VoIP Evolution

Cisco Tandberg Buy Raises Questions About SMB Video Conferencing

Big IP communication vendors have talked the SMB (small to medium-size business) talk for some time. Almost all have said at one time or another they want to bring big-company communication capabilities to small companies. Bringing video conferencing, formerly a high-end enterprise solution, to the low-end market is a perfect way to do so. Thus Cisco's announced acquisition of Tandberg would seem to be a case of walking the walk. Tandberg makes low-end video calling equipment costing a few thousands of dollars, in contrast to Cisco's telepresence systems going for hundreds of thousands. In theory, the move could make video conferencing a common tool SMB tool. But questions remain as to whether that will really happen.

Japanese Web Conferencing Provider ANET Employs GIPS Video ConferenceEngine

Cutting travel expenses by video conferencing is becoming a universal practice. It's particularly useful when the travel being avoided is, say, trans-Pacific. But developing the underlying technology necessary to make it work can be challenging. Video processing software has to deal with a lot of challenges. The most vexing of these may be the different bandwidth levels connecting conference participants. A newly announced deal in Japan by Global IP Solutions (GIPS) shows that the solutions can be universal as well.