snom technology AG (News - Alert) of Germany is teaming up with Wyde Voice LLC to deliver high-definition audio conferencing capabilities for those using snom’s 8xx series VoIP phones and snom MeetingPoint conference phones. These latest snom phones incorporate wideband audio, the ITU-T G.722 codec, which doubles the sampling rate and captures twice the spectrum of voice frequencies, thus improving voice quality compared to standard narrowband VoIP calls using codecs such as G.711. By utilizing the Wyde Voice HD SoftBridge, in conjunction with the HD-audio enabled snom 8xx phone or MeetingPoint conference phone, users will experience HD-quality voice during an audio conference.

 

Wyde Voice just recently introduced its conferencing bridge technology in software form, The first generation Wyde conferencing bridge was an integrated appliance running Linux, and based on a Wyde Voice custom conferencing engine, an Asterisk (News - Alert) front-end, and the Aculab DSP media processing module. The new Wyde Voice HD SoftBridge works on off-the-shelf Intel-based servers, such as the recommended Dell (News - Alert) R710 for up to 1,000 concurrent callers and the Dell M1000E for up to 10,000 concurrent callers. Wyde said that the server hardware platform can either be purchased directly from Dell by the customer or sourced through Wyde Voice; Wyde can install the SoftBridge on the Dell server either at its own facility or remotely on the customer’s Dell hardware. 

 

Two audio conferencing SoftBridge models are available: SB1000 for up to 1,000 users and SB3000 for up to 10,000 users. These are similar to the earlier appliance-based VM1000 and VM3000, except that the SB models do not require proprietary DSP hardware. Also, SB models support more HD codecs (G.722, G.722.1, G.722.2 and iSAC), as well as dynamic jitter buffer to maintain voice quality during packet loss and geo-distributed conferencing for networking Softbridges, providing local bridges in multi-country networks and to support hybrid cloud computing architectures.

 

In addition to support for HD voice and the G.722 codec and a list of supported narrowband codecs, conference features include the following: control from a Web application, roll call, recording and playback, customer greetings, mute/hold, entry/exit tones, lecture-style conferences, operator-assisted conferences, sub-conferences, question and answer sessions and custom integration with billing systems. 

 

The Wyde Voice HD SoftBridge starts at $130 per port, and currently supports audio conferencing only; a Web conferencing module is planned for mid-year 2010. The SoftBridge solution can be deployed on the customer premise or off-premise by a service provider, and Wyde Voice also offers a managed hosted service in the U.S. for conferencing providers who would like to offer an HD-compatible service. www.snom.com and www.wydevoice.com