Genband Integrates Video Conferencing Into UC Platform

Genband, which over the past couple of years has been building out its collaboration portfolio, is expanding its unified communications platform with the integration of video conferencing technology from Vidyo.

Genband is integrating Vidyo’s software-based VidyoWorks into its Smart Office unified communications (UC) solution. The VidyoWorks offering, which can be deployed within the network of an enterprise or service provider, is aimed at making video conferencing easier and less expensive by running on commodity hardware and in virtual environments, which helps to reduce both capital costs—no new collaboration hardware is needed—and ongoing operational costs.

In addition, being software-based makes the VidyoWorks architecture easier to manage and to scale, according to Vidyo officials. The platform uses Scalable Video Coding- (SVC-) based compression technology to dynamically optimize video for the endpoint being used. A person using a smartphone will have different video needs than one using a desktop PC, and VidyoWorks can adapt accordingly.

Integrating it with Smart Office will enable users to more easily take phone calls and make them multi-point video calls that offer such capabilities as screen sharing.

“Our service provider and enterprise customers get a more efficient deployment architecture and their users get a better experience, even on 3G/4G connected mobile clients or constrained networks,” Carl Baptiste, senior vice president of UC and enterprise product line management at Genband, said in a statement, adding that users can employ desktop or mobile devices for video conferencing on any network and from anywhere.

Industry trends like cloud computing, workforce mobility, the proliferation of mobile devices and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) practices are having a significant impact on the video conferencing market. Sales of high-end and expensive telepresence and room-based systems are falling as businesses turn to cloud- and software-based offerings to address the growing demand from more mobile workers and customers for video collaboration tools that can work on any device from anywhere and offer the same capabilities, from chat and instant messaging to presence and screen sharing.

Genband over the last several years has been aggressive in building out its UC capabilities in such areas as mobility and the cloud.