Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Renting a video from U-verse saves you a trip to the video store - and back.

Here’s all you do:

• Press VIDEO ON DEMAND on your AT&T U-verse Remote
• Use the down arrow to select from the list that appears and then press OK.
• You will then see a program information screen appear with detail about the video you want to rent and the cost of the rental.
• You have the chance to preview your selection if you wish, so just select "Watch Preview."  Then, press OK.
• If you want to leave this screen and not rent the movie, press BACK to return to the previous screen.
• Select rent and then press OK.  Press OK again so as to confirm your decision.  Then, just sit back and relax and your program will begin.

Wanna try VOD at no charge?

Just take a look under "Movie Extras" in your VOD storefront.  It’s a great place to see behind-the-scenes special programs and cool trailers from your favorite movies -  all for free.

Yup, it’s that’s simple and easy.

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

Baidu.com is going to use a Global IP Solutions application to launch real-time video chat on its instant messaging application. Baidu is a Chinese language search engine.

“GIPS developed its reputation in voice, and we’ve been successfully solving real-time video complexities for the last three years,” said Emerick Woods, Global IP Solutions CEO. “Video conference/chat users are increasingly demanding better network speeds, quality, reliability and consistency, and developers are challenged with adding more features. While most video chats suffer from freezing, bad lip synchronization and postage stamp video images, Baidu now offers one great application which delivers GIPS quality serving the single largest market in the world.”

GIPS VideoEngine is designed for real-time video communications over IP networks. Unlike other technologies, it addresses the small images that can flicker and have poor lip sync with poor voice quality.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

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: gigaom.com

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

One open source development house points to Google’s Summer of Code effort to include voice and video chat support for Pidgin, the open source Linux and Windows multi-headed Instant Messaging program using something called Farsight2.

An example of what Farsight2 can do is available here on YouTube.

Here’s more on Farsight2. It seems that Telepathy is using it inside their VoIP/Video client on the Nokia tablets. Now that’s something I’ve seen before and was impressed with.

Update–SightSpeed’s CTO and co-founder, Aron Rosenberg, in an email pointed out that this is a Google student support activity, with Google mentors. Thanks for that.

My view..Your ad dollars at work. ….Google gets ideas from all places, floats the balloon and sees what flies. Your ad dollars go to fund activities like the Summer of Code. Besides, what Senior in college wouldn’t give his laptop away for a chance to be at Google for an Internship in the future.

That makes me wonder. Does Google end up competing with their own advertisers at some point? You bet they do. And all those analytics YOU pay for make that possible….

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

I just read the soon to be released report on Video Communications that Cynthia Brumfield has authored.

It’s a neat compendium about Video Telephony and Video streaming that covers more than the usual suspects.

If Video is something you care about, you’ll be able to obtain a copy from Cynthia when she gets back from the Cable Show and a trip to New Orleans this week.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

This video illustrates the process of logging on to the AT&T WiFi network at Starbucks, logging on the browser, going to iTunes and seeing the slightly different user experience of buying iTunes music in a Starbucks, as well as seeing what is currently playing and having the option to buy on the spot if you like the song you are hearing.

In simple terms, AT&T does the infrastructure; Starbucks does the physical plant; Apple sells the content.

Media:  OK to call me over the weekend:

Media can call me this weekend on my cell at 210-410-3075. 

Please, no calls on Saturday or Sunday after 7:00 PM CST because of Passover. 

All day Saturday and Sunday is cool, but up until 7:00 PM.

Email is alan at weinkrantz dot com.

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.