ITEXPO kicks off in Miami, Florida

By Stefanie Mosca, TMCnet Web Editor

In preparation for Ingate’s SIP Trunk Unified Communication Summit this week at ITEXPO, the SIP provider held a Pre-Conference Service Provider Workshop on Feb. 1 from 1PM to 6:30PM at the Miami Beach Conference Center in Miami, Florida.

Steve Johnson, president of Ingate, USA, opened the workshop with “The Case for SIP Trunking,” explaining the importance of SIP Trunking and how to obtain SIP Trunk service at a low cost.

The workshop was intended to be an education opportunity for service providers, operators, and subscribers to SIP services. Companies like Broadvox, Earthlink Business, Bandwidth.com andMitel ( News - Alert) explained how their companies offer SIP solutions and shared experiences through case studies based on what attempts are successful and which ones aren’t.

Additional speakers at the workshop included moderator Joel Maloff (News - Alert) of Maloff Net Results, Karl Stahl from Intertex Data AB, Chad Krantz, Broadvox and Scott Yelto of EarthLink Business.

According to Johnson, 75 percent of all PBX (News - Alert) solutions that are deployed today are IP based and deliver SIP trunking capabilities. “We believe SIP is the future of unified communications,” Johnson said.

The workshop explains how SIP services can bring telecommunication services together providing the best possible experience for customers and the best return for service providers.

Chad Krantz of Broadvox covered the next part of the workshop, “Delivering SIP to the Enterprise.” Krantz’s main focus was on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of deploying enterprise SIP services, in an acronym he referred to as SWOT. Krantz touched on different elements of SWOT such as diversified digital/analog SWOT, blended IP SWOT and consolidated UC SWOT.

“SIP is a true revolution within the industry and has so many advantages over traditional VoIP. SIP is here to stay,” Krantz said.

Next up, Karl Stahl from Intertex Data AB took the stage. Johnson introduced Stahl as one of the early visionaries regarding SIP. In the late 90’s, Stahl went to a SIP conference and came away convinced that SIP was going to change the way of telecommunications. At the workshop, Stahl explained the different types of PBX’s to consider as well as why NAT and firewalls create such obstacles when trying to deploy SIP services.

Scott Yelton, director of IP services for Earthlink Business, spoke on “The Value of a Service Provider Demarcation Point.” Yelton touched on IP-PBX testing and interoperability offered from Earthlink Business and how SIP has changed the way IP-PBX’s are used today.

Ingate’s Pre-Conference Service Provider Workshop will continue to run until 6:30PM. Additional parts of the workshop include “Ensuring Interoperability- The Key to Service Revenue Growth,” by Bandwidth.com (News - Alert), “Addressing Security Issues,” a Mitel case study and “Generating Revenue from HD Video,” from the Unified Communications Interoperability forum. A complimentary wine reception will follow the workshop.

If you are in Miami this week for ITEXPO (News - Alert), make sure to stop by Ingate’s UC Summit from Feb. 2-4 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Telepresence - Cisco to Acquire Digital Media Company, Inlet Technologies, for $95 Million

By Carrie Schmelkin, TMCnet Web Editor

Cisco, which touts itself as the worldwide leader in networking transforming how people connect, communicate and collaborate, just got a little bit bigger.

The California-based company announced today that it will be acquiring the privately-held Inlet Technologies (News - Alert) for $95 million. Inlet Technologies, which is a leading provider of Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) digital media processing platforms, was acquired to strengthen the capabilities ofCisco’s ( News - Alert) Videoscape TV platform, allowing service and content providers to deliver compelling video experiences to any device over any Internet Protocol (IP) network, according to Cisco.

"Service and content providers have a tremendous opportunity to deliver exciting video experiences as media consumption increases across mobile, desktop, and smart devices," said Enrique Rodriguez, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco's Service Provider Video Technology Group, in a statement. "Cisco's Videoscape platform will play a key role in reinventing the TV experience, and the acquisition of Inlet will enable our customers to leverage the network as a platform to deliver innovative video experiences to consumers on any device."

The deal is expected to go into effect by the middle of 2011. Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay about $95 million in cash and retention-based incentives in exchange for all shares of Inlet.

Inlet, based in Raleigh, N.C., is constantly “redefining the video experience,” according to its site.

“Through innovative solutions for media preparation that combine striking video quality with surprising simplicity and reliability, Inlet Technologies is enabling you to expand your audience and realize greater value from your content,” company officials state.

Those innovative solutions will be vital in Cisco’s Videoscape platform playing a role in “reinventing the TV experience.” Cisco Videoscape is an all-encompassing service provider solution that allows customers to bring together content from pay TV, online and on-demand sources. That can be combined with content from social media, communications and mobility to create a “truly immersive TV experience,” the company states. Inlet's advanced ABR technology, which is used in streaming multimedia over managed and unmanaged networks, adapts the quality of the video stream based on real-time network conditions.

Cisco was attracted to Inlet’s “strong team” and the fact that it understands the “complexities of delivering ABR video over IP networks to any device,” Cisco said. When the acquisition is finalized, Inlet employees will be integrated into Cisco's Service Provider Video Technology Group.

Inlet Technologies has been popping up in the news all over, even before the announcement of the acquisition, as last January the company was named one of Red Herring’s (News - Alert) 2010 Global 100 winners. The annual award recognizes the 100 most innovative and promising private technology companies across North America, Europe and Asia.

The award comes off a promising year for Inlet in which 2010 marked the company's seventh successive year of growth, with 2010 revenue twice the record revenue achieved in 2009.

Introducing the Cisco UC320W

by ttrentler, http://uc-300.com/

Think of this as the Cisco UC500's little brother. It supports up to 24 phones and should you expand past the capabilities of the system you can move up to the the 500 without replacing your phones.

Learn more abou the cisco UC 320W

Connectivity Options

• 4 FXO Ports
• 1 FXS Port
• 1 WAN 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet Port
• 4 LAN 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet Ports
• 802.11b/g/n WiFi with WiFi Protected Setup
• Audio Line In
• Audio Line Out
• 2 USB Ports

Extra Connecitivity Options

• Up to two Cisco SPA8800 IP Telephone Gateways with 4 FXO ports and 4 FXS ports each. All enabled FXS ports count towards the 24 user maximum.
• One Mediatrix 4400 Series for 1, 2 or 4 Port Basic Rate ISDN (BRI) connectivity.

Supported Cisco Phones on the UC320W

• Cisco SPA300 Series IP Phones
• Cisco SPA500 Series IP Phones
• Analog Phones

ICisco 7900 Series of IP phones are not supported. The UC320W is capable of operating in PBX, Key System and “Blended” mode.

Street price of the UC320W looks like it is under $700.00. We’ll post more information as it becomes available

For more info on the Cisco UC320W click here

Avaya's Web Collaboration Platform Used by Ethernet Inventor

Avaya, a global provider of business collaboration systems, software and services, announced that Robert M. Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet, used Avaya web.alive to enable remote attendees to participate in his first lecture as professor of innovation at the University of Texas at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering.

In a press release, Robert M. Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet, said, “The Internet has given us the ability to collaborate across an 'innovation infrastructure' through which we can brainstorm and mine for solutions to providing cheap, sustainable energy.Avaya web.alive is a perfect example of the kind of innovative technology that can support these efforts and reduce our energy consumption at the same time. I anticipate using Avaya (News - Alert) web.alive for additional lectures, forums and as a virtual office for meeting students and others.”

The lecture, titled "Enernet: Internet Lessons for Solving Energy” was simultaneously delivered in-person to listeners on the university's campus and in real-time to attendees using the Avaya web.alive collaboration environment on Jan. 20. Avaya web.alive is an immersive Web collaboration platform that uses avatars, high-quality graphics, audio and analytics to bring a new dimension to real-time business collaboration among remote participants. Web.alive expands on traditional methods of collaboration, i.e. audio, video and Web conferencing, to provide an engaging, interactive and intuitive environment that meets the requirements of users in any size business.

Mohamad Ali, senior vice president, Corporate Development and Strategy, Avaya, said, “By revolutionizing both the audio and visual experience with 3-D spatial audio and video game graphics technology, Avaya web.alive makes business collaboration across broad geographies and organizations entertaining, productive and highly economical. Whether it’s providing interactive distance learning, immersive on-line customer service, or just a virtual ‘water cooler,’ this secure, enterprise-class virtual environment makes it easy, safe and fun to enable ad-hoc or scheduled collaboration.”

Recently, Avaya was in news when the company announced that its next generation customer service solution, Avaya Aura Contact Center, was chosen as the top contact center product in an independent comparative lab review conducted by MierConsulting.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications & technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO East 2011, taking place Feb 2-4, 2011, in Miami. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.

Talk Is Cheap, VoIP Talk Cheaper

By Carolyn J Dawson

The Bria iPhone (News - Alert) edition gives iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users the option to utilize VoIP calling in tandem with MSI's calling network to make pure VoIP calls from these devices at next-to-nothing prices, without having them to sacrifice on mobile plan minutes. By making use of the iPhone or iPod's existing contact list, Bria iPhone Edition facilitates easy and effective communication management with an intuitive interface that accommodates multiple calls.

In a press release, MSI CEO, John A. Roberts, said, "We are continually testing available products to maximize the MSI user experience, and highly recommend this solution to our clients as what we feel to be the very best SIP application for Apple (News - Alert) i-products. Combining the Bria App (available through the Apple App Store, for $7.99 USD) with MSI's global network provides what we feel to be the best combinations of calling technologies today."

The Bria app allows the user to have up to 8 SIP accounts on their phone and call functionality includes gives them the ability to swap between two calls, merge and split calls and perform attended and unattended transfers. The Bria iPhone Edition is a superior iPhone VoIP application for enterprises since it can also be used as an extension to enterprise client's PBX (News -Alert), thus allowing business users free mobile calls to and from their company's PBX, and instant access to everyone in their offices.

Roberts went on to say, "iPhone is of course, a phone, and therefore you would expect to be able to make calls from it. What is different in using the Bria iPhone Edition is that it is a SIP-based phone that uses a WiFi (News - Alert) or 3G connection to make and receive calls. Therefore customers can make and receive calls without using their cellular airtime. iPod Touch and iPad users can make and receive calls from their devices by using the Bria iPhone Edition, and either a wired earpiece headset, or a Bluetooth wireless headset."

Telepresence - Video is the Communication Channel of the Future

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Technology advancements are an interesting element to watch as so much of what we do is now based in technology. In anticipation of the upcoming ITEXPO East event, TMCnet recently interviewed Gary Anderson, president and CEO ofNetbriefings (News - Alert).

Anderson was asked his opinion on the most significant technology advancements in 2010 and he pointed to the continued adoption of video. When asked his opinion on the video format wars, Anderson shared that all customers should not have to worry about video format wars as vendors will likely address the issue. Anderson also believes that tablet adoption will definitely advance video in the market.

When asked what forms of video were most important, Anderson noted that while live is what everyone thinks about; you need easy on-demand creation particularly on the global market. He also shared that in his view of the future, everything will have video, from collaboration to consumer access. As for when telepresence will become mainstream in the corporate environment, Anderson stressed that he believes it will NOT become mainstream. When asked what factors will play a driving role in desktop video publishing, Anderson said that YouTube (News - Alert) presents a security disadvantage for the enterprise. As for long term growth in video, on-premise tools are on their way out and hosted solutions offer so many more benefits.

Anderson was also asked about social media, and he is s definite believer and has several tools that he uses to interact with customers and for internal collaboration. In the future, he believes it will be easier to connect with people through social media than e-mail. Internally, all employees in his company have Facebook (News - Alert), and LinkedIn, and they blog regularly and use blogs for internal corporate communications. In 2011, Netbriefings will offer tracking functions of the Proclaim family of tools to send out video messages, track in real-time when they are watching it. As for his surprising prediction – possibly people will finally get it that too many face-to-face meetings are a waste of time.

The Ten Challenges of Mobile Video

By Jonathan Rosenberg, Chief Technology Strategist at Skype

On June 7, 2010, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone (News - Alert) 4 to the world. High-definition video recording, a new high-resolution display, a new form factor, and a front-facing camera were some of the new features. However, the feature that gained the most attention was the announcement of Facetime, a video calling feature integrated into iPhone 4. Facetime enables one-to-one video calling between iPhone users with just the single touch of a button. It renders in full screen, and enables the user to send video using either the front or rear-facing cameras (for a see-what-I-see experience).

Reactions to Facetime were mixed. Some heralded it as the arrival of video telephony to mobile. Others saw it as a gimmick. One thing is certain however – Facetime is not the first time a company has attempted to market mobile video telephony. The feature has been around for a while, in fact. European mobile phones with video calling have been available for years. Mobile video telephony was one of the original motivations for 3G investments among mobile operators. However, the feature never took off.

Building a successful mobile video solution requires tackling ten technology challenges:

Limited Front-Facing Cameras

Mobile video requires a front-facing camera to accomplish two-way video chat. This feature is more common outside of the U.S., and is only recently arriving on mobile phones in the U.S. It is possible to provide a “see what I see” feature using the rear-facing camera; this represents a substantially different use case.

Low-Quality Screens

To see the other participant, a large, high-resolution screen is required. Up until the arrival of iPhone and phones with similar form factors, screens have been too small to have a quality video experience.

Limited Networks

Video consumes much more bandwidth than audio. Depending on the size of the screen, continuous bandwidth of between 100knps and 250kbps are typically needed, and even more than that is better. This kind of bandwidth is hard to sustain on wireless networks, and not always available.

Compatibility Challenges

For a video call to work, the other participant needs compatible equipment and software. It can be very difficult for an average user to figure out whether a video call will work, or what to do to make it work. Typically only a small subset of a user’s contacts are reachable on video. This has been especially problematic in solutions that are carrier specific, since users often do not know the mobile operators of their contacts.

Poor Lighting

Good video requires good lighting. This is already problematic in desktop video. In mobile video, where users are under a highly variable set of conditions, and with conditions that change even during the call, the challenges of good lighting are even larger.

Uncentered Video

Users must hold their phones in such a way that the cameras are centered on their faces, and remain centered throughout the calls. This is difficult to do. Since users cannot hold their hands perfectly still there will always be shaking. This reduces the overall quality of the experience.

Discomfort

For calls of any duration, users must hold the cameras at a set distance from their faces, and not change it. This can become uncomfortable after a while. Many users are often uncomfortable with video in general, and don’t want to be seen all of the time.

Limited Use Cases

Mobile phones are often used in cases in which users are wearing Bluetooth headsets and doing something else with their hands. Driving and eating are two examples. Since mobile video requires users to hold the phone, video calls are not possible in these cases.

Insufficient CPU

Decoding and encoding of video are CPU-intensive operations. Many phones do not have sufficient horsepower to run two-way video, especially with the level of quality required. This problem is getting addressed through the natural evolution of mobile CPUs, and is also getting addressed by the presence of dedicated DSPs, which can do the encoding and decoding in hardware.

Poor UI

Video must be easy to use. Many video solutions in the past have had complex UIs that were difficult for the average user to navigate.

These challenges fit into several categories. Some of them are hardware-oriented (limited front-facing cameras, insufficient CPU, low-quality screens), and can be addressed by changes in hardware. Some of them are software-related (compatibility challenges, poor UI), and can be addressed by improvements in software. Others are more fundamental (poor lighting, discomfort), and solutions may be possible through innovation.

Unfortunately, there is no public data available on the usage of Facetime. Whether it has adequately addressed all of these technical challenges to gain market traction, only the future will tell.

Some People Just Don’t Like Headsets…

by Jennifer Adams on 1/26/2011

Ok, I just broke into a sweat writing that headline. What am I talking about? Plantronics is a headset company…isn’t it?

I think the Calisto 800 Series speakerphone system that was announced today helps tell the story that Plantronics is a lot more than a headset company.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the number one UC market driver is the increase and growth of virtual workers, which includes remote workers who operate from their homes all or some portion of the time (Frost & Sullivan 10/08). This product, in development for the past two years, was the result of a small innovation engine within Plantronics that was tasked with finding a solution to the pain points of today’s worker, especially those working from home.

We started with ethnographic research in countries with a high population of remote workers. We purposely didn’t choose Plantronics customers or even headset users. Through observation and interviews we tried to really understand how remote workers spent an average day working from home. And the pain points we uncovered were pretty consistent across the globe.

1. Workers are overwhelmed! They are juggling devices (landlines, mobile phones, PC, speakers and headsets) and collaboration tools (conference calls, webinars, IM, e-mail)
2. Workers are frustrated! Transitions between devices were difficult and it was hard to maintain professional audio quality
3. Workers want options! Some people, when given the choice, would prefer to use a speakerphone to be hands-free if it wasn’t for the inherent limitations (thus my provocative headline)

What are the “inherent limitations” of a speakerphone? One research participant called it the “squawk-box syndrome”. We’ve all been there right? You are on a speakerphone call and you are leaning into is as if the person you are talking to is physically crouching inside the device, and they are still complaining “can you please take me off speaker!?”

Three key tenets evolved for this product:

1. Help workers easily, quickly and with confidence manage communications across devices
2. Focus on a Killer User Experience (oh and make it look cool too!)
3. Provide hands-free options and superior audio performance according to personal workflow and preferences

The group slowly realized that the product that was beginning to take shape in the design sketches was not really taking the shape of a headset. It was starting to look a lot more like a killer hands-free audio solution aimed at empowering today’s remote worker. The Calisto 800 Series multi-device speakerphone system was born.

LifeSize to Demo Its 'LifeSize Room' HD Videoconferencing System

By David Sims, TMCnet Contributing Editor

LifeSize (News - Alert), a division of Logitech, will show how its HD video conferencing systems work for a range of mission-critical agency applications at AFCEA West 2011, currently taking place in San Diego.

LifeSize will showcase LifeSize Room, a product company officials characterize as "a feature-rich HD video communications product for large conference rooms that facilitates continuity of operations, command and control, and emergency preparedness and response," in addition to distance learning, telemedicine and collaboration.

Basically, LifeSize Room "enables video calls with up to eight participants through an embedded HD multipoint control unit, or bridge, offering the quality and user simplicity to make remote communications a more productive, true-to-life experience."

In a unit which company officials claim is "half the size of competitors’" products, LifeSize Room features sharing of presentations, documents and multimedia material among all participants for "improved collaboration with geographically dispersed team members."

LifeSize’s scalability and open source interoperability are being touted by company officials as an alternative to the "centralized, capital-intensive" infrastructure investments currently being made in federal video conferencing applications: "The company’s future-proof video conferencing products enable customers to realize as much as a 40 percent reduction in total cost of ownership by using LifeSize for HD telepresence."

In October TMC's (News - Alert) Paula Bernier wrote that LifeSize unveiled a 16-port videoconferencing bridge that it said will enable organizations to bring HD video to as many parties as they want for multiparty calling.

Mary Miller, director of product marketing at LifeSize, told TMCnet that the company believes the LifeSize Bridge, which offers cinema-quality video at $4,062 per port, will move companies, which until now were hesitant to buy a video bridge, to take the plunge. That’s because LifeSize Bridge is affordable, scalable and offers a high-quality (720p30, 720p60 and 1080p) video experience even at full capacity, Miller said.

It's Simple: Today's Fast Just Isn't Fast Enough

By Isabelle Guis | 20 Jan 2011

It goes without saying that today just about every aspect of life is moving faster, and business communications is no exception. Customers expect instantaneous responses to their inquiries, faster turnaround from their suppliers, and improved versions of products more frequently.

The truth is, compared with tomorrow today's fast just isn't fast enough.

That's good news for small businesses, because it's an area in which they can really shine. Because of their size, small businesses have the ability to be more nimble, quick to respond, and simple and easy to do business with. Many large enterprises can't make that claim. As a business gets larger, complexity often follows, and complexity can greatly hinder speed and ease of doing business.

But while small businesses are less complex compared with their larger counterparts, they also lack the wide-ranging resources of a large enterprise. With that in mind, how can a small business deliver the kind of fast, personalized service that lets them better compete against their larger competitors?

One way is to break down the barriers that come with the abundance of communications options available to just about everyone - email accounts, instant messaging/chat, office phone, home phone, mobile phone. It's true we have more ways than ever to communicate with each other, but that can bring its own set of challenges - especially to a small business that has to do more with less. The answer to that dilemma, of course, is Unified Communications, a technology that simplifies communications by enabling employees to seamlessly use the most appropriate communications device at the most appropriate time.

That's the point - simplicity. Simplifying anything usually results in the process getting faster. Communications is no exception. (The good news is that while there was a time when only larger companies could take advantage of what unified communications has to offer - faster decision-making, greater customer responsiveness, reduced costs - today that's no longer the case. UC is readily available - and affordable - for just about any size business.)

All of which brings me to Avaya IP Office ... Over the past several years, we've taken a good look at our flagship product for small and medium enterprises with an eye toward simplicity, and in turn, speed. As we've made things simpler - with the product itself, how we bring it to market, and how our customers learn to use it - we've also increased how quickly we're able to do all of those things and more. Today, IP Office is simpler, easier and faster to sell and install, and easier for customers to understand, buy, learn and use.

For example, we've identified the key users in small businesses and built applications specifically for them: Mobile Workers, Teleworkers, Receptionists, Customer Service Agents. It makes it much simpler for customers to know what applications they need. These apps have turned what many customers thought was just a "phone system" into something else - a communications tool that can deliver measurable improvements to just about every area of their business, saving time and money and enhancing their ability to serve customers far better than they could ever have hoped to without them.

With our focus on simplicity, installations of IP Office are faster now, too - up to 75 percent faster. Our partners appreciate it - a shorter installation process means more time to serve and sell - and our customers are equally pleased. There are other benefits, too. For those adding a new IP Office system the Linux option enables them to save money and widen the gap from the already low total cost of ownership benefits of IP Office.

Simplicity and speed. Both of these will continue to be imperatives for IP Office. The implications are just too important across the board - for Avaya, our partners and our customers.

How are you addressing simplicity in your business? What have been the results of your efforts? I'd love to hear some great stories about how simplifying communications has helped lift your small business to greater heights.