14 February 2011. This week we select the 6 Best Managed Conferencing Services Providers on the basis of

their improved service offering in 2010. In previous weeks, we have selected the 10 Best Telepresence

Solutions launched in 2010, the 16 Best HD Videoconferencing Endpoint Solutions launched in 2010 and the

15 Best Video Network Infrastructure products launched in 2010.

More and more companies and organisations in 2010 outsourced running their video network to Managed

Conferencing Services Providers rather than run their own internal service on their own private network .

The most-often-quoted reasons for using a Managed Conferencing Services Provider appear to be:

(1) to ensure a reliable service that means that 99.9% of video calls work perfectly;
(2) to facilitate inter-company calls without the hassle of setting them up internally;
(3) to use a Concierge service to overcome the inexperience of first time callers.
(4) to provide automated set up of video meetings from their managers’ desktops;
(5) to handle calls with a mix of Telepresence and Videoconferencing endpoints;
(6 )to obtain a service that offers 24/7 support to any site throughout the world;
(7) because an “always-on” service makes video calls as easy to make as the phone;
(8) because ease of use makes for more intensive use of TP and VC investments;
(9) because there is no need to purchase and manage one or more MCUs and gateways;
(10) to avoid burdening their own network with the large bandwidth that video requires.

Inter-company video meetings using Telepresence can require the interconnection of the Video Exchnges of

the networks of different carriers. By the end of 2009, the following service providers  had announced

commercial inter-company Cisco TelePresence services: AT&T, BT, Orange, NTT, Tata Communications,

Telefonica, Telstra, and Telmex. This did not mean all the issues were solved and in 2010 a number of

bilateral agreements were made such as Tata Communications with Telefonica and BT, AT&T and BT and

BCS Global and Iformata. Issues remain but demand for B2B intercompany Telepresence meetings grew

rapidly in 2010.

More progress was made in 2010 on interoperating between Telepresence systems of different vendors. In

September 2010, the International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium (IMTC) took over ownership

of the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP) from Cisco Systems and established a TIP Activity Group

and an open standard web site. The TIP (Version 6 and Version 7) specifications are available from IMTC.

These protocol specifications describe how to multiplex multiple screens, multiple audio streams, and an

auxiliary-data screen into respective Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) flows using a multiplexing

technique.

Using TIP, Cisco and Tandberg Telepresence systems were interoperable from March 2010. By October 2010,

the RADVISION's SCOPIA Elite MCU V7.5 had used TIP to provide connectivity to users with Telepresence

systems from Cisco, Logitech/LifeSize, Polycom and Tandberg. Polycom has announced interoperability for

its Telepresence systems using TIP by Q2 2011. Most of the Managed Service Providers added this option to

their portfolio in 2010.

Connectivity to mobile phones, smart phones and tablet PCs was made available on a number of platforms

in 2010 and Managed Service providers were quick to offer this option to customers.

The use of Telepresence systems grew rapidly in 2010, but more than 80% of video-enabled endpoints are

still High-Definiton (HD) and Standard-Definition (SD) videoconferencing endpoints. So one of the advantages

of using a Managed Service Provider in 2010 was to enable companies to use an appropriate mixture of

these video endpoints in each and every video meeting.

Comprehensive certification programmes  for Managed Service Providers for their Telepresence offering

were introduced by Cisco and TANDBERG in 2008 and by Polycom in 2009.  The Cisco Advanced Video

Telepresence Partner Programme (AVTPP) was launched in late 2010 and announced early in 2011. 

Qualification under these programmes is a valuable recognition of an experienced and qualified Managed

Conferencing Services provider.