Wow! ITEXPO is gearing up for its start this morning here at the Miami Beach Convention Center and there is so much on the agenda it is tough to know where to begin. However, one of the first presentations of the day has caught my eye with Allworx Channel Manager Jose Pardo’s set to highlight new trends and technologies in IP telephony in the areas of the Caribbean and Central and Latin American (CALA).

As IP telephony continues to expand companies like Allworx, a small business VoIP company, are leveraging their knowledge throughout the Islands of the Caribbean and the Countries of CALA.

IP Telephony has been used for the past several years for bridging the islands of the Caribbean and the nations of Central and Latin America together at the service provider transport level. And Jose’s presentations presentation promises to reveal how it is being used in the rapidly expanding mass market to bring small and medium business customers together.

From the implementation of cost-effective IP based key systems for single locations with scattered phones in remote locations to small to medium size multi-site locations in neighboring countries, new developments have recently made the cost of IP- key system implementation go way down and the features available to the end-user customer go way up.

Related Tags: telephony, locations, caribbean, Caribbean

There is plenty of news coming out of Pleasanton, Calif. this week as Polycom announced the expansion of its high-definition (HD) Polycom HDX video collaboration solutions, as well as the availability of a whitepaper produced by Wainhouse Research on the breakthrough Polycom Lost Packet Recovery (LPR) technology. The technology is designed to protect IP video calls from the damaging impact of packet loss, providing a more consistent, high-quality experience in typical public and home broadband network environments, where moderate levels of packet loss are common.

LPR is currently available on Polycom HDX HD video endpoints, Polycom RealPresence Experience (RPX) and Polycom Telepresence Experience (TPX) telepresence solutions, with extension to additional Polycom video endpoint and infrastructure solutions in the near future.

"After placing several hundred test calls between various systems, Wainhouse Research has concluded that LPR's ability to protect the video call experience from the effects of packet loss is exceptional," said Ira Weinstein, senior analyst and partner at Wainhouse Research.

The Wainhouse Research whitepaper noted several strengths of Polycom LPR technology including:

-- "LPR's performance is especially strong when tackling packet loss of five percent or less, making LPR well suited to address the vast majority of network situations."

-- "While most of the video systems on the market today include some form of packet loss / error concealment capability, Polycom LPR uses forward error correction (FEC) to recover lost data."

-- “One of LPR's differentiators and strengths is that it protects all parts of the video call, including the audio, video, and content / H.239 channels, from packet loss."

Related Tags: wainhouse research, polycom, Polycom, video, packet, Research

Pleasanton, Calif.-based Polycom continues its run of innovations in delivering end-to-end, rich media collaborative applications for voice, video, data and the Web this week by expanding its high-definition (HD) Polycom HDX video collaboration solutions with the Polycom HDX 7000(TM) series for small and medium-sized conference rooms.

The HDX 7000 series delivers HD video beyond traditional conference room settings with Polycom's UltimateHD experience, combining HD video, HD voice and simultaneous HD multimedia content-sharing capabilities, according to Joe Sigrist, senior vice president and general manager of video solutions at Polycom.

”Polycom offers customers the best high definition video experience and the broadest portfolio of fully interoperable telepresence and HD visual communications solutions for different business, application, facility and budget requirements,” said Sigrist.

Polycom’s solutions work together to connect an organization's entire knowledge network, and integrate seamlessly into the communications networks customers already have.

Sigrist said the company will showcase the HDX 7000 at the Polycom Global Partner Conference taking place this week in San Diego, Calif.

To find out more, please read this article on TMCnet.

Related Tags: Polycom, polycom, video, solutions, Sigrist, sigrist

As more and more businesses, of nearly every size, look to increase productivity and expand services by using high-bandwidth applications such as video on the desktop, companies like Polycom are stepping forward to satisfy these growing appetites.

The Pleasanton, Calif-based Polycom, who I understand will have a significant presence at the upcoming ITEXPO in Miami, is helping deliver with innovative enterprise IP telephony solutions on the market such as the GigE-capable SIP phone, the SoundPoint IP 560.

Check it out for yourself. In addition to its GigE support, the SoundPoint IP 560 delivers a clear lifelike audio experience with Polycom’s high definition voice technology – Polycom HD Voice. A key component of HD Voice is the use of a standard wideband voice codec (ITU standard G.722), which enables high definition voice transmission.

Polycom’s says as adoption of wideband voice accelerates, enterprises benefit most by investing in IP endpoint that support G.722 wideband calls. In addition, Polycom HD Voice also includes its patented Acoustic Clarity Technology which provides market leading noise reduction, echo cancellation and full duplex speakerphone capability.

To learn more about HD Voice, please check out the latest TMC Online Global Community, aptly named HD Voice.

Related Tags: voice, polycom, Polycom, Voice, wideband

I almost can’t wait to get down to Miami for the January 23-25, 2008 ITEXPO at the Miami Beach Convention Center. There are so many great event’s scheduled you might have trouble deciding where to begin. However, if you are a regular reader of this blog I think I have an idea what you are looking for.

On my must see list — which admittedly is pretty big at this point — is “Making the Business Case for Wi-Fi Telephony.” This presentation explores mobility as an expectation in the consumer world, and how as the paradigm shifts to the business world, corporations are looking for ways to integrate wireless technologies — such as wireless VoIP — into their daily operations.

Presenters of this forum are Geri Mitchell-Brown, director of Technical Business Development at Polycom; Martin J. Steinmann, vice president of Product Management at Bluesocket; Karen Hong, director of Consumer Product Marketing with 8x8 and last, but certainly not least, TMC’s own Richard Grigonis will moderate.

Overall the ITEXPO is an event with an educational program that teaches enterprises, SMBs, and Government Agencies how to select and deploy IP-based voice, video, fax, and unified communications.

Related Tags: business, world

While unified communication technologies continue to evolve, more and more IT managers are looking for the latest and greatest in UC systems to help their businesses gain a competitive edge.

And there certainly hasn’t been a shortage of technology firms claiming they can be that difference.

Case in point: D2 Technologies, a company that concentrates on creating software platforms for IP Communications, has introduced the industry's first embedded mobile convergence software to power the next generation of converged multi-mode mobile communications devices.

This week at the International CES in Las Vegas, the company unveiled what it hopes will be game changing software.

Doug Makishima, the company’s vice president of marketing, says he expects the release to revolutionize mobile communications by tying together the best aspects of PC-based communications such as VoIP, instant messaging and presence support, with the roaming benefits of mobile cellular and connection speed and quality of in-building wireless.

Of course, many VP’s in the communications space hope their products can revolutionize industry. That’s because, in addition to changing the way we communicate, a revolutionary product would also make them rich!

What D2's mCUE software does do is bridge the functionality of IP communications with the convergence of mobile networks. It is interoperable with enterprise IP-PBXs and UC systems as well as service provider networks.

Of course, we will have to wait a little longer before confirming the revolution. Stay tuned!

Related Tags: communications, mobile, software, company

Tim Gray is a Web Editor for TMCnet.com. He has nearly a decade of journalism experience and has spent the past several years covering a wide array of technology news. In addition to covering the exciting communications space for TMCnet, his professional experience includes reporting for a New York City daily newspaper, writing for economic and business news programs at CNNfn, and work as a senior editor for an online technology publication.

In addition to covering breaking communications and technology news, Tim shares his views on Wideband Audio, Unified Communications, HD Voice and much more at: http://blog.tmcnet.com/unified-communications/about-me.asp

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