tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-81246658539853580 2012-01-11T13:45:58-08:00 TypePad VoipEvolutionhttp://feedburner.google.com tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e008cfd1cf88340167605de361970b 2012-01-11T13:45:58-08:00 2012-01-11T14:15:56-08:00

A number of sources have picked up the news that VoIP pioneer Fonality has named a new CEO. He is David Scult, former general manager of Microsoft Office 365. The reports also typically noted that Fonality gave no reason for the departure of the former CEO. That would be Dean Mansfield, who replaced founding CEO Chris Lyman in early 2010. What most of the reports missed was that Mansfield actually left the company long ago. Simply monitoring the Fonality website would have revealed that Mansfield hadn't been listed as CEO since March 2011. Instead, a so-called "Executive Leadership Team" was...

Robert Poe tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e008cfd1cf88340168e4b26117970c 2011-12-30T19:06:51-08:00 2011-12-30T19:06:14-08:00

Video conferencing was a lot more interesting to watch in 2011 than was VoIP. It wasn't that nothing happened in VoIP during the year. It was just that a lot more happened in video conferencing. This was especially true in the SMB space. Early summer saw a slew of significant announcements from vendors and providers. These announcements figured prominently in the VoIP Evolution report "SMB Video Conferencing: Getting Beyond Clouds & Interoperability." Some of the year's developments were on the negative side of the ledger, including the demise of some promising efforts featured here in years past. Others had mixed...

Robert Poe tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e008cfd1cf8834015436c02a5a970c 2011-11-09T14:37:50-08:00 2011-11-09T15:03:30-08:00

It's little exaggeration to say that Vidyo was meant for the cloud. The high-profile startup provides video conferencing technology that does away with MCUs, the multipoint control units that combine individual video streams to create multiparty conferences. Instead, Vidyo employs video routing software that runs on standard servers. It's useful for companies that want to video conference but can't afford expensive MCUs. And a recent announcement makes another advantage clear: Vidyo's approach makes it easy to move video conferencing to the cloud. The announcement involved the introduction of a virtualized version of the technology. This advance makes it a lot...

Robert Poe tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e008cfd1cf88340154368a4934970c 2011-10-31T13:23:25-07:00 2011-11-09T10:55:27-08:00

Cisco's recently introduced cloud TelePresence offering considerably complicates life for small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) shopping for video conferencing solutions. On one hand, it adds an impressive new option to the list of available products. On the other, it increases the number of questions companies must answer before making their purchasing decisions. In short, while the introduction broadens the range of choices for SMBs looking to use video conferencing on a regular basis, it also makes their decision-making process more difficult. The new offering is a cloud-based video communication service dubbed Callway. It costs $99 per month, or $149 per...

Robert Poe tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e008cfd1cf883401539276baf8970b 2011-10-20T13:07:01-07:00 2011-10-20T13:06:49-07:00

Judging from the pace of recent announcements, mobile video conferencing may be a hotter topic than SMB video conferencing. In the past week alone, at least three suppliers have come out with new offerings. One is CounterPath, which is adding video conferencing capabilities to the next edition of its Bria soft phone for iPhone. This is the first step in a strategy to extend integrated voice, messaging, presence and video calling to all leading PC and mobile platforms. IMeet is bringing its mobility suite to the iPad and iPhone. IMeet HD, based on HTML5, works through the browser and takes...

Robert Poe tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e008cfd1cf883401539266a1a3970b 2011-10-18T12:41:40-07:00 2011-10-18T16:03:17-07:00

A new report by Infonetics Research shows that sorting through mobile VoIP options won't be simple anytime soon, even as user numbers explode. It starts with the fact that there are two main methods of delivering VoIP to mobile devices. One is over-the-top (OTT), in which the voice calls travel over carrier-provided data networks. The other is via LTE (long-term evolution), a technology that lets carriers themselves deliver voice calls over IP links to the handset. Prominent OTT providers include Skype, fring, Line2, Nimbuzz, Rebtel, Truphone, Viber, Vopium and others. Verizon Wireless will introduce native mobile VoIP over LTE in...

Robert Poe tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e008cfd1cf8834014e8c526531970d 2011-10-17T11:33:21-07:00 2011-10-17T11:39:28-07:00

Polycom's acquisition of ViVu, Inc. adds an important tool to the video conferencing vendor's arsenal, by letting it extend video collaboration capabilities to everyone with a PC. Video conferencing has traditionally operated through dedicated endpoints, including hardware such as room system or desktop video phones and client software. ViVu makes software that makes it possible to embed video communication capabilities in Web applications. The move is particularly important because Polycom technology serves as the foundation for a number of prominent commercial video conferencing services. These include 8x8's Virtual Room, BroadSoft's BroadCloud hosted cloud video conferencing platform and Telesphere's VideoConnect, which...

Robert Poe tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e008cfd1cf8834015436200ec5970c 2011-10-14T10:04:20-07:00 2011-10-14T10:04:20-07:00

Cloud-based video conferencing and online meeting provider Nefsis has added multilayer whiteboard capabilities to its set of online collaboration tools . The new capabilities allow multiple participants in a video conferencing to add text, graphics and annotations to a shared whiteboard in real time. Online collaboration tools, which can include document, desktop and even lives streaming media sharing, represent a significant enhancement of basic video conferencing services. A number of factors, however, make such integration technically difficult. It's particularly challenging, for example, when multiple types of endpoints, and particularly hardware endpoints, are involved. The Nefsis service uses Windows-based client software.

Robert Poe tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e008cfd1cf8834014e8b36654f970d 2011-09-02T20:08:24-07:00 2011-09-02T20:08:24-07:00

There has been considerable controversy over whether the SMB (small to medium-size business) video conferencing market is about to take off. That's understandable: video conferencing has been a lot of false starts in the past. The recent VoIP Evolution report on the topic describes a number of signs the takeoff is imminent. These include the success of higher-end video conferencing products, the growing popularity of cloud-based services in general, the success of hosted VoIP, the runaway growth of consumer video chat and others. Also persuasive is the number of competitors jumping into the market: there were eight significant announcements in...

Robert Poe tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e008cfd1cf8834015434bea8fa970c 2011-08-22T21:20:11-07:00 2011-08-22T21:20:00-07:00

Serious excitement surrounds the SMB (small to medium-size business) video conferencing space these days. In June and July alone, no fewer than eight companies – 8x8, Blue Jeans Network, BroadSoft, InFocus, LifeSize, Polycom, Telesphere and Vidtel – announced new hardware, services, tie-ups or some combination thereof. All of the announcements represented significant investments of time, effort and resources. And together, they indicated a widespread optimism that the market is about to take off. Even in pre-takeoff mode, though, the market has already spawned a hefty body of conventional wisdom. Most of it takes the form of ardent convictions surrounding clouds...

Robert Poe