Video Conferencing

Microsoft Lync Meets Video Kinect on Xbox 360

November 22, 2010

During my New York City demo with Microsoft's Lync team a few weeks ago I discussed with one of the Microsoft employees the Kinect for the Xbox 360 and how it would be a perfect fit for Microsoft Lync. He hinted it would indeed be coming. The Kinect is basically a two-camera system, comprised of one 640x480 color camera and another 640x480 IR depth-finding camera using for mapping objects in 3D. Kinect already offers video chat with Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger system, but that is more of a consumer-based app. Certainly adding Microsoft Lync support to Kinect makes a lot of sense.

Posted in Lync, Microsoft, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, Video Games & Gaming, VoIP

Adobe Launches Adobe Connect 8

November 1, 2010

Adobe today announced Adobe Connect 8, a significant update to the company’s Web conferencing solution for enabling Web meetings, online training and webinars. Based on the ubiquitous Adobe Flash Player software, the latest version provides enterprises and governments worldwide with broad capabilities for delivering rich experiences across multiple devices, while maintaining easy, reliable meeting entry.

Perhaps the most interesting new feature is the addition of two-way Universal Voice that allows customers to bridge audio from any conferencing provider into an Adobe Connect room and provide two-way communication between participants on both VoIP and telephone audio. Another nifty feature is the improved drag-and-drop interface that lets the meeting leader grant meeting attendees video, audio, or on-screen sharing capabilities, or change attendee roles on the fly during the meeting. New views allow presenters to quickly get vote counts and easily control breakout sessions.

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

Panasonic Demos their HD Visual Communications System

October 4, 2010

Attendees of the 2010 World Business Forum will see the Panasonic HD Visual Communications System (HDVC) in action. As the Official Video Conference System of this year’s Forum, the Panasonic HDVC will take center stage for use during long-distance Q&A sessions. The World Business Forum takes place October 5 and 6 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. It's too bad I'm in the opposite Coast in Los Angeles, California attending ITEXPO, since I would have liked to have checked this out in person. Come to think of it, they should be exhibiting at ITEXPO as well, since one of their competitors Vu Telepresence is exhibiting at ITEXPO.

Posted in Cisco, ITEXPO, SIP, TMCnet, Technology and Science, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP

Tandberg Movi 4.0 Released Today

September 16, 2010

Today, Tandberg announced the release of Movi 4.0. (see my review of Tandberg 3.1) The biggest feature perhaps is the addition of Mac support. Movi 4.0 can be deployed on Macintosh computers using the Movi.dmg file in the zipped download file. Movi for Mac requires that the computer has an Intel processor and runs Max OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or later.

Posted in TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing

Goodbye Microsoft OCS Hello Microsoft Lync!

September 13, 2010

Last week I wrote an article titled "Microsoft Lync 2010 - New Product? Or New OCS Name?" based off of a couple new downloads on Microsoft's site I found via Twitter. When I saw something called Microsoft Lync on Twitter I was intrigued. After reading the description of the downloads last week, I wrote, "I'll be damned if that doesn't sound exactly like the feature-set of OCS/MCS or whatever the heck the new name will be called." Certainly the name made sense, since I thought it was a combination of "link" with a "c" for communications.

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

ooVoo vs. Skype in the SMB Space

September 10, 2010

I recently had a video interview with Phillipe Schwartz, CEO of ooVoo, to discuss how they stack up against Skype, ooVoo's technical architecture, their target market, and more. One difference off the bat is that ooVoo started with a SMB-focus, while Skype started with a consumer-focus and then Skype recently started targeting small to medium businesses,i.e. Skype for SIP now called Skype Connect. Phillipe claims ooVoo has an impressive 14 million users and 2-2.5 million downloads per month.

Posted in Android, Reviews, Skype, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP

Gmail Voice and Video Chat Now on Linux

August 20, 2010

Google has finally announced the long-awaited voice and video chat for Linux. Head on over to gmail.com/videochat to download the plug-in and start chatting with your buds. No install via RPM is available yet. Though RPM installs are for wusses. Real Linux gurus compile from source, baby!

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

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

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