Vidyo Announces Support for Microsoft Office Communicator

Vidyo, a provider of personal telepresence, has reportedly announced that its video conferencing solutions now support Microsoft Office Communicator allowing MOC client users to easily initiate and participate in HD multiparty Vidyo (News - Alert) conferences.

The company’s technology built on the new H.264 Scalable Video Coding standard will now let MOC users access telepresence on the desktop with latency at less than 250 ms, and consistent picture quality on their PCs via a standard Internet connection.

The new plug-in developed by Vidyo connects MOC with the VidyoDesktop client, providing end-users with the ability to initiate Vidyo conferences using their MOC-based contacts. VidyoDesktop is the HD software client component of the VidyoConferencing solution. With the VidyoDesktop, users can individually control the dynamics of their audio and visual experience during the conference.

Once the MOC and the VidyoDesktop client are connected users can start Instant Messaging sessions in the Vidyo conferencing just like they initiate MOC video chat. Personal telepresence can be easily initiated by just clicking the VidyoConferencing button from a pull-down menu on a given contact. The contact is automatically invited to the user’s meeting room, and a ‘guest hyper-link’ is provided if the contact is not a registered Vidyo user.

Analysts said that businesses are finally beginning to understand the role of video within unified communications and the value proposition of deploying communications platforms such as Microsoft’s (News - Alert) Office Communications Server with Microsoft Office Communicator. Consequently, along with UC, they want the choice of deploying video technology that best suits their visual needs. Vidyo offers the ‘One click’ integration of multiparty HD/low-latency video conferencing. It along with UC platforms OCS and MOC has the capability to increase the usage of video at the desktop, and increase the overall value proposition of the UC platform as well.

Vidyo said that until now, MOC users have been limited in their video conferencing options to standard desktop performance. The application adds Personal Telepresence (News - Alert) to the MOC client, allowing users, for the first time, to experience the same low latency and consistent picture quality traditionally restricted to Telepresence rooms. Vidyo’s economics and architecture make it easy for companies to scale deployment of video conferencing to service everyone in the organization.

The company has added that their new Plug-in for MOC supports both R1 and R2 versions of Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and is currently available through the Vidyo reseller network.

Recently Vidyo received patent for its VidyoRouter architecture and addressed Interop (News - Alert) New York 2009.