26 January 2010. Building on its history of using open standards to break down the barriers to intercompany collaboration, Cisco today announced the release of an interoperability protocol to the public domain that allows multiscreen telepresence systems to interoperate. TelePresence customers now have a way to improve communications with vendors, suppliers and partners while maintaining an immersive telepresence experience.

LifeSize, TANDBERG and RADVISION have signed agreements to license the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP). Cisco has offered to license its protocol to industry participants royalty free. 

By licensing the protocol, Cisco offers vendors the opportunity to take advantage of a switched architecture, using the network as a platform, to improve media processing and intercompany security, lower the cost of media resources, and decrease latency.

Release of the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol marks a significant step in creating a new open standard for telepresence, similar to other industry video standards.

Cisco already supports H.323, which allows Cisco TelePresence to interoperate with standard- and high-definition videoconferencing systems and other collaboration applications. Cisco supports HD videoconferencing interoperability solutions via the Cisco MXE 5600 (Media Experience Engine) and Cisco Unified Video Conferencing.

Håkon Dahle, Chief Technologist at TANDBERG, said: "TANDBERG has always been committed to open standards for telepresence and video conferencing technology, essential for building a global video community. We are very pleased to enable even greater company-to-company video collaboration to our customers for more flexibility and a higher return on their telepresence investments. With this additional interoperability, we are helping to make video pervasive around the globe."

Roberto Giamagli, general manager, Networking business unit at RADVISION, said: "Seamless interoperability across different networks, protocols, devices and vendors has always been a strong focus of RADVISION. Bringing the TelePresence Interoperability Protocol to our product line will provide all our customers with many more connectivity options."

Casey King, CTO at LifeSize Communications, a division of Logitech, said: "LifeSize has always been committed to open, standards-based, interoperable solutions that enable anyone, anywhere to communicate face-to-face in high definition. We encourage all vendors to embrace interoperability with the ultimate goal to deliver a seamless experience for the end user even in multi-vendor environments."

Charles Stucki, vice president and general manager, TelePresence Systems business unit, Cisco, said: "Cisco is bringing the future of work to reality with high-quality video collaboration for everyone, everywhere. We are providing our customers with 'any to any' interoperable solutions while maintaining the overall high-quality Cisco TelePresence experience. We believe that the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol, new experiences and new endpoints will enable many more organizations and people to transform global business."

28 January 1010. TANDBERG has successfully demonstrated telepresence interoperability between TANDBERG Telepresence and the Cisco CTS 3000. This demonstration, the first of its kind, was enabled by integrating Cisco's new Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP) into the award-winning TANDBERG Telepresence Server.

With this integration, TANDBERG now adds Cisco TelePresence solutions to the list of third-party telepresence solutions it can seamlessly interoperate with while maintaining the three-screen, high-definition telepresence experience. Interoperability with Cisco CTS 3000 and other Cisco systems will be available through a software upgrade to the TANDBERG Telepresence Server later this year.

 Fredrik Halvorsen, TANDBERG CEO, said: "As we build a global video community, it is imperative that organizations are not locked in by technology. Our Total Telepresence solution is interoperable with a broad range of third-party solutions, including those from Polycom and Microsoft.”

“ We are very happy to now deliver even greater value to our customers by bringing participants on TANDBERG Telepresence and Cisco TelePresence together with an immersive, three-screen experience. This demonstration reflects TANDBERG's continued commitment to open standards, providing scalable solutions and protecting our customers' video investments for the future."

Although many companies initially think of Telepresence as a substitute for air travel and the corporate jet, the technology holds even more value when it can seamlessly link to other video conferencing solutions -- within and outside of an organization -- to ensure all necessary participants are able to attend an important meeting.

TANDBERG customers have seen the exponential value of interoperability between third-party Ttelepresence and video conferencing for company-to-company collaboration while maintaining the best experience possible. TANDBERG is consistently the first to deliver the most advanced interoperability solutions to the market, demonstrated by:

-- TANDBERG first to demonstrate a multi-screen, High-Definition Telepresence call with Cisco TelePresence CTS 3000

-- TANDBERG first to deliver a Telepresence solution that can interoperate with third-party Telepresence systems while maintaining the immersive telepresence experience.

-- TANDBERG first to enable High-Definition video between Microsoft Office Communicator and immersive multi-screen Telepresence.

-- TANDBERG first to deliver a complete portfolio of HD Telepresence and video conferencing solutions that can interoperate with any other standards compliant systems both within an organization and company-to-company.

For more information about the TANDBERG Total Telepresence solution, visit www.tandberg.com.

26 January 2010. Cisco has released enhanced versions of its flagship Cisco TelePresence System 3000 and Cisco TelePresence System 3200 endpoints.

The new Cisco TelePresence System 3010 and Cisco TelePresence System 3210 (pictured)offer better energy utilization and faster installation for cost-effective information technology support and new in-room enhancements for an improved user experience.

 Both the 3010 and the 3210 suites enhance collaboration with a new in-room HD liquid crystal display (LCD) to share content across the Cisco TelePresence meeting from a laptop or from an integrated document camera. The new LCDs, combined with advanced plasma displays, help reduce overall power consumption by 25 percent.

The new endpoints provide the same high-quality Cisco TelePresence experience as the rest of the portfolio, including ease of use, support for a variety of applications, 720p and 1080p HD video, spatial audio and a superior environment.

The two new endpoints also offer a faster installation, lower room remediation costs, increased bandwidth efficiency and easier management as well as energy savings, which all lower the overall total cost of operations.

Cisco also announced five new Cisco TelePresence (tm) experiences that extend the value of Telepresence beyond the virtual meeting.   The five new Cisco TelePresence experiences take face-to-face virtual collaboration to classrooms, facilitate virtual brainstorming, provide instant in-person help desk support, create a worldwide virtual showroom, and deliver a new streaming service for global virtual events.

Cisco is extending the virtual in-person collaboration experience with five new Cisco TelePresence experiences designed for teaching; brainstorming, design meetings and other active collaboration sessions; remote demonstrations; concierge services; and webcasting and session recording.

Many of these new applications have been requested by Cisco TelePresence customers who have seen an opportunity to radically change existing business practices with video: to scale operations globally, contact experts anywhere around the world, and offer employees a better work-life balance.

In partnership with Cisco Advanced Services, Cisco Authorized Technology Provider (ATP) Partners and Cisco Technical Services, Cisco is able to provide customers with unique, customized experiences, including:
(1) The Classroom of the Future, which takes the face-to-face Cisco TelePresence experience into classrooms, lecture halls and corporate training rooms to extend expertise and knowledge sharing around the globe, and to allow students and teachers to interact no matter where they are.
(2) Cisco TelePresence Active Collaboration Room, which combines a virtual meeting experience with collaborative applications such as Cisco WebEx (tm) for brainstorming on virtual interactive whiteboards and a document camera for design meetings across multiple locations.
(3) Cisco TelePresence Remote Demonstration Center, which creates a unique way for businesses to use Cisco TelePresence and other video technology to showcase new products and solutions virtually, and potentially over great distances, without requiring on-site demonstrations.
(4) Cisco TelePresence Live Desk, which provides customers with instant in-person concierge service in the Cisco TelePresence room via a softkey on the in-room IP phone.
(5) The Cisco TelePresence Streaming Service, which provides live webcasting or recording services from any size Cisco TelePresence meetings to any type of desktop or mobile device, Cisco Digital Signage, or social video system.

Cisco TelePresence experiences are available through Cisco Advanced Services and qualified Cisco TelePresence Authorized Technology Provider Partners as they become commercially available.

1 February 2010. The main innovations in Video Network Infrastructure products in 2009 were new DSP-based MCUs designed to support multipoint sessions using 1080p video for 1-screen and 3-screen Telepresence suites and HD Videoconferencing at the highest resolution.  These were complex, compute intensive products requiring much greater capacity than ealier generations of MCUs.

We focus on the MCUs (multipoint control units) and Telepresence Sservers that link Telepresence and HD videoconferencing endpoints together. We also include two examples of appliances for recording HD video conferences and streaming them over networks for live or later viewing. We are not including gateways, network traversal devices and video network management systems where most of the innovation occurred before 2009.

There were five trends in the new MCUs and Telepresence Servers launched in 2009.

First, considerable advances were made in linking Cisco Telepresence suites located on different carrier networks.

Second, the enhanced MCUs for Telepresence were used by carriers and managed conferencing service providers to offer Telepresence connections for inter-company meetings.

A third trend was to facilitate multipoint conferences between Telepresence suites of diifferent vendors. TANDBERG’s Telepresence Server was given a software upgrade to enable Telepresence meetings with Polycom RPX and TPX Telepresence suites.

A fourth trend was to ensure that most MCUs were ready to enable some users to use Full High Definition video at 1080p rather than business quality 720p video.

Fifth, offered enhanced and more scaleable MCUs  so as to enable enterprise-wide deployment of video to thousands of desktops. These could connect High Definition video availabe on PCs  that use a software-only codec to compress video on its powerful multi-core microprocessor.

*  *  *

Here are the main evnts and new products launches of 2009 in chronolgical order:

In February, Polycom launched the Polycom RMX 2000™ MCU V.4.0 with faster processing

In April, the TANDBERG Telepresence T3 was made interoperable with Polycom RPX and TPX Telepresence suites through a software upgrade to theTANDBERG Telepresence Server 8710.

In April, TANDBERG added a software upgrade for TANDBERG MSE 8000 MCU with MaxSD (tm) and ConferenceMe (tm) features

In June at Cisco Live, AT&T, BT, and Tata Communications demonstrated the technical capability for a Cisco TelePresence user to call others on any carrier network with high levels of security and reliability.  By year end 10 international carriers offered intercompany Cisco TelePresence: AT&T, BT, Magyar Telekom, NTT, Orange, Tata, Telefonica, TELMEX, Telstra, and Telus.

In June, RADVISION launched RADVISION SCOPIA Elite 5000 MCU with V.7.0 software for Telepresence and 1080p HD video with H.264 SVC for network resilience.

In June, TANDBERG released the TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 7010, an entry-level MCU with the same functionality as TS 8710.

In July, LfeSize released the LifeSize® Multipoint 230 MCU with support for 720p and 1080p video.

In October, the interoperability of standards-based Telepresence systems from Polycom, Tandberg and LifeSize were demonstrated by connecting them on a Polycom Telepresence Experience (TPX) system at the Fall 2009 Internet2 Member Meeting. 

In October, Polycom unveiled the very powerful RMX (tm) 4000, scaleable MCU for Telepresence and 1080p Videoconferencing at the Polycom User Group conference

In November, TANDBERG introduced a large-scale provisioning solution that allows enterprises to quickly and efficiently deploy TANDBERG E20 personal video conferencing phones and TANDBERG Movi PC video conferencing to thousands of employees in a matter of minutes. The required software upgrades for the TANDBERG TMS, VCS and E20 were available before 2009 year end.
*  *  *

What will be the key trends in 2010?

In January 2010, Cisco announced the release of the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol to the public domain that allows multiscreen Telepresence systems to interoperate. By licensing the protocol, Cisco offers vendors the opportunity to take advantage of a switched architecture, using the network as a platform, to improve media processing and intercompany security, lower the cost of media resources, and decrease latency.

Also in Janauary 2010, TANDBERG successfully demonstrated Telepresence interoperability between TANDBERG Telepresence and the Cisco CTS 3000. This demonstration, the first of its kind, was enabled by integrating Cisco's new Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP) into the award-winning TANDBERG Telepresence Server. TANDBERG now adds Cisco TelePresence solutions to the list of third-party telepresence solutions it can seamlessly interoperate with while maintaining the three-screen, High-Definition Telepresence experience.

So one trend in 2010 will be strong efforts to extend interoperability.

The main emphasis in 2010 will be on corprorations, organisations, international carriers and managed conferencing service providers putting to good use the new MCUs launched in 2009.

Most vendors of Telepresence suites recommend using a provider of managed services. Cisco, TANDBERG and Polycom require they use those with an approved Video Network Operations Centre (VNOC). The core of these VNOCs will be a high-capacity MCU, probably one of those released in 2009 which we describe in more detail in the following News Bytes.

We will consider more on this subject when we announce our Awards for the Best Providers of Managed Conferencing Servoices of the calendar year 2009 later in February 2010.

1 February 2010.  In previous weeks we selected the 12 Best Telepresence Endpoint Solutions of 2009 and the 12 Best Videoconferencing Endpoint Solutions of 2009. This week we select  the 10 Best Video Network Infrastructure products released or updated in 2009.

Next comes our Editor’s Choice Awards for the 10 Best Video Network Infrastructure products of 2009. To qualify a Video Network Infrastructure solution had to be launched or substantially improved in Calendar 2009. The Editor takes the side of the user and looks for innovation, reliability, ease of use and price-performance in Telepresence solutions. Our Awards in vendor alphabetical order are to:

MCUs that enable multi-site 3-screen Telepresence and 1080p HD Video connections

1. Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch - CTMS-1.5- for 1080p Cisco Telepresence
2. LifeSize® Multipoint 230 MCU with support for 720p and 1080p video
3. Polycom RMX 2000 MCU v.4.0 for Telepresence and 1080p HD Videoconferencing
4. Polycom RMX 4000 scaleable MCU for Telepresence and 1080p Videoconferencing
5. RADVISION SCOPIA Elite 5000 MCU with V.7.0 software for 1080p HD video with H.264 SVC
6. TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 8710 - an MCU to interoperate with other vendor’s TP
7. TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 7010 an entry-level MCU with functionality as TS 8710

MCUs that enable multi-site High-Definition and Standard-Definition Videoconferencing links

8. TANDBERG MSE 8000 series MCU with MaxSD (tm) and ConferenceMe (tm) features

Servers for recording and streaming 1080p High-Definition video conferences

9. Polycom RSS 4000 for recording and streaming server 1080p HD video conferences
10. TANDBERG Content Server - a 720p High-Definition video recording and streaming server

For the record, our Awards one year ago for The Best Video Network Infrastructure products launched in 2008 announced in January 2009 in vendor alphabetical order were to:

1. The Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch
2. LifeSize® Multipoint™ High Definition MCU
3. Polycom® RMX 1000 and RMX 2000™ Real-time media conference platform
4. The Polycom Converged Management Application CMA 4000, CMA 5000
5. The RADVISION SCOPIA 100/400/1000 conferencing platforms with version 5.7 software
6. TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 8710
7. The TANDBERG Video Communication Server
8. The TANDBERG Codian HD MCU 4500 and 4501

1 February 2010. The Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch is designed to link Cisco Telepresence systems in a multi-point conference - be they single screen TP systems (the 500 and 1000 series endpoints) or three-screen systems (the 3000 and 3200 series endpoints).  The Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch can be used for both internal and customer-facing multipoint meetings. Launched in 2008, some enhancements were made in 2009.

The Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch can support up to 48 video streams at 1080p resolution in multiple meetings. The system supports connections among either (a) 48 single-screen Cisco TelePresence endpoints, (b) 16 three-screen TelePresence endpoints, or (c) a mix of both (up to 48 screens in total) in a single meeting.  At least one Cisco Unified Videoconferencing 3500 series MCU is also reqired if HD and SD videoconferencing systems are to be included in a confeence.

The Cisco TelePresence solution supports 1080p and 720p High-Definition video standards, with life-size images of far-end participants on 65-inch plasma screens for both point-to-point and multipoint calls.

Multichannel, discrete audio means sound comes from the direction of the speaker, allowing voice tracking as audio is switched between locations. Sub-10 milliseconds latency brings transparent switching between sites or segments during a multipoint call.

The Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch supports voice-activated switching. Embedded smart-switching technology determines when to switch speakers and eliminates changes due to stray noises. Spatial audio and seating location on screen are always maintained as switching occurs.

At least one Cisco Unified Videoconferencing 3500 series MCU, the Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch provides full interoperability with the installed base of H.323, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), H.320, and Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP) videoconferencing endpoints.

The Cisco TelePresence solution supports full media and signaling encryption with no discernable latency to the Cisco TelePresence call for up to 48 segments. In addition, Cisco TelePresence meetings can be designated as non-secure, secure best effort, and always secure. Meeting encryption status is indicated on-screen at the start of a call or when it changes, and on the phone at all times.

During an active meeting, the conference manager can add another party from the web interface and the participant is automatically added to the meeting. This configurable option allows new participants joining a meeting to briefly be shown on the displays of all participants already in the meeting so they know a new party has joined.

TelePresence meetings are easily setup through enterprise groupware such as Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes. It takes one push of a button on the in-room IP phone to start a meeting. There is no need for technical support on site.

The capability to share data and images with all other participants and rooms is preserved in a multipoint call.

The CTMS solution is easy to manage with Web-based administration Three roles a re available: Conference Maanger, systems administrator and diagnostics only for technical access to system processes. The Switch can be used in conjunction with Cisco TelePresence Manager Version 1.5 or later..

Each meeting can be assigned a maximum quality (rate or use of bandwidth). If a Cisco TelePresence endpoint joins that has been assigned a lower bandwidth rate, the bandwidth rate of the conference automatically decreases.

Call records provide meeting start and stop data and participant details. You can export records to a third-party application for manipulation and data sorting.

The Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch is one of The Best Video Network Infrastructure Solutions launched in the Year 2009.

1 February 2010. LifeSize Communications LifeSize® Multipoint™ 230, its next generation MCU  supporting 720p and Full HD 1080p30 multipoint conferences in July 2009. Utilizing the latest in DSP technology, LifeSize Multipoint 230 is an enterprise-class MCU enabling up to 30 sites to communicate in High Definition 720p video at 30 fps and 15 sites  in Full HD video at 1080p at 30 fps.

LifeSize also launched the LifeSize® Control™ 4.5 management platform in July 2009. This feature-rich platform allows management and control of heterogeneous, multi-vendor video environments, and with release 4.5 includes scheduling of both multi-vendor endpoints and MCU’s through Microsoft Exchange. Release 4.5 provides SNMP interoperability supporting integration with 3rd party network and systems management solutions such as HP OpenView™ and Tivoli TME™. LifeSize Control 4.5 software was available for download in Q3 2009.

The LifeSize Multipoint 230 is a 3U MCU designed for organizations that require large capacity multiparty calls. LifeSize Multipoint 230 uses the latest in DSP technology to enable up to 30 sites to communicate via 720p video at 30 fps and 15 sites to participate with Full HD, 1080p video at 30 fps. Multipoint 230 will also support up to 120 SD videoconferencing systems at with 360p video at 30 fps.

LifeSize Multipoint 230 with support for 720p30 will be available in Q3 2009. 1080p30 and Dynamic Port Capacity support were promised as a software upgrade in Q4  2009.

LifeSize Multipoint 230 provides conference participants an easy-to-use interface, with new features including user-definable screen layout.  A new personal layout feature enables user-selectable layout with 7 different layout options. Participants can choose between HD Continuous Presence (CP) or HD Voice-Activated Switching (VAS) mode. Continuous Presence can display up to 16 conference participants on one screen in SD video.

LifeSize Multipoint 230 participants can now place calls up to 12Mbps enabling maximum call speeds for the most demanding applications. Dynamic port capacity allows additional calls to be added even after maximum call capacity is reached, by automatically down speeding calls to accommodate more participants.

LifeSize Multipoint 230 enables the system administrator to centrally manage and control system settings and conferences from an easy-to-use graphical Web interface. Its Video Auto Attendant interface enables click-to-create and join calls. Conference features are clearly indicated with onscreen overlay icons to indicate number of audio participants on the call, if the call is encrypted, or recorded.

All LifeSize products are designed to be standards compliant and interoperable with multi-vendor systems. LifeSize Multipoint is tested with multi-vendor systems and will provide the best quality possible.

LifeSize claimed at the launch that LifeSize Multipoint 230 delivers the best price performance per port of MCU’s in its class. This is probably still correct today.

LifeSize Multipoint 230 can be bought packaged with LifeSize® Gatekeeper™ and LifeSize® Multipoint Extension™ software.

LifeSize® Multipoint 230 MCU with support for 720p and 1080p video is one of The Best Video Network Infrastructure Solutions launched in the Year 2009.

3. Polycom RMX 2000 MCU V.4.0 for Telepresence and 1080p HD Videoconferencing

1 February 2010. Polycom launched the Polycom RMX 2000™ MCU V.4.0 in February 2009. The new Polycom RMX 2000 V4.0 delivers unrivalled quality, flexibility and scalability support for 1080p30 and 720p60 HD video; it achieves this with faster processing resources (MPM+ cards) and software enhancements.  MPM+ Cards are plug-in circuit boards called Media Processing Module -MPM.

Polycom immersive Telepresence requires this extra power. This powerful MCU can handle up to 20 Telepresence screens showing 1080p video in its continuous presence mode ... that is five sites with four screens, ten sites with two screens or 20 sites with one screen.

For HD-videoconferencing only deployments, the bridge can support up to 40 simultaneous 720p 30fps video calls or up to 20 1080p 30 fps or 720p 60 fps video calls. For mixed resolution environments, it can support up to 160 simultaneous video calls or up to 800 voice-only calls. The MPM+ cards can handle video to display on 16x 9 wide screens.  It offers flexibility for mixed SD and HD resolution video environments, and a capacity that is double that of the earlier V. 3.0 model.

The RMX 2000 V.4.0 has been designed to address existing and emerging applications including immersive, room and personal High-Definition (HD) Telepresence, extensive desktop video collaboration deployments, specialised industry applications and traditional video conferencing.

The Polycom RMX 2000™ MCU V.4.0 provides support for 1080p video at 30 fps and 720p at 60fps, an outstanding capability achieved through software enhancements and new hardware -- MPM+ cards with faster processing resources. The new Polycom Video Clarity achieves higher video resolution in mixed SD and HD environments.

Polycom reasserted its leadership in MCUs in 2009 with this RMX 2000 V.4.0 and later in October the MX 4000 with a brilliant design that focuses on the growing scale of video networks (now and in the future), flexibility (suitable for linking Telepresence systems, HD and SD VC systems and desktop systems in the same conference), upgrading the low video quality of SD systems (with Polycom Video Clarity™) and ease of use (for endpoint users and IT personnel). This MCU has a single backplane and interchangeable modules for redundancy.                                                  

The Polycom RMX 2000 V4.0 MCU supports the full range of video resolutions up to 1080p and optimises call quality for all participants based on the capabilities of their systems. It supports HD video quality at 1080p at 30 frames per second (fps), broadcast-quality 720p (720p at 60fps) and 720p at 30fps. The RMX 2000 also supports Polycom’s Lost Packet Recovery™ technology (LPR™), which improves the quality of video calls over IP networks when there is packet loss and network congestion.

Through an innovative new capability called Video Clarity™, the Polycom RMX 2000 V4.0 can upscale and sharpen video images from Standard Definition endpoints or others using low bandwidth. This feature provides dramatically enhanced video quality for lower-resolution video conferencing devices and video calls made at lower bandwidth speeds.

The RMX 2000 offers Flexible Resource Capacity™ configuration, which dynamically allocates resources based on specific call requirements. This method provides greater capacity (up to four times the capacity of the completely fixed designs available today) and is more cost-effective for non HD resolution calls and older video systems, since they consume less processing resources.

The base list price for the Polycom RMX 2000 V4.0 with MPM+ was £28,000 in EMEA and US$46,500 in North America at the launch in February 2009.

The Polycom RMX 2000 V4.0 MCU is one of The Best Video Network Infrastructure Solutions launched in the Year 2009.

 1 February 2010. Polycom unveiled the RMX (tm) 4000, scaleable MCU for Telepresence and 1080p Videoconferencing at the Polycom User Group conference in October 2009. The RMX 4000 is so scalable that it is capable of supporting Telepresence suites, and/or hundreds of simultaneous HD video calls.

The Polycom RMX 4000 is capable of supporting hundreds of HD Telepresence calls (including full HD at 1080p video resolution) and more than a thousand video and audio conferences, when paired with the Polycom Distributed Media Application (DMA) 7000, a unique network application that centralizes call control for RMX bridges and provides further failover redundancy.

The Polycom RMX 4000 supports customers' current and future needs with unmatched performance and scale for the latest Telepresence, HD video conferencing and desktop video collaboration applications. Polycom® Video Clarity™ improves the picture quality of non-HD video streams when a Standard-Definition endpoint joins a meeting.

The Polycom solution is based on established standards and open interoperability. It can be deployed within any unified communications (UC) environment and features integration with leading UC platforms from Microsoft, IBM, Avaya, Nortel, BroadSoft and others.

The Polycom RMX 4000 became available in Q4 2009. North America list price for the RMX 4000 starts at US$152,000 and Polycom claimed at the launch that this made the list price for RMX 4000 HD ports nearly 40 percent less expensive than nearest competitor.
 
The Polycom RMX 4000 offers flexibility of management. It can be deployed centrally or in a distributed network environment with the Polycom DMA 7000 for greater scale, redundancy, centralized provisioning, and simplified network administration. 

ATCA stands for Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture and is a standard developed by the PICMG – a group of hardware vendors with great track record for defining solid hardware architectures. At the ATCA Summit in October 2009, the Polycom RMX 4000 won an Award: won Best of Show for infrastructure product.

The Polycom RMX 4000 leverages the carrier-grade Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture that features a unique, unified design. Four media processing cards share the same management system and high-speed backplane, allowing processing resources to be shared seamlessly as a unified system. This provides support for large conferences without cascading to multiple bridges and adding latency, and provides some quality, scalability, reliability, and administrative advantages over competing systems.

The Polycom RMX 4000 completely separates the two types of traffic internally: mixing media (video/audio) and signaling/management traffic. This architectural approach benefits security, since attacks against servers are usually about getting control of the signaling to manipulate the media. By clearly separating the two, RMX 4000 makes hijacking the server from outside impossible.

The other main features of the Polycom RMX 4000 are:
- Delivers multi-point collaboration and multi-network connectivity for video, voice and unified voice and video conferencing.
- Supports all networks IP (H.323, SIP), PSTN, and ISDN on a single chassis
- Optimizes the experience for all participants in a call by transcoding resolutions, frame rates and layout options, and connecting multiple networks.
- Provides both flexible and fixed resource allocation, allowing optimization as network requirements change. This allows customers to cost- effectively support existing systems as they migrate from traditional video conferencing to HD Telepresence.
- Features in-system redundancy with redundant power supplies with AC or DC option.

The Polycom RMX 4000 shares the same code base as the Polycom RMX 2000®, ensuring seamless feature and functionality support. The RMX 4000 and the RMX 2000 also share licenses, media and E1/T1 cards, software versions, Telepresence and encryption licenses.

The Polycom RMX 4000 is one of The Best Video Network Infrastructure Solutions launched in the Year 2009

1 February 2010. RADVISION launched the new RADVISION SCOPIA Elite 5000 MCU Series and the broad range of SCOPIA V7.0 solution enhancements at InfoComm 09 in June 2009. It is a standards-based HD MCU that delivers Telepresence, 1080p and 720p video.  SCOPIA Elite is the industry’s first standards based MCU to natively support advanced H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC) to improve performance over lossy networks

The RADVISION SCOPIA Elite 5000 MCU Series is RADVISION’s next generation solution for high definition multi-site conferencing. It is the centerpiece of RADVISION’s new and comprehensive SCOPIA V7.0 next generation conferencing solution. SCOPIA Elite supports 1080p video processing, Telepresence connectivity, dynamic resource allocation, and individual video layouts for each participant.

The new SCOPIA Elite 5000 MCU Series ranges from 10 to 30 ports of High Definition Continuous Presence, providing a line of systems to suit a variety of applications and budgets.  Each system can also deliver four times the capacity by utilizing SCOPIA Elite’s X4 capacity option with dynamic resource allocation.  This maximizes capacity for mixed endpoint environments without any system configuration changes.  If users connect at less than HD, the extra processing power is available for additional capacity.  This flexible model offers significant value and a fast return on investment (ROI) with up to 120 video conferencing ports per system.

The new SCOPIA Elite 5000 MCU is the industry’s first standards based MCU to natively support advanced H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC) technology.  RADVISION’s SVC technology provides a high quality experience over unmanaged networks such as the public Internet, particularly benefiting desktop video conferencing users on the road or teleworkers from their home offices. 

This approach provides the benefits of high error resiliency while maintaining full interoperability and high quality with conferencing and telepresence systems not currently using SVC.  Distributed networks of H.264 SVC interconnected SCOPIA Elite MCUs will also benefit from significantly better connections between the MCUs, even if the network paths are prone to errors.  H.264 SVC ensures that network impediments do not interfere with having a high quality conferencing experience.

The new SCOPIA Elite 5000 MCU was designed with feedback from users of many different brands and types of endpoints in order to improve usability and simplicity.  Unique on-screen overlays, compatible with any conferencing endpoint, display a variety of information including video layout controls, recording and encrypted conference indications, and participant joining and leaving notifications.  Video layouts are also customizable per conference participant, allowing each user to have a personal “view” of the meeting.

SCOPIA Elite’s Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) delivers investment protection through a future-proof platform.  Utilizing ATCA architecture delivers high reliability, availability and serviceability while incorporating the latest technology for high speed processing and interconnections.  The ATCA implementation is designed for the stringent requirements of service providers and demanding enterprises. 

Using SCOPIA Desktop software client and the new SCOPIA Elite 5000 MCU, RADVISION offers the most complete scaleable UC and desktop videoconferencing solution and enterprise customers have planned deployments up to 1,000 desktops using this RADVISION technology.

The new SCOPIA VC240, an all-in-one 24" computer monitor and a stand-alone video communication device jointly developed by RADVISION and SAMSUNG, will become available worldwide in 2010. It delivers a comprehensive HD desktop conferencing solution by seamlessly integrating with RADVISION's SCOPIA family of products including the new SCOPIA Elite MCU.

The RADVISION SCOPIA Elite 5000 MCU Series is one of The Best Video Network Infrastructure Solutions launched in the Year 2009.

1 February 2010. One year ago in January 2009  we decided the TANDBERG Telepresence Server was one of the Best Video Network Infrastructure products launched in 2008 because it was capable of including all traditional VC endpoints in a Telepresence meeting. In April 2009 this interoperability was extended to Telpresence systems of other vendors.

 The TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 8710 provides full integration with TANDBERG T3 Telepresence systems allowing one, two or three other TelePresence sites to be viewed on a single screen. There is also integration with TANDBERG Experia Telepresence systems.

Continuous Telepresence and Telepresence View  (See picture above) ensure that the Telepresence experience is always maintained. It offers support for One-Table and Room-Switched configurations and Advanced Continuous Telepresence as standard on all ports. Users can initiate multisite calls via the TS8710 from the TANDBERG T3 user interface; the user can dial in or dial out via the Web server. (See picture above)

In April 2009, TANDBERG announced that its Telepresence T3 suite can maintain the multi-screen, High-Definition Telepresence experience when calling out to a third-party Telepresence system of another vendor. This is enabled through a software upgrade to the TANDBERG Telepresence Server 8710.

TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 8710 was already interoperable with the TANDBERG product portfolio, Microsoft Office Communications Server, and other standards-based video endpoints. From April 2009, it has been interoperable with  standards-based Telepresence systems of other vendors. For example, when connecting with users of a Polycom Telepresence system, there is full interoperability. 

The unique TANDBERG Telepresence Server interoperability feature enables:
(1) TANDBERG customers to connect to customers and partners who are using a different manufacturer’s Telepresence system
(2) TANDBERG Telepresence T3 customers to call a third party vendor’s Telepresence endpoint while preserving the full TANDBERG immersive telepresence functionality, providing the best call experience to every participant
(3) Managed Service providers to offer uniquely differentiated services to their Telepresence customers, opening up previously closed systems to Telepresence calls

 This new functionality of the TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 8710 has been welcomed by customers who feared that one company’s Telepresence solution might become an island cut off from those of other vendors.

Dominic Dodd, Global Program Director, Unified Communications & Collaboration, Frost & Sullivan commented: “By enabling Telepresence systems (of different vendors) to interoperate TANDBERG has upped the ante by creating a standard that all Telepresence providers will have to live up to if they want to be included in future purchasing decisions.”

Jeff Prestel, General Manager, BT Conferencing, said: “With this interoperability first and our position as a global Certified Managed Services Provider for TANDBERG Total Service, BT and TANDBERG are poised to provide customers with a cost-effective, high quality immersive experience even when they may have different Telepresence platforms.”

TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 8710 is one of The Best Video Network Infrastructure Solutions launched in the Year 2009.

1 February 2010. TANDBERG launched the new TANDBERG TS 7010 for entry-level customers and remote offices in June 2009. It is a compact Telepresence bridge that enables high-definition, multi-vendor, multi-screen telepresence calls . TANDBERG Telepresence Server 7010 delivers the same functions and interoperability as the TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 8710.

Continuous Telepresence and Telepresence View  (See picture for the TS8710) ensure that the Telepresence experience is always maintained. It offers support for One-Table and Room-Switched configurations and Advanced Continuous Telepresence as standard on all ports. Users can initiate multisite calls via the TS8710 from the TANDBERG T3 user interface; the user can dial in or dial out via the Web server.

Haykon Dahle, Chief Technologist, TANDBERG, said “The TS 7010 is one more example of TANDBERG leading the industry in delivering superior Telepresence solutions that support the highest level of interoperability available.”

TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 7010 can combine Telepresence, HD and SD endpoints within the same conference. There is automatic audio/video transcoding and transrating on all calls. Any bandwidth, any resolution, any video or audio codec can be used on any video call within the same conference. Each participant has their own personal encode. Intelligently recognizes the type of system joining a conference. It provides each participant the best possible view for the system they are using.

The TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 7010 uses Codian ClearVision™ Technology for resolution enhancement. Continuous Telepresence and Telepresence View ensures the Telepresence experience is always maintained.  There is support for OneTable and Room-Switched configurations.

The TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 7010 uses Codian Packet Safe™ technology to provide intelligent downspeeding, packet pacing and packet loss concealment to ensure optimum video and audio quality. It is compact in size: 2U tall and 19" rack mountable.

TANDBERG’s interoperability with competitor products was a deciding factor for implementation at Technopolis, a Finnish company specializing in providing business environments for high tech companies. Technopolis expects to cut its own travel by 40% using telepresence and video conferencing.

Laura Krusius, Business Services Director, Technopolis,  said: “Our clients have global operations, so the chosen solution had to be standardized and able to integrate with other networks, technologies, and vendor solutions. We were completely satisfied that TANDBERG offered us this capability.” which also expects to cut its own travel by 40% using telepresence and video conferencing.

TANDBERG also released in June 2009 a software upgrade for its Telepresence T3 that delivers an enhanced user interface and simplifies call setup by allowing participants to easily configure the Telepresence Server from the T3’s touch screen.

The TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 7010 is Integrated with TANDBERG Management Suite (TMS) and the powerful scheduling capabilities of the TMS can be used to schedule conferences.

The detailed specifications can be found at:
http://www.tandberg.com/collateral/product_brochures/TANDBERG%20Telepresence%20Server%207000%20Series%20Product%20Sheet.pdf

The TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 7010 uses a pioneering technology that brings together Telepresence, and standards-based, high-definition video conferencing users in the same conference.

TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 7010 is one of The Best Video Network Infrastructure Solutions launched in the Year 2009.

1 February 2010.  The TANDBERG Codian (Media Services Engine) MSE 8000 Chassis is a powerful, fault-tolerant video conferencing MCU designed for large-scale video communications. The carrier-class chassis supports up to 10 blades and 1 Gbit/s of audio/video conferencing. The MSE 8000 series is ideal for service providers, large corporations, and government installations.

TANDBERG announced a new software release version 3.0 for its MSE 8000 Multipoint Control Units (MCUs) in April 2009. There are two enhancements: MaxSD™ increases MSE 8000 capacity to 720 video conferencing ports and ConferenceMeTM extends multipoint video conferencing to any desktop. Now the MSE 8000 MCU makes it even easier for organizations to visually connect employees, customers, and suppliers through video conferencing solutions.

TANDBERG MaxSD (tm) is newly developed for the TANDBERG MSE 8000 series. It doubles the capacity of a single MSE 8000 chassis from 360 to 720 concurrent SD (Standard Definition or 448p) video calls. This enhancement enables larger video conferences, with capacity for up to 80 SD or 20 HD (720p) fully transcoded, continuous presence (CP) connections per blade. The chasis has 9 blades.

TANDBERG MaxSD gives customers the flexibility to expand their video bridging capacity as needed and without having to purchase and install additional hardware.

The new TANDBERG MCU ConferenceMe (tm) feature extends multipoint videoconferencing to the desktop by enabling up to 12 simultaneous users to easily join any conference and collaborate face-to-face from their PC via an email invitation with a URL link. Users simply click the link and join a video conference no matter where they are located, with features such as multiple layouts, continuous presence and content sharing functionality, all without compromising on video quality.

The enhanced MCUs also support TANDBERG’s unique Multiwayä capability. Multiway enables multipoint calls to be escalated from an endpoint to the MCU, making it even easier for users to participate in multipoint video conferencing calls.

 Dan Tanel, Chief Technical Officer, of BCS Global, a managed service provider said: “We were one of the first users of TANDBERG Codian MCU products and continue to use them for the superior quality and innovation we’ve experienced. We know that as our customers’ video requirements expand, the TANDBERG line will continue to support our ability to deliver the highest-quality customer experience.”

The upgraded TANDBERG MSE 8000 series MCU satisfies the growing demand for high-quality, scalable, and easily managed video network infrastructure to ensure that organizations can experience all of the advantages of enterprise wide video deployment.

TANDBERG MSE 8000 series MCU with MaxSD (tm) and ConferenceMe (tm) features is one of The Best Video Network Infrastructure Solutions launched in the Year 2009.

1 February 2010. Polycom unveiled the Polycom RSS™ 4000 recording and streaming video server with video resolutions up to 1080p at the Polycom User Group conference in October 2009. The Polycom® RSS™ 4000 is a centralized server for recording, streaming, and archiving video conferences.  It leverages the same code base as the RSS 2000, ensuring seamless feature and functionality support across products.

The Polycom RSS 4000 recording and streaming server is a network-based video conferencing solution that gives companies the ability to record conference calls, produce archive files of the recordings, and simultaneously stream the conferences to thousands of employees world-wide. It uses the video conferencing network as the source for employee-produced videos such as training modules or CEO broadcasts, thereby leveraging the investment in a video conferencing network.

The Polycom RSS 4000 delivers high-capacity recording and streaming that allows users to create and stream HD video content using standards-based Telepresence and video conferencing systems as capture studios for training, communication and other applications. It offers multiple video resolutions up to 1080p for high-quality recordings. It records single point or multipoint conferences with full H.239 content capture.

The Polycom RSS 4000 utilizes an efficient, network-based platform to record video and audio calls from Polycom telepresence and video systems, calls through Polycom RMX bridges, and calls from other standards-based telepresence and video systems. It provides up to 15 simultaneous full video, audio and content conference recordings per server. It features dual hard drives with RAID configuration and redundant power supplies for reliability.

Content can be downloaded for post production editing or automatically imported into an enterprise wide content management application such as the Polycom VMC 1000 video on demand and live broadcast server.

The Polycom RSS 4000 works in conjunction with the Polycom Video Media Center (VMC) 1000 as a solution for managing the complete video content lifecycle, from creation, capture and encoding, to portal publishing and webcasting, to storage and archiving. This enables playback of video content from web browsers as well as videoconferencing endpoints.

The Polycom RSS 4000 delivers multiple streams in both standard definition and high definition resolutions and supports unicast and multicast content distribution options.

All recordings can be securely played back on telepresence and video conferencing systems or via web browser.

The Polycom RSS 4000 is perfect for corporations who want to Web cast events such as company meetings, either live or on demand. It uses the video conferencing network as the production source for videos such as training modules, CEO broadcasts, town hall sessions, knowledge sharing, compliancy, project managements and mass communications.

The Polycom RSS 4000 quickly and affordably enables new uses for video conferencing systems and rooms. It leverages your investment in the video conferencing systems, turning them into content generation sources. Many organizations can increase productivity and realize a fast ROI with the Polycom RSS 4000 recording and streaming server

The Polycom RSS 4000 is one of The Best Video Network Infrastructure Solutions launched in the Year 2009.

1 February 2010. The TANDBERG Content Server enables organizations to share knowledge and enhance communication by recording their video conferences and multimedia presentations for live and on-demand access. Whether it’s a university lecture, a corporate training session, an executive meeting or any other critical event – the TANDBERG Content Server streamlines the process of capturing content throughout the organization.

The TANDBERG Content Server records calls that are then transcoded into streaming and downloadable file formats, including Windows Media, MPEG4 and Real Media formats. Some enhancements were made in 2009.

The TANDBERG Content Server create business-quality multimedia content easily from any H.323 or SIP videoconferencing endpoint. Calls can be received at up to 2Mbps, up to 720P HD resolution in H.264 for main camera and upto 1024x768 for an H.239 source. One can record presentations or video from live dual stream (H.239 or DuoVideo).

The TANDBERG Content Server supports 5 concurrent video calls, up to 2 of which can be streamed live. One can cluster up to ten TANDBERG Content Servers for scalable environments. One can export and import conferences from one Content Server to another.

The TANDBERG Content Server provides synchronized streaming of video and presentation in live and on-demand modes. It provides Unicast and Multicast streaming support. It offers internal and external storage capabilities. There is support for Active Directory authentication via LDAP and call configuration and access rights management. One can create content from anywhere using TANDBERG Expressway™.

Every call is recorded directly to disk for “off-line”. Transcoding atakes place fter the call completes. There is a Personal sandbox for safe working on recorded content before publishing.

The TANDBERG Content Server can manage and distribute live or recorded content to any PC and leading portable media devices in Flash®, Microsoft Windows Media®, QuickTime® compatible MPEG-4 and RealPlayer® formats. It can streamline the production and distribution of professional video podcast across your organization. It is compatible with major distribution servers, leading corporate and education web 2.0 portals. 

There is Native support for streaming Microsoft Windows Media™ via an embedded Windows Media™ server. There is support for external streaming servers (Microsoft Windows Media™ Server, Apple QuickTime™ Streaming Server , Wowza Media Server, and Real Networks Helix) when supplied by the customer.

TANDBERG Content Server has a Searchable content library Web interface. Conferences fall into categories for easy content management. C onference access and metadata can be pre-configured through the use of Recording Aliases.

One can view live and recorded content through the Content Viewer Web interface. The share conference link enables users to easily identify and share recordings.

All recordings can be securely played back on Telepresence and video conferencing systems or via a web browser.

There is an excellent white paper  by TANDBERG of November 2009 called “Your videoconference room as a video capture studio - unlocking the true potential of your videoconferencing investment.” Download free from:
http://www.tandberg.com/video-conferencing-network-infrastructure/multimedia-content-server.jsp

The TANDBERG Content Server is one of The Best Video Network Infrastructure Solutions launched in the Year 2009.

  
3 February 2010.  RADVISION Ltd. has reached an agreement to acquire selected assets of the Aethra group of companies (Aethra) of Ancona, Italy, including certain intellectual property and technology for High-Definition (HD) videoconferencing endpoint systems. So it is the last time you will se the Aethra logo.

The purchase price for the assets acquired is approximately Euro 7.0 million cash (approximately $10 million). In addition, RADVISION will assume certain specific liabilities related to the acquisition of approximately Euro 3 million (approximately $4.3 million). The agreement has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies and was incorporated in Aethra’s pre-insolvency plan that Aethra filed with the Italian court and which was recently approved. 

Other components of the transaction include the purchase of some additional fixed assets and selected commercial agreements, which remain subject to Italian court approval and other conditions as set in the Aethra-RADVISION agreements.

RADVISION has had an OEM relationship with Aethra since 2005, through which RADVISION video infrastructure products and technology have been included in Aethra video solutions, allowing Aethra to offer the market a complete end-to-end solution.

RADVISION plans to tightly integrate Aethra’s best-of-breed HD video endpoint technology with RADVISION’s award-winning video network infrastructure and desktop solutions to offer a full video conferencing portfolio in response to customer demand created by rapid change and consolidation in the video marketplace.

Aethra was founded 38 years ago and is a pioneer in the design and creation of video conferencing systems with an established reputation for innovation and elegant design. Its recently developed HD video conferencing technology offers top of the range 1080p performance and elegant Italian design. The solutions are suitable for video conference sessions for a full range of enterprise conference rooms.

This is an important addition to RADVISION’s portfolio and complements RADVISION’s introduction late last year of the VC 240, a disruptive all-in-one HD desktop offering, which RADVISION partnered with SAMSUNG to develop, and is bringing to market at an affordable price.

RADVISION also plans to use the Aethra technology to offer room conferencing systems with the same price-value advantage for which RADVISION is known.

Boaz Raviv, Chief Executive Officer, RADVISION, said: “We believe this is an extraordinary opportunity to extend our product portfolio at a time of substantial industry realignment that is creating significant new opportunity. Many of our customers and partners have urged us to provide them with a more complete video solution consistent with our technology-leading network infrastructure and our price-value advantage.  The addition of the Aethra HD video assets will enable us to quickly provide a very high quality and competitive endpoint product for the enterprise market. In addition, we plan to capitalize on Aethra’s distribution network to deepen our overlapping channel relationships and add new ones.”

“We also believe this transaction is a very effective use of our cash, while leaving us with a substantial cash position for continued investment in R&D, sales and marketing, and other strategic initiatives.  We plan to introduce our new room conferencing system based on the acquired Aethra technology integrated with our existing SCOPIA portfolio later this year.”

Mr. Raviv concluded: “Most importantly, this transaction will enable us to effectively advance our strategy and more fully take advantage of new opportunities in the rapidly growing and dynamic video conferencing market.”

Q2 2010

19 April 2010 at the Steigenberger Hotel, Berlin, Germany
Wainhouse Research - A pre-event meeting - The CSP Summit
CSP Summit will focus on the needs of Collaboration Service Providers and will include presentations by industry experts
Register at http://www.wainhouse.com/berlin2010

20 and 21 April 2010 at the Steigenberger Hotel in Berlin, Germany
Wainhouse Research sixth annual European conference - the Collaboration Futures Summit
The Wainhouse Research Summit has become known as the premier conference and networking opportunity that brings together top enterprise managers, analysts, and industry experts.
Register at http://www.wainhouse.com/berlin2010

22 April 2010 at Reston, Virginia, United States
The Inter-Company Telepresence and Videoconferencing Conference and Working Group.
The program is hosted by The Human Productivity Lab who recently published The Inter-Company Telepresence and Videoconferencing Handbook. It explains how your organization can create an inter-company telepresence and videoconferencing program to cut costs, improve individual and organizational productivity, and accelerate time-to-market advantage.
More details and to register at: http://www.telepresenceoptions.com/conference.php