Yesterday, Sangoma Technologies and Octasic Semiconductor, Inc. announced a partnership in which Sangoma will bundle a free six-port license for Octasic’s SoftEcho solution with Sangoma’s standard A200 and A400 analog cards.

 

I had the opportunity to ask Frédéric Bourget, Director of Product Management at Octasic for his thoughts on the subject.

 

 

GG: Why did Octasic choose to partner with Sangoma on this deal?

FB: We have worked with Sangoma in the past on a multitude of high-density hardware projects. They are a great company, with good quality products, so our high-quality echo cancellation solution is a nice fit. It has been our pleasure to work with them for as long as we have.

 

GG: Are there any plans to expand the relationship in the near future to include other solutions?

FB: Currently, all Sangoma cards use Octasic’s echo cancellation software or hardware solutions.

 

GG: Isn’t it more efficient to provide echo cancellation in hardware than software, and is there a point where developers need to make a choice between hardware and software?

FB: It is more efficient to do so in hardware rather than software; however, with low-density, there is plenty of overhead available on a PC’s CPU… so it makes sense to use that overhead rather than spend money on hardware. That is why we cut to six channels on the Sangoma product.

 

GG: What are the benefits of a software approach to echo cancellation?

FB: Cost savings is the primary benefit. If it runs on a PC, you’ve already paid for the CPU.