[September 16, 2008] Avistar, IBM to Provide Bandwidth Management for Unified Communications Tweet SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Avistar Communications Corporation , today announced that it will be working with IBM to provide bandwidth management for unified communications and collaboration solutions. As part of this work, Avistar's C3's dynamic bandwidth management technology is being licensed by IBM. The goal of this relationship is to help customers take full advantage of their unified communications capabilities -- including videoconferencing -- without experiencing degradation of service or investing in network upgrades or additional overhead. "Many industry vendors claim VoIP and desktop videoconferencing capabilities, but the reality is that they are unable to deliver rich media at scale without significant network upgrades," said Simon Moss, CEO, Avistar. Moss added, "This relationship with IBM is another significant milestone in Avistar's efforts to power important unified communications software in the industry through the creative deployment of patented technology." Videoconferencing is a dynamic area of the unified communications (UC) market, which is estimated by Wainhouse Research to reach $30-40 billion by 2011. Unified communications is the integration of instant messaging (IM), videoconferencing, web conferencing, telephony, email, business applications and voice into one user-friendly experience. The cornerstone of IBM's unified communications strategy is IBM Lotus Sametime, an award-winning and market-leading platform that offers integrated, enterprise unified communications tools such as IM, VoIP, video chats and web conferencing. "We are impressed with how Avistar's dynamic bandwidth technology helps ensure optimum network quality and integrates well with other applications," said Bruce Morse, vice president of unified communications and collaboration, IBM Lotus. "Working together, we hope to solve some of the toughest bandwidth management challenges plaguing the industry, helping our customers become more efficient and productive in their communications." "Avistar's partnership with IBM Lotus and Sametime represents a win for both companies," said Ira Weinstein, senior analyst and partner, Wainhouse Research. "The integration of Avistar's bandwidth management technology into future IBM Lotus unified communications offerings paves the way for large scale visual collaboration by allowing rich media traffic and standard data traffic to safely share the same production network." Patent protected dynamic bandwidth management is a key feature of Avistar's award-winning C3 videoconferencing technology. It is a collection of integrated dynamic software mechanisms and algorithms that control and manage bandwidth used by unified communications and distributed applications. The technology makes intelligent and automatic adjustments to support connections with external VoIP services, video within web-based instant messaging clients, room-based videoconferencing systems and high-end high-definition telepresence environments. These session-management tasks help to optimize the quality of experience, without compromising performance, impacting other applications or requiring expensive network upgrades and overhead. About Avistar Communications Corporation Avistar creates technology that provides the missing critical element in unified communications: bringing people in organizations face-to-face, through enhanced communications, for true collaboration anytime, anyplace. Its latest product, Avistar C3, draws on more than a decade of market experience to deliver a single-click desktop videoconferencing and collaboration experience that moves business communications into a new era. Available as a stand-alone solution, or integrated with existing unified communications software from other vendors, Avistar C3 provides users instant messaging-style ability to initiate video communications across and outside the enterprise. Patent protected dynamic bandwidth management enables thousands of users to access desktop videoconferencing, VoIP and streaming media, without requiring substantial new network investment or impairing network performance. Avistar's desktop videoconferencing and collaboration installations are among the world's largest, including more than 18,000 seats sold in more than 40 countries. Clients report as much as a 20 percent reduction in travel expense and carbon emissions, increases in productivity and immeasurably improved relationship building within their organizations, as well as with suppliers and customers. Avistar holds a portfolio of 83 patents for inventions in video and network technology and licenses IP to videoconferencing, rich-media services, public networking and related industries. Current licensees include IBM Corporation, Sony Corporation, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI), Polycom, Inc., Tandberg ASA, Radvision Ltd., LifeSize Communications, Inc. and Emblaze-VCON. For more information, visit http://www.avistar.com/. Forward-Looking Statements Statements made in this news release that are not purely historical, including but not limited to statements regarding the licensing of Avistar technology to IBM, the benefits of this relationship, the impact of Avistar's technology on IBM's products and customers, growth in the unified communications industry, IBM's unified communications strategy and the impact of this relationship on Avistar's access to the unified communications market are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including such factors, among others, as the challenges associated with technology integration, acceptance of the integrated product in the marketplace, competition in the unified communications industry and the emergence of new or competing technologies. These and other risk factors are discussed in Avistar's Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. Avistar disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements. IBM, Lotus and Sametime are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Avistar Communications Corporation CONTACT: Margaret Bonilla of Birnbach Communications, +1-603-548-0693,[email protected], for Avistar Web site: http://www.avistar.com/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]