Avistar Communications - An Open Forum

Avistar launches 1st standards-based and VDI enabled desktop videoconferencing solution for Microsoft Lync

2011-02-01T07:28:00.001-05:00

This week, we're demonstrating our latest solution, Avistar C3 UnifiedTM for Microsoft Lync, at ISE 2011 at the Amsterdam RAI booth #10K146.

Here are a couple of significant aspects to the latest solution:

• It follows the announcement earlier this week at Lotusphere of three new solutions designed for IBM Sametime.

• It shows expanded depth of support for Microsoft, and reinforces Avistar's position of uniquely being able to support major platforms like Citrix and HP in addition to IBM Sametime and Microsoft.

• This solution enables Microsoft Lync users to enjoy a feature-rich desktop visual experience that supports industry standards and leverages and extends UC features found within Microsoft Lync, while promoting greater UC adoption.

Avistar C3 UnifiedTM for Microsoft Lync increases communication and productivity by connecting all videoconferencing assets, and extends the videoconferencing reach of Microsoft Lync to room-based solutions. It also supports VDI implementations of Microsoft Lync while being fully video-enabled, and extends advanced bandwidth management capabilities over the corporate network.

If you're at ISE, please stop by booth #10K146.

Avistar Announces New Solutions at Lotusphere 2011

2011-01-31T05:30:00.002-05:00

We're launching three new solutions at Lotusphere that deliver virtual and HD videoconferencing on the IBM Lotus Sametime platform.

At our booth, #808, Lotusphere attendees can see videoconferencing that enables IBM Sametime to work in a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment as well as an HD desktop videoconferencing endpoint that is interoperable with both SIP and H.323 rooms.

They can also see an all-software MCU running in an IBM Sametime environment, providing continuous presence multiparty videoconferencing at fraction of the cost of a hardware-based MCU.

Our new solutions for IBM Sametime include:

• Avistar C3 Conference™ for IBM Lotus Sametime
• Avistar C3 Unified™ for IBM Lotus Sametime
• Avistar C3 Integrator™

Avistar C3 Conference™ for IBM Lotus Sametime enables users to conduct continuous presence multiparty videoconferences and connect with standards-based third-party room systems at a fraction of the cost of traditional hardware-based MCU solutions. The solution is integrated via IBM’s TCSPI interface and was developed in cooperation with ilink, an experienced integrator of IBM Lotus solutions.

Avistar C3 Unified™ for IBM Lotus Sametime delivers an advanced HD-capable videoconferencing experience that is fully interoperable with both SIP- and H.323-based room conferencing systems.

Avistar C3 Integrator™ enables the Avistar C3 Unified™ for IBM Lotus Sametime solution to work seamlessly within VDI or on thin terminals without affecting network performance and/or server scalability.

Our IBM Sametime portfolio now includes three unique solutions that use software standards and creativity to unify and extend the desktop videoconferencing experience for IBM Sametime users.

Avistar to speak at 3 different events on behalf of 3 different organizations at ISE 2011

2011-01-26T06:59:00.002-05:00

In a validation of Avistar's position in the industry, three different organizations – InfoComm, Wainhouse Research and IMCCA – have selected Avistar to speak at separate events co-located with this year's Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), Europe's #1 show for AV and electronic systems integration.

John Dye, Senior Product Manager at Avistar will speak on the following topics:

· Trends in Videoconferencing, which will examine three of the issues likely to impact on the design and implementation of videoconferencing systems: Bandwidth management; how interoperability and standards-based technology plays (or doesn't play well) in the industry in both B2B and C2B applications; and integrating conferencing into web conferencing.

o Drop by Monday, Jan. 31 at 2:30 p.m.
o InfoComm Future Trends Summit

· Desktop Video: Why Now, which will examine the state of videoconferencing and the factors that are driving interest and adoption. Andrew Davis, Senior Partner at Wainhouse told us, “At our summit, Avistar will be among the select group of industry luminaries that will debate the future of enterprise-level visual communications.”

o Drop by Tuesday, Feb. 1 at 10 a.m.
o Wainhouse Research’s Visual Communications Summit

· Telepresence & HD Realities, which will examine the realities of how telepresence & HD are used today and where the technologies are heading, including integration into our daily workflow and the issues and opportunities presented to IT to support business owners. The discussion will investigate some of the key directions the major manufacturers are taking and reactions from end-users as they explore the impact on their business.

o Drop by Wednesday, February 2 at 2 p.m.
o IMCCA Educational Sessions

If you're at ISE, please stop by to see us at booth #10K146. And please listen to John's three presentations.

Avistar will be at ISE 2011

2011-01-25T08:28:00.000-05:00

On the heels of Lotusphere, Avistar will attend Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), Europe's #1 show for AV and electronic systems integration. The show is scheduled for Feb. 1-3 in the Amsterdam RAI. Our booth will be #10K146.

It's our first time at the show, and we're looking forward to it.

We're participating as part of our commitment to supporting our European customers and partners. Though we're based in San Mateo, in Silicon Valley, Avistar has had a strong global presence for years with customers, partners and resellers in more than 40 countries.

If you're in Amsterdam next week at ISE 2011, please drop by our booth #10K146. We’d love to meet with you.

Avistar to exhibit at Lotusphere

2011-01-24T08:34:00.000-05:00

As we have for the past several years, Avistar will be attending Lotusphere, IBM's annual conference that showcases the latest technology for IBM Sametime and other platforms. This year's Lotusphere is scheduled for Jan. 30-Feb. 3 at the Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin Resort.

Lotusphere is a great venue for Avistar to showcase our scalable and standards-based all-software solutions that unify the desktop visual communications experience. We're seeing continued interest among IBM customers for virtual infrastructures, and attendees who visit our booth, #808, will be able to see our latest solutions that deliver videoconferencing on traditional as well as virtual environments.

Lotusphere has been a terrific show for Avistar. In 2009, we won Best Unified Communications and Collaboration Solution at the 15th annual IBM Lotus Awards.

Avistar 2011 Desktop Videoconferencing Predictions

2011-01-10T08:13:00.000-05:00

· Videoconferencing will be virtually everywhere - Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) will continue to gain momentum as businesses work to control costs while delivering software tools that employees need to do their jobs effectively. Desktop videoconferencing, for example, has emerged as a must-have solution for business people at offices or on the go, as it provides ubiquitous visual communications – anywhere, anytime, anyplace. All-software solutions will be preferred because of their cost-efficiency and high quality.

· What’s old is new again - Interoperability will be a big issue as proprietary communications solutions limit connections to other systems. The industry will again need to tackle the interoperability issue. Will customers accept being forced to bridge standards, media processing and signaling at their own cost?

· Videoconferencing on the go will increase - Videoconferencing has moved from the conference room to the desktop, and from the desktop to the laptop. With more tablet devices set to hit the market and the further roll-out of 4G networks, along with the popularity of video-enabled smartphones, true mobile videoconferencing for business is on the horizon, as employees who use mobile videoconferencing in their personal lives will push for the same capability at work.

· Thin will still be in - As Avistar predicted last year, thin terminals and desktops continues to be in. We’ll see more thin devices next year and expanded functionality on those devices. This convergence will be seen with videoconferencing popping up as a function in non-traditional devices, such as smart whiteboards and a variety of new and innovative devices, so that people can communicate and collaborate regardless of device, location and/or network capacity.

· It's all about the network - As demand and usage surge, companies will face pressure to provide increased videoconferencing services without expanding the cost and complexity of their corporate networks, while also ensuring that critical business applications are not adversely affected by communications solutions such as desktop videoconferencing. Companies will select communications solutions that provide robust bandwidth management, call admission control, user policy support, threshold and utilization modeling, in addition to extensive report and forecasting capabilities.

10 Questions Businesses Should Ask Themselves

2010-12-20T09:59:00.004-05:00

As part of the continued need to reduce costs while boosting productivity, many are considering desktop videoconferencing. Expensive room-size telepresence systems, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to deploy, are out of reach for many businesses, but the price of business-class desktop videoconferencing can be deployed for the price of a smart phone.

Based on its pioneering 15-plus-year history of providing videoconferencing solutions to business, Avistar has developed the 10 questions companies should ask themselves when considering whether or which kind of desktop videoconferencing is right for them. We'll address the first five in this article and follow-up with the second five in a separate article.

1. Why are you considering videoconferencing? Is it to reduce travel expenses? Improve customer or employee relationships? Deliver training materials or access new markets? Understanding a company’s goal for videoconferencing can help determine system requirements.

2. What sort of meetings do you plan to videoconference? Will they be large meetings with a dozen or more people? Will they be smaller meetings, usually two to four people? Meetings involving large groups may require hybrid systems to combine room size and desktops systems. Companies should consider systems that enable both simple point-to-point and multiparty communications from the desktop, and that are fully interoperable with other communications solutions they may have.

3. What does the system cost to deploy? Room-size telepresence systems, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to deploy, may be fine if most meetings entail large groups of people. On the other hand, desktop videoconferencing can be quick, reliable and cost effective to deploy.

4. What will the impact of videoconferencing have on your network? Free video chat services sound great – “free” seems cost effective. But if employees conduct too many chats simultaneously on your network, the demand for bandwidth could crash network applications, could cripple your network capacity, and lose valuable data. Instead, look for solutions that offer bandwidth management controls to manage network stress.

5. Will the videoconferences most likely be in the same time zone or vastly different time zones? Conferences between New York City and Los Angeles are easier to schedule than Boston and Singapore based on when both parties are in the office. If meetings typically take place after business hours in one location, desktop videoconferencing provides more flexibility than a room size system that would require the employee to be in the office.

6. What kind of user experience do we need? Some services involve several steps to set up a videoconference. Business users should look for providers that offer single click, point to point and multiparty video calling without complications or hassles. The calls should offer crystal clear audio and world-class video to enable informed decision-making, speed of execution and superior results – not distract users with jerky movement and audio that doesn’t match the person speaking. One click call capability makes it simple to create videoconference calls – which means it’s more likely that employees will use the system.

7. What sort of investment will you need to make? Businesses need to leverage existing infrastructure when selecting a videoconferencing provider. In the face of any type of firewall, network configuration, multivendor hardware or varying security policies, what businesses need is a solution that transparently determines the best way to connect videoconference calls among users spread far and wide. Additionally, find out how easy is it to install, deploy and make videoconferencing calls. Ease of use is an important consideration – especially for businesses that may not have dedicated IT staffs. Complicated systems that could require tech support to use reduces the likelihood that people who had scheduled a videoconference call will do so a second time.

8. Will people using videoconferences generally be in the same location each time? For example, for regular update calls between a company and its outsource vendor, videoconferences are likely to be held in the same conference rooms each time whereas monthly calls with the sales force might find some participants in a different location each time. You should select a system that can be available at desk, in conference room or on the road.

9. Will your corporate culture have to change in order to embrace videoconferencing? Some organizations prefer large meetings and are likely to prefer a telepresence approach. Others, which prefer ad hoc meetings, are likely to prefer a desktop videoconference solution.

10. What regulations or security needs does your company need to address? Security is a top priority, so look for a solution that ensures that critical network data and communications ports are protected. That’s why many have policies that prohibit the introduction of consumer technology into the workplace. Companies need a provider whose technology offers external video call access without compromised security, including seamless, secure connection through firewalls.

Desktop videoconferencing can be a great way to reduce travel costs, shorten sales cycle, generate revenue and boost productivity. Businesses need to make sure they’re asking the right questions before they buy to make sure they’re getting the right system for their needs, culture and budgets.

Happy Holidays,

The Avistar Team

InterOp, TMCnet and emerging trends.

2010-11-15T08:33:00.004-05:00

At last month's Interop NY, Avistar showcased its latest products that are delivering on the strategy outlined earlier in the year. As part of the company's activities, CMO Stephen Epstein spoke with Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC.

http://www.tmcnet.com/tmc/videos/default.aspx?vid=3518&title=Interview+with+Avistar

We've included the video of the interview above, but also wanted to detail some key points:

In 2010, Avistar brought desktop videoconferencing to:

o UC solutions like Microsoft OSC and IBM Lotus Sametime.
o VDI-enabled environments, able to run on thin terminals and VDI solutions like Citrix Xenapp and XenDesktop, including others.

Key industry trends include:

o Tremendous momentum for desktop videoconferencing across different sectors. Being able to reduce travel expense is important but so is the ability to improve productivity.

o Virtualization and cloud computing are important reasons that companies are making changes to their desktop, platform and infrastructure strategies.

o Next-phase growth for Unified Communications as UC strategies are being embraced, deployed and adopted.

o Delivering on cost, convenience, security, scalability, performance and quality remain critical requirements for commercial grade desktop videoconferencing solutions.

o Mobile devices that are VDI enabled represent a glimpse into the future. (For a look at a videoconference conducted with a VDI-enabled tablet, check out this video from the Citrix CTO Crystal Ball session, http://www.citrix.com/tv/#videos/2886.)

Virtualized Video Communications & Citrix Synergy

2010-10-07T18:10:00.005-04:00

It’s been a very busy week for those of us who are focused and interested in virtualized technology, cloud computing and everything in between. Citrix Synergy which is the semiannual Citrix user conference is being held in Berlin. The event has become so popular, it sold out. It was clearly the hottest ticket in town this week.

As part of this event, Avistar, Logitech, HP and Citrix announced a team effort to bring desktop video communications to even the lightest of thin terminals. By leveraging Logitech’s new B990 HD webcam, which has the ability to encode H.264 video, while using Avistar C3 Integrator™ that integrates the encoded content while decoding and integrating the media stream for the end user, and HP’s latest thin terminal technology, users can now experience fully immersive HD desktop video communications on the smallest of thin terminals, without degrading network performance or server scalability. This is the latest of video conferencing innovations to hit the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure market.

For more information, please see the following Avistar and Logitech press releases:

http://www.avistar.com/company/news_detail.aspx?id=203

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/press/press-releases/7641

But the excitement really doesn’t stop there. Today, as part of the Citrix CTO Crystal Ball session, a panel of Citrix technologists, lead by the Citrix CTO group, demonstrated these industry leading desktop video communications solutions, within a VDI environment including the industry’s first video communication demonstration on a VDI enabled tablet (Avistar on a VDI tablet). For all you VDI gurus, it doesn’t get better than this:

http://www.citrix.com/tv/#videos/2886

Staying Professional in Virtual Meetings

2010-09-27T16:04:00.004-04:00

Virtual meetings have become a staple of business life, whether conducted by phone or video. What are the biggest differences between a virtual meeting and one that is face-to-face?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/jobs/26career.html

Avistar Industry Analyst News

2010-09-21T11:48:00.003-04:00

Avistar continues to make strides with our all software, business class desktop videoconferencing solutions. Here are some recent comments from industry analysts (via twitter):

Jim Frey (EMA) - Interesting talk w/ Stephen Epstein of #Avistar this pm: Only company currently taking on challenge of desktop videocon for #VDI environs.

Jim Frey (EMA) - #Avistar also continuing to develop intelligent network bandwidth mgt controls for desktop video conferencing, both at set-up and in-flow.

Hyoun Park (Aberdeen Group) - Just got a great presentation from #avistar, which has gone all in on its software-driven video solutions.

More to come...

Avistar Wins!

2010-05-13T14:04:00.003-04:00

Another important milestone for Avistar.

Today at the Citrix Synergy event being held this week in San Francisco, Avistar C3 Integrator™ - Citrix Edition has been awarded Best of Synergy - Workforce Productivity Category.

http://www.avistar.com/company/news_detail.aspx?id=191

This award validates our VDI strategy, and is is testament to the importance of this strategy and the growing demand for desktop visual communications within the VDI environment. This also recognizes the tremendous interest in VDI-enabled desktop videoconferencing solutions from Citrix users, in addition to Avistar's ability to deliver increased productivity, improved revenue generation and reduced travel expenses.

As part of the Best of Synergy award process, we were featured and interviewed this week on Citrix TV . You can see the feature at:

http://www.citrix.com/tv/#videos/2103

As always, a big thank you goes out to the product, development, marketing and business teams for making this happen. Another job well done!

Stephen Epstein, Avistar CMO

Product of the Year

2010-04-15T07:08:00.003-04:00

Congratulations to Avistar's Team

The Avistar C3 Communicator(TM) solution just received the Unified Communications magazine Product of the Year award. UC magazine is published by Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC), which also publishes and blogs on a range of communications topics.

This is outstanding recognition of both the value of the Avistar C3 Communicator(TM) solution and desktop videoconferencing. This recognizes the tremendous return on investment that Avistar customers achieve in increasing productivity, improving revenue generation and reducing travel expense and distractions.

Avistar C3 Communicator(TM) allows users to connect to endpoints and video room solutions up to HD resolutions -- 720p. What's more, the solution is easy to deploy and use; it combines Avistar's familiar IM buddy list interface with our patent protected video software technology to initiate and receive video calls easily with a single click.

The solution has the benefit of being built with a vision that started 15 years ago to develop an all-software approach to videoconferencing. Avistar is able to deliver easy-to-use, easy-to-manage, flexible desktop videoconferencing that delivers just what our business customers want: sharp, clear, video.

Congratulation to the Avistar development, product and qa teams. Job well done!

Stephen Epstein, Avistar CMO

Trends in 2010

2010-02-01T16:52:00.005-05:00

2010, a new decade and we think the videoconferencing and unified communications sectors are about to start a new chapter. Why? Because there are no technology obstacles to open videoconferencing. Experts and users expect the ability to place and receive video calls from any videoconferencing application. Technologically, that’s possible today through support for videoconferencing standards. SIP, H.264, STUN, TURN & ICE are the keys. When more videoconferencing vendors support these standards, consumers and those in the professional setting alike will be the big winners.

Last year, we talked about communication enabled business processes (CEBP), and we expect to see more this year. The reason: By integrating videoconferencing capabilities into existing business applications, decisions get made faster, in a more collaborative environment and with business context. Companies will see long-term rewards, increased desicion velocity, increased productivity and growth by injecting visual communications into their business processes.

We expect to see more thin devices, including virtual desktops and cloud computing. Avistar already works with virtual desktop infrastructures such as Citrix and HP, offering, in some cases, the only videoconferencing solutions that work on those platforms. Voice and video communications architectures need to be fundamentally changed to adapt to VDI deployments, but we've been thinking ahead and already have this architecture in place. This helps businesses lower their support and operating costs, while becoming more eco-friendly.

And while we see many consumer based communication platforms embracing videoconferencing and driving adoption, businesses are thinking about manageability of bandwidth, performance, scalability and security. Companies will look for business-class videoconferencing that won't overwhelm their networks and related resources – while providing security, reporting and controls, that are essential in a business environment.

Avistar is well positioned to take advantage of these trends, and we’ll continue to report on our progress in this blog.

Stephen Epstein, Avistar CMO

A Bountiful Horizon

2009-12-16T08:53:00.003-05:00

Never in our 15-year corporate history has Avistar seen so much opportunity.

We find the recent industry consolidation news to be exhilarating. First, it is recognition of what we have been saying for years: This is a market with vast opportunity. Second, our position in the market as a desktop solution differentiates us greatly from the varied and numerous room and telepresence vendors. Our standards-based, interoperable solutions are vastly more cost effective than any other solution in the unified video collaboration space.

Although we have been in business for years, we are just getting started with integrating our solution into a variety of video-enabled UC solutions from multiple vendors. We have solved technology problems that these vendors didn’t even know they had, and we are positioned to grow our business through collaborative partnerships rather than going it alone. The partnerships that we have developed to date expose our solutions to a wider and more diverse audience, which will provide us with a greater opportunity for success.

As we expand our market into the virtual desktop environment through our work with Citrix and other VDI vendors, we will open up a field of new opportunities that will continue to differentiate Avistar. Our collective efforts will provide the company with multiple opportunities to open up new markets with new partners, all while giving us exposure among some of the biggest names in the technology/unified communications/video collaboration space. Our desktop products and video components are second-to-none in their adherence to standards and industry-leading interoperability.

As you can see, Avistar has a lot to look forward to in 2010 despite all the economic uncertainty. We have the ability to provide products that address all of the issues of the day: cost-effective performance, empowering employees with a greater productivity tool, a reduction in corporate travel that shrinks costs and improves employees’ lives — all while reducing a company’s carbon footprint. I can’t think of another technology solution that can offer such improvement in business, social and personal performance.

Thank you for all your efforts and interest in Avistar in 2009. We look forward to 2010.

By Bob Kirk, Avistar CEO

VoiceCon 2009 & New Product Launches

2009-11-03T05:32:00.001-05:00

Industry events are always very important to Avistar. They are a cost effective way for us to get our message out, stay connected to our industry, meet new partners and catch up with old, and of course, launch new products. In the case of VoiceCon 2009, having it take place in our backyard (San Francisco) allows us to do more with this event than we typically do. This is largely due to the fact that our marketing, support and product teams are close by to lend a hand. Because of this (and a few other factors), we decided to launch our two latest products at VoiceCon (more on that in a moment).

Additionally, VoiceCon this year is focusing on many of the product and technology challenges that Avistar has been addressing for years now. Specifically, quality of experience and bandwidth management, with regard to delivering communications solutions. Because of this, Avistar’s CTO, Dr. Chris Lauwers was invited to participate on a quality of experience (QoE) panel at the event. We feel this is important as it demonstrates how Avistar is recognized as a leader in this field. A field that we pay very special attention to as we believe that consistent, high quality and scalable visual communications cannot be adequately delivered without addressing these issues head on. Again, something Avistar has been doing for years now, and we believe something that is unique in the industry and a key differentiator for our product line.

Now back to the product launches. We have launched two new products at VoiceCon. The first, Avistar C3 Unified ™ - Microsoft OCS Edition. This solution is geared toward Microsoft OCS users who require a scalable, economical and visually exciting desktop video conferencing experience, but would like to leverage the messaging, audio and desktop integration features that make Microsoft OCS a powerful platform. Our solution was developed to provide some very unique and critical video conferencing features that Microsoft OCS doesn’t address:

- Native interoperability between the desktop and room solutions (without a mediation server)
- Compatibility with industry standard MCU’s such as Avistar C3 Conference™ & Tandberg
- Elimination of media processing between non compatible endpoints
- Bandwidth management and call admission control
- Continuous presence multiparty video conferences
- Up to 720p/30 High Def video resolution
- Many other features

Avistar C3 Unified ™ – Microsoft OCS Edition will deliver a business class, industrial desktop visual communications experience that is integrated with OCS, leverages important OCS features (such as presence and single click calling), but at the same time, designed to make video conferencing on the OCS platform approachable, scalable, economical and exciting.

Our second product launch at Voicecon is the Avistar C3 Integrator ™ - Citrix Edition solution. This solution allows our Avistar C3 Media Engine™, and products like Avistar C3 Unified™ – OCS Edition to operate efficiently and effectively in a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), such as Citrix. Here’s the thing with VDI environments, they truly offer stellar operational and environmental saving, and help to significantly simplify application management. But these VDI solutions achieve this by moving all the desktop applications into the datacenter. For business and data centric applications, this actually works very well. For applications such as desktop visual communications, where media processing, encoding and decoding have to happen on the desktop (to avoid overburdening the network and crushing the infrastructure), VDI architectures typically fall short. Some industry analysts have calculated that somewhere between 10-50 mbps are transmitting over the network for each uncompressed video stream. When scaling to 100’s or even 1000’s of users on a network, you can do the simple math. The network won’t be able to keep up with demand, business critical applications will fail, and the IT operations team will have a big challenge on their hands.

Avistar C3 Integrator™ solves these challenges by separating the media processing from the application. Our application continues to run back in the datacenter in the VDI environment, but a thin slice of our C3 Media Engine™ processes the video stream at the endpoint and ensures that no uncompressed data is transmitted over the network. Coupled with bandwidth management, our clients can now run 1000’s of users on their network, in HD, and within their VDI or Citrix environment, without the network being overloaded or business critical applications being affected by the desktop video conferencing experience. This is truly a win/win for our clients and the industry. We’ve been working directly with Citrix on this for some time now, and collectively feel this solution will propel desktop visual communications into VDI environments such as Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop, and will help drive adoption of what is now becoming a business critical application.

Clearly these are exciting times for Avistar, our industry, partners and clients. Voicecon allows us to get this message out and demonstrate these industry leading solutions, as well as our thought leadership in our field. If you’re around the show this week, please come see us at booth 620. We’ll be happy to demonstrate these solutions and talk shop.

Stephen Epstein, Avistar CMO

Unifying Communications

2009-10-05T08:46:00.001-04:00

Conventional wisdom says that Unified Communications is about giving people a comprehensive portfolio of communications tools and providing a single unified user interface to these tools with the goal of making communications more effective, and of course "unified". For example, UC makes it easier to get a hold of someone on the first try, thereby reducing wasted time and improving business velocity.

While this is certainly a valuable aspect of Unified Communications, I believe it misses the bigger opportunity. The real promise of UC, in my opinion, is about finally turning communications into a software technology; rather than using software to provide a common user interface to a set of disjointed communications tools and appliances, the software itself becomes the “unified” communications tool.

The benefits of communications as a software capability are tremendous:

- First, a unified software platform allows for integration of communications software with other software applications, so that these software applications can provide the right context to the various parties communicating (this is typically referred to as contextual collaboration). This is about making communications a "first class citizen" in the workflow, if you will (call center software has historically done this well, but there are many more untapped opportunities in other applications).

- Second, it allows for the inverse: the capturing and recording of communications, and making recorded interactions part of the "context" that gets saved in enterprise databases. This translates "people memory" into "corporate memory", and enables much more efficient context switching between different people in an organization (e.g. multiple people providing the same role at different times, "hand-off" between time zones of tasks that get worked on 24/7, etc.)

- Finally (and often overlooked): it becomes possible to keep track of the real interactions that go on every day in an organization and extract common interaction patterns. These interaction patterns point out who the real information gatekeepers are in an organization, who the go-to people are, and who are the movers and shakers. Forget social networking software: let the system figure out where the real links are in an organization, independent of organizational boundaries.

This “communications as a software feature” drives much of Avistar’s product strategy. For example, the Avistar C3 Media Engine (and our associated Visual Insights program) is designed to video-enable a wide variety of software applications, web-based or with a rich user interface, running on PCs or on thin clients, If you have a need for interactive voice or video in your software application, sign up for our Visual Insights program and give our Media Engine a try! I assure you, you'll gain a whole new perspective on unified communications. The benefits of getting UC right are very compelling, see it for yourself.

http://www.avistar.com/products/Video-Conferencing-System-106.html

Chris Lauwers, Avistar CTO

Tales from the Test Lab

2009-09-21T14:09:00.000-04:00

Usually a company blog will offer commentary relevant to new products, industry events, marketing initiatives, etc. But this time we decided to try something a little different. An offer was made for anyone to author a blog, so I decided to see if people would be interested in hearing some technical details about some of the more interesting challenges we have faced getting our current products ready.

Part 1 : Converting SIP to H.323

Historically, legacy Avistar products were based on a mix of traditional and more recent standards. We used some features of SIP for call signaling, but any interoperability with H.323 endpoints required that we send analog audio and video through a non-Avistar hardware gateway device.

As part of an ongoing cost reduction and standardization effort we have moved away from analog video and 3rd party hardware gateway boxes, and built our own software SIP to H.323 gateway module. This has been a bit of an adventure as we have been learning some of the things that H.323 and SIP do differently, and have had to deal with resulting incompatibilities.

‘Fun’ issue #1: hold/resume standards (or lack thereof).

Avistar has long had the ability to hold and resume a call in progress. This used to be done in a proprietary way and we more or less assumed that the SIP and H.323 worlds had standard ways to do this. What we found is that many endpoints haven’t implemented hold/resume at all, and for those that have, there have been different approaches used. Some endpoints will leave the media channels open during a hold session and send a still image and/or some sort of looping music. This approach is the easiest to deal with as there is no manipulation of call states, but it wastes bandwidth and is annoying if a held participant is sending audio and video into a multi-party call.

Another approach some SIP endpoints use to go on hold is to say that the IP address is temporarily 0.0.0.0. Yet another approach is to say that the send channel is temporarily ‘receive only’. An example of debate over hold/resume functionality can be found here. As you might imagine, with multiple approaches, implementing a solution that works well with all other endpoints has been involved. When an endpoint goes on hold and the other side knows it, what should it display? In some cases they will make the picture go black, other times they will continue to show a frozen image of the last frame of video, and in some cases, a special held call graphic will be shown. When a call is using firewall traversal a held state runs the risk of being marked as ‘idle’ by the firewall transit servers and terminated unless you make sure to let those intermediate servers know that it really is still a valid call and the media is intentionally stopped for now. Another nuance of hold/resume is dealing with muted audio. If someone muted their audio before going on hold, they generally want the mute to automatically be undone when the call is resumed. Still another concern is over H.239 presentations coming through the gateway. When a SIP endpoint goes on hold it can stop the presentation video various ways, and the H.323 endpoint may or may not automatically try to resume the presentation when the call is restarted.

‘Fun’ issue #2: figuring out which CODECs both sides want to use.

When different endpoints start a call between each other, they pass back and forth lists of audio and video CODECs they support and they negotiate which is the best match to use for this particular call. The way this is done in the SIP world is a bit different from the way it is done in the H.323 world. With SIP, there is the concept of ‘SDP offered pTypes’. Each CODEC is assigned a pType number, some of which are standard, and some of which are up to the endpoint to decide. With H.323 there is an analogous concept but it is done with lists of H.245 capability OIDs. Some endpoints will offer a CODEC with a certain pType and then during the back and forth handshake, change their mind and offer the same CODEC with a different pType. This causes complications because the gateway in between is trying to build a translation between the two ways (H.323 and SIP) of describing the CODECs and if the index numbers are being changed during the negotiation in can be stuck with out of date information.

An example of discussion over SDP CODEC negotiation can be found here. Some of the implementation and testing to make this all work ends up in gray areas, where the RFCs say things like “…RTCP stream SHOULD use the next higher (odd) destination port number…” When the RFCs that drive implementation use words like ‘should’ (instead of ‘must’) then some vendors opt to diverge from the suggestions, but others assume that they will be followed. We try to make products that can cope with differing ways to do things, but sometimes there is no way to successfully act as an intermediary when the two sides aren’t playing by the same set of rules.

I need to get back to testing, so discussion of other things like presence propagation, dial plans, DID and such will have to wait for another day.

- TomG in Test

Tom Griner heads up Avistar's Quality Assurance Group.

Virtual Environments & Desktop Communications.

2009-09-09T11:58:00.003-04:00

Over the last year or so, we’ve seen many organizations move away from traditional PC-based desktop architectures in favor of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and/or Virtual Application Infrastructure (VAI). VDI and VAI enable workers to locally access, via low-power terminals, software applications and desktops which are hosted in remote data centers. The benefit of a virtual infrastructure is well understood: it centralizes application management, it provides “green IT” resulting from lower power consumption, and it facilitates business continuity. However, the biggest benefit of VDI is that it enables “Virtual Organizations” by making it easy for users to work productively from anywhere with the best application performance and security regardless of location. VDI, in other words, provides users with access to their applications no matter where they are, while providing significant cost and carbon savings.

For organizations to become truly virtual, however, they not only need to provide users with access to their applications, they also need to provide users with access to other users—their coworkers, their partners, their customers, their suppliers. Desktop videoconferencing technology allows “virtual” access to users by providing a face-to-face experience across the network and allowing users to interact as if they were virtually in the same location.

Unfortunately, desktop videoconferencing and VDI do not always co-exist nicely. Using a VDI architecture for desktop video, video compression and decompression tasks are relegated to application servers in the data center, and uncompressed video is sent between the server and terminal, which puts excessive loads on the network. For example, an uncompressed CIF video stream running at 30fps uses approximately 50Mb/s. This makes desktop videoconferencing over VDI impossible in wide-area environments and impractical at best in local area deployments. The lesson learnt here: although VDI and VAI environments offer truly compelling saving and productivity enhancements, they can introduce some considerable drawbacks for mission critical solutions, such as desktop communications.

Fortunately, Avistar will introduce VDI-enabled desktop video products to address these challenges; Specifically, Avistar is planning a Citrix-enabled version of the Avistar C3™ solution that will enable the full Avistar suite of voice and video communications software on Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop. This solution will also enable other desktop video technologies such as Microsoft OCS to be deployed on Citrix as well. Another lesson learnt here: if applications such as desktop communications can be made aware of these VAI/VDI environments, they can be engineered in a way to leverage the VAI/VDI benefits, while dealing directly with the challenges that are introduced by these environments. The result is a win / win situation where the end user gets full desktop video communications capabilities, while the IT organization delivers the on the scalability, cost saving and environmental benefits that VAI/VDI have to offer.

So, there you have it: Avistar will provide the missing link that will enable organizations to become truly virtual by providing access not just to remote applications but also to remote people, all using the same VDI/VAI desktop architecture.

Comments and questions welcomed...

Chris Lauwers, Avistar CTO

An Open Forum

2009-08-24T09:42:00.000-04:00

From the day Avistar opened its doors back in the late 90’s, our guiding principles have been to provide technology that allowed our clients to communicate more effectively, leverage their technology assets, learn how to be more productive and help contribute to making their firms more efficient and profitable.

Although Avistar as a company and our industry have gone through numerous changes over the years, our guiding principles remain unchanged. We recognize that the world around us is changing, people are becoming more distributed, our economy is exerting pressure on the business community and the global environment is showing signs of tremendous change. These challenges only reinforce our commitment and support our guiding principles.

In support of these principles, we have decided to re-launch our corporate blog as an open industry blog, a place where people within Avistar and within our industry can share their perspectives, experiences and learning’s. This blog isn’t intended to express the opinion of one person, but instead allow all of us to share information that we can all benefit from. We are hoping this can be a place where our industry works together to solve challenges in very innovative ways, discuss approaches and make progress as a group.

With that said, we do plan to post blogs from our executives, engineers, product managers, industry analysts and you. On that note, if you as a reader would like to post to this blog, please send your ideas and content to: blog@avistar.com or just comment to this or any other blog post.

Let’s make this blog a great place to communicate and collaborate. After all, isn’t that what our industry is all about?

Stephen Epstein, CMO – Avistar Communications