Posts Tagged 'ISV'

It’s (same)time for High Definition

Published February 22, 2009 Uncategorized Closed
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IBM and Radvision has a long-lasting partnership in the IM space, with IBM’s Lotus Sametime and Radvision’s Scopia Desktop solution. In Lotusphere 2009 a month ago, Radvision introduced a new plug-in for Lotus Sametime, which adds high definition video conferencing to Sametime environment. The following post was written by guest blogger Sagee Ben Zedeff from Radvision.

I am a big fan of desktop video conferencing, and of RADVISION’s High Definition Scopia Desktop in particular. The ability to communicate with others directly from my laptop wherever I am in High Definition (REAL High Definition @ 720p) is priceless. Add to this the fact that it supports desktop, room system and mobile handset endpoints, and you can truly video conference from anywhere with anyone.

And now Lotus Sametime users can enhance their collaboration and communication experience using Scopia Desktop in Lotusphere 2009. Among the recent exciting announcements, RADVISION unveiled a unique plug-in for Sametime, based on Scopia Desktop, which seamlessly adds high definition video conferencing to Sametime’s environment.

RADVISION’s conferencing platform, SCOPIA, has been supporting IBM’s unified communication and collaboration platform for a long time now. However, using the new Sametime plug-in, Sametime users can now enjoy multi-point HD video conferencing in their IM or web conferencing sessions easily and seamlessly.

The plug-in is simple and fully integrated into Sametime, centrally managed and deployed without any complex installation issues or licensing fees. You just click on the video icon in Lotus Sametime or Web Conferencing and you are ready to go.

In fact, Sametime users don’t need to change anything in their hardware or software. They can still use the same PC and webcam, yet enjoy the new HD services. The plug-in uses PC resources (processor power, network bandwidth) efficiently, allowing for H.264 video with highest quality, sending and receiving HD @ 720p resolution. It will even automatically detect CPU and bandwidth availability, and determine optimal parameters to guarantee the best experience for your setup.

If this sounds too good to be true, you can actually give Scopia Desktop a (free) test right now and see for yourself.


High definition video conferencing is happening everywhere, now is the time to start enjoying it on Sametime.



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Sagee Ben-Zedeff is a technology researcher in the CTO’s office at RADVISION. He has been developing video technologies and video related products for the past decade. He also writes the Video Over Enterprise blog, which deals with video and video applications “with an enterprise slant”.

IM is a business necessity

Published November 9, 2007 Uncategorized Closed
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Among the customers I met this week, there were 2 companies, very different in size and operation model. The one thing they had in common was their understanding that IM (instant messaging), and particularly EIM (enterprise IM) – is a viable business tool that improves employees’ productivity and promotes collaboration across the business. Those customers’ view on EIM is not so common is Israel, as most companies are considering IM as a “good to have” other than business necessity. But the trend is changing, as more and more companies are realizing the benefits of collaboration tools, including IM. Both companies are ISVs (Independent Software Vendor), with Hi-Tech orientation, handled by IBM’s Global Technology Unit (GTU). The buzz around Lotus Sametime is gaining momentum, with recent announcements from Lotus, Lotusphere 2008 and more than 16 million corporate users.

When talking to customers about collaboration, one must makes the connections between the different conversation technologies out there (chat, voice, video) and the benefit of a single platform to manage all of those technologies. Both customers are using VoIP, one is using Cisco while the other uses Asterisk open source solution. The world is headed towards convergence, unified communications and collaboration, that would allow us, employees, more freedom, and improve dramatically the collaboration within our company. Gartner even predicts that “Instant messaging will be de facto tool for voice, video and chat by 2011”. No need to wait that long – the technology is already here, and companies, specifically geographically dispersed companies, are making use of it right now.

Both customers I met will benefit from Lotus Sametime, and I think it’s worth mentioning that they are running on different messaging and application platform: one is using Outlook/Exchange while the second uses a combination of Notes/Domino for composite application and Outlook/Exchange for messaging. One of Lotus Sametime great virtues is that there’s no confinement to a single platform. Lotus Sametime will run on either platform, with the same features and ease of use. You can even run Lotus Sametime on Linux, and Sametime 8 will also support Mac’s Leopard. Over at ibm.com/lotus/sametime you can find an interesting brochure on Lotus Sametime integration with Microsoft applications [PDF].

Related articles:
Lotus Sametime tops corporate IM platform review
IBM Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions
The Future of Lotus Sametime, with Mike Rhodin, Lotus GM (webcast, registration required)
IBM to integrate UC into Lotus Symphony
Lotus Sametime Installation Webcast [12 min + slides]



Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
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This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.