Today we’ll wrap our coverage of last week’s Enterprise Connect conference with two announcements from snom (a new product and a compatibility with the Microsoft Office Communications Server), Vidyo’s integration with Microsoft Lync, and a Glowpoint demo with Skype’s videoconferencing.
Snom technology announced the release of snom ONE plus, a new hardware-based version of the company’s ONE IP PBX. The snom ONE can be combined with company’s business-class IP phones to offer a turn-key solution designed for organizations with five to 150 extensions. The company’s IP-PBX, which uses SIP technology, provides VARs with a plug-and-play hardware appliance that is preinstalled and configured with for easy deployment with snom business IP desktop phones and endpoints. Features include a centralized address book, auto attendants, hunt groups, hot desking, shared line emulation and CRM integration along with an array of presence and monitoring features.
OTHER ENTERPRISE CONNECT NEWS: Microsoft preps Apple iPhone VoIP, conferencing client | Extreme takes aim at secure mobile networking | Verizon to offer cloud-based unified communications
Snom also announced that its executive business phone, the snom 821, has been tested and approved by Microsoft Corp. for interoperability with Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2, and is being further tested for use with Microsoft Lync 2010.
In other news, Vidyo announced support for Microsoft Lync, allowing Lync users to quickly and easily initiate and participate in HD multiparty Vidyo conferences. With Vidyo’s new support for Microsoft Lync, users will be able to access Vidyo’s personal telepresence by selecting it from within their Lync desktop application. Vidyo’s Microsoft Lync Plug-In is also backward compatible with Microsoft OCS 2007. The Vidyo Lync plug-in connects Microsoft Lync with the VidyoDesktop client, enabling end-users capability to initiate Vidyo conferences using their Lync-based contacts and other unified communications capabilities. Presence status automatically updates when users start and end Vidyo conferences, and Instant Messaging sessions can be escalated to Vidyo’s multiparty conference.
“Vidyo’s Plug-In for Microsoft Lync provides users with an exceptional ‘personal telepresence’ experience, allowing them to have easy access to the same low latency and exceptional video fidelity on multiparty conferences that, until now, was confined to costly and location-limited telepresence rooms,” said Ofer Shapiro, Vidyo’s co-founder and CEO. “Vidyo’s platform enables personal telepresence, and an important part of our strategy is to integrate it with leading platforms such as Microsoft Lync for ad-hoc calls or Microsoft Outlook for planned meetings. Vidyo now delivers plug-ins for IBM Sametime, Adobe Connect and Microsoft Lync and Outlook.”
And in our last item for this year’s conference wrap-up, Glowpoint announced and demonstrated how it can connect Skype video callers with other services and systems using its cloud-based, multiparty B2B video collaboration service called Virtual Video Room (VVR). The technology connected Skype users and other desktop video services, from both laptop and mobile devices to various standards-based video systems, including Polycom and Cisco video systems as well immersive telepresence systems, such as the Polycom TPX rooms, Cisco CTS and Cisco T3 systems. The connections were made using Glowpoint’s VVR — a reservation-less multipoint service similar to audio conferencing services.
Commenting on the interoperability demo, Anil Balani, Glowpoint’s senior vice president of product development said in a statement, “Our technology demonstration shows how the cloud, specifically Glowpoint’s cloud, can enable an anyone-to-anyone visual communications experience.”
