News & Viewson Unified Communications & Collaboration

PAGE 1

Volume 15 Issue #02 24-January-14

News in Brief

Audio Conferencing• ReadyTalk has added

a mobile audio conferencing app to make it easy to start or join an audio meeting from an iPhone or Android smartphone. Features include one-touch meeting access, meeting dial-out, notification alerts 30 seconds prior to start, and syncing with one’s mobile calendar, pulling all existing ReadyTalk meetings into one calendar location.

Web Conferencing• On the WR Blog — One of several data morsels to

come out of WR’s 2H 2013 WebMetrics user survey clearly indicates the opportunity for expanding web conferencing offerings to accommodate the async collaboration that groups of people need to do between meetings. More on the WR Blog.

Video Conferencing• ClearOne has announced some

new products and capabilities they will be showing off at Amsterdam’s ISE show in a few weeks. These include a new COLLABORATE Room Pro, which supports up to nine bridged endpoints and is compatible with ClearOne’s Spontania cloud-based service; a new COLLABORATE Mobile app that runs on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets; and a new COLLABORATE Room Pro integrated solution that

ReadyTalk Mobile Audio App

includes a 24-element beamforming microphone array, Room Pro codec, and 18x UNITE PTZ camera.

• FuzeBox has added capabilities to its Admin Console and also now supports H.239 for content sharing in its Telepresence Connect feature. Content can now be shared during standards-based video conferencing sessions. And the company’s Admin Console — which is included specifically with Fuze Enterprise agreements — includes improved analytics and provisioning capabilities.

• Blue Jeans Network has passed the Internet2 NET+ service validation process, and can now deliver its cloud-based video collaboration to the many universities in the U.S. over the Internet2 high-speed backbone. Blue Jeans had to pass a series of rigorous tests and an in-depth review of security measures and controls. Blue Jeans also worked to integrate its service with other Internet2 services, including a direct connection to the Internet2 Network and integration with Internet2’s InCommon identity federation, which protects and federates the online identities of more than six million individuals.

• Mark Twain was right and perhaps Telepresence as a concept can say the same thing: were rumors of its death greatly exaggerated? Digital Video

Fuze Meeting H.239 Content Sharing

existing and new video-as-a-service and UCaaS providers, enabling them to build multi-tenant services around video infrastructure components from vendors like Cisco, Polycom, Acano, and many others. Based in Oslo and with offices in Stockholm and Gothenburg, Sweden, the company also has opened an office most recently in New York City (see People & Places).

• As we were going to press Polycom held its earnings call on Wednesday, reporting Q4 net revenue of $348 million and non-GAAP net income of $25 million. GAAP net loss for the fourth quarter was $2 million, or 1 cent per share. The company saw strength in UC Personal Devices and improvements in EMEA and Asia/Pac. The company also announced a 6% reduction in force, with 1/3 of that comprised of R&D, 1/3 sales and marketing, and 1/3 general administrative. Andrew will provide a full analysis in our next issue of the Bulletin.

• Videxio has introduced access to its Virtual Meeting Rooms (VMRs) via Microsoft Lync 2013 / 2010; 2) browser-based (WebRTC) access included with all VMRs; and 3) self-signup of personal VMRs for large scale deployments.

• Magor has opened an office in Dubai, UAE. The Canada-based company says it is responding to growing demand for security and video collaboration solutions in the region.

Unified Communications• GoDaddy (provider of domain names and web

hosting services) is partnering with Microsoft to offer Office 365 email and productivity services to its small-business customers. Three packages are available: one of them (the mid-tier) runs $8.99 a month per user and is called Business Essentials. Essentials features 50GB of email and 25GB of SkyDrive Pro storage, respectively, as well as file sharing and online file collaboration functions; unlimited Office 365 online meetings and HD video conferencing; and Office Web Apps with online versions of Word and Excel. The top-end version, called Productivity Plus, costs $12.49 per user per month, and adds Office Mobile Apps for Android, Windows Phone and Apple’s iPhones as well as Microsoft Office for up to five PCs or Macs to the features provided in Business Essentials. Caveat emptor: it’s not clear to us to what extent these differ from what’s available directly from Microsoft, so do your homework! These offerings are

Enterprises, Inc. (DVE) announced last week that it has launched the DVE Immersion Room, a “first-of-its kind” Holographic Presentation Room, powered by Microsoft. Microsoft Windows is now seen floating in the middle of the room and people are able to interact with video objects suspended in mid-air. Other apps, such as PowerPoint and Lync, function in augmented reality mode with 3D objects filling the expanse of the room with no bulky glasses to wear. The company deploys Microsoft Kinect to enable “Minority Report-like interaction” combined with DVE’s patented holographic environment.

• Speaking of Telepresence — sorta — Suitable Technologies has introduced a consumer-oriented “telepresence robot,” as it calls them, called the Beam+. The 53-inch tall robot rolls around, communicates via Wi-Fi and tablet app of choice, and has a two-hour battery life. Beam+ is being targeted to home users, and the company is offering these units at $995 for the first 1,000 units sold (using durable plastics and commodity tablet screens). After those units sell the company plans to double the price to $1,995.

• Oslo-based Synergy SKY has launched a multi-tenant platform designed to take obstacles out of service providers’ video conferencing offerings by simplifying the management, reporting, analytics, mass provisioning, scheduling, billing and conference management. The company intends to support

DVE Immersion Room

Beam+ Telepresence Robot

PAGE 2Volume 15 Issue #02 / 24-January-14

materials for SMART amp. Expected release date for SMART amp remains April, 2014. At BETT this week in the UK, the company indicated it plans to integrate SMART amp and SMART Notebook with 3D printing technologies. Finally, SMART also has released the SMART flex centralized computing platform, a combination of hardware and software that enables control of up to ten interactive displays with just one computer (up to five on Windows operating systems, ten on Linux). Traditionally, school districts use one computer or laptop for each interactive display. The SMART flex centralized computing platform works by connecting the flex client hardware to a single computer (host PC). Each SMART flex hardware client is then connected to a SMART interactive display to allow multiple collaborative learning stations to run from the processing power of a single computer.

available in the U.S. and Canada for now but will be taken into new markets later this year.

• Unify has partnered with NCR Corporation to provide Unify customers with expanded field service and support throughout North America. NCR will provide on-site hardware maintenance and support services that cover Unify’s voice and unified communications solutions.

Display Tech• SMART Technologies has been announcement-

busy lately. The company has introduced the LightRaise 60wi2, a second-generation version of its touch-enabled 60wi interactive projectors. With an image rated at 3000 lumens, the LightRaise 60wi2 is a wall-mounted, ultra-short throw projector that creates an interactive surface without the need for additional hardware, and includes SMART Notebook Collaborative Learning Software. The company also has partnered with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Advance Education to provide SMART amp cloud-based collaborative learning software and HMH’s digital content for education integrated together. This is on top of seven content publishing companies SMART recently announced are developing learning

SMART LightRaise 60wi2

PAGE 3Volume 15 Issue #02 / 24-January-14

Introducing one of the WR Bulletin Sponsors

Established in 2004 and based in Milan Italy, Unified Communication provides advanced audio, video and

web conferencing services to help companies increase business profitability while cutting travel costs and unproductive time. As

a brand-independent conferencing provider, Unified Communication can offer the best services and

equipment to perfectly meet our customers’ needs, always selecting from best-of-breed technologies. Unified

Communication conference call centres provide multi-language, round-the-clock assistance to European markets.

For more information, visit us at www.u-comm.eu

The WR Bulletin would like you to join us in thanking our sponsors:

Get your company’s name & link here! Contact Sales.

The fine print: Sponsorship of the WR Bulletin in no way implies that our sponsors endorse the opinions expressed in the WRB. Nor does it

imply that the Bulletin endorses their products or services. We remain an equal opportunity critic.

Cloud video conferencing & calling

People & Places Know someone in the industry who changed jobs? Jump into a new role yourself as vendor, end user, or channel partner? Email us at WR@wainhouse.com to share the good news.

• AVI-SPL, Joe Laezza, VP, Global Services Business Development

• ClickMeeting, Stan Van Rensburg, Global Sales Director

• Spredfast, Ron Shulkin, Sales Director

• Synergy Sky, Tolga Sakman, VP Americas

• Speaking of display tech, Mersive has made available the Solstice Open Communications Protocol, which enables integration between Solstice Display Software with in-room AV control panels from vendors like Crestron and AMX. The company also this week announced enhancements to Solstice 1.2, including 1) Multi-NIC Host PC Support (adding a second card to a Host PC, Solstice will now broadcast the display name to clients on more than one network. This is useful for customers who are able to support broadcast discovery and are looking to collaborate across networks); 2) new frame capture card support; 3) upgraded onscreen pointer look and feel; 4) improved Solstice Directory Service; and more, including updated mobile apps. Mersive offers a free 30-day trial of Solstice Display Software.

• Finally, projector / touch display vendor InFocus has launched its ConX cloud-based group video conferencing service. The service is meant to connect the InFocus line of 55-inch and 70-inch Mondopads with each other and with SIP and H.323 endpoints from the array of existing vc vendors. It supports meetings with as many as 12 connected users (more available by request), audio-only users, and various encryption, guest PINs, Host PINs, and waiting rooms. The company indicates support for Lync, Skype, and WebRTC are coming later this year.

InFocus MondoPad

Have friends? Want to make more friends? Forward this issue of the WR Bulletin and encourage them to read it and subscribe. Anyone can sign up for a free subscription at www.wainhouse.com/mail.

Joe Laezza, AVI-SPL

Ron Shulkin, Spredfast

Tolga Sakman, Synergy Sky

Stan Van Rensburg,

ClickMeeting

Five Analysts, Hand-to-Hand Verbal SparringNeed we say more? Mano a mano. Hand to hand verbal sparring, no digital darts spared. You can watch the replay of our Wainhouse Research 2014 Predictions webinar any time you like if you missed it. We covered WebRTC, UC, streaming, video conferencing, distance ed, you name it.

PAGE 4Volume 15 Issue #02 / 24-January-14

Letter to the EditorJoern on EncryptionHello,

I´m an avid reader of the WRB and write regarding the last (predictions) issue. The NSA is arguably a much hotter topic in Europe compared with the U.S. I agree with Marc Beattie that longer PIN´s cause longer frustration. On the other hand I don´t agree that one can “double wrap it‘…… with RC4-256, then again with AES-256 bit” and everything is fine. My approach is to teach users to use up-to-date encryption and really keep tabs on it. But this would require one to check the ‘check code’. The check code would reveal a man-in-the-middle-attack in an AES-encrypted video teleconference. On a Codian (sorry Tandberg, sorry Cisco) MCU I can easily find the check code. When connecting a LifeSize Softphone I was only told “AES CBC 128.” That´s it. No proof of the truth.

When I connect a Cisco Jabber (endpoint) to the MCU I found no working encryption at all. What about creating an overview of really working VTC encryption and how to check it? Vendors should make it easy to keep tabs on encryption. If not I don´t view their products as trustworthy. — Joern, Berlin, Germany

(Editorial note: Marc was focused on access to traditional audio conferencing services, while Johan is honing in specifically on video conferencing. The access issues vary so dramatically — but the central issue of encryption obviously is of interest to all of us in a “post-Edward-Snowden” era. What do you think? Email us at editor@wainhouse.com!)

Want More Conferencing & Collaboration?We invite you to create your own free account on our new Wainhouse Research Content Portal. Based on your personal preferences, receive daily or weekly industry news and notification of free and premium content (the latter if your organization has a WR subscription) via email. You can also search

our full content archives — including WR Bulletin issues.

Create your account here: http://cp.wainhouse.com/registration

WR and Imago Group Team to Launch Business Breakthrough Event

WR is teaming with Imago Group, a UK-based distributor of AV, video conferencing, and collaboration solutions, to launch the Business Breakthrough Conference & Exhibition series. The 2014 events will be held May 29 in London and June 3 in Paris. The focus of the conference at these two events will be to help business leaders and senior executive understand how they can benefit from communications technology and collaboration cultural shifts that are changing the

For further information, visit www.wainhouse.com/bb-london and www.wainhouse.com/bb-paris, or contact sales@wainhouse.com.

Ian Vickerage, Imago Group

PLC

Ira M. Weinstein, Wainhouse

Research

Andrew W. Davis, Wainhouse

Research

AminoAMX

BiampCBS/Herman Miller

CrestronLuidia

NewtekRicohSonyVidyo

BarcoBlue Jeans Network

ClearOneLiyama

NECPolycomSamsung

UCi2iViewcast

competitive landscape. WR’s Andrew W. Davis and Ira M. Weinstein will be a part of each event.While the conference agenda is being finalized, the exhibit hall is rapidly filling up. As of this week, sponsors include:

BUSINESS BREAKTHROUGHCONFERENCE & EXHIBITION SERIES

PAGE 5Volume 15 Issue #02 / 24-January-14

New White Paper: Keeping Video Conferencing Simple

In concept, video conferencing is not that complicated. But over time even relatively small video conferencing deployments have become complex. This white paper, sponsored by ClearOne, provides information and insight into how organizations can enjoy high quality

visual collaboration without unnecessary cost and complexity. Download Keeping Video Conferencing Simple!

Upcoming WR Speaking Appearances & EventsWhen & Where Who & What

26-29 January, 2014 Orlando, FL, USA

Andy Nilssen, IBM Connect2014

18-20 February, 2014, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bill Haskins, The UC Adoption Curve - an Analyst Update on the Current State of the UC Union, Lync Conference 2014

26-28 February, 2014, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bill Haskins, Microsoft vs. Cisco UCaaS: The Battle Continues in the Cloud, Channel Partners Conference & Expo

17-19 March, 2014, Orlando, FL, USA

Andrew W. Davis, Ira M. Weinstein, Bill Haskins, Enterprise Connect, Gaylord Palms Convention Center

8 April, 2014, Orlando, FL, USA

Alan D. Greenberg and Andy Nilssen, Saba Analyst Day

29 May, 2014, London, UK and 3 June, 2014, Paris, France

Andrew W. Davis and Ira M. Weinstein, Business Breakthrough London and Business Breakthrough Paris

15-16 July, 2014 Santa Clara, CA

Wainhouse Research UC&C Summit – Save the Date!

Industry Events of NoteWhen & Where Who & What

6-10 April, 2014, Denver, CO, USA

2014 Internet2 Annual Meeting

1:1 Terry Huber, Senior Marketing Manager and Drew Buttress, Product Manager, SONY Alan D. Greenberg, agreenberg@wainhouse.com

Terry Huber, Senior Marketing Manager

Drew Buttress, Product Manager

quality SONY-branded PTZ product line. The current new SRG units incorporate our most advanced Exmor CMOS sensor — and provide very high video quality. The shift to HD video is moving faster than ever — HD is the expectation now — and this line is easy to operate and is cost effective.

WR: These units are capable of full HD (1080/60p) imaging. The SRG-300H has a 30x optical zoom and the

Alan recently spoke with SONY’s Drew Buttress and Terry Huber — two members of the team responsible for SONY’s newest line of PTZ HD cameras, the SRG line, which was announced in early November. Now that the SRG cameras have been available to order for several months (the first model shipped in November, the second in December 2013), Alan gets the skinny on how they are positioned for the market.

WR: OK folks, these cameras appear to be positioned smack dab in the middle of your line for your AV reseller channels — at least in terms of price. You’ve brought out one unit (SRG-120DH) for desktop use and one unit (SRG-300H) for desktop or ceiling mounting. So what’s all the fuss?

TH: The SRG is a new line of PTZ cameras. They are Sony-branded, compared to the EVI — which did not feature the Sony brand. And the BRC is our high-end, broadcast

PAGE 6Volume 15 Issue #02 / 24-January-14

Copyright © 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 1

WHITEPAPER

Keeping Video Conferencing Simple

Ira M. Weinstein December 2013

Sponsored by:

Business Quality Collaboration without

the Complexity

SRG-120DH has 12x optical zoom. How are you positioning these cameras against your better-known EVI series and the BRC products?

TH: We will continue to offer the single-chip EVI, and the BRC line is predominantly based on a three-chip CMOS design. The SRG line fits in the middle in terms of features and cost. Also, what’s unique about the SRG is that these are full 1080p/60 cameras in this particular form factor. Previous offerings were at 1080p/30 or 1080i/60. Another important benefit of our products is a very long life cycle. That means if a customer buys today, the products are not constantly changing, but instead being enhanced continually by Sony. Yet every camera introduced fills a niche and they all fit together, so customers can migrate easily from one camera to another. In addition to the new cameras having built-in IP control, these are still backward compatible with existing models with RS-232 and RS-422 serial communications interfaces. So customers with EVI units can simply drop in an SRG unit and the control software in terms of the PTZ capabilities would remain constant. DB: This is another line in the family of SONY cameras. Depending on your application or budget, it’s priced right in the middle. Nothing is going away in the product mix, it’s just been enhanced.

WR: You tout a lot of bells and whistles on these units. “High-sensitivity Exmor sensor.” “View-DR dynamic range enhancement” and “eXellent Dynamic Noise Reduction.” What do those do for users?

DB: The SRG offers features not available in the EVI line. View-DR extends dynamic range. Sony’s existing PTZ cameras feature dynamic range but the range in the

SRG’s is up to 130 decibels. Suppose you are sitting in a conference room on a sunny day and a bank of windows is behind you. When the camera pans to you sitting in front of that window, the camera will adjust its iris exposure to compensate for the bright background. Normally this would make your face look like a shadow. With View-DR turned on, multiple frames are collected within one frame period and the camera gets the details in the bright sunny background and compensates for that brightness. So this makes it appropriate for certain types of conference room and board room environments, or even houses of worship. Mega churches have lots of windows. Another application is lecture capture. Imagine a large auditorium where a professor shuts down the lights and turns on a projector. The camera would adjust for the lighting and capture a clear image. Finally, this discussion gives us a good segue into dynamic noise reduction. In low light situations, for example, an auditorium or classroom where the lights have been brought down, XDNR cuts down on the visual noise that’s a byproduct of low light. CMOS sensors kick out “dark current” noise. With our “XDNR” we can eliminate that noise and present clean images of the speaker.

WR: In some environments users mount these cameras “right-side-up” or as you put it, “desktop” mode. In others, “upside-down,” say ceiling-mounted. For the uninitiated, what’s the difference when one unit (the SRG-120DH) is built for one orientation, and another is built for either?

DB: We use the term desktop to mean the camera is sitting on its base and you cannot invert the camera. So you can only mount that camera in one orientation. Some of the cameras have an e-flip switch, which lets users ceiling-mount them and takes the video and inverts it back to the proper orientation. We find in traditional video conferencing, and when integrating cameras onto hospital carts for monitoring purposes the preference is for the desktop

mount orientation. The e-flip function is performed by firmware inside the camera.

SRG-300H

The SRG offers features not available in the EVI line. View-DR extends dynamic range. Sony’s existing PTZ cameras feature dynamic range but the range in the SRG’s is up to 130 decibels….with View-DR turned on, multiple frames are collected within one frame period and the camera gets the details in the bright sunny background and compensates for that brightness.

PAGE 7Volume 15 Issue #02 / 24-January-14

WR: Speaking of video conferencing, how important is that market and the lecture capture market in terms of sales potential?

TH: Education, video conferencing and just about any remote monitoring application can benefit from the integration of PTZ cameras. The SRG cameras are designed with lecture capture and video conferencing in mind. They have built-in IP control. You can access these cameras from multiple locations and control them from one room to another room, enabling flexible configuration and installation of up to 112 cameras.

WR: Do you have any data on which features make a difference to end users and channels in terms of buying criteria?

DB: When someone looks at a PTZ camera, they usually start with the lens quality, light sensitivity, and the tradeoffs between high vs. standard definition. Other factors are things like whether one needs a quiet PTZ mechanism so the unit is not disruptive. Thus you want to take into account the size of the room and field of view requirements. Then, we talk about the number of presets (as high as 16 on these). Presets can come in handy in large classrooms / auditoriums and houses of worship. You can pre-stage the event, and go from a professor or preacher in the front of the room to a subsection of the classroom or church. Most of the time houses of worship are using volunteers — and jerky motion on camera panning is the biggest complaint. So pre-staging the position of cameras helps in this area. This applies to conference room as well via speaker presets.

WR: At the time of announcement you said pricing was “coming.” So what do they cost, and how do those costs compare with MSRP’s for the EVI and BRC series?

DB: Currently we are talking list prices. The SRG 120DH is $3,299 and the SRG 300H (in black or white, there are two color options) is $3,599. The price differentiation is based on the optical lens difference and whether or not they have ceiling mount capability. But they use the same advanced CMOS sensor. Also note that the zoom ratio matters and the PTZ degree ranges are different. The desktop unit has a tilt range of +/-25 degrees which is typically acceptable for conference room applications.

The ceiling mountable units have a 90-degree range, allowing the camera to point straight up or down for overhead image capture.

WR: How do those prices compare with Logitech and others who specialize in cameras for either desktop or room video conferencing?

DB: Logitech and others offer low cost webcams and low cost mechanical Pan/Tilt cameras with digital zoom. If you zoom in with that type of unit the image can get pixilated. We compete on the higher end with camera manufacturers that have 18x to 30x optical zoom capabilities. We are also highly competitive especially in the 10x-12x range camera, targeting small to mid-size conference rooms. Some offshore competitors’ cameras look like Sony PTZ cameras but when you power them up, you can hear a difference in the motors. SONY motors are dead quiet. And then you also see differences in video quality.

WR: Last year we talked a lot in the Bulletin about channel relationships and how manufacturers approach their channels. Why should a reseller look at SONY cameras vs. those of your many competitors, from a partnering perspective?

TH: We conduct extensive training and provide support via materials and demos. From a troubleshooting perspective, we have a “POSC,” a “product operational support center” that is available to customers. If they run into difficulties they have an 800 number to call, where they get help from a technician or if necessarily the issue gets escalated to engineering. We also believe the reliability of SONY PTZ cameras is unmatched. We have one of the lowest failure rates in the industry and offer a competitive warranty.

WR: What keeps you up at night?

TH: It comes as no surprise that SD sales in the market continue to decline as more people migrate to HD video. And there is some price erosion in the market. It’s also tough when you look at the price points being offered by offshore competitors. You don’t want to get into a situation where video quality is “good enough.” We will always excel in our video quality. We win with a quality image.

PAGE 8Volume 15 Issue #02 / 24-January-14

© 2014 Wainhouse Research34 Duck Hill Terrace, Duxbury, MA 02332 USA Tel +1 617.500.8090

Editor: Alan D. Greenberg: agreenberg@wainhouse.comComments and PR news to: wrb@wainhouse.com

Feel free to forward this newsletter to colleagues. Free subscriptions: www.wainhouse.com/bulletin

New Studies from Wainhouse ResearchFor information on WR studies and subscriptions, visit www.wainhouse.com or contact sales@wainhouse.com

4Audio Conferencing

Arkadin Audio Conferencing for Microsoft Lync An Overview of Arkadin Collaboration Services’ Lync Audio Conferencing Integration

Conferencing Service Provider Statistics (SpotCheck) – Q3 2013Calendar Year Q3 2013 (July > September)

4Video Conferencing

Zoom Cloud Meeting (version 2.5)WR’s hands-on testing of new UI and featuresCisco Video Conferencing Information and insight into a networking and communications giant’s video conferencing product offerings

4Streaming & Webcasting

Market Forecast — 2013 Enterprise Streaming Solutions Market Sizing & 5-Year Forecast2012 market sizing with five-year forecast .

UstreamHosted Live Video Service Shifts Focus to the Enterprise

4Personal & Web-Based Conferencing

Cisco’s Web Collaboration Solutions (includes WebEx)Profile and analysis of Cisco and its web collaboration offerings

WebMetrics Second Half 2013Usage and Buyer Preferences and Attitudes Towards Web Conferencing and Related Offerings, with a focus on Mobile Conferencing and Team Process

4Unified Communications

NextPlane Company ProfileInformation and insight into NextPlane’s B2B and cross-platform, federation service offering

Arkadin Audio Conferencing for Microsoft Lync An Overview of Arkadin Collaboration Services’ Lync Audio Conferencing Integration

4Distance Education & e-Learning

Distance Education and e-Learning Metrics Survey 2013Survey of 263 respondents covering usage, purchase criteria, mobility, content usage, and technologies for personalized learning

Worldwide Total Addressable Market for Interactive Whiteboard Technologies in Higher Education – 2013 Market Review for Interactive Whiteboard Technologies in Learning Spaces and Offices Located at Tertiary and Post-Secondary / Non-Tertiary Education

PAGE 9Volume 15 Issue #02 / 24-January-14