If the last 12 months have shown businesses anything, it’s that they can rise above challenging times. While some service providers in the communications technology industry are still feeling the impact of global economic pressures of 2009, they have responded with certain strategies to

 

And ClearOne (News - Alert), an HD conferencing solutions provider, is no exception. While the company reported a dip in overall revenue this year, the firm is seeing signs of improvement, Zee Hakimoglu, ClearOne’s president and CEO, told TMCnet, in an interview printed in full below.

 

One of the keys to the company’s success is its ability to help businesses stay in touch with customers and reduce high travel costs at the same time with its HD conferencing services. During the interview, Hakimoglu said 2010 will be a pivotal year for ClearOne as the conferencing market continues to evolve and demand for collaboration tools grows.

 

And with that prediction, ClearOne is ready to answer the call.

 

“Our underlying business has many bright spots,” Hakimoglu said. “We continue to invest in product development and are planning a number of key new product launches in fiscal 2010.”

 

The full exchange follows.

 

 

Zee Hakimoglu (pictured below): Global economic conditions, including a worldwide decline in technology spending, made fiscal 2009 a challenging year for ClearOne. Although ClearOne saw a decline in revenue, our fiscal 2009 financial results reflect improved manufacturing efficiencies and lower overall operating expenses. We are seeing signs of improvement. Organizations are looking to us for help with bringing down the high costs of travel yet remaining connected to their customers, vendors and colleagues regardless of location.

 

TMCnet: Did the results meet company expectations? 

 

ZH: We met expectations on many key operational fronts that we had planned for 2009. We formed a number of strategic relationships. We announced a number of new products and updated existing products our customers wanted. We launched key partner services such as ClearOnXpress to make doing business with ClearOne easier and faster. We purchased NetStreams, a company who is leading the audio AV over IP convergence, having core and complementary technologies and products that will play a strategic role for ClearOne in this market. We believe our focus and progress on these core internal 2009 initiatives will optimally prepare and position us for the future.

 

 

ZH: During the past year, we announced a number of strategic relationships. ClearOne is now a certified member of the Microsoft (News - Alert) Partner Program, which among other things provides us with an important and strategic venue for marketing our products to other member organizations that use Microsoft’s unified communications platform. We partnered with Sony’s Spire Global group to bring together ClearOne’s audio conferencing with Sony’s video conferencing capabilities. And since the end of fiscal 2009, our CHAT 60 and CHAT 160 received Skype certification, giving Skype (News - Alert) users access to our powerful, portable and crystal clear speakerphones. 

 

In November, we announced the acquisition of NetStreams, the global leader in digital media networks based on Internet Protocol technology that is used in a wide variety of applications, including digital signage, corporate video distribution, network operations centers and government facilities, and large venues in such industries as hospitality, entertainment and casinos. NetStreams' digital streaming media and control systems support virtually any number of digital or analog sources, including high definition audio and video content to nearly an unlimited number of networked endpoints. This will be a critical piece of our going forward strategy in the IP over AV market.

 

In fiscal 2009, we announced several new products across our broad portfolio, including Converge Pro 880TA, Converge SR 1212A, Titan Articulating Arm Media Cart, ClearOne HD Video Conferencing Solution, MAX IP Response Point, CHAT 70 and CHAT 170 for Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. We also announced ClearOneXpress, a new Web-based customer service portal designed to provide distributor, dealer and end customer partners with the ability to conduct ClearOne business at their convenience - 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

 

Our company and products continue to be recognized for quality by industry experts and we made several announcements in this regard. 

 

On the company front, Fortune Small Business magazine named ClearOne to its 2009 list of America’s fastest growing small public companies, and one of only 30 of the fastest growing technology companies on the FSB 100 list. And, ClearOne received the Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) 2008 Global Market Leadership Award, which is given to the company that has exhibited excellence in all areas of the market leadership process, including the identification of market challenges, drivers and restraints, as well as strategy development and methods of addressing changing market dynamics. 

 

On the product front, ClearOne’s CHAT 170 received the 2008 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award from Technology Marketing, and the 2009 Unified Communications TMC Labs Innovation Award. Our CHAT 50 received perfect scores in a review by Internet Telephony magazine, and our MAX IP Response Point received the 2008 Product of the Year Award from the same magazine. 

 

 

ZH: This paradigm shift from advancing travel expenses to investing in conferencing gear will continue to grow the market opportunity for ClearOne and others in the industry. Additionally, IT and AV convergence continues to drive growing applications, interoperability and security requirements. Finally, conferencing has expanded from predominately serving as a group application to now serving as a personal application for road warriors, SOHOs and consumers.

As Skype usage continues to grow worldwide, many of their users around the world are looking for high quality hands-free peripherals. The release of ClearOne’s CHAT 60 and CHAT 160 will enable them to communicate more effectively. The CHAT 160 is also a great complementary device to Skype for those businesses that utilize Skype in the workplace. Companies that use Skype now have a powerful, yet portable collaboration tool for crystal clear group audio and video conferences.

 

The VoIP market is bourgeoning and is a major focus for organizations worldwide. The release of our new Converge Pro VH20 provides a direct connection between Converge Pro AV systems and VoIP PBX (News - Alert) phone systems so that users can transport audio signals across their IP networks. The majority of enterprise phone systems currently being implemented utilize converged voice-and-data networks to support today's advanced communication services. The addition of the VH20 to the Converge Pro product line makes our HDConference audio quality available to organizations using these converged communication systems.

 

Streaming media is another application for AV and IT and conferencing to converge. The end user wants data, audio and video on common networks and platforms to obtain the most cost effective, widely deployed, and secure network available that is future proof. Integrators want to grow their businesses as well and convergence will give them the window of opportunity to do so by broadening their skills and applications.

 

International emerging markets continue to be fertile territory for the conferencing industry and our products. In March, we teamed with Digital China to be the exclusive distributor in China of our entire product offering. Digital China is the largest distributor of information technology products and services in China, and we look forward to a successful collaboration.

 

 

ZH: The economic challenges presented an opportunity for ClearOne to provide our customers with solutions that saved time and money. Our products allow organizations to lower their carbon footprints, and reduce the high costs and inconvenience of airline travel. Driven by the acceleration of globalization, the conferencing market is evolving and the demand for collaboration tools is growing. High audio quality remains the single most important element of the conferencing experience, which is why ClearOne is a leading audio conferencing player and the market leader with more than 50 percent share in the installed audio market, based on the Frost and Sullivan 2009 World Installed Audio Conferencing End Points Market Study.

 

 

ZH: IP over AV adoption will continue to grow. Control systems for IP and AV applications will become more sophisticated and secure and migrate to IP networks. Continued deployment of unified communications where the deployment of conferencing will grow from group to personal. The overall applications space for data, audio and video will accelerate in growth as the need for global media communication grows.

 

ZH: Our underlying business has many bright spots. We continue to invest in product development and are planning a number of key new product launches in fiscal 2010. The NetStreams integration piece will be critical for us going forward in the IP over AV market. We are focused on improving our results and growing the business, with the goal of enhancing shareholder value.