The SIP Invite - News Archives

Microsoft Lync Sessions at Enterprise Connect

2013-03-13T20:28:19Z

We’ve got a lot to look forward to at the upcoming Enterprise Connect – surely Microsoft Lync will be a big focus of attention at this ever-growing meeting of communications professionals. A few events we’ve been coordinating with Microsoft, Verizon, Plantronics and ScanSource Communications during the event:

Join Verizon, AudioCodes and ScanSource Communications for a lunch buffet session titled “SIP Trunking and UC – Better together?”. Enjoy lunch and engage in a discussion about Lync in managed service deployments with SIP Trunking. Lunch is Tuesday, March 19th from 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM.
Enjoy a drink and hors d’oeuvres after a long day on Tuesday at the “One Voice for Lync Launch Party” – hosted by AudioCodes – it starts at 6:30 PM and will give you an opportunity to network with other Lync users, partners and industry leaders in Unified Communications.
On Wednesday morning, join Marty Parker from UC Strategies and Joseph Donald from Microsoft for a breakfast session titled “Lync 2013 – Where can it take you now?”. In addition to a fabulous breakfast buffet, we’ll be discussing the future of Unified Communications with Microsoft Lync, deployment strategies and successes. Breakfast is Wednesday, March 20th from 7:30 AM – 9:00 AM

All three sessions are being held in St. Georges 108 (in the atrium of the Gaylord Palms)

Pre-registration is requested – Register Me!

Lync Conference 2013 - A Look Back

2013-03-07T13:57:56Z

Now that the first-ever Lync Conference is behind us, some reflective thoughts and observations:

Far exceeding the organizer’s expectations, the Lync Conference sold out weeks before the event with over 1,000 paid attendees. (Based on the badge swapping in the hotel foyer, there must have been another 300 people “around the fringes”.) The event was an interesting mix of roughly 1/3 end-customers, another 1/3 resellers/partners and 1/3 vendors, analysts and press - all mixed into hours of great sessions, keynotes and exposition space. What does this mean? Lync has arrived and it is HOT.

We at AudioCodes used the event to kick-off our One Voice for Microsoft Lync branding campaign, featuring a new informational video that was hard to miss on our giant video screen. Feedback from the analysts and customers was very positive – the value of one source for the network elements, services and support is clear.

The AudioCodes 420HD, 430HD and 440HD IP phones were quite the hit with the attendees. Most notably was a “phone premonition” by the popular blogger Matt Landis foreseeing the arrival our 440HD phone. (I’m personally pitching to our executives that we informally call our 440HD “the Landis Phone” going forward.)

My session titled “Avoiding the Pilot Trap” was a hit at the show. Featuring an end-customer presentation from Jeff Bryngelson, Network Manager at American Axle & Manufacturing and a partner perspective from Benjamin Tosado, Principle at Conquest Technology Services, the session discussed some of the challenges that IT Managers and Administrators run into when their Lync pilot projects run into troubles and some first-hand tips on how to avoid a similar fate. Even the critical consultant Sheila McGee-Smith gave us a “best session of the conference” twitter nod for including real customers to share their stories. You can view a recording of the session on YouTube.

AudioCodes, Plantronics, Intelepeer and ScanSource Communications collaborated to organize the first ever “Voice LyncUP”, a social event that cruised the San Diego harbor on Tuesday evening. The event brought together close to 300 end-customer, partners and sponsors out on a cool and windy evening for an opportunity to socialize and share their Lync experiences. We’re looking forward to a bigger and better event next year with more sponsors and attendees.

And most importantly, the event gave us an opportunity to meet, collaborate and listen to a number of our current and prospective customers. Having real eye-to-eye discussions about the needs and wants for business adoption of Lync is impossible to put into words. We left with a new appreciation of what has been accomplished and what is to come from some of the early adopters and highly innovative community that makes up the Lync ecosystem.

One final thought – for those of us that attended this first-ever Lync Conference event, I suspect there will be a day in the future when we say “I was there when….” Looking forward to next year.

You can reach Alan at: alan.percy@audiocodes.com

"Not so fast" - T-Mobile and AT&T merger hits the brakes

2011-09-01T12:24:40Z

Image via CrunchBase

It seems that many of the market watchers were surprised with yesterday's announcement that the US Justice department filed suit to block the planned merger of t-Mobile and AT&T. Honestly, I was not surprised that the merger is going to court.

With the US down to four national mobile carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile), competition is at risk. Outside the major metro areas, not all four carriers are ubiquitous, meaning that choice often falls between two or three carriers.  It's easy to envision a situation with Sprint falling to a distant third-place and a duopoly of AT&T and Verizon resulting.

For those fuming over "big brother" sticking it's nose into private businesses - the huricane this last weekend has reminded us that our mobile telephone infrastructure is a critical resource for commerce and emergency communications. Letting something so important as mobile communications fall into the hands of a duopoly would put far too much control in the hands of a small number of executives with unclear motives.

Also, consider the number of every-day businesses that depend on mobile communications (both voice and data) to operate their businesses.   From cab drivers to UPS, many need mobility to effectively operate their businesses. If coverage, congestion and pricing get fouled up as the result of a non-competitive duopoly, what happens to them?

So, what happens next to T-Mobile?   Most likely they will continue to play the role of smaller, but more innovative carrier.   With their international flair and product ideas often coming from Europe, expect them to play an important role in pre-paid and and cost effective data services. AT&T isn't known for their innovation - with the exception of signing a deal with Apple for exclusivity on the iPhone.

In my mind, four national carriers is good for the country and good for business.

Skype and Microsoft - What to expect when the streams cross?

2011-05-10T18:33:11Z

Being close partners with both Skype and Microsoft, I’ve been living in a dual UC environment for over two years, using Microsoft Lync and Skype at the same time. Depending on who I needed to communicate with, I had to choose either the Lync or Skype client to initiate the conversation. Frequently swapping from one client to the other between conversations (fortunately, I can use the same headset). Things get real interesting when I need to pull in both Skype and other non-Skype capable co-workers into the same conversation.

Besides juggling the two clients, I must maintain two presence statuses, two directories and two profiles. Sometimes I feel like I live two parallel lives in two parallel universes.

With today’s announcement that Microsoft has reached an agreement to purchase Skype, it appears my two worlds are soon converging. But I don’t expect dramatic changes overnight, there are many technical differences between Microsoft Lync and Skype that I suspect will make the integration a slow, but steady evolution.

For starters, Microsoft and Skype both have proprietary high-definition media coders (RTA from Microsoft and SILK from Skype). In both cases, they’ve made huge investments in the development of the coders and both have significant market penetration. RTA is built into Lync and fantastic at adapting to enterprise network conditions, but Skype’s SILK coder works much better over the open internet where network conditions change minute-to-minute. If you have to choose one, which do you choose?

Beyond the media, directory management tools, status and presence will all need to be integrated. As Skype is an “over the top” service, using the customer’s existing broadband internet service, security has some special challenges too.

Fortunately, you can integrate Skype Connect with Microsoft Lync for calling features today. Using an Enterprise Session Border Controller (E-SBC) in a Back-to-Back User Agent (B2BUA) mode, Skype Connect low-cost calling and inbound Skype Client access can be integrated to Microsoft Lync. The E-SBC also provides that added security needed to protect the enterprise against external attack or abuse.

Using an E-SBC to integrate Skype Connect with Microsoft Lync allows businesses to offer Skype-IDs to the public, enabling “call me” buttons on web sites, replacing toll-free 800 services with free Skype calling. To me, this seems like an obvious initial investment to reduce operating costs while improving customer access to the increasingly mobile consumer and business markets.

I am looking forward to further integration, but see the immediate opportunities for voice integration as a valuable first step.

Like the Ghostbuster characters, sometimes you need to cross the streams to shake things up (let’s just hope we get more than a giant marshmallow man to show for the investment)

For more information on this topic, visit the Microsoft Lync and Skype Connect Integration resource page.

Skype Connect - Is there a new carrier in town?

2010-08-31T12:45:56Z

I've been a Skype account holder for years and it sure has come in handy for communicating back to the office and home from my far-flung travels. It was real useful communicating with my older son while he was studying abroad and our travels to Europe this last spring. But other than client-to-client communications, I was having trouble envisioning how businesses would adopt Skype.

That all changes with today's announcement of Skype Connect. With Skype Connect, businesses can now integrate Skype inbound and outbound calling into their existing infrastructure, avoiding the "wait, I have to switch headsets" issue of having both a phone and Skype client on every-one's desktop.

Beyond PBXs, I can see contact centers benefiting from Skype Connect, allowing callers to "Skype" into the contact center, instead of tying up the mobile or landline telephone.

Think of this as the ultimate "Toll Free" calling to reach your business.

So how does this work? Skype Connect is essentially a SIP portal into the Skype network, allowing Skype Client and PSTN access. If you have one of the select IP-PBXs that are Skype-ready, the Skype service can be provisioned to connect directly to your IP-PBX. However, if you are like most businesses that have either a TDM PBX or a non-Skype-ready IP-PBX, you'll need a media gateway or E-SBC to terminate the Skype session.

TDM PBXs would use a media gateway with the TDM side facing the PBX - in most cases emulating the network side of a PRI circuit.
For IP-PBXs, an E-SBC would be used in a Back-to-Back User Agent (B2BUA) mode that terminates the Skype session, performs security checks and then re-initiates the call into your IP-PBX in a format that it understands.

Fortunately, we here at AudioCodes have validated our Mediant gateways for use with Skype Connect and they make a great fit for the configurations mentioned above.

It should be noted that Skype Connect is not free - like any business product that has value, there are subscription fees associated with it.

Here's an excellent case study that shows just one example of what businesses are doing with Skype Connect.

The Emergence of the Enterprise Session Border Controller

2010-08-09T17:10:21Z

I'm seeing an ever-growing cross section of SME and Enterprise buyers listening and learning about SIP Trunking with the cost savings and flexibility piquing their interest.

However, many of the security, interoperability and survivability issues of SIP I have pointed out in previous posts have to-date stymied some of the growth and adoption of SIP Trunking.

As a result of these issues and the need to integrate SIP-based communications systems with a wide range of SIP Trunking service providers, a whole new category of customer premise equipment has recently evolved--the Enterprise Session Border Controller (E-SBC). The E-SBC is designed to be located on the customer premise and sit between the Local Area Network and the external Wide Area Network. Unlike the larger and more complex carrier-oriented Session Border Controller (SBC), the E-SBC is "right-sized" for a range of medium and large enterprises.

Unique functions of an E-SBC include:

Security: Often the first attribute to get mentioned about any SBC. Unlike a firewall, both carrier-class and enterprise-SBCs operate at OSI layers 3 and 4, interpreting the SIP messages and using the information gleaned from the session negotiation, to make intelligent decisions about which request is valid and which message is part of an attack. E-SBCs offer a "front guard" that protects the business network from possible attacks that originate from outside the business (the Internet), elsewhere on the WAN (the carrier) or within the business (an inside job). Stateful packet inspection, Access Control Lists, Topology hiding and Application Layer Firewall functions help keep the bad guys out and let the trusted parties in. Other facets of security include encryption--allowing the SIP sessions outside the business to be fully encrypted without the cost of having encryption on every device or system within the network.

Interoperability: sometimes forgotten, but equally important is the ability to integrate different SIP-based systems from different vendors or vintages with a range of SIP Trunking carriers. As a result of the wide range of protocol options within the RFC-3261 SIP specification, two systems can be completely within specification, but unable to communicate. SIP mediation is often required to convert from one vendor's version of SIP to another. This is especially important as larger enterprises integrate numerous different SIP systems together due to acquisitions, or that may have been bought at different times. An E-SBC eliminates this issue by implementing a back-to-back user agent, essentially terminating one SIP session (using one set of rules) and establishing another session (with a different set of rules), interconnecting previously incompatible systems. Having an interoperability solution is key in maintaining choice for the business and eliminating vendor "lock-in" commonly found with large "standard, but closed" communications systems.

NAT Traversal: one of the big benefits of SIP based communications systems is the ability to put phones in employees' home offices, hotel rooms, etc. for anywhere-anytime communications. To do this, the communications system must be able to traverse the Network Address Translation (NAT) function found at the far end--a built feature found in most home and small business routers. Enabling the remote phones and workstations requires logic to deal with the IP address changes and port number re-assignments that are the result of the far-end router NAT.

Survivability: this is a new twist that some early market trials identified as an issue with decision makers. Basically, buyers need a "CYA" or back-up plan that will allow the business to continue to operate if there are issues with the SIP Trunks. This may be just during the cut-over period, or part of a longer-term disaster recovery plan. The most logical back-up to SIP Trunks are TDM trunks. Not necessarily a one-for-one backup, but a reduced number of TDM trunks that would be able to stand in and allow for emergency or limited service calling. Until recently, this required a separate media gateway that was installed next to the E-SBC and a SIP Proxy to make decisions about when and where to direct the traffic to the TDM trunks. Fortunately, appliances that combine the three capabilities (E-SBC, Gateway and Proxy) together in one device are now appearing on the market, eliminating the costs and shelf space needed for the three separate devices.

As the adoption of SIP-based IP-PBXs and Unified Communications systems grows along with SIP Trunking, an Enterprise Session Border Controller (E-SBC) will become a common tool that network designers use to protect and interconnect their communications.

This is why the time was right for AudioCodes to launch our E-SBC product line, based on the popular Mediant 800, Mediant 1000 and Mediant 3000 hardware platforms.

For a more detailed look at the E-SBC and it's role in enterprise communications, view the on-demand webinar titled "SIP Trunking - Security, Survivability and Interoperability"

For more information on the products, see: www.audiocodes.com/e-sbc

A Look Ahead at 2010

2010-01-01T16:16:32Z

Wireless Internet - with the increasing use of handheld smart phones, wireless Internet usage will soar and with it will come increased congestion, reliability issues and eventually usage fees. The "all you can use" wireless Internet is going to get expensive.

Apple will end exclusive arrangement with AT&T - with competition from Google Android (the operating software for the "Droid") and ever increasing network congestion and performance issues on the AT&T network (see above), Apple will be forced to finally end their exclusive relationship and expand to other carriers. At first to other GSM carriers (T-Mobile) and then CDMA carriers (like Verizon and Sprint). However, an iPhone for CDMA networks requires a different radio in the iPhone which means there will end up being two different phones and users will never be able to jump from GSM to CDMA carriers without buying a new phone.

Google will aggressively exploit Apple / AT&Ts performance issues (see above) and become a strong competitor in the mobile device market with both GSM and CDMA carriers (still with different devices).

HD Voip - the pieces are all there, and the first few carriers are readying their product launches. Your wireline telephone is about to become obsolete. Once you hear it - you will understand.

Fiber-to-the-home - will grow as fast as they can bury the conduit. Whether it comes from Verizon with their FiOS offering or your local cable operator, coax and twisted pair copper wires are dead. Blazing speed Internet, HDTV and video on demand over IP will drive a wooden stake in the heart of the old copper infrastructure. Long live FTTH!

Video over IP - I've seen the future and it's unbundled video over IP services like Netflix, Blockbuster, and Amazon.com with their streaming or digital downloads to your DVR. They completely obsolete video on demand with it's limited choices and start times. Also, why would anyone go into a video rental store ever again?

Blu-Ray - with the HD-DVD / Blu-ray battle ending two years ago and sufficient HDTVs in people's homes, it's time for Blu-ray to take off. But, only if Blu-ray disks also include a DVD or digital copy for the kids room/car/portable player. We've got too many other DVD-only devices around the house to limit playback. But, Blu-ray will have to compete with Video over IP services and will never be as ubiquitous as DVD rentals were 10 years ago.

Twitter is in Twouble - it's 15 minutes of fame are over and it will basically settle in as a replacement for PR news wire services with content by the people and for the people. Much like web pages, email, YouTube and blogging, social media in general will find a home in the suite of communications tools. The bottom line is that talented people will always be needed to create interesting/funny/insightful content to keep your attention - otherwise it's just noise.

Morse Code - sorry to see you go, but when the ARRL and FCC dropped it from the Amateur Radio operating requirements, now there is absolutely no reason to keep it around. --. --- --- -.. -... -.-- .

Jobs recovery - Green energy, Biotechnology and security are the growth areas for the next decade. Kids - make sure you prepare yourselves for these industries / careers.

Energy/Fuel prices - with our sputtering economy taking a long slow recovery, I suspect we will enjoy relatively low fuel prices at least for the first six months. This will give time for the auto manufacturers to figure out how to make a plug-in-hybrid for the masses. Hopefully it will be ready when the prices of fuel take off again.

And with that, I wish you all a very Happy New Year and see you soon!

Distributed Enterprises - Can they save money and be reliable?

2009-04-13T13:11:23Z

Over the last few weeks, I've spent quite a bit of time talking with a variety of partners about leveraging SIP in large enterprise deployments and specifically the architectures used to support branch offices.  When I first starting working on this problem, my original reaction was "Simple, just put in a softswitch and connect all the sites together via SIP - Done".

It turns out it's not that easy.  From listening to our partners and their customers, I have learned there are a few real challenges they deal with when deploying communications systems into distributed branch office situations:

First you need to get good quality broadband to every one of your branch offices, which is hard to do once you leave the urban/suburban rings of most cities. Getting voice-grade broadband to remote offices in rural America can be very expensive and wipe out any potential cost savings. Consumer grade broadband is easier to get, but even then not predictable enough for commercial applications.

Second is the question of reliability, which was recently demonstrated by the massive Internet outage in San Jose. What will happen to your business if the broadband connection to the site is cut? Do you just close for the day and kiss off the revenue?

Third is network traffic optimization - does every call really need tie up your broadband service? Is there a more efficient way to leverage the expensive and shared broadband that services the branch offices?

The solutions seems to be in an architecture that fits somewhere between the two extremes of fully centralized and fully distributed, but exactly where depends on the individual business.

To discuss these challenges and some potential solutions, I've invited Bruce Mazza, Director of Branch Office Solutions for Avaya to join me in a live webinar on Tuesday, April 14th at 2 PM.  I encourage you to Click here to register for the live event or listen to an on-demand recording of the event.

Interview with Bill Miller at Digium

2009-03-18T12:58:34Z

I'm very much looking forward to the upcoming Solutions Theater and iPod Give-away we are hosting at VoiceCon later this month. As part of this series of presentations on SIP applications, we'll be joined by Bill Miller, Vice President of Product Management for Digium. Bill brings a wealth of experience and knowledge on both IP-PBX solutions and open source to the stage. Bill was kind enough to share with me some thoughts on his upcoming session:

AP: Thanks again for presenting in the upcoming Solutions Theater at VoiceCon. Can you give us a sneak peek at the topic of your presentation?

BM: My session is titled "Open Source Alternatives in a down economy"

AP: Please share with us how Digium|Asterisk and open source solutions help enterprises in this difficult economy?

BM: The business case for open source and open source based solutions is compelling for both business and technical reasons. We will explore why the momentum is not just building daily, but there are proven solutions, case studies and growing list of enterprise class solutions.

AP: How can Value Added Resellers (VARS) best leverage Digium|Asterisk?

BM: VARs are adopting alternatives to traditional telecom solutions at alarming rates. The ability to leverage experience already gained from traditional telephony solutions, the new emerging models provides new channels of revenues, new pipelines of opportunities and many alternatives to build custom telephony solutions to grow faster than the market. price conscious users want to kick the tires and understand open source today.

AP: Who would get the most out of listening to your presentation?

BM: Resellers and enterprises or all sizes

AP: Bill, where would someone learn more about your Digium Open Source solutions?

BM: The Digium booth is #1328 here at VoiceCon and our web site is www.digium.com. To learn more about the open source asterisk project, visit www.asterisk.org.

Bill's presentation is scheduled for Tuesday, March 31st at 4:00 PM EDT in booth #931 - see you there and good luck winning the iPod Touch!

Interview with Joel Maloff @ BandTel

2009-03-11T12:54:42Z

As noted in yesterday's post about VoiceCon, our opening speaker in the AudioCodes / ScanSource Solutions Theater will be Joel Maloff, Vice President of Marketing for BandTel. BandTel is a pure SIP Trunking service provider that utilizes AudioCodes gateways to connect their services to end-customer TDM PBXs or other equipment. Joel was kind enough to spend a few minutes with me yesterday, providing a preview of what to expect in his presentation at VoiceCon.

AP: Can you share with us the title and topic of your presentation?

JM: Sure, the title is 'SIP Trunking - Ready for Prime Time '

AP: How does SIP Trunking help enterprises in this difficult economy?

JM: SIP trunking has two immediate benefits for enterprises, especially in light of economic conditions. The first is the ability to broaden an enterprise's reach via the use of remote local telephone numbers. For example, an enterprise that is forced to consolidate and close down physical locations can retain those telephone numbers and have them ring into one or more centralized facilities. In this way, local identification is retained, operations are consolidated, and costs can be dramatically reduced. In addition, new locations can be opened throughout North America and internationally with those calls received by an enterprise call center. The second benefit is the ability to reduce reliance on dedicated telephone circuits for voice and reduce the cost of incoming and outgoing telephone calls. This includes both domestic and international. Our research indicates that savings of 25% to 70% of the annual telecommunications budget is achievable. In difficult economic times, those savings go directly to the bottom line and can be reused to the benefit of the business.

AP: How will value added resellers (VARs) benefit from reselling SIP Trunking from BandTel?

JM: BandTel offers a percentage of monthly recurring revenues brought to us for the life of the service. As long as the customer remains with BandTel, our partners will receive the benefit of their efforts.

AP: What about the BandTel strategy is different from before the economy went sour?

JM: Our strategy has not changed. We believe that businesses want to do more for their operating expenditures, and to find new ways of serving their markets. What has changed is the mindset of our customers. They are no longer content to pay high prices to traditional communications carriers without considering new and different ways to accomplish the same results for less money.

AP: Who would get the most out of attending your presentation?

JM: Anyone who is responsible for finding ways to lower communications costs without sacrificing value will find the presentation valuable. This includes information technology and telecommunications staff organizations, financial personnel responsible for scrutinizing budgets, and value-added resellers seeking an additional profit center to the benefit of their customers and clients.

AP: Where would someone learn more about your solution?

JM: BandTel's website - www.bandtel.com - offers a wealth of information including white papers, FAQs, and case studies.

Joel's presentation is scheduled in the AudioCodes / ScanSource Solutions Theater in Booth #931 at 4:00 PM EDT on Monday, March 30th.

Learn about SIP Applications - Win an iPod Touch?

2009-03-10T13:07:39Z

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

2008-11-06T13:21:02Z

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

2008-11-03T13:17:05Z

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

2008-08-20T12:04:02Z

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".