July 25, 2006

Bradon Technologies Develops Codec to Compete with GIPS

By Robert Liu, TMCnet Executive Editor

A tiny Canadian company has developed an innovative Windows-based encoding/decoding (codec) technology that serves as the basis of a desktop VoIP conferencing application that offers 100-percent live, full-duplex, two-way voice communications.

The solution was developed by Bradon Technologies of Toronto. The technology, which is called Bradon Technologies Audio Codec or simply BTAC, is a frame-independent codec that competes with other technologies including the Internet Low Bit Rate (iLBC) codec developed by Global IP Sound (News - Alert) (GIPS), which is used in Google Talk and Skype (News - Alert).

Because BTAC uses extremely low overhead, Bradon Technologies has been able to develop the Simultaneous Audio Video Interactive Internet (SAVii) Desk meeting software and Live presentation application to be very lightweight. In fact, the meeting host application is only 265Kb while the client/participant software is only 289Kb in size.

While Bradon is still relatively small relying on licensing and/or resellers as its primary distribution channels, it has attracted the attention of Microsoft (News - Alert), which last week aligned with Nortel (News - Alert) - ) - ) - ) - ) to kick-start its Unified Communications (UC) strategy, company officials told TMCnet.

“We can be a huge contributor to the UC platform,” said Joe Compta, president of Bradon Technologies. “In [Microsoft] Live Meeting, they have yet to put any duplex voice. The problem with Live Meeting is how it was architected. For Live Meeting to have the full-duplex voice, they have to re-architect it from the ground up.”

Earlier this week, Bradon Technologies announced the launch of SAViiDesk version 2.5 with iPBX integration, bridging online participants with callers from standard PSTN lines. The latest version also can be used on most PDA’s running Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 SE or Microsoft Windows Mobile Version 5.0 for Pocket PC. 

“Our proprietary voice technology based on BTAC voice codec ensures that all event members continue to receive the exceptional audio quality as well as the visuals they are accustomed to,” Compta said.

SAViiDesk version 2.5 is available to all SAViiDesk users at http://www.saviidesk.com/ where they can automatically upgrade their current versions.

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Robert Liu is Executive Editor at TMCnet. Previously, he was Executive Editor at Jupitermedia and has also written for CNN, A&E, Dow Jones and Bloomberg. For more articles, please visit Robert Liu's columnist page.

(source: http://news.tmcnet.com/news/-bradon-codec-gips-microsoft-/2006/07/25/1731425.htm)