1 February 2010. The main innovations in Video Network Infrastructure products in 2009 were new

DSP-based MCUs designed to support multipoint sessions using 1080p video for 1-screen and 3-screen

Telepresence suites and HD Videoconferencing at the highest resolution.  These were complex,

compute-intensive products requiring much greater capacity than ealier generations of MCUs.

We focus on the MCUs (multipoint control units) and Telepresence Sservers that link Telepresence and HD

videoconferencing endpoints together. We also include two examples of appliances for recording HD video

conferences and streaming them over networks for live or later viewing. We are not including gateways,

network traversal devices and video network management systems where most of the innovation occurred

before 2009.

There were five trends in the new MCUs and Telepresence Servers launched in 2009.

First, considerable advances were made in linking Cisco Telepresence suites located on different carrier

networks.

Second, the enhanced MCUs for Telepresence were used by carriers and managed conferencing service

providers to offer Telepresence connections for inter-company meetings.

A third trend was to facilitate multipoint conferences between Telepresence suites of diifferent vendors.

TANDBERG’s Telepresence Server was given a software upgrade to enable Telepresence meetings with

Polycom RPX and TPX Telepresence suites.

A fourth trend was to ensure that most MCUs were ready to enable some users to use Full High Definition

video at 1080p rather than business quality 720p video.

Fifth, offered enhanced and more scaleable MCUs  so as to enable enterprise-wide deployment of video to

thousands of desktops. These could connect High Definition video availabe on PCs  that use a software-only

codec to compress video on its powerful multi-core microprocessor.

*  *  *

Here are the main evnts and new products launches of 2009 in chronolgical order:

In February, Polycom launched the Polycom RMX 2000™ MCU V.4.0 with faster processing

In April, the TANDBERG Telepresence T3 was made interoperable with Polycom RPX and TPX Telepresence

suites through a software upgrade to theTANDBERG Telepresence Server 8710.

In April, TANDBERG added a software upgrade for TANDBERG MSE 8000 MCU with MaxSD (tm) and

ConferenceMe (tm) features

In June at Cisco Live, AT&T, BT, and Tata Communications demonstrated the technical capability for a Cisco

TelePresence user to call others on any carrier network with high levels of security and reliability.  By year

end 10 international carriers offered intercompany Cisco TelePresence: AT&T, BT, Magyar Telekom, NTT,

Orange, Tata, Telefonica, TELMEX, Telstra, and Telus.

In June, RADVISION launched RADVISION SCOPIA Elite 5000 MCU with V.7.0 software for Telepresence and

1080p HD video with H.264 SVC for network resilience.

In June, TANDBERG released the TANDBERG Telepresence Server TS 7010, an entry-level MCU with the

same functionality as TS 8710.

In July, LfeSize released the LifeSize® Multipoint 230 MCU with support for 720p and 1080p video.

In October, the interoperability of standards-based Telepresence systems from Polycom, Tandberg and

LifeSize were demonstrated by connecting them on a Polycom Telepresence Experience (TPX) system at the

Fall 2009 Internet2 Member Meeting.

In October, Polycom unveiled the very powerful RMX (tm) 4000, scaleable MCU for Telepresence and 1080p

Videoconferencing at the Polycom User Group conference

In November, TANDBERG introduced a large-scale provisioning solution that allows enterprises to quickly

and efficiently deploy TANDBERG E20 personal video conferencing phones and TANDBERG Movi PC video

conferencing to thousands of employees in a matter of minutes. The required software upgrades for the

TANDBERG TMS, VCS and E20 were available before 2009 year end.

What will be the key trends in 2010?

In January 2010, Cisco announced the release of the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol to the public

domain that allows multiscreen Telepresence systems to interoperate. By licensing the protocol, Cisco offers

vendors the opportunity to take advantage of a switched architecture, using the network as a platform, to

improve media processing and intercompany security, lower the cost of media resources, and decrease

latency.

Also in Janauary 2010, TANDBERG successfully demonstrated Telepresence interoperability between

TANDBERG Telepresence and the Cisco CTS 3000. This demonstration, the first of its kind, was enabled by

integrating Cisco's new Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP) into the award-winning TANDBERG

Telepresence Server. TANDBERG now adds Cisco TelePresence solutions to the list of third-party

telepresence solutions it can seamlessly interoperate with while maintaining the three-screen,

High-Definition Telepresence experience.

So one trend in 2010 will be strong efforts to extend interoperability.

The main emphasis in 2010 will be on corprorations, organisations, international carriers and managed

conferencing service providers putting to good use the new MCUs launched in 2009.

Most vendors of Telepresence suites recommend using a provider of managed services. Cisco, TANDBERG

and Polycom require they use those with an approved Video Network Operations Centre (VNOC). The core of

these VNOCs will be a high-capacity MCU, probably one of those released in 2009 which we describe in more

detail in the following News Bytes.

We will consider more on this subject when we announce our Awards for the Best Providers of Managed

Conferencing Servoices of the calendar year 2009 later in February 2010.
*  *  *