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Polycom RealPresence Connects Non-standard TIP TelePresence Systems

November 16, 2011

I've written about Polycom supporting TIP (Telepresence Interoperability Protocol) and Cisco's response to Polycom supporting it. Well, today Polycom announced a new software update for Polycom RealPresence Platform designed to "free users locked into proprietary telepresence solutions."

This update will allow customers with standards-based video collaboration solutions, like Polycom, to join calls with non-standard based telepresence systems, like Cisco. The solution is made possible by Polycom's support for the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP), developed by Cisco and only implemented on Cisco TelePresence System suites. The latest RealPresence Platform software update, released today, also further extends interoperability across Microsoft and IBM UC environments.

Posted in Cisco, Microsoft, Polycom, SIP, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP

Cisco UC320W Review

October 5, 2011

Cisco isn’t known for hitting the SOHO/SMB space of 1-24 users, even with their feature-rich, but not entirely inexpensive Unified Communications Manager Express (UCME) product line. UCME’s sweet spot is 30-100 users, while Cisco’s new UC 320W product works with 1-24 users, with a sweet spot of 4-16 users. Also, the big brother to the UC320W, the UC500 has a sweet spot of 12-80 users addressing the small to mid-sized market. The list price of a UC320W system with 10 users, including voicemail is just $995, which is under the psychological $1,000 price-point.

Posted in Cisco, Reviews, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

Cisco Senior Vice President Ian Pennell Keynoting ITEXPO

September 1, 2011

In addition to magicJack Vocaltec keynoting and Internet legend Bob Metcalfe at ITEXPO in two weeks, we also have Cisco Senior Vice President Ian Pennell keynoting as well. TMC has really lined up some major IP communications players at this next ITEXPO, which will be out biggest show ever!

Check out the news:

Cisco's Ian Pennell to Deliver An Opening Keynote Address at ITEXPO West in Austin

Senior Vice President of Cisco’s Small Business Technology Group to Kick-Off ‘The Communications and Technology Conference’

Posted in Cisco, Unified Communications, VoIP

China's telecom patent boom - Is China Ready to Enforce IP?

August 25, 2011

China has a reputation for not enforcing other countries' patents and copyrights, including bootleg DVDs that can be found in just about any major Chinese city street corner. It was even alleged that China's telecom giant Huawei stole Cisco's routing software. According to one article:

Bootleg DVDs in China are very slickly produced and packaged. In fact, many have extra features that make them better than those found on legitimate discs.

Posted in Cisco, TMCnet, Technology and Science, Unified Communications, VoIP, Wireless

Cotendo Accelerates Mobile Content Delivery Via Mobile Acceleration Suite

June 15, 2011

Companies are struggling to keep up with their customer’s mobile browsing usage, which is one of the fastest growing data consumption segments. Problems include limited bandwidth on mobile devices, smaller screens, and limited capabilities, such as no Flash on the iPhone. Companies can lose out on financial transactions if the user experience isn’t good. Part of the challenge is different devices have different capabilities.

Posted in Android, Cisco, Gadgets, Internet, Mobile Phones, PDAs & Handhelds, TMCnet, Wireless

Top 20 VoIP Innovators of All Time

June 13, 2011

VoIP has come a long way since it was first popularized by VocalTec in the mid 1990s. Here is a slideshow of the Top 20 VoIP Innovators of all time with photo captions explaining why they merit this top 20 ranking. Most innovators are companies, but not all. Two important VoIP standards make the list, which cannot be attributed to a single individual or company.

Posted in Asterisk, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, News, Polycom, Reviews, SIP, Skype, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP, Vonage

Blue Jeans Network Bridges Skype, SIP, H.323 for Multipoint Telepresence Solution

May 9, 2011

Blue Jeans Network has been quietly developing a new cloud-based video conferencing and collaboration service that bridges H.323 and SIP end-points, PSTN — and even Skype, with the goal of allowing users to connect everything from high-end video telepresence systems like Tandberg/Cisco and Lifesize to web cams running Skype to desktop IP videophones from Polycom, Grandstream, Cisco, and others. This solves a major problem with video conferencing and telepresence since interoperability, while it has improved, still doesn't take into account legacy H.323 end-points or users that only have inexpensive webcams. Blue Jeans Network plans to support Google and Microsoft Lync as well. Their cloud-based service handles the transcoding of audio and video codecs as well as manages the meeting IDs, PINs, etc.

Posted in Cisco, Digital Cameras, Internet, Lync, Mobile Phones, News, Polycom, SIP, Skype, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, Video Hardware & Software, VoIP

XConnect Has Killer Growth in 2010

March 17, 2011

Back in January 2010 I mentioned how XConnect's peering federation announced at ITEXPO was now offering "High-Definition (HD) Voice Peering Federation". Their federation service for carrier peering let's you carry both HD voice and HD video by passing codecs across carrier networks. I explained one of the stumbling blocks to HD voice when I wrote:

Once you make an outside call then your carrier has to support HD. Further, if your carrier has to hand the call off to another carrier to terminate the call, you need both carriers to have a peering agreement to allow the HD codec to traverse their network.

Posted in Cisco, Microsoft, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

Cisco Responds to Polycom's Adoption of TIP and Interoperability

February 10, 2011

A Cisco representative saw my article about Polycom's announcement to support Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP) and she thought I'd be interested in hearing Cisco's take. David Hsieh, vice president, emerging technologies, Cisco responded to this news announcement as follows:

"We are pleased to hear that Polycom is joining other companies in adopting the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP), the only open, multi-screen Telepresence interoperability protocol available today. TIP, originally developed by Cisco to enable multi-screen telepresence interoperability, was turned over to the IMTC (International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium) to be managed as an industry standard. It is not a Cisco proprietary protocol — it’s an open protocol available to anyone in the industry.

Posted in Cisco, Polycom, Polycom, TMCnet, VoIP

Polycom UC Intelligent Core Platform Supports TIP Standard - Interoperable with Cisco

February 9, 2011

June of last year I wrote about how Cisco had to adopt the open source TIP protocol before the EU would approve Cisco's acquisition of Tandberg:

An interesting back story behind the Cisco acquisition of Tandberg is that Cisco had to make sure Cisco's open source and free TIP (Telepresence Interoperability Protocol) protocol was used. The EU wouldn't approve the acquisition of Tandberg without Cisco agreeing to use this protocol. There have been obvious concerns (including my own) that Cisco/Tandberg could create a proprietary telepresence platform that locked out third-party competitors. Cisco and Tandberg just made an announcement stating advanced multiscreen telepresence interoperability with each other as well as other third-party systems, by integrating the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP) on Cisco's newly acquired Tandberg TelePresence Server.

The fruits of that effort are now realized with today's announcement from Polycom.

Posted in Cisco, Polycom, Polycom, SIP, TMCnet, Video Conferencing, VoIP

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