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Travel travails aside, I've arrived at my hotel in Glendale Arizona for the start of Astricon.
Already there is news coming out of the event, as it was announced that speech rec vendor Lumenvox is powering VXI* 3.1 from I6NET, a company specializing in Interactive Voice & Video Response technologies, VXI* is designed to enable a wealth of existing VXML applications to run on the Asterisk PBX platform, and to enable developers to create new speech recognition solutions.
Jim Webster, Director of Technology Partnerships at Digium said in a press release, "SMB and Fortune 500 companies that service millions of users on Asterisk platforms can now run VXML-based speech solutions. This allows both developers and Asterisk users to take advantage of low-cost and robust speech solutions, with the economies of scale Asterisk provides."
LumenVox's Speech Engine is natively integrated with Asterisk and distributed and supported by Digium. VXI* 3.1 is available online from I6NET.
Make sure to bookmark the Asterisk community on TMCnet to ensure you stay up to date with all the news that will be made at Astricon this week.
If you follow open source telephony, today is a good day for news from the major players in the market.
Digium
Digium kicks off the ITEXPO open source news review today. The Huntsville-based creators of Asterisk announced that Camrivox Limited, a unified communications technology vendor that designs solutions that unify telephony with on-demand CRM applications has joined their technology partnership program.
The Camrivox Flexor CTI Software family of products offers SMBs a simple way to marry on-demand CRM (Customer Relationship Management) applications with IP PBX telephony and VoIP handsets. The company's upcoming release of Flexor Connect for Asterisk brings an extra dimension to the Asterisk community and follows through with tangible benefits to businesses focused on maximizing their customer interaction.
The partnership will allow Asterisk users to benefit from other Flexor CTI Software products, including CTI for Outlook, Salesforce, NetSuite, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Sangoma
Sangoma Technologies today announced its newest product line, dubbed NetBorder Express VoIP Gateway Cards. Sangoma's cards, in concert with this new set of software building blocks combine to deliver a SIP to TDM VoIP Gateway solution. Integrators and developers can also use the new solution to develop SIP-based applications such as iPBX, IVRs, and Conferencing Servers.
The cards include Telco-grade, hardware echo cancellation, and customers can purchase up to eight spans on a single board and can deploy multiple boards in a server.
Current owners of Sangoma's T1/E1 card with hardware echo cancellation can download a trial version of the software at: www.sangoma.com/nbe_trial/.
Fonality
Fonality used ITEXPO as a venue to announce a major upgrade to their unified communications platform, HUD and released HUD 3.0. The solution ties presence management and detection into a single interface to be used by employees for all types of office communications, including SMS, instant message, landline calling, mobile calling, chat, voicemail, email, conferencing, recording and barging.
Other features include Photo caller ID, Google Talk integration, Mobile presence, Busy-Ring Back, Visual conferencing, Visual voice mail and more.
PIKA
PIKA Technologies also made headlines today when they announced that they were receiving rave reviews from customer deploying their WARP appliance since launching the product in June.
PIKA WARP the Appliance was created expressly for companies that build Linux-based custom IP-PBXs as well as other telecommunications solutions such as IVRs, dialers and logging systems, using both proprietary and open source software. Because of its compact size and cost effective pricing, the WARP appliance is ideal for small and medium enterprises.
OrecX
Last, but certainly not least, OrecX -- the primary developer and sponsor of the open source call recording initiative managed by Oreka -- announced that OPTSP CO.LTD, a Tokyo, Japan-based distributor has secured an exclusive contract to support and distribute their Oreka TR call recording solution in the Japanese market.
All of the above companies are exhibiting at ITEXPO this week.
· Digium will be in the Open Source pavilion.
· Sangoma will be in booth 519.
· Fonality is in the Open Source pavilion and booth 402.
· PIKA will be in the Communications Developer section of the show floor at ComDev 102.
· OrecX will be in the Open Source pavilion.
If you're interested in open source telephony come on down to the LA Convention Center and meet these companies for yourself.
The Exhibit Hall is open today (Wednesday September 17) from 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm, and tomorrow (Thursday September 18) from 11:00 am - 5:00pm.
If you register online, you can save the $50 onsite registration fee.
The first bit of news I saw today was that Fonality had landed $12 million worth of financing from a pair of investors including Draper Fisher Jurveston and Intel Capital. Good for Fonality. Good for open source. Simply put, I think this type of investment underscores the viability of building telecommunications products on open source, and frankly is another tolling of the bell, signaling that the traditional closed approaches are no longer suitable.
Fonality's CEO Chris Lyman said in the official press release, that the infusion of funds, "...gives us the freedom to further accelerate our growth and acquisition strategy."
I'm curious to see how this plays out.
Fonality, who announced they had joined IP phone maker snom's ecosystem this week, will be presenting their trixbox Open Communication Certification Courses at the upcoming INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO at the Los Angeles Convention Center on September 16-18.
Interested developers and resellers can sign up for FtOCC Admin, which prepares people to sell and install trixbox, or FtOCC Technician which focuses on trixbox support and troubleshooting. Both courses are part of the Fonality trixbox Open Communication Certification (FtOCC, pronounced "F-talk") series.
Sangoma Technologies has just announced that it will acquire Paraxip Technologies Inc. for $4.8 million, payable as $1.9 million in cash and 2.3 million Sangoma common shares.
Paraxip develops IP connectivity software designed to empower the deployment of IP Telephony applications. Customers include IBM, Genesys (a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent), First Data Corporation, and the State of California.
The integration of Paraxip's SIP-based NetBorder suite into Sangoma's product line provides Sangoma with a growth path that includes the Unified Communications market, IP contact centers, commercial interactive voice response solutions and other SIP-based telephony markets.
According to the release announcing the acquisition, the combined products and channels of the two companies considerably extend Sangoma's current addressable market range by providing support for all software-based telephony applications.
"This acquisition is part of Sangoma's strategy for addressing the expanding market for telephony applications of all types, particularly the segment of the market that demands proprietary, well supported solutions," said David Mandelstam, President and CEO of Sangoma Technologies.
VoIP Supply today announced a new promotion whereby they will be offering free shipping on a large portion of their Sangoma product portfolio.
The list of Sangoma products which are available with free ground shipping includes the following cards:
- A101
- A101D
- A102
- A102D
- A104
- A104D
- A108
- A108D
These cards are all part of Sangoma’s family of Advanced Flexible Telecommunications (AFT) hardware product line, available in either PCI or PCI Express formats.
The A101 supports up to 2.048 Mbps of full duplex data through-put or up to 30 voice calls over a single T1, E1, or J1 line.
The A102 provides two ports of optimized voice and data over T1, E1, and JI. The card supports up to 60 voice calls or 4.096 Mbps of full-duplex data throughput over two T1, E1, or J1 lines.
The A104 doubles up the 102, supporting up to 120 voice calls or 8.192 Mbps of full-duplex data throughput over four T1, E1, or J1 lines.
Lastly, the A108 octal card, which provides up to 16.4Mbps of full duplex data throughput or 240 voice calls over eight T1 and or E1 lines.
All AFT cards offer optional availability of Octasic’s DSP hardware and certified algorithms for echo cancellation and Voice Quality Enhancement (VQE) functions.
Dell has selected Fonality as a go-to-market partner for offering VoIP phone systems to SMB customers.
According to the Fonality “CEO/Janitor’s Blog”
Dell spent 2007 scouring the market for telephony partners to serve its customer base. They were looking for two different types: an enterprise-focused solution for their larger customers and a low-cost / high performance solution for their SMB customers — one that could be self-managed. Dell has selected Fonality for the latter.
This news serves to validate the legitimacy of Open Source solutions and Asterisk-based IP telephony solutions in particular.
Fonality is exhibiting at ITEXPO, which starts today. So come on down to the show at the Miami Beach Convention Center and see the latest and greatest IP Communications solutions on display.
I look forward to seeing you here!
PIKA Technologies Inc., announced that its PIKA for Asterisk family of analog and digital boards is now compatible with Fonality’s trixbox CE.
This announcement comes in advance of PIKA’s participation in Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO’s Open Source Pavilion in Miami, Florida, which begins tomorrow.
The PIKA for Asterisk suite comprises a range of hardware and software designed to support applications built on the open-source Asterisk platform. These building blocks are designed to provide cost-effective, reliable network connectivity to bridge between legacy networks and Asterisk-based IP telephony applications.
So come on down to ITEXPO’s exhibit hall, which is set to open at 6pm tomorrow evening (that’s Wednesday January 23rd) and check out the Open Source Pavilion, located at the front end of aisles 700–900.
I look forward to seeing you there!
Digium, has announced a major milestone — the one millionth download of Asterisk in 2007!
The company issued a release today touting their achievements over the past year, including “new executive appointments, industry awards, strategic partnerships and acquisitions aimed at further advancing the company’s presence in the small-to-medium-sized (SMB) VoIP market.”
Congrats to the team in Huntsville!
For more information, check out Digium’s news page.
Not wasting any time when it comes to leveraging their recent acquisition of Switchvox, Digium today announced the availability of Switchvox Free Edition.
According to Digium VP, Bill Miller, the solution will be available for download from Digium’s Web site, starting immediately.
The company also announced the re-launch of its partner program today.
I have a full write-up here.
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