[July 30, 2004]

Conferencing over IP Coming To a Conference Near You

BY RICH TEHRANI

VoIP (define - news - alert) is moving beyond a pure cost-savings technology into a world of services. Ubiquity has been enabling these services for many years. Audio-Ex, a wholesaler of integrated audio and web conferencing services chose to deploy Ubiquity�s Speak Conference Director as a testament to the intertwining of VoIP and conferencing,

Presence and IM are built-in as Ubiquity powers this solution with their SIP (define - news - alert)  Application Server. Endpoints can be PSTN, (define - news - alert) wireless or SIP based while sessions can be initiated, managed and terminated via a browser. Scalability is truly immense at 20,000 concurrent users per system.

Web collaboration is built-in, meaning you can share presentations, web content, applications and documents in real-time. The UI is very slick and allows you to see conference attendees as presence-based status icons, illustrating who is present and who is talking. Additionally, you can see if someone muted, has their hand raised, removed, departed, etc.

What differentiates a conferencing solution from legacy conferencing equipment beyond just the ability to harness VoIP and lower costs is the ability to tie-in with Ubiquity�s SIP Applications Server. This allows service providers to differentiate their solutions. Some options include the capacity to change call-forwarding rules and enhancing presence functions. By using the built-in Call Processing Language, you can further distinguish your services to stay ahead of the competition and hopefully reduce churn.

Conferencing is one the newest frontiers for VoIP adoption and these technologies work so well with one another. As collaboration becomes more and more crucial to the world�s overall productivity, VoIP and SIP will be at the forefront of conferencing, allowing new and exciting enhancements to be added to boring old conferencing. The conferencing market has been revitalized by VoIP and I look forward to writing about the progress of these now intertwined technologies.

For another recent article from Rich Tehrani on VoIP-based conferencing please read:

Convedia Turbo charges Genesys Conferencing with boost courtesy of VoIP

Rich Tehrani is TMC's president. He welcomes your comments. Participate in our forums.