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Virtual telepresence specialist Vidyo Inc. launched its VidyoRouter Virtual Edition high-definition video conferencing platform. VidyoRouter VE is designed to provide enterprises and service providers with deployment flexibility in their video conferencing infrastructure. When VidyoRouter VE is released later this year, it will be available on VMware’s virtualization platform.
Using Vidyo’s Adaptive Video Layering technology to eliminate the latency and intensive processing requirements of transcoding required by traditional MCU-based solutions, VidyoRouter delivers low-latency video streams for any endpoint over any IP network. All VidyoRouter editions deliver video conferencing to mobile devices, PCs, room and telepresence systems over general-purpose IP networks. As a result, VidyoRouter VE is able to deliver high concurrent connection density per virtual machine processing resource and native firewall traversal. It is also designed to offer businesses flexibility by bringing new geographies online without the need to purchase and deploy redundant hardware appliances.
Cloud deployment enables businesses to distribute the video conferencing infrastructure so that traffic can be localized anywhere there is a pocket of users, keeping more traffic on the lower-cost LAN bandwidth and off the higher-cost WAN. For example, in the event that a company opens a new branch office, it has the flexibility to use virtual VidyoRouters to enable the new branch office to gain local access to VidyoConferencing. Additionally, the virtualized VidyoRouter leverages the existing capacity of a businesss private or public data centers, which means no additional or purpose-built hardware is required in locations to support the build-out of a distributed multipoint conferencing fabric.
“As an existing Vidyo Service Provider, we believe Vidyo’s support for virtualization presents a great opportunity for us,” said Clive Sawkins, CEO of BCS Global Networks Limited, a provider of managed video conferencing, telepresence and visual collaboration services. “The big differentiation in Vidyo’s strategy is that they can virtualize the media plane, which means we will be able to serve our existing customers much more efficiently, expand their footprints and enter new markets with greater speed, easily enabling customers who are looking to use video communications capabilities.”
A recent market analysis report from Gartner advised vendors to focus more effort on software-driven solutions for endpoints and infrastructure, as these will provide both the cost points and the agility needed to develop new functions quickly in comparison to hardware-based solutions. In the report, company senior analyst Scott Morrison noted most small and midsize businesses don’t have the capital resources for traditional infrastructure or expensive endpoints, nor do they have dedicated IT staff capable of supporting such environments. Capturing that untapped market requires new approaches: software-based infrastructure solutions delivered from the cloud, coupled with soft clients and low-cost group systems, all of which should be easy to use, he said.
In a separate announcement, Vidyo said that it is launching a White Label Program for resellers and distributors to offer co-branded hosted Vidyo services directly to their own customers without having to incur the costs of infrastructure, administration, maintenance and installation of a video conferencing system.