Mitel, Vidyo team on videoconferencing

Mitel Networks says it will soon fill a hole in the features of its collaboration suite: The lack of video connectivity.

The Ottawa company said that by the end of the year it will release a version of its Unified Communications Advanced client that will link directly to Vidyo Inc.’s VidyoConferencing solution.

Not only will customers using the on-premise version of MCA be able to launch into a Vidyo client, those using the virtual version of MCA on VMware will also be able to take advantage of it.

To use it, however, Mitel customers will also need the VidyoRouter (either hardware or virtual version) and licences for Vidyo software clients. In virtual environment they will need VMware View.

“Video has been a gap in our UCA portfolio,” acknowledged Alan Zurakowski, Mitel’s manager of business development and strategic alliances. UCA includes audio and Web conferencing.

“Vidyo has filled that gap, so if video is important to you business processes we will be able to offer it.”
(This slide from Mitel shows the UCA client on the left, with the presence directory listing staff down the side. Three clicks would launch the Vidyo client)
 
What will appeal to a CIO, he added, is that both solutions are available to run in virtualized environments on VMware.

Marty Hollander, Vidyo’s senior vice-president of market development also noted that the solution will allow Mitel UCA users to start in an audioconference and easily shift to video.

Because Vidyo clients can run on laptops, smart phones and tablets a person out of the office can take a scheduled videoconference without having to get back to a desk, he said.

The partners will not be selling a bundled solution: The products will be sold separately. The announcement is merely that interoperability is coming “by year end,” said Zurakowski.

The solution will be demonstrated this week at VMworld in San Francisco.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Howard Solomon
Howard Solomon
Currently a freelance writer, I'm the former editor of ITWorldCanada.com and Computing Canada. An IT journalist since 1997, I've written for several of ITWC's sister publications including ITBusiness.ca and Computer Dealer News. Before that I was a staff reporter at the Calgary Herald and the Brampton (Ont.) Daily Times. I can be reached at hsolomon [@] soloreporter.com

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