GIPS, or Global IP Solutions (News - Alert), has had a long and storied history of success in the IP communications space. The company invented iLBC — an IETF industry standard for narrowband speech codec and iSAC — an industry standard codec for wideband speech. Global IP Solutions’ software enables service providers, application developers and hardware manufacturers to develop highly differentiated products which they in turn use to set themselves apart from the competition.

 

The company’s vice president of engineering, Jan Linden has been researching and developing cutting edge speech processing and communications technologies for over 15 years. Prior to joining Global IP Solutions, Linden toiled under the auspices of the University of California, Santa Barbara and SignalCom, Inc.

 

TMCnet was fortunate to catch up with Linden, to ask him several questions about his company, the industry at large, and about his participation at the upcoming ITEXPO, which takes place in early February 2009 in Miami Beach, FL.

 

 

JL: I will be speaking at a session on Wednesday, February 4 at 9:30am on the topic of VoIP on smartphones. I will discuss how iPhone applications can incorporate VoIP and turn voice into IP packets for transmission via WiFi (News - Alert), making it easier for developers to go to market faster by integrating voice processing technology for today’s most popular smart phone.

 

I will also be speaking on a panel discussion on Monday February 2 at 4pm entitled “Conferencing/Collaboration & Telepresence as Part of a UC Strategy.” For both discussions, I will address the importance of voice and video quality in IP communications, and how to ensure a positive end user experience on PCs and mobile devices.

 

JL: Yes, 2008 was a pivotal year for GIPS from both a business and a technology standpoint. Our accomplishments this year have positioned us well in our strategic markets that will propel GIPS leadership in the coming year. During 2008, the company successfully completed a listing on the Oslo B (News - Alert)ørs exchange. Also in 2008, we launched mobile video calling capabilities, capitalizing on the explosive growth of the mobile marketplace, which is projected to reach 5.5 billion subscribers by 2013.

 

Today, GIPS Media Engines are the most widely deployed in the world with over 800 million downloads globally on various platforms. Our customers are leaders in their fields, including AOL, Citrix, Cisco, IBM, LG Nortel, Movial, Nimbuzz, Oracle, Radvision, Tencent, and Samsung (News - Alert), to name a few.

 

Our goal for 2009 is to become market leaders and innovators by taking video to the same heights that we have taken voice. In the process, we hope to enable our customers to continue to bring the best IP communication experience to their customers.

 

JL: The launch of our video conferencing and mobile VoIP and video products. The mobile market is growing at breakneck speeds, despite the sluggish economy. Businesses are looking for ways to cut travel expenses, and they’re turning to desktop video conferencing and mobile VoIP and video calling as the answer. One of our customers Nimbuzz has launched their application through the iPhone App store. Nimbuzz has a great application which uses GIPS VoiceEngine to ensure high-quality VoIP on the iPhone. Our voice and video engines are delivering on this promise for quality real-time IP communications, anytime, anywhere.

 

JL: Innovation and more innovation. There’s a new era of IP communications taking place — from the desktop to mobile devices — people want access to real-time communications regardless of platform. Today’s users are more sophisticated and demand high quality real-time IP communications. Businesses and consumers are turning to their PCs and mobile devices to save travel time and expenses, which is why we believe we will see a many more applications that have IP communications capabilities already embedded in 2009.

 

JL: Consumers and businesses will drive the adoption of these new applications. However, the economy is certainly driving a need for reducing travel expenses and higher quality, making cost-effective video conferencing capabilities an attractive alternative today. So the new administration and how quickly we recover from this down economy will have some role in the demand, but we believe there is a strong ROI regardless of economic conditions.

 

JL: Video communication. IP-based communications has been proliferating for many years now and we see this continuing at a faster pace in the future due to demands for unified communications, high-definition video and TV, and real-time HD video communications. With the network infrastructure in place and advanced technologies that are now available on video and voice processing such as what GIPS provides, people can have a very high-quality realistic user experience with video and voice communications over IP networks. We see users pleasantly surprised at the quality of their experience and this will be a strong driver for market adoption in the coming years.

 

JL: So far we have not witnessed any detrimental effects. GIPS products offer both high-quality and a quick time-to-market, which may spur companies to make purchasing decisions more quickly. This means they can offer cutting-edge video over IP applications sooner, allowing their customers to enjoy the cost-effective benefits of IP communications.

 

JL: We have the most widely adopted Media Engines in the world. You may know us as the company behind the industry's standard voice codecs ILBC (narrowband) and iSAC (wideband), and the original developers of the engine that made the quality of Skype possible. Our voice and video processing engineers are the best in the world, and our technology is proven across multiple platforms; just ask our customers.

 

JL: Mobile video calling will be the next big wave in IP communications.