This item originally appeared in the JULY issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY

TMC Labs has enjoyed discovering new and truly unique and innovative products and services within the VoIP industry for several years and presenting them with a TMC Labs Innovation Award. Our 12th annual TMC Labs Innovation Awards effort was certainly no exception.

TMC Labs has been testing, examining, and reviewing products since 1994, and one of the best parts of the job is seeing unique and innovative products for the first time. This year marked the appearance of several strong contenders in these specific areas: testing tools, video, and unified communications.

TMC Labs uses a rigorous selection process when selecting innovative products. This year, TMC Labs proudly bestows 19 companies with TMC Labs Innovation Awards, which will be published in two parts to accommodate our in-depth write-ups for the winners. The complete winners list will be published in both issues; however we will write the detailed write-ups in alphabetical order beginning with 01 Commnique this month and ending with Jabra. Next month, we start with Lyrix, Inc. and end with VOCALCOM.

01 Communique

ImInTouch Meeting

www.01com.com

ImInTouch Meeting is a secure web-based service that enables businesses to conduct online meetings with the ability to share a computer screen with up to 15 attendees. The service has text and VoIP audio chat, whiteboard capabilities, ability to assign the mouse or keyboard to anyone attending the meeting, and of course allows users to schedule multiple meetings. 01 Communique told TMC Labs, “01 owns the patented technology that allows for this innovation. Due to our rights to the patents, 01 Communique is the very first to develop this particular technology.” In addition to typical collaboration capabilities, the product uniquely allows you to share printers and files.”

ImInTouch Meeting uses a concurrent license model so you only to purchase the maximum simultaneous employee usage and not the total number of employees. Each employee can still have his/her unique user name and password allowing for administrators to accurately track individual usage. Their remote access technology ensures a secure communication session is established between all meeting participants and all data transmitted is encrypted using industry standard 256-bit SSL encryption. It supports file transfer and easy remote printing that enables attendees to print copies of documents from your desktop to their local printers. In the last 6 months they’ve added video, Mac support, in-session poling, and a post-session survey feature.

ADTRAN Inc.

ADTRAN Ultra Broadband Ethernet

www.adtran.com

Fiber to the home potentially addresses 30 to 50 percent of the homes in many networks. However, the cost and deployment time for FTTH solutions limits availability in many serving areas. Further, service providers are facing increasing pressure from cable operators that are rolling out 100mbps service using DOCSIS 3.0, which is faster than DSL offerings. To solve the cost and deployment time issues, ADTRAN has developed Ultra Broadband Ethernet, which leverages ubiquitous copper phone wiring in homes to quickly and affordably deliver high-bandwidth services to subscribers by virtually eliminating the need for fiber dredging. This new Ethernet-based solution delivers 100mbps symmetrical broadband service with ultra-low power and low latency. Also, Ultra Broadband Ethernet doesn’t require direct electric grid power and can be deployed and installed virtually anywhere – telephone poles, underground, in the basement of multi-dwelling units, or elsewhere.

It leverages the distribution point, the location in the network where existing subscriber drops fan out to individual homes. The DP is usually a maximum of 200m away from the eight to 16 homes it serves, though it is often much closer. Placing ADTRAN’s multiport Ultra Broadband Ethernet Optical Node Terminal at this location and feeding it with fiber allows operators to deliver fast Ethernet over the existing subscriber drops. This avoids the cost and delay associated with trenching fiber under roads, sidewalks, and driveways for each individual home. This also saves the cost and time associated with installing individual ONTs and the long in-home installation procedure.

In the home, a self-installed Media Adapter delivers a standard Ethernet interface to a computer or residential gateway. Uniquely, the Media Adapter also delivers power to the Ultra Broadband Ethernet ONT via a low DC voltage pulled from the homes on the ONT. As a result, the Ultra Broadband Ethernet ONT does not require power from the network – powering is instead shared between homes it serves. This capability is unique to ADTRAN and a first in the broadband delivering solutions market.

When asked how leveraging the customer’s own electrical power to power the ONT affects customers’ electrical costs, ADTRAN explains, “In a typical broadband deployment today, the customer uses their own power for their service. For example, DSL modems, cable modems, and FTTH ONTs are all powered by the subscriber's commercial power. These devices typically require 6 to 8 Watts each. UBE makes a significant improvement on that model. UBE leverages power from multiple subscribers to power one UBE ONT. In a fully shared scenario with eight active subscribers, the UBE customer only uses an eighth of the power of a typical FTTH deployment. That means at 12 cents per kiloWatt hour, the UBE subscriber would pay about 50 cents per month vs. up to $4 per month on a traditional FTTH service.”

We also asked how this product compared with AT&T’s U-Verse, which uses fiber to the neighborhood and then also uses phone wires to the home. ADTRAN states, “UBE is different from other broadband deployments (including U-Verse) because it uses fast Ethernet (100mbps symmetric) on the facility drop vs. a form of DSL that is asymmetric. Plus, there is no DSL solution on the market today that can achieve 100mbps in both the upstream and downstream direction over a single twisted pair facility.”

The architecture supports 1gbps using pair bonding with more than a single twisted pair, and the distance has to be less than 500 feet. ADTRAN UBE is truly an innovative product to keep your eye on since it will enable service providers to offer higher speed broadband and video/TV services simply using ubiquitous phone wires. Currently Ultra Broadband Ethernet is in trials with tier 1 operators on three continents.

ADTRAN Inc.

ADTRAN Optical Networking Edge (ONE)

www.adtran.com

Mobile bandwidth is exploding with the advent of smartphones, mobile web surfing and apps, as well as video streaming. As mobile broadband networks continue to drive the transformation to IP and Ethernet with the deployment of new technologies, such as long-term evolution, high-speed packet access, evolved packet core and IP multimedia subsystems, the access network between the Ethernet edge and the IP core must keep pace or become a bottleneck. This exponential growth of carrier-grade bandwidth pushes the need for fiber-based Ethernet services and blurs the distinction between access and transport networks.

ADTRAN explains, “Without revolutionary technical advances at the edge, the core network will have significant difficulties dealing with the wave of traffic. Operators need cost-effective and easy-to-deploy advanced solutions at the edge of the network to deal with this bandwidth explosion. Up to now, technologies like WDM, OTN and ROADMs combined with scalable carrier Ethernet have been too expensive and costly to deploy at the edge, but this is about to change. ADTRAN's Optical Networking Edge (ONE) portfolio enables service providers to bridge the gap between network access and transport, leverage their installed base, and extend the bandwidth efficiencies of the core all the way to the optical edge. It provides the modularity needed to address current and future services, while accelerating time to revenue, eliminating multi-box complexity, simplifying operations and reducing costs.”

Essentially, ADTRAN’s ONE portfolio enables service providers to bridge the gap between network access and transport, leverage their installed base, and extend the bandwidth efficiencies of the core all the way to the optical edge. ADTRAN states, “ONE is the only solution on the market that combines legacy networks and services like SONET/SDH with advanced optical access services like gigabit Ethernet, active Ethernet and GPON, with technologies more commonly found in core networks like DWDM, CWDM, scalable carrier Ethernet, OTN and ROADM. The advanced solutions, typical of core networks, have been edge-optimized so that they can be deployed with less capital and with only minimal training.”

With ADTRAN’s ONE solution, instead of a new box, operators can simply add a card into the integrated system when necessary. While competing solutions require multiple boxes to terminate either transport or access technologies, the modularity of the ONE solution accommodates both of these functions in a single device. This speeds up deployment and keeps the cost down. The use of the ADTRAN ONE solution allows operators to modernize their edge networks such that they can roll out new services without concern for capacity constraints. In addition, it takes a load off the core and metro layers since the bandwidth is aggregated and groomed at the edge. The initial release supports high-bit-rate carrier Ethernet aggregation, SONET/SDH multi-service provisioning platform on a card, CWDM and DWDM networking scalable from a single wavelength to 400gbps on a single fiber pair, thus eliminating network edge bandwidth limitations. This solution enables service providers to compete effectively in any market while planning and implementing their transition to 3G and 4G mobile networks.

Digium Inc.

Switchvox 1.0

www.digium.com

Switchvox is Digium’s flagship product built on the power of Asterisk delivering unified communications capabilities, Web 2.0 functionality, VoIP, fax, chat, video calling, conferencing, and contact center features. Switchvox SMB packages Linux, Asterisk, and other open source technologies onto hardware appliances for small, mid-size, and larger SMBs. This full UC solution is built on open source technology and open standards protocols. Featuring an easy-to-use user interface that is customizable, the Switchboard provides an interactive dashboard view into call control, phone book, presence, chat, profile information, and any other third-party web application.

A big differentiator for Switchvox is the open API. Users can query any database and pull pertinent information from third-party applications with each incoming or outgoing call. In CEBP fashion this application integrates easily with Switchvox’s IVR to establish call strategies optimizing business processes. Mashups between Switchvox and applications are easy to create, implement and deploy into the Switchboard, allowing users to see relevant data about their callers. Also using Switchboard, users can perform drag-and-drop transfers, monitor, whisper or barge in on queue members they manage, and see which other users are on the phone and get information about those calls.

Important features include Outlook integration, mobility, and unified messaging. End users also have their own management interface for voicemail, custom greetings, reports, and call routing settings (find me, follow me) as well as Outlook contacts, mail and calendar integration and mobile phone integration. Video calling is also supported. Callers can create video panels within their Switchboard to allow for full video and audio conferencing collaboration.

Switchvox is compatible with any SIP-compliant phone and has very tight integration with Polycom and snom phones to auto-provision the phones. For mobility it has freely-available iPhone and Blackberry applications that allow users to place and receive calls directly from their cell phone as if they using their office extension identity (CallerID).

FLUKE NETWORKS

Fiber OneShot PRO

www.flukenetworks.com

Fiber OneShot PRO is a new product that just came out in March that enables communications service providers, installers, contractors, cable television operators, RBOCs and regional telcos to troubleshoot fiber. The product maps single-mode fiber links and measures faults up to 15 miles in less than five seconds. This all-in-one troubleshooter locates connections, faults and breaks and distances to failures, making it the essential first response diagnostic tool for anyone working with single-mode fiber. In addition to measuring more than 75,000 feet of fiber in less than five seconds, it can save and store up to 99 test results for later review, confirm channel connectivity by analyzing the fiber link, locate sources of bit-error rates caused by end-face contamination or poor connection leads, and find breaks or potentially weak network cabling areas. Additionally, it detects active fiber lines to prevent potential service interruptions and is compatible with all PON wavelengths (1310nm, 1495nm, 1550nm and 1625nm).

FLUKE claims that this because the product analyzes the fiber link in less than five seconds, it cuts the average job time by up to 30 percent. The company says it’s easy to use with no confusing data to interpret, no complex OTDR interface, and that its one-button test feature means no training is necessary. Important for this test category is the fact that it is handheld and ruggedly built for the outdoor environment.

Fiber OneShot PRO essentially analyzes a single-mode channel by measuring backscatter from thousands of pulses it injects with a 1550nm laser. Fiber OneShot PRO uses an OTDR-like hardware configuration with a custom FPGA, driving 20ns laser pulses through a coupler and measuring with a pin diode. Based on these measurements, it displays the length and characteristics of the entire link.

FLUKE tells TMC Labs, “This is first in the market in its category – a single-mode fiber troubleshooter that displays loss and reflectance measurements for multiple events (patent pending on this technology). Fiber OneShot PRO is easy-to-use, portable, practical and affordable – no fiber experience or training required. OTDRs can be complex, difficult to interpret and unwieldly for outdoor environments. Fiber OneShot PRO provides 80 percent of the functionality of an OTDR at a fraction of the price. Total cost of ownership of Fiber OneShot PRO is also the lowest in the industry – no calibration or costly servicing required. Customers can now afford to equip all technicians with an affordable Fiber OneShot PRO for the first step in diagnosing fiber trouble, rather than require crews to share one OTDR [tool] or wait for an experienced fiber technician. Fiber OneShot PRO is ideal for less experienced technicians, tier 2 technicians that refer fiber problems, and technicians that don’t usually test fiber.”

Grandstream Networks

GXV3662_HD IP Camera

www.grandstream.com

The GXV3662_HD camera is a new HD camera from Grandstream designed for challenging outdoor or indoor environments. For example, outdoor environments with weather/vandal issues or indoor applications prone to vandalism or high traffic/potential damage areas like malls, stairwells, warehouses, etc. are ideal candidates for the GXV3662_HD, which with integrated PoE is easily installed and integrated with new or existing surveillance networks.

The GXV3662_HD is a cost-effective physical security solution for businesses requiring exceptional images (uses an IR-cut filter vs. an infrared LED) for day and night in a weather-proof (IP66-compliant), vandal-resistant casing. It features an advanced image sensor processor powered with an auto-exposure/auto-white-balance algorithm and a high-quality lens. It also sports multi-rate H.264 and MJPEG real-time video compression (up to HD720p), day/night mode, advanced mega-pixel CMOS sensor with wide dynamic range, and even a built-in heater and fan. The GXV3662_HD supports the ONVIF standard and HTTP API for integration with various video management systems and offers bi-directional SIP/VoIP audio and video streaming capabilities to mobile phones and video phones, including Grandstream’s GXV3140 and GXV3175 IP multimedia phones.

Key features include an advanced 1/3-inch 1.2 megapixel CMOS sensor with wide dynamic range and high-quality lens, alarm input/output, audio input/output, integrated power over Ethernet (802.3af), day/night mode with light sensor and mechanical IR_CUT, SDHC slot for local storage, 24MB pre-/post-event recording buffer, and a built-in streaming server to allow 10-plus simultaneous viewers. It also supports GSurf , Grandstream’s free video management software that controls up to 36 cameras simultaneously. Grandstream explains, “The GXV3662_HD camera is the first of its kind to integrate the advanced varifocal lens with integrated auto-IRIS and IRCUT, along with advanced WDR megapixel sensor and advanced 2A imaging algorithms (auto exposure and auto white balance).”

Grandstream Networks

GXV3175 IP Multimedia Phone

www.grandstream.com

The GXV3175 IP Multimedia Phone is a SIP-based VoIP and video phone in a thin tablet form sporting multimedia capabilities, including web browsing, one-touch access to personalized feeds of real-time online information services (such as news video or RSS feeds, weather, IM, stock/currency updates, etc.), and can stream Internet radio stations, as well as play back YouTube videos. It also supports major web photo sites (Yahoo Flickr, Photobucket, Phanfare), popular social networking sites (Facebook (News - Alert), Twitter) and Last.fm. It even supports Google Voice integration, making this the first desktop IP phone to support direct Google Voice integration.

The GXV3175 is portable and has integrated Wi-Fi, allowing people to use it anywhere there’s a broadband connection. Considering all the features it has, including a 7-inch 800x480 resistive touch screen LCD, 1.2 megapixel tiltable CMOS camera, integrated PoE, HD audio, VGA video resolution 256 MBRAM, 256 MB Flash, support for nine languages, dual network ports, support for up to three SIP accounts, and more, it’s amazingly low priced at less than $350.

Released in late 2010, the GXV3175 is Grandstream’s newest, next-generation IP multimedia phone and, it includes support for two-way or three-way video calling out of the box. It has typical business desktop phone features including conferencing, busy lamp, line appearances, etc. It also has a high fidelity full-duplex speakerphone with a high performance acoustic echo canceller.

inContact

Plugin Agent

www.inContact.com

The inContact Plugin Agent provides a full-featured call center interface combined with a customization layer, all within the browser. The customization layer enables users to intelligently route calls, render telephone numbers as clickable links to dial calls, and pop contact and other screens according to the appropriate workflows of any particular call center. The inContact Plugin Agent leverages the browser to bring call center telephony to distributed CRM applications. A flexible configuration layer allows for various implementations that leverage screen pops, scripting, and intelligent routing and account lookups. Features include ANI screen pops, click-to-dial, DNIS scripts and custom screen pops, and automatic call record creation in a CRM database.

The inContact Plugin Agent will even render HTML data on the fly to produce clickable numbers within the browser for ease of dialing. The abilities to render custom information and drive the desired workflow within the CRM application are the foundational goals of the Plugin. With this solution businesses can use a unified interface in the browser, so there is no switching between the CRM and inContact applications. Users can also embed screen pops in the CRM, which serves up the corresponding customer data when the call is routed to an agent.

Placing calls is easy without the need to key the numbers by leveraging the click-to-dial feature. According to inContact, “As far as we know, the Plugin Agent is the first to integrate the call routing interface with a browser-based CRM.” The company adds, “The Plugin Agent breaks new ground in providing a more user-friendly interface for agents to consult with the inContact dashboard, then move it out of the way to accomplish other tasks. No matter how many browser windows are opened, the inContact controls move with you, making the customer service experience much more seamless.”

Interactive Intelligence

Customer Interaction Center (CIC)

www.inin.com

Founded in 1994, Interactive Intelligence was at the forefront of the PC-PBX revolution offering a Windows-based phone system, which even predates VoIP-based IP PBXs. The flagship product, Customer Interaction Center, is an application-rich, all-software, SIP-based IP PBX for mid-size to large enterprises that includes contact center and business process automation functionality. It truly is an all-in-one contact center and unified communications solution.

CIC includes multichannel access such as phone, fax, e-mail, web, SMS, and business objects. It has an advanced ACD that has multichannel queuing, priority and skills-based routing, and even e-mail routing. It also features interaction tracking, real-time presence management, and support for remote and at-home agents. It has CRM integrations, including screen pop and blended inbound/outbound campaign management. Further, it features an IVR that supports speech recognition. Important to any contact center is quality monitoring, which this product supports, including both voice and screen recording.

Unique to this powerful solution is that Interactive Intelligence offers this product as both a customer premises and as a communications-as-a-service offering. In the hosted CaaS offering, the company leverages its SIP-architected software platform, and it’s delivered using voice over IP and a multi-protocol label switching network. Importantly, it supports SRTP and TLS for security.

CIC includes APIs for integration to CRM, ERP, and other back-end data systems with deep integrations to Salesforce.com, RightNow, and Microsoft. Interactive Intelligence tells TMC Labs, “With the company’s acquisition of AcroSoft and Latitude Software, CIC also now deeply integrates with insurance and debt collection systems, respectfully. In addition, Interactive has applied its core UC platform for interaction routing, presence and collaboration to business process automation. This first-of-its kind communications-based process automation product, Interaction Process Automation, captures, prioritizes routes, escalates, and tracks work through each step of a business process.”

Interactive Intelligence is releasing a major upgrade, version 4.0, which was designed to simplify system management and administration, while providing flexible deployment options via on-premises or the cloud. CIC 4.0 introduces a new application for real-time speech analytics called Interaction Analyzer, which provides keyword spotting for increased customer retention and improved customer service. CIC 4.0 also offers increased scalability and reliability, improved virtualization environment, a new cloud-based business user licensing model for improved cost-effectiveness, and additional business user e-mail/web access options and collaboration features.

Jabra

Jabra PRO 9470

www.jabra.com

What won’t electronics product developers put a touch screen on? Well, apparently, even a small headset can improve usability simply by using a touch-screen control. Jabra PRO 9470 is the first wireless office headset with a touch screen with the goal of easier call control. Thanks to Multiuse technology, the headset can take calls from three types of devices: desk, mobile and softphones. Each of these phones are united by a stylish touch-screen base. The base connects to a headset via DECT, offering a wireless range of up to 450 feet. Equipped with a SmartSetup wizard, the touch screen helps users connect phones and choose preferences to get started. The colorful icons and intuitive menu system make call handling very simple.

A dual-microphone Noise Blackout system with advanced digital signal processing helps eliminate background noise. It has wideband quality and SafeTone technology to protect hearing. The Jabra PRO 9470 is future proof with firmware updates that enhance existing functionality and currently delivers features such as call merging, placing callers on hold, or data recording that are valuable to contact center supervisors or office enterprise users.

The intuitive 2.4-inch touch-screen display enhances call management and enables non-technical users to navigate easily through the menu prompts to operate and use the headset. With the Jabra automatic set up server functionality, users can dial into an 800 number, and the PRO 9470 automatically configures the microphone and telephone switch settings to eliminate complex manual configurations. 

Jabra explains to TMC Labs, “The Jabra PRO 9470 provides a unique offering in the U.S. DECT wireless headset category because it is the industry’s first triple connectivity platform, first with an intuitive touch-screen display, delivers exceptional audio performance, and supports free firmware upgrades for the life of the investment maximizing the value, and lowering the total cost of ownership.”

Other features include 10 to 11 hours of talk time, field-replaceable batteries, and support for UC softphone drivers such as Cisco CIPC, CUPC, CUCI-MOC, IBM Sametime, and Avaya one-X Communicator, Avaya IP Softphone and Avaya IP Agent. It also supports Microsoft Lync.