Today we continue our news coverage of videoconferencing highlights with announcements from Blue Jeans Network and Avaya: Blue Jeans announced its progress after two years in service, while Avaya unveiled a new solution targeting the small and midsize enterprise (SME) market.
The Avaya Video Collaboration Solution for IP Office, unveiled last week at InfoComm, is a new video collaboration solution designed for the SME. The product delivers video collaboration to desktop, mobile and HD room systems. Avaya IP Office is the company's flagship unified communications solution for small and midsize enterprises.
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Among the features it offers:
- Direct integration including a common dial plan with Avaya IP Office Version 8.1.
- A "virtual conference room" for up to eight participants with click-to-join capabilities.
- Distributed desktop and mobile video clients for PCs, Macs and select iOS and Android mobile devices.
- Low-bandwidth, HD multi-party video conferencing and collaboration via native SIP/H.323.
- Automatic firewall traversal so SMEs can engage with participants outside their networks.
Commenting in a statement on the offer, Mark Monday, VP of product management for collaboration platforms at Avaya, said, "In a recent third-party report IP Office was recognized as the leading UC solution for small and midsize enterprises based on TCO, maintenance requirements and ease of deployment. By adding high-quality video collaboration capabilities to IP Office, we are raising the bar in terms of what customers should expect from their vendors. No one in the market offers a more comprehensive UC solution specifically designed for SMEs in the areas of features, simplicity, and affordability."
In other news, Blue Jean Network celebrated two consecutive years of continued growth with the release of "Blue Jeans 2.0," featuring a redesigned user interface (UI) and new administrative controls. Blue Jeans latest UI is designed to offer easier meeting access (including scheduling directly from Google Calendar and/or Microsoft Outlook), enhanced content sharing, and improved in-meeting controls for users. The browser video experience has also been optimized to supports both WebRTC and non-WebRTC enabled browsers. Upgrades to new management tools include enhanced on-boarding and customization capabilities for the IT administrator.
When we followed up on the announcement with Stu Aaron, the chief commercial officer at Blue Jeans Network, he touted the company's success since the company launched two years ago. He noted that thousands of businesses have now used the company's virtual meeting room service, now racking up between 5 million and 6 million minutes a month, and that the company has so far provided between 50 million and 60 million minutes of services since it was founded.
Adding his comments in a statement, Krish Ramakrishnan, the company's CEO and co-founder, said, "We're in the midst of a transformation in enterprise video conferencing as the cloud and video enabled mobile devices change where, when and how people collaborate across the globe. Our growth speaks to our ability to deliver a video collaboration service built for today's workforce."