way for far-flung friends and families to stay connected than with a gift of SightSpeed. An enhanced online ordering system now makes it much easier to give SightSpeed starter kits and have them shipped anywhere in the U.S.
* And finally, thanks to an agreement with Commission Junction, online referrals from independent Web site owners will now be eligible for commission when the referrals result in a sale of SightSpeed services.

Links;
Sightspeed.com, in my backyard! literally
Known Sightspeed blogger