“The videoconferencing industry made giant steps forward in 2007 by extending and enhancing the range of High Definition Videoconferencing and HD Telepresence Systems offered to customers. The industry has made video meetings easy to pre-schedule and set up; and it has created a natural in-the-same-room visual and audio experience,” said Richard Line, Editor of Videoconferencing Insight. “Besides improving worker productivity and multi-site collaboration, videoconferencing is part of today’s corporate answer to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and so averting climate change,” he added.

These, the first five awards, were published in the 9 January 2007 issue to be found at www.vcinsight.com/Home and after 16 January under New Equipment. They are:

Cisco Systems: Telepresence Company of the Year 2007.

“Cisco Telepresence Meeting systems are superior both in concept and in implementation to the telepresence systems of other videoconferencing vendors. In December 2007, Cisco added: (1) the capability to call Cisco Telepresence systems on other MPLS VPN networks and (2) the capability to include legacy videoconferencing systems in meetings using the interoperability of a Cisco TelePresence gateway,” said Richard Line, Editor of Videoconferencing Insight. “The main difference between Cisco TelePresence and legacy videoconferencing is the actual experience you get...The six persons at the other site are both lifelike and life-size... The audio realistically replicates “in the same room” sounds. It looks and feels as if all the participants are in the same room having a natural conversation,” he added enthusiastically.

LifeSize Communications: Videoconferencing Company of the Year 2008

“We built this company to deliver an experience so compelling that people would naturally select video communications instead of traveling,” said LifeSize CEO Craig Malloy. “LifeSize was the first company to offer High Definition systems in 2005 and remains the leader in price/performance terms today,” said the Editor. “The price and performance of the three LifeSize High Definition Videoconferencing products launched in November 2007 is truly amazing: The entry level LifeSize Express, which we gave a positive technical review, has an RRP of under $6,000; the LifeSize Team MP for multi-site HD connections costs less than $9,000; and the LifeSize Conference for telepresence using HD audio and video costs less than $36,000 without the 60-inch flat screen monitors and room furnishing” he added.

RADVISION Inc.: Unified Visual Communications Company of the Year 2007.

“RADVISION’s infrastructure products, management tools and applications provide unified visual communications over IP, 3G and emerging next generation networks. In 2007, they were made HD-ready and enabled to include High Definition videoconferencing endpoints at multiple sites,” commented the Editor. “The RADVISION SCOPIA V5.5 portfolio provides a complete Unified Visual Communications solution for PC desktop, Standard Definition, and High Definition multipoint conferencing capabilities, a gateway for 3G connections, firewall traversal, video streaming for broadcasting a meeting or event. In 2007 again, as in 2006, RADVISION demonstrated a strong capability to manage innovation and produce industry-leading technology across a very broad range of communication technologies,” he added.

John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems, Inc.: Industry Leader of the Year 2007.

“John T. Chambers is chosen primarily because his approach to and support for in-house innovation produced Cisco Telepresence, a new standard of excellence for videoconferencing systems in 2007,” said the Editor. “John Chambers is unusually eloquent in telling the world where technology is going and encouraging people to take advantage of it. Never before has videoconferencing had such a high-level advocate prepared himself in person to extol the virtues of Telepresence and to demonstrate within Cisco how to use TelePresence to maximum advantage with 160 TelePresence systems already installed and expected to cut Cisco’s travel expenses by 20%. John Chamber’s long-term vision for the future of the Internet, his global outlook, and his understanding and anticipation of the growing importance of video over IP, have made him a key leader of change in the world,” he added.

TANDBERG: The Most Innovative Videoconferencing Technology of the Year 2007.

TANDBERG Codian ClearVision technology embedded in the TANDBERG 4500 series of MCUs (conferencing bridges) increases the quality of images from standard definition (SD) and enhanced definition (ED) videoconferencing endpoints by up to 4 times their initial resolution to give superior and consistent visual clarity,” said the Editor. “TANDBERG ClearVision technology was developed to address the challenge faced by organisations wanting a progressive transition to HD video conferencing that optimises the performance of existing SD equipment. ClearVision enables organisations that install HD videoconferencing systems to experience superior quality images consistently, whether or not they originate from an HD VC endpoint. Many hundreds of thousands of videoconferencing users will benefit from this innovation because the major part of the installed base of videoconferencing systems today is standard definition,” he added.

About Videoconferencing Insight Newsletter:
Videoconferencing Insight is a well-established newsletter for the user of videoconferencing and unified conferencing systems which has reported on the industry from a user perspective since May 1996. To increase access to the Newsletter, Videoconferencing Insight became a webzine in August 2002. It is published online on Wednesday of each week at www.vcinsight.com and is read by thousands of readers in more than 60 countries around the world.

In addition to the user application case studies, interviews and industry news published weekly, the web site contains a reference data bank of 400 user applications in 25 vertical user categories such as manufacturing industry, financial services, hospitals, telemedicine and education. Potential users of videoconferencing are invited to examine these case studies in order to better understand the benefits of using videoconferencing for themselves.