Tandberg and BroadSoft last week announced that they have partnered to offer new video communications solutions for telecommunications service providers serving business customers.

The integration includes the E20 video IP phone, the 1700 MXP personal telepresence system, the Profile 6000 MXP, and the TANDBERG Codian MSE 8000 Series multipoint control units, according to the companies’ joint statement. In the release, Michael Tessler, co-founder and CEO of BroadSoft said, "Despite the incredible benefits of advanced video communications, the inherent complexity of deploying an on-premise solution is a major deterrent for many businesses. By providing video solutions 'in the cloud,' service providers are in a unique position to fulfill a demand of an under-served market. "

PCCW Global is pleased with the new partnership both as a user and as a service provider. PCCW Global CEO Marc Halbfinger said, in a prepared statement, "We use a mix of both TANDBERG and BroadSoft HD video and audio conferencing for internal communications and have realized extensive travel savings. In addition, we have begun packaging these services to enterprise customers using our global IP-MPLS network. We believe that as the service quality is further appreciated, enterprises will not only reduce travel cost, but also enhance the quality of their business operations."

We conclude today with a reader's request to our newsletter audience for advice and experience with Modems over VoIP.

Russell writes, “My company supplies IT services to the events and festivals industry in the U.K. As you can imagine with the nature of our market there are a great deal of temporary infrastructure requirements. We have a growing requirement coming from our customer base to implement Modem type traffic over IP and since we have in place at most events a VoIP infrastructure it seems like the ideal solution to be able to provision for legacy analogue dial-up devices such as ATM’s and PDQ’s. I have tested this with some success and we are actively working with companies such as SysTech to get their devices over here, but this could take some time.”

He asks, “Have you or your readers had any success or experience with this type of data communication? Do you have any recommendations on hardware i.e. SIP appliances and ATA devices, and finally do you have any recommendations on codec's to use?”

If you have an answer or experience that can help Russell, please reply back to us and we’ll pass on your advice.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.