Unified Communications

Tandberg Movi Review

July 12, 2010

Multi-party HD videoconferencing is often thought of as an expensive proposition that is restricted to special boardrooms with expensive video equipment and large monitor displays. One of the major driving forces behind videoconferencing is its ability to enable collaborative meetings across distances with multiple participants, so having multiple high-tech videoconferencing boardrooms can be cost prohibitive. Further, many employees work from home all or part of the week or travel, which would make attendance at a fixed videoconferencing boardroom impossible. Tandberg, now part of Cisco, aims to solve this problem by combining Mobility and Video, hence the name Movi, a new offering that enables high-definition 720p, 30fps video when used in conjunction with the Cisco's Tandberg PrecisionHD USB camera.

Tandberg sent me the PrecisionHD USB camera to test along with Movi for the best experience, though any HD USB camera would work as well.

Posted in Internet, Reviews, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, Video Hardware & Software, VoIP

fring Video Calling Over 3G on iPhone 4

July 9, 2010

It was just a matter of time before fring updated their iPhone app to take advantage of the iPhone 4's front-facing camera. That day has arrived! With the new fring for iPhone you get 2 way video-calling not just with other iPhone users, but also friends on their Droids or Nokia (Symbian S60) phones.

It supports video calls over 3G as well as Wi-Fi, though obviously performance over 3G isn't as good as Wi-Fi.

Multitasking support is in the new version so you can be always on and available with fring running in the background and alerting you to new video calls, voice calls or chat without proactively opening fring.

It also has a new "Social Stream" feature, which is a chronological stream of all tweets, facebook updates, chats and calls. While the social media stuff is nice to have, the video calling is the killer feature.

Posted in Apple, Mobile Phones, SIP, Skype, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP, Wireless

CounterPath Updates Bria for Mac and Windows

July 6, 2010

Tomorrow, CounterPath is announcing a new release of its softphone client, Bria, one of my favorite SIP clients for the PC and the iPhone. Bria 3.1 for both Mac and Windows will feature UI enhancements, broadcast IM and SMS and improvements to the videoconferencing tool. Just a few weeks ago I asked CounterPath about multiple account support when I wrote, "I asked CounterPath about future features and they told me presence/IM/XMPP, call recording/playback, and the big one being multiple SIP account support were all on the roadmap." Well indeed, 3.1 brings support for multiple accounts. Interestingly, their Linux client already had multiple account support before the Windows or Mac versions, so Linux fans got the first .

Full release after the jump...

Posted in SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP

Cisco Cius HD Android Tablet

June 30, 2010

Cisco unveiled Cisco Cius, a business tablet running on the Android OS that offers "virtual desktop integration with anywhere, anytime access to the full range of Cisco collaboration and communication applications, including HD video." Now before you think iPad killer, you should know that Cisco is focusing this tablet on the business enterprise not the consumer market. It sports WiFi, 3G, and soon 4G when it becomes available. Nice! It also has a front-mounted 720p HD camera supporting 30fps.

I should add that many enterprises are using iPads as laptop replacements, so I wouldn't classify the iPad as strictly a consumer product.

Posted in Android, Cisco, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP

Enterprise Unified Communication, VoIP & TDM Equipment 2010 (1Q10) forecast report

June 28, 2010

Infonetics Research released the 1Q10 results from its first quarter 2010 (1Q10) Enterprise Unified Communication, VoIP, and TDM Equipment forecast report. In it they point to how Cisco and Avaya battle for supremacy in enterprise telephony market with Avaya closing the gap with Cisco due to their Nortel acquisition. Could Avaya finally knock Cisco off their #1 IP-PBX perch?

Here's the news:

ANALYST NOTE
"We expected the acquisition of Nortel's enterprise assets to put Avaya in the clear lead for overall PBX equipment market share leadership, and while Avaya did receive a nice bump this quarter, softness in the acquired Nortel business combined with strong results by Cisco meant that Cisco and Avaya essentially tied for revenue market share, although Avaya is ahead in terms line shipments. This unfolding battle will be interesting to watch over the coming quarter, as both companies bring certain strengths and weaknesses to the table," notes Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise voice and data at Infonetics Research.

1Q10 MARKET HIGHLIGHTS
- Cisco maintains its lead in the overall enterprise telephony market in 1Q10, but only by a hair over Avaya, which saw a 25% quarterly jump in PBX revenue after absorbing Nortel's enterprise solutions business
> Both vendors posted their strongest PBX revenue standings since the end of 2008
- Manufacturer revenue from PBX and KTS system equipment hit $2.0 billion in 1Q10, a 4% sequential dip
- Despite the quarterly decline, the enterprise telephony market continues to grow from the lows set in the first half of 2009, and is up 7% year-over-year from the first quarter of 2009
- The North American PBX equipment market posted the highest year-over-year (1Q09 to 1Q10) growth among all regions
- IP phones continue to recover from their 1Q09 low point, up 32% year-over-year to 3.9 million phones shipped in 1Q10
- Sales of unified communication (UC) applications are temporarily down due to expired promotions
> The UC market, led by Cisco and Avaya, is expected to resume growth in 2010

REPORT SYNOPSIS
Infonetics' quarterly Enterprise Unified Communication, VoIP, and TDM Equipment report provides worldwide and regional market size, market share, analysis, and forecasts through 2014 for the enterprise telephony market, including TDM PBX and KTS systems, hybrid and pure IP PBX systems, IP PBX by system size, VoIP gateways, unified communication applications (communicator, unified messaging), IP desk phones and IP soft phones.

Posted in Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, ShoreTel, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

SkypeKit SDK adds Skype to Just About Anything

June 22, 2010

Skype today announced that soon every Internet connected device can now become a Skype endpoint with the addition of the SkypeKit SDK. The Panasonic line of TVs that integrated Skype used an early version of SkypeKit (as well as LG and Samsung TVs). Other connected devices like wireless picture frames could soon be Skype-enabled. The SDK will leverage Skype's wideband SILK codec.

Posted in Home Entertainment, Skype, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

CounterPath Announces Linux Softphone

June 2, 2010

Today, CounterPath has announced its Bria for Linux softphone client. Bria for Linux will support multiple VoIP accounts, LDAP, a wide variety of codecs and more. The new Bria 3.0 for Linux will debut next month, however CounterPath said it has already ben deployed by two Fortune 500 companies. CounterPath is well-known for it's industry-leading SIP clients, both free (X-Lite) and paid (Bria), so perhaps the biggest advantage of this announcement is that enterprises can have a single SIP application that enables VoIP across embedded products, Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems.

Posted in SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP

Sangoma and HP Partner on UC Platform

May 12, 2010

I saw a release a couple of weeks ago about Sangoma entering into an OEM relationship with a "major computer and networking equipment supplier", which really piqued my interest since I'm a Sangoma telephony card fan. The release however doesn't name the company.

However, it got me thinking that there are not many companies that sell computer AND networking equipment. The only two companies that came to mind are Intel and HP (which now owns 3Com now). I doubt Intel would ink a deal with Sangoma since Intel already tested the telephony waters with Dialogic which they bought & then sold.

That leaves HP.

I did some digging and a source told me that they saw a Sangoma logo on some HP hardware at the last VoiceCon show.

Posted in Microsoft, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

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