Alan Percy : The SIP Invite
Alan Percy
| Observations by Alan D. Percy on VoIP enabling technology, industry and our personal reach for success.

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Learn about SIP Applications - Win an iPod Touch?

March 10, 2009

Want a really good shot at winning a free iPod Touch?  If you are headed to VoiceCon in Orlando later this month, you should definitely read on...

AudioCodes has joined forces with ScanSource Communications at this upcoming VoiceCon in Orlando and as part of the exhibition, we are hosting a "Solutions Theater and Pavilion" in our expanded booth #931.  We are thrilled to have pulled together 14 industry leaders that will deliver a series of presentations that focus on SIP-based applications that help end users and VARs deal with this difficult economy.  

Now for the really cool part: After each presentation, AudioCodes and ScanSource Communications is giving away an iPod Touch to one of the lucky audience members.  (Rules for the drawing will be posted in the booth)


VoiceCon Orlando 2009 Solutions Theater Presentation Schedule At Booth #931   Monday, March 30, 2009 Time Presenter Topic 4:00 PM BandTel Joel Maloff
Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing SIP Trunking 4:30 PM CTI2 Erez Marom Unified Communications   Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Time Presenter Topic 1:30 PM AudioCodes Alan Percy Director, Market Development IP Communications -
An Opportunity in a Down Economy? 2:00 PM Avaya
Bruce Mazza Branch Office Solutions 2:30 PM The VIA Group Jeff Stillings Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 3:00 PM Genesys Charles Lee      Sr. Product Marketing Manager Empowering enterprise-wide customer service     3:30 PM Atlantic Communications Michael Light Hosted Solutions (Cosmocom) 4:00 PM Digium Bill Miller VP Product Management Asterisk Open Source Solutions   Wednesday, April 1, 2009 Time Presenter Topic 1:30 PM Brian Cuppett ScanSource Comm. ScanSource Communications 2:00 PM Strategic Products and Services (SPS) Mike Taylor, CTO Avaya Branch Office Solutions   2:30 PM Interactive Intelligence Rick Q. Chin Manager, Solutions Marketing Improving the Customer Experience with CIC 3:00 PM EUS Networks Robert Campozano CEO Asterisk Solutions on Mediant 1000 OSN 3:30 PM Sagem-Interstar TBA Enterprise Fax Solutions 4:00 PM Enabling Technology Steve Bruno Deploying Microsoft Office Communicator   See you in Orlando!









AudioCodes Launches IP Phone Product Family

November 6, 2008

This week here at AudioCodes has been very busy.  You may have seen the post on Monday, announcing our HD VoIP strategy  which will dramatically improve the clarity and quality of voice communications.

Yesterday, we announced our new line of IP Phones, all of which will support HD VoIP.  As far as I can tell, we will be the only manufacturer that will have a 100% HD VoIP capable phones (even the low-cost entry model).

The market analysts seem to agree:

"AudioCodes entry into the IP Phone market is a bold and strategic move. It enables AudioCodes to address the fast growing market for 3rd Party IP Phones with the latest developments in High Definition (HD) voice technology," commented Jeremy Duke, President & CEO of Synergy Research Group, Inc. "The IP phone market has consistently delivered strong shipment growth over the last 8 years as it continues to displace the large installed base of TDM phones worldwide. We believe the second growth phase of the IP Phone market is just beginning to take hold, driven by increased deployments of SIP in the Enterprise and an increasing number of Service Providers offering Managed VoIP services (hosted telephony)."


The line will initially include three models: 
  • The 310HD IP Phone is positioned as an entry level IP-Phone and includes a basic display and user interface. 
  • The 320HD Premium model includes a large Monochrome LCD screen. 
  • The 350HD Executive model has a large Color LCD. All models support HD VoIP.
The phones will include many important features for a range of applications, including:
  • Support for popular wideband coders such as G.722, G.722.2 (WB-AMR), G.729.1 and G.711.1.
  • Power over Ethernet is optional in all models.
The products will be available for testing and evaluation beginning in February 2009.

To more information on the devices or HD VoIP, click here
















Breaking the Sound Barrier with VoIP

November 3, 2008

Okay, it's the 21st century and there are many new innovations and technologies that make our lives a whole lot easier, efficient or entertaining.  Think back about life before cell phones.  Remember pagers and calling cards?  How about the changes in TV?  With super clear picture and surround sound, HD TV makes you feel like you are at the game.  Things sure have changed for the better over the last twenty years.

Well, with one big exception - the voice quality on your telephone.

You see, the current Public Switch Telephone Network is built on technology invented in the late 50's based on digital sampling of your voice using Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) sampling.  Back then, it was groundbreaking improvement in reliability and clarity.  But to use the infrastructure and cabling efficiently, they had to make some choices about how much of your voice to collect and transmit.  The choice was a cost/benefit decision that came up with a 3.4 kHz bandwidth that created a "sound barrier", limiting the fidelity of your voice ever since then.  

Why is this important?  The 3.4 kHz bandwidth limitation in the PSTN is universal, allowing carriers to interoperate and pass voice from one to another.  It's also the ultimate commodity  - "one size fits all" in communications.  No matter whether you use one of the Bell companies or a smaller competitive carrier, everything sounds the same.  The result?  Price wars and customer churn to chase the ever cheaper commodity service.

At least until now.

With VoIP and SIP working together, we finally have the tools at our disposal to dramatically improve the quality of voice communications and break through the "sound barrier" with VoIP that uses higher sampling rates and new voice coding algorithms.

We here at AudioCodes are quite pleased to announce our HD VoIP strategy that we feel will play a critical role in migrating both the wireline and wireless communications infrastructure away from the limitations of the PSTN and into the future of High Definition Voice over IP (HD VoIP).  HD VoIP will allow carriers to differentiate their services with much higher quality voice calls and create affinity amongth their customer base.  Enterprises will be able to improve efficiency and reinforce their branding with high-fidelity customer contact.

Want to learn more?  See our dedicated landing page at:  www.audiocodes.com/hdvoip

Or attend the live webinar that I am hosting on Tuesday, November 18th at 2:00 PM EST.  Click here to visit the Webinar Registration Page



















More on Universal Broadband

August 20, 2008

An interesting article in today's USAToday about FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's efforts to expand access to the Internet to more Americans.  If you've been following along, you know that I've been writing and talking about the importance of Universal Broadband for the health and wealth of all Americans.

Many that live in urban and suburban America don't realize this, but once you leave most metro areas, broadband access to the Internet is very difficult to get and very expensive.  I know this first hand because I've been trying for years to get broadband access to a summer cottage that our extended family shares.  We can get phone service, but for broadband we have only one option - Satellite - and frankly, that's not a good option due to the 3 second latency.

When I spend time with other year-round residents in the neighborhood, I'm amazed at the difficulty they have in doing what we consider every-day activities.  This effects not just the entertainment part of the Internet, but real business too.  Weather forecasts for farmers, tax information and filing, educational materials are all very difficult (if not impossible) to accomplish with dial-up Internet access.

However, I do struggle with the "free wireless" idea that FCC Chairman Martin is pushing in his interview.  Nothing is ever free and the complexity of installation and operation of a wireless network needs to be professionally managed and supported (partially) by those using it.  

I'd rather see an approach that provides incentives for the existing wire line and wireless operators to expand their infrastructure and coverage to Universal Broadband.  

Universal Broadband is actually very good for our industry as it will speed up the transition of all telephony over to VoIP, increase demand for ATAs and core network media gateways, softswitches and other supporting systems.

Frankly, we just need the leadership - I hope that FCC Chairman Martin can find the common ground to get the operators to support the concept of Universal Broadband without starting a fight over "free wireless".











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