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Unified Communications
Featured Article
UC Mag
Tom Keating and Richard "Zippy" Grigonis

TMC Labs 2009 UC Innovation Awards

Unifying voice, video, wireless, presence and other communications technologies, results in rapid communication and improved employee productivity. Unifying and integrating all the various corporate communications types also provide management a holistic overview of the entire corporate communications infrastructure with unified reporting that provides insights into your business communications. Mobile wireless communications continues to make strong inroads into the corporate environment, with strong enterprise application support for smartphones, such as the Apple iPhone. This year marks the 10th annual TMC Labs Innovation Awards where we honor products and services that have unique and innovative features that often differentiate them from their competitors.

 




TMC Labs researched each of the applications to pick the most innovative solutions. The winners' list consists of 11 unique and innovative companies.


Bradon Technologies Ltd.
BTAC Bradon Technologies Audio Codec
www.bradontechnologies.com

Bradon Technologies Audio Codec (BTAC) is a unique-frame independent codec with some very innovative properties. One encoding frame length of 180 ms is used to support all four of BTAC's bit-rate offerings (2.4, 4.8, 9.6 and 19.2 kbps). Each frame is encoded and decoded independently of past frames and unlike other codecs, it doesn't have packet loss concealment or a jitter buffer. TMC Labs' first reaction to this unique codec was, "No packet loss concealment? No jitter buffer? What sort of VoIP heresy is this?" Bradon Technologies told TMC Labs, "BTAC's frame architecture is different than it is in other codecs. To understand BTAC we should not apply existing templates on how we measure other codecs! For example, some components like Packet Loss Concealment or jitter buffer are not implemented with BTAC, because they are completely unnecessary. The 180ms frame length in BTAC does not create big delays at the end compared to other codecs. The total delay of BTAC implementation is almost the same as the delay you can get from the implementation of iLBC. Break your stereotypes!"


Apparently, the larger frame length allows for superior sound quality without the need for packet loss concealment or a jitter buffer, which are CPU-intensive.


BTAC is also a component of Bradon's broader voice engine offering, which is the platform for SAVii Desk VoIP enabled collaboration product. A full VoIP presentation, including audio, desktop sharing and streaming video can currently be received over multiple smartphones running the Windows Mobile Operating System, with excellent sound quality and real-time voice/video synchronization. Bradon Technologies pointed out that a large part of BTAC's success in being a multi-user VoIP solution for both PC and mobile environments is its ability to combine low CPU usage with high data compression technologies and very low overhead. Lastly, efforts are underway to develop BTAC for Asterisk.


ClearOne
CHAT 170
www.clearone.com

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 is the latest version of their popular unified communications platform. One of the most desired features for OCS 2007 is a high-quality hands-free speakerphone that works in conjunction with the Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 software client and can handle multiple speakers in a conference room setting. ClearOne's CHAT 170 fits the bill nicely, providing a USB speakerphone specifically designed to work with Microsoft Office Communicator, offering hands-free, full-duplex audio for audio or video calls.

 

ClearOne told TMC Labs, "The CHAT 170 was created by ClearOne to fill the need for a hands-free speakerphone for small groups or individuals using Microsoft's unified communications platform, Office Communications Server 2007. Providing true plug-and-play operation, the CHAT 170 requires no drivers to be installed; just plug it into a USB port and all incoming Office Communicator calls ring on the CHAT 170. Their main competitor, Polycom, does make a personal conferencing device that works with OCS but is not designed for more than 1 or 2 call participants. Plantronics also makes a personal conferencing device that works with OCS but is also not designed for more than 1 or 2 call participants."


Cypress Communications
C4 IP
www.cypresscom.net

Cypress Communications is both a CLEC and a true leader in hosted Unified Communications (UC) solutions as they continue to add advanced communications functionality to their portfolio. Their latest enhancements include hosted contact center functionality (announced Feb. 2009), C4 IP Failover (announced Nov. 2008), MPLS VPN (announced Jan. 2009), Managed Security Services (announced Jan. 2009), and Managed LAN Services (announced Jan. 2009). As Cypress proudly points out, "There's really no one out there that provides a hosted UC solution like C4 IP. Gartner Inc. recently coined the term 'Communications as a Service' in one of their reports and used Cypress Communications and its C4 IP solution as the only example of this type of high-end, broad managed solution."


Cypress emphasized to us, "The C4 IP is backed with LAN/WAN management, high-touch customer service, a hugely robust business continuity architecture, and a 24/7 fully redundant national private VoIP network available in 29 U.S. markets and engineered for 99.999 percent availability and voice prioritization with no single point of failure. The minimum equipment/
software configuration for the customer premises is an access router, Ethernet switch, IP phones and soft clients." Also, Cypress appears to be the first national hosted UC provider to include the voice LAN/WAN at the customer site and each employee's desk phone in the component managed with their solution. With C4 IP, Cypress manages all aspects of customers' UC from the phone on the desk, the soft client on their PC, across the local LAN/WAN and through their network until handoff to the PSTN. Other distinctive service features include Enforced Service Level Agreements (SLAs) through rigorous QoS (Quality of Service) management. Cypress manages jitter, latency and packet loss and enforces QoS through the company's comprehensive SLAs.


The typical Cypress customer is an SME with 50-1000 seats in 2 or more locations, though Cypress solutions can easily scale up to large-scale deployments. In fact, Cypress currently holds the distinction of designing, installing and supporting the largest hosted VoIP customer in the U.S., and it's currently rounding out the largest hosted VoIP and hosted UC deployment for a top legal firm with 2,800 handsets across 11 offices.


Digium
Switchvox
www.digium.com

Digium shook up the makers of expensive PBX equipment caused when it released Asterisk, now the world's leading open source telephony platform and tool kit. Digium's software, analog and digital interfaces, IP PBX appliances, and components make up the Asterisk Ecosystem which can be used to create or enhance a PBX system for SMBs. In 2007, Digium took open source business VoIP to a new level when it acquired Switchvox, a vendor that had built an Asterisk-based turnkey system that could scale to hundreds of users. Moreover, Switchvox had a superb web-based user interface that could integrate with Google Maps as well as such well-known CRM packages from Salesforce.com and SugarCRM, enabling contact records to pop up on the Switchvox Switchboard interface along with the location of the inbound callers.


There are three versions of Switchvox IP PBX: A free version with limited features and 15 extensions, a SOHO version with a few more features and unlimited extensions (supporting up to 20 users and 10 concurrent calls), and the remarkable Switchvox SMB 4.0, which packages Linux, Asterisk, and other open source technologies onto hardware appliances for small (up to 30 users), mid size (up to 150 users), and larger (up to 400 users and 75 concurrent calls). It provides web-aware UC capabilities and features such as VoIP, Fax, Chat/Instant Messaging, Video calling, Conferencing, Contact center, Unified Messaging, and integration with any web technology that is simple to set up for an administrator and seamless to an end user.


There's even a version of Switchvox SMB for service providers wanting to offer a premium hosted IP PBX. It runs in a virtualized
environment (Xen) with 20 instances of Switchvox SMB on a single 1U server essentially providing 20 small businesses with all Switchvox SMB features forcing them to deploy a Switchvox SMB server on site, just IP phones.


Empirix
Hammer Edge
www.empirix.com

Empirix' latest entry in the next generation of testing for IP networks, services and applications is the Hammer Edge. With it, network equipment manufacturers, service providers and large enterprises can grasp the effect of normal and harmful data traffic on their real-time voice/video equipment, services and applications in both secure and unsecure scenarios on next-gen all-IP networks. Hammer Edge excels at emulating the realistic behavior of users (agents and customers), devices and network topologies, all at high capacities (e.g., millions of IP users on a single chassis), and can predict the realistic user experience of pre-deployed multiservice networks and services. The Hammer Edge can test just about any edge device: SBCs, firewalls, security gateways, etc.

 

Interactive Intelligence
Interaction Process Automation (IPA)
www.inin.com

Long known for its flagship IP contact center software called the Customer Interaction Center (CIC), Interactive Intelligence now brings forth (as of Q3 2009) Interaction Process Automation, or IPA, a complete, manageable, all-in-one Communications-Based Process Automation (CBPA) solution. Just as it automated the management of interactions, Interactive Intelligence can now use its unified all-in-one IP communications platform and its associated applications to fully automate processes, from beginning to end, for mid-to-large-sized enterprises and contact centers operating in such verticals as manufacturing, financial services, insurance, and healthcare. Among IPA's immense list of capabilities: It has a graphical authoring tool enabling users to define information schema, design user interface forms, lay out the process flow, and specify detailed process logic. It has a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) that makes it easy to access Web Services and provides an event-driven software bus to act as the backbone of information flow. It also has an "orchestration engine" that manages the entire process, pushing the process object along the defined "conveyor belt" from state-to-state, and executing the logic specified in each state. An advanced presentation framework that incorporates designed UI forms into end-user environments such as Windows PCs, mobile devices and web pages; it also includes the ability to pop other applications and exchange information with them. In terms of management, IPA has a real-time supervisor interface allowing supervisors to see the current state of every process, who it's waiting on, and why. Finally, IPA can generate either standard reports or you can call upon its extensive capability for custom reports with all process data available in an open SQL database. IPA's "hard ROI" is hard to beat.


Mitel
Mitel Dynamic Extension
www.mitel.com

Mitel has continually improved upon hardware and software for its flagship 3300 IP Communications Platform (ICP) family and applications portfolio. For example, running on an industry-standard Linux compute platform, the introduction of the Mitel Communications Director software a few years ago scaled up the density of each controller to 5,000 users (65,000 users per Mitel cluster) making the system suitable for major enterprise data centers and hosted environments. And now comes the "Dynamic Extension" a new app embedded with v4.0 of Mitel Communications Director. Mitel's Dynamic Extension provides seamless/converged mobility allowing you to work anywhere without boundaries, without limitation on mobile device, without the need for client software and without the need for additional server hardware. Now you can always receive your calls regardless of your location. You can also originate calls through the system and thus present a single identity and leverage Mitel IP-PBX in-call features (e.g. conferencing) from any external device.


Mitel Dynamic Extension is suited for SMBs, but as a mobility solution it can scale-up to enterprise-sized organizations. It doesn't really target any particular market segment or vertical.


Movius
Movius Automated Presence
www.moviouscorp.com

Carriers that are servicing the enterprise market are now discovering Movius Automated Presence, an innovative artificial intelligence system that leverages presence technology. By integrating advanced Bluetooth technology with telecom functions, users can now enjoy automatic presence services that enable a communications system to automatically change its behavior based on a mobile user's physical location. For example, with the "Automated Find Me" feature, the Movius Automated Presence solution replaces your office phone number, home phone number, cell phone number, and other numbers with one "magic" phone number (usually a cell phone number) and automatically routes new calls or transfers existing calls to the user's office phone, home phone, or cell phone based on the user's present location. Typically a carrier will host Movius Automated Presence for individuals or enterprises but other business models are available.


ooma, Inc.
ooma Hub and Scout
www.ooma.com

Free phone calls within the U.S. for life regardless of the receiver's platform (cell phone, home phone, etc.) or service (AT&T, Comcast Verizon)? Caller-ID, call-waiting and voicemail without extra charge? Up to 9 virtual phone numbers selectable from any calling area in the U.S.? That's what's so tantalizing about the ooma Hub and Scout. The Hub is a small softswitch/PBX running on a hardware accelerated two-port wire-speed Ethernet router. It connects to your broadband, your POTS line, and up to four configurable FXS extensions through ooma "Scouts" the Scout is essentially a HomePNA Analog Telephone Adapter-like device that uses home phone lines for your telephone LAN instead of Ethernet. The ooma Hub also unifies the Internet, home phone and cell phone together into one system. You can now deal with a single number and voicemail
box for both your home phone and cell phone, and you can call between the two seamlessly as you enter and leave your house, upload contacts online and access them via your home phone or cell phone. ooma's speaker and intuitive UI enables you to track the status of ooma service, access multiple lines of calling from existing phones, and listen to, interact, and screen voicemail.


Plantronics Inc.
Savi Office
www.plantronics.com

As the first truly integrated wireless headset solution that connects to both a PC and desk phone with the ability to mix and switch a PC call with a desk phone call (instead of just switching between the 2 devices), Plantronics' Savi Office enables hands-free communications for conference calls, PC calls, web conferencing, online presentations and other forms of real-time collaboration involving PC and desk phone systems. It also supports shift changing, hot desking/desk sharing and hotelling environments. One master base system can support multiple Savi Office headsets with an easy-to-use subscription-based feature. Savi Office headset users can "subscribe" their headset to any Savi Office base. The headset and cradle are sold separately along with a charging bank for the headsets not in use. Savi Office's DECT 6.0 support and sophisticated electronics allows for considerable business level sound quality while freely roaming up to 350 feet away from the base.


Voiceserve-VoipSwitch Inc.
Vippie Mobile SIP softphone
www.VoipSwitch.com

Voiceserve, Inc. is a U.K.-based software company better known for its VoipSwitch products used by ITSPs worldwide. Their new VoipSwitch "Vippie Mobile" is a SIP softphone available through VoIP service providers, compatible with both the Symbian s60 operating system (it supports a broad range of the Nokia phones, including other vendors; see the full list at www.s60.com) and Windows Mobile. The Symbian version supports native voice codecs of mobile phones, covering nearly all Nokia models. It works with G.729, G.711, iLBR, G722. The Windows Mobile edition supports G.711 and G.729 (G.722 coming soon). Vippie Mobile is based on VoipSwitch's proprietary "VoIP tunnel" technology, consisting of the VoIP tunnel client and the VoIP tunnel server. The VoIP tunnel client embeds in the Vippie Mobile softphone where it encapsulates all SIP and RTP communication. The call is forwarded over a single channel using either the TCP or UDP protocol to a specified (chosen by the service provider) port and IP address or addresses of the VoIP tunnel server. The SIP transmission is hidden and is immune from being blocked. It can successfully traverse various kinds of VoIP-blocking firewalls. Indeed, it works in many countries which block VoIP, including Bangladesh and the UAE where even GSM networks are now blocked.


The ability to send SMS messages is now in Beta. UC

 

Tom Keating is TMC's CTO. Richard Grigonis is Executive Editor of TMC's IP Communications Group.

 







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