Greg Galitzine's VoIP Authority Blog - Video Archives

Manhattan School of Music Teaches the World

2009-04-14T13:41:31Z

Back in a previous life (GG:BTMC) I worked on Manhattan's Upper West Side managing a stationery store that was an outgrowth of a successful private bookstore serving the needs of the students at Columbia University, Barnard College, and Manhattan School of Music (MSM).

It was a fun period of my life and I was treated to a pleasant reminder of that time by a news item that came across my desk today, namely that MSM was leveraging distance learning powered by Polycom's HD Telepresence solutions to extend their classrooms to the world.

MSM has reportedly been using distance learning since 1996, allowing approximately 1,700 students around the world to participate in classes, workshops, and clinics to help them master their craft. Currently they are using the Polycom HDX 8000 and HDX 9000 series room telepresence and VSX 8000 series video conferencing systems to reach their audience.

As the technology evolved so too did the opportunity to reach more students, more effectively.

According to composer/conductor Robert Sirota, president of MSM, "Our use of visual communication has changed the way we do music instruction at this school in a very profound way."

"It's effective because it quickly becomes invisible," added Sirota. "After 10 or 15 minutes of using the system, you're less and less aware that you're engaged in a high-tech video call. You're simply working. You're talking and you're teaching across the world."

Polycom solutions are equally at home in the classroom and the doctor's office as well as enterprises across the world of course. My upcoming VoIP Authority column covers the release of their latest desk phone (the VVX 1500) and their latest offering for the healthcare space (Polycom Practitioner Cart HDX series).

Dimension Data Drives Productivity, Cost Savings

2009-03-31T02:10:33Z

Down at the VoiceCon show in Orlando today I had the opportunity to meet with Mark Zerbe of Dimension Data. Zerbe is vice president, Converged Communications at the IT services and solutions provider.

Our discussion ranged to include a series of topics, but the key message that Zerbe spoke to was the fact that clients today want to talk about solutions that drive productivity and cut costs.

Zerbe told me that he believes that integrated collaboration is the technology wave for clients to ride this economic transition, in fact, he said, "IC may turn out to be the wave that helps pull us out of this 'transition.'"

I asked him to explain why it seems that video collaboration solutions seem to have taken off recently, to which he responded:

"Cisco Telepresence + Microsoft OCS + slow economy are combining to drive the market to adopt integrated video solutions."

The proof of course is in what the customers think:

The confluence of these technologies is helping to transform organizations, and customers are saying that these solutions are driving productivity and saving them money.

DIRECTV Tops for Would-Be TV Service Switchers... Really?

2009-03-26T13:15:12Z

Seeking Alpha has an article titled, Who's Winning the Cable Service Provider Wars? that discusses a recent ChangeWave survey.

While some of the results make perfect sense, other results may surprise you as they did me.

ChangeWave surveyed 2,830 respondents and found that price is now the key issue when consumers decide to switch TV service providers. Given the state of the economy, that's not too surprising. Apparently 48% of respondents who plan to switch their cable, satellite or fiber-optic TV provider in the next six months say price is the primary reason.

Slightly more surprising, but perhaps understandable is the fact that when asked how satisfied they were with their current TV service provider, respondents overwhelmingly gave fiber-optic TV services high marks.

According to the research, Verizon's FiOS service tops the list in terms of having the highest percentage of customers who say they are Very or Somewhat Satisfied with their provider. AT&T's U-Verse service is second. DIRECTV and DISH Network came in third and fourth respectively, followed by cable.

That surprises me. The part about cable being last. Perhaps familiarity breeds contempt?

But what really surprises me is that the survey results say that DIRECTV tops the list of providers that switchers plan to move to in the next 6 months. Following behind, Verizon's FiOS and AT&T's U-Verse services drew the same level of interest.

If it's based on price alone, then I would assume it's because DIRECTV offers the best deal. I know they have a basic package for ~$30/ month, but I didn't really research how it compares with other offerings from competitors, so I can't say what kind of value that brings to the table.

I had looked into switching to FiOS, but it was unavailable in my town as of now, and I assume that fiber is more reliable than satellite, and would offer higher bandwidth throughput.

AT&T's U-Verse must be doing some serious advertising, because of all the people in our office who have been tempted to switch, exactly none of them were satisfied with the experience, be it for lack of bandwidth to support multiple HD streams, or simply a lack of availability. (Don't service providers generally know whose house they can reach before they send a truck?)

For what it's worth, I am satisfied with my cable provider (Cablevision) and with the variety of programming that's available. Sure the price could be lower, but the service works, and it's reliable. The HD is satisfactory, and they just started offering a WiFi service in the area (Optimum WiFi - see Rich's blog for his take on this enticement). And yes I subscribe to a three-service bundle, (with excellent Internet and very good phone service) which helps my overall perception.

And I should mention I live in a hilly area, with lots of trees and frequent cloud cover, and I don't see many dishes in our neighborhood, so I'm not sure if that affects my perception of satellite-based television service, but I'm just a bit surprised that DIRECTV was tops on the list for people who were planning to switch.

Digital TV Transition Put on Hold

2009-01-27T02:55:53Z

Delays, Delays...

Looks like the pending transition to digital TV (DTV) will be pending a while longer.

Reports abound that the Senate has unanimously voted to delay the cutover to DTV from the original February 22^nd date to mid June.

Now, consumers have until June 12 to decide whether they want to buy a converter box, a digital television, or switch to a cable or satellite service.

Polycom Q4 Results Announced

2009-01-21T22:10:22Z

Polycom announced their quarterly earnings today and the results were a mixed bag.

The Pleasanton, CA-based maker of voice and video equipment announced adjusted Q4 EPS of 42 cents, which was ahead of analysts' estimates of 40 cents.

The company also announced growth from its video services segment which accounted for two-thirds of consolidated net revenues at $141.7 million (this includes video communications - 54% and networks systems - 13%). The voice communications segment of the company's business accounted for 33% or $87.1 million, which is down as compared to Q407 when voice generated 37% of consolidated net revenues or $98.4 million.

Robert Hagerty, the firm's chairman and CEO addressed Polycom's successes in 2008 as well as the challenging economic climate and his outlook for the company into 2009:

We are pleased to have surpassed the $1 billion revenue mark in 2008. As the largest company in the Unified Collaboration industry, Polycom generated year-over-year growth in our Video Solutions business, illustrating the resilience of our fast-ROI video offering. With our Voice business showing more sensitivity to the economic environment, Polycom proactively took action in Q4 to reduce our operating cost structure and, as we announced earlier this month, we have implemented a restructuring plan designed to optimize our cost structure as we move into 2009

With our rapid pace of innovation and the full breadth of our offering, we believe Polycom is the best positioned in the industry to deliver the cost-savings benefits of video adoption to our customers. Our strategic partnerships with Avaya, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, and others enable us to provide integrated solutions that capture the full benefits of Unified Collaboration. These partnerships differentiate Polycom as the solutions provider of choice for companies who describe our collaboration solution as a strategic technology investment. In spite of the challenging economy, through our leading solutions and go-to-market strategy and, of course, our improved cost structure, we expect to continue to gain strength competitively in 2009 and to deliver solid operating results.

Our Growing Family

2009-01-08T21:11:47Z

Sometimes we get so busy we don't notice the great things that occur right under our noses.

In the past few months we've welcomed several new voices to the TMC blogosphere, and we continue to expand our roster of industry experts who go out of their way to share their expertise with our audience. You simply can't find such a great lineup of IP Communications related bloggers and columnists anywhere.

Among our constellation of writers, there's one I wanted to draw your attention to today. Tsahi Levent-Levi is a Product Manager at RADVISION and he writes the Talking Video blog at TMCnet.

Check it out. You won't be sorry.

In today's entry, he addresses the video calling market and where he sees this market gaining traction.

And keep an eye on TMCnet, for we have new bloggers and columnists appearing every week.

And lastly, if you want to be a star in the firmament of TMCnet bloggers or columnists, let me know. I'd be happy to welcome you to our growing family.

Panda Warns on High School Musical Borne Viruses

2008-11-24T17:52:12Z

Attention parents: In case you weren't aware, there are bad people online. Bad people who would disguise viruses, worms, and Trojans as innocent-looking files such as songs and videos related to Disney's popular movie franchise High School Musical.

According to officials at PandaLabs, the research division of Panda Security, there's a growing rash of infected files being distributed through peer-to-peer file sharing networks such as eMule and eDonkey.

Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs said:

"Cyber-crooks are exploiting the interest of the numerous fans of these films, by hiding their creations in files with names related to High School Musical. An added danger is that many of these fans are very young and as such are more likely to fall into the trap. It is therefore a good idea to give young children a basic grounding in IT security."

When users run these infected files their computers can be affected by malicious code such as VB.ADQ, the Agent.KGR Trojan, the adware Koolbar, and other nasty stuff.

Meetings Galore

2008-11-12T07:24:12Z

Trade shows serve as a wonderful opportunity to meet with a large number of companies and individuals in a very condensed time frame. Today I got to meet with a rather large and diverse group of companies operating in the IP Communications space.

First among today's meetings was a visit with Todd Woodstra, vice president of unified communications and emerging markets for SpinVox, the voicemail to text company.

SpinVox captures spoken messages and converts them into text. It then delivers these messages via e-mail.

On Tuesday, SpinVox announced that they were playing a major part in Avaya's new Speech to Text solution, along with Mutare Software's EVM gateway.

SpinVox provides the core recognition technology that provides the conversion of the voicemail file to text.

According to Woodstra, SpinVox is only company in this space that can provide the needed scalability to yield a successful solution. To drive the point home, he told me that SpinVox is already deployed at 13 carriers spanning 5 continents.

The service bridges silos of audio files into text and makes those files actionable and searchable, which empowers end users.

I look forward to trialing the SpinVox solution shortly.

Yesterday I wrote about Mitel and how they were getting into the Telepresence space in addition to offering an upgraded suite of Unified Communications solutions.

Today I spoke with Mitel's Kevin Johnson, director of analyst and consultant relations, who shared more details about the company's announcement.

In addition to the telepresence portion of the announcement, Johnson spoke of several upgrades including a revamped UC desktop client for users (Mitel Unified Communicator) and extended mobile integrations for Windows Mobile and Nokia devices and a similar integration on Blackberry devices, which enable mobile users to access PBX functionality when on the go.

Johnson touched on the economy and mentioned that in these trying economic times, UC solutions must offer fast, well defined payback to be seriously considered.

Johnson said Mitel offers UC Solutions "for the real world" -- marketing speak that underscores the company's pragmatic approach to marketing products and benefits to the real world.

I also met with Mike Storella and Michael Knieling of snom, who were excited with the launch of their latest desk phone, the snom 820.

The new 820 phone includes snom's foray into the wideband audio space, and features the company's klarVOICE technology.

Other features include an HD display, WiFi functionality which offers a way to deploy the phone quickly without having to draw a wire to the desk, secure VoIP with SRTP and TLS as well as all the usual standard advanced business-class calling features one expects on a device of this quality.

Storella mentioned that the phone was competitively priced, and that he has high hopes for this new line. According to Storella, the new phone has a faster processor, more memory, and can support other applications moving forward.

Moving on to a visit with Sprint to discuss their fixed mobile convergence solutions, I met with Dan Johnson, manager of voice services at Sprint.

Sprint had earlier announced its latest Wireless Integration with Cisco's Unified Communications Manager. This integrated mobility solution is designed to deliver fixed mobile convergence to businesses on Sprint's Now Network.

Johnson walked me through a demonstration of the solution, and I must say the demo was flawless. Dialing from a mobile device I rang a desk phone, which Johnson then seamlessly transferred to a Blackberry -- and back again -- with absolutely no interruption.

Sprint also has an offering designed to work with Avaya's unified communications solutions and is in talks with yet a third manufacturer for use with their system. As they say, watch this space.

U4EA delivers solutions that include its Multi-Service Business Gateways (MSBG) that are designed to enable affordable UC solutions for the SOHO, SMB and geographically dispersed enterprises. U4EA's devices combine routing, switching, VoIP, session control, call admission control, security and, most importantly, QoS for managing unified communications at the WAN/LAN boundary.

The big news this week was that U4EA became a Platinum Member of Polycom's ARENA partner ecosystem program.

According to Jim Burton, CEO of CT Link and Co-founder of UCStrategies.com, "Vendors like U4EA and Polycom can help bring it all together in an integrated platform. Unified communications by definition needs to be an integrated solution, especially for SMBs, so combining Polycom's platform of voice and video devices with U4EA's integrated boundary device with its strong QoS can be a big piece of the integrated solution."

Later, I had the opportunity to meet with ShoreTel's director of product marketing Jeff Ridley who told me about the new ShoreTel Converged Conferencing 7.1 solution, which works with the ShoreTel 8.1 Call Manager.

The solution allows users to quickly host meet-me audio and Web conferences, chat securely via IM, and instantly share documents. All this can be done with a single mouse click from the same interface they use for voice communications.

The solution allows users to schedule one-time, recurring and reservation-less conferences, which greatly increases the flexibility to add and employ conferencing tools as needed during a call.

Regarding the economy, Ridley believes that companies are approaching purchases with increased caution these days. He pointed out that often the purchasing decision comes down to TCO, with companies scrutinizing more than just the acquisition costs.

Regardless of the economy, Ridley believes that business is driven by change and customers are driven by events unique to them. For ShoreTel's part, he says that there are two things they focus on: Trying to continue to make the user experience easy and helping to make unified communications more accessible to people.

Due to time constraints I was not able to get a demo of the latest ShoreTel system. For that, I look forward to tomorrow.

And tomorrow will bring part II of my recap of today's meetings.

MItel Expands UC Portfolio, Adds Telepresence

2008-11-10T17:28:02Z

Mitel has unveiled some new twists to its Unified Communications portfolio including a brand-new telepresence platform, which will be commercially available in Q109. Mitel's TeleCollaboration Solution is designed to improve the telepresence experience with enhanced collaboration capabilities including desktop sharing and recording for a 'better-than-live' interaction.

Mitel is also introducing several new UC clients that are tailored to different worker needs, including:

Mitel Unified Communicator (UC) Express - a desktop UC client that provides productivity enhancements like click-to-call, incoming caller ID pop-up, call history, speed calls list, plus personal and corporate directory integration with public IM presence engines.

Mitel Unified Communicator (UC) Advanced - a comprehensive client that integrates presence and availability, secure IM, audio conferencing and video and data collaboration. Mitel UC Advanced provides simplified access to commonly used Mitel and third-party applications via a 'launchpad' designed to enhance productivity. UC Advanced integrates with Microsoft applications (Exchange, Outlook, Active Directory, Office, and Internet Explorer) and IBM Lotus (Notes) while providing an open API to enable tailored integration into business process software like salesforce.com and Microsoft CRM.

Mitel Unified Communicator (UC) Mobile - makes it easier for customers and colleagues to reach employees by providing a single number and single mailbox regardless of the device being used. Mobile calls can be placed over the enterprise network to minimize long distance charges. In addition, users can transfer calls between their mobile and desk phones reducing cellular minutes. Mobile operating systems now supported include Windows Mobile, Symbian (Nokia), and RIM BlackBerry.

Look! Up in the Sky...

2008-11-10T17:16:07Z

It's such a cliché, but I can't help myself.

It's my first Internet experience at 36,000 feet.

I sent an e-mail to my brother in law: "You'll never guess where I am right now..."

I remember those in-flight phones too, back in the day. Yes I called my folks the first time I was able to call from on high...

In any event... I can finally say I've blogged from 38,000 feet.

American Airlines. GoGo Wireless. Blazing fast speeds. 25% off coupon... No complaints.

I'm heading to out to VoiceCon, where I've lined up a bunch of meetings over the course of the week. I'll try to post stories of what I see at the show as fast as I can, but plans call for meeting with as many companies as possible, so there's scarce downtime during the event for blog posts.

One thing I plan to do is keep up with the TMCnewsroom and the daily video news broadcasts. You can too, just by bookmarking this link.

That's it for now...

Obama Wins, Internet Rocks

2008-11-05T19:50:43Z

TMCnet's Jessica Kostek has an interesting story on how the election and post-election reaction played out on the Internet last night.

I actually stepped away from my keyboard around 10:15 pm last night (ET) and watched the results play out on the TV screen in my living room.

Yesterday's historic election produced record turnout, and voters elected the first African-American president in Barack Obama.

In his acceptance speech, Obama spoke of delivering on his promise of change but recognized that he and his administration will face enormous challenges from a painful economic crisis and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama's victory led the Democratic party to a sweeping victory that will see them hold majorities in both houses of Congress.

With that kind of clout, it will be interesting to see what an Obama presidency means for telecommunications and for technology in general.

There are a number of important issues on the table, from patent and trade issues to net neutrality to a proposed expansion of H1-B visa rules -- all issues whose effects will be felt in Silicon Valley and beyond.

First up, Obama needs to decide who his CTO will be. When he launched his bid for the presidency, Obama spoke of the need to create a cabinet-level position -- a national chief technology officer -- who would seek to create more jobs through technology.

We'll see how this all plays out. Be sure to check back often to TMCnet to stay up to date with all the latest news and opinion.

And check out our new video archive, featuring daily news in the form of the TMC Newsroom as well as video interviews featuring the industry's leading movers and shakers.

Ifbyphone Launches iPhone Conferencing App

2008-10-30T12:12:39Z

Ifbyphone today announced a new conference call application for Apple's iPhone.

Available immediately on the iTunes App Store, the Conference Call App enables users to set up ad hoc conference calls from their iPhones or iPod touch devices, or to arrange conference calls in advance.

It's as easy as choosing a group of recipients the contacts in the iPhone address book and tapping on "schedule conference."

This is the second Ifbyphone application available on the iTunes App Store following up on Ifbyphone's popular Voice Broadcast app.

The Conference Call App is free to download, and includes 100 free minutes of conference calling per month, with an option to upgrade for additional minutes.

Logitech Dials Up SightSpeed

2008-10-29T11:55:24Z

Logitech International has announced that it will acquire SightSpeed Inc. for approximately $30 million in cash. SightSpeed offers consumers and businesses high-quality, SIP-based Internet video communications services, including video conferencing, video chat, video voicemail, collaboration tools, and more.

According to the announcement:

The acquisition of SightSpeed will provide Logitech with video calling technology and a software and services development team that can be focused on future video calling initiatives that can enable cross-platform video communications with an intuitive, lifelike experience, for people sitting in front of a personal computer or with their family in a living room.

I've used the service before and I must admit the quality was very good in my experience. The software got a recent boost by being featured on CBS' morning news program.

Congratulations to Peter Csathy and the rest of the SightSpeed team.

The acquisition is expected to close in early November.

FiOS TV Hits Million Mark

2008-01-28T18:30:53Z

They say that in times of financial distress a nation turns to the movies for entertainment. But with movie theaters charging 9, 10, 11 bucks a head to watch the latest Hollywood offerings, a night out for a family of 4, when coupled with popcorn by the bushel, soda by the gallon and a King-size pack of Twizzlers is easily going to approach the dreaded $100 mark….

For a night at the movies!

Maybe that’s why Verizon is enjoying such a successful deployment of its FiOS TV service, announcing today that it has surpassed the 1 million customer threshold.

At $42.99/month for the basic TV service there would still be enough left over from a single visit to the local multiplex to throw in a movie channel package featuring over 40 movie channels ($12.99), a Sports package ($7.99) and what the heck… since American Idol is only on so often, throw in a Karaoke package for another $7.99.

Shh... We're Videotaping This Interview

2008-01-16T17:08:46Z

TMCnet’s newest contributor, Jon Arnold will be in Miami Beach at the Internet Telephony Conference and EXPO next week moderating several panels, including A Look at Hosted VoIP, Intelligent Interconnects in the VoIP Peering Environment, and The State of IPTV

Jon will also be seen hustling about the event in the company of a cameraman, as they videotape a series of interviews with various executives and thought leaders in the space. These interviews will be hosted on TMCnet as well as on IPConvergenceTV.com as part of a joint initiative aimed at educating the market.

Watch for these video interviews to start appearing online shortly after the event.