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  • Telairity Intoduces Hot-Switchable HD/SD H.264 Encoder


    The BE8500, a H.264/AVC video encoder capable of hot-switching between a high-definition or standard-definition video source, was introduced by Telairity at HD World.

    The 1-RU BE8500 works either as a full-featured HD encoder or as an SD/SDI encoder. It auto-senses whether the video source is SD or HD, and enables users to switch live between the two video formats without powering down. Switch-over conversion is virtually instantaneous, enabling a smooth transition for live or live on tape programming.

    BE8500 delivers H.264/AVC (MPEG-4) compression technology capable of achieving more than twice the compression efficiency of the older MPEG-2 standard, with settable encode latencies ranging from 150ms to 2 seconds, according to the company.

    Since the BE8500 is based on Telairity’s proprietary TVP2000 video processor, which delivers 50 billion operations per second, and Telairity’s custom direct-execute AVClairity encoding software, the BE8500 features the same "instant on" capability, encode latencies as low as 150ms, “exceptional reliability”, “simplicity of operation”, and full software upgradeability, the company assures.

    "Our new encoder combines features widely sought by our customers in mobile production trucks and OB vans, small-market stations, IPTV, ITV, and government and military installations," said Richard Dickson, Telairity president.

    "Operations that need to switch smoothly between HD and SD feeds now have the choice of a single cost-effective unit able to satisfy both of their encoding needs. Moreover, they can combine Telairity’s top-of-the-line Series 8000 HD performance with either our 150ms low-latency Series 7000 or our 500Kbps low bit-rate Series 9000 technology. This is a system that, quite literally, can do any sort of H.264 encoding a customer might need or want."

  • Kolmisoft Releases Free Version of VoIP Billing and Routing Platform MOR

    Kolmisoft, a creator and developer of all in one solution – softwich with billing and routing functionality, has released a free community edition of its platform MOR focused on the startups and entrepreneurs who are willing to start a VoIP business, the company announced.

    Kolmisoft’s versatile application can be used for various VoIP business models (wholesale, retail, prepaid and postpaid), branded with provider’s logo and integrated with the provider’s back-end or toolbox.

    Running on Asterisk, MOR easily handles even 300-500 simultaneous calls on a single server, the company claims.

    The free version has the same features and functionality as the commercial edition, just limited to ten concurrent calls.

    “We had a free version in the past along with first release of MOR, then went to a trial version, but our customers did not like it because they knew the next call they would get was from a sales representative, or the trial period would expire before they could even finish testing,” Kolmisoft CEO Mindaugas Kezys said.

    “With the new release, Kolmisoft is hoping to help companies with low budget to start VoIP business and upgrade the software to commercial edition only when their business begins to grow.”

    Apart of 15 new futures, MOR 8 comes with two new modules: Mobile Number Portability add-on enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another and Recordings add-on allows to record selected users’ calls for monitoring purposes.

    According to Kezys, by using MOR 8, telecom companies can effectively provide VoIP services sparing more time for marketing their product instead of worrying about infrastructure. “Kolmisoft support team can easily take care of VoIP related problems by client’s wish,” he said.

    “This version of MOR is the most reliable and powerful in Kolmisoft history”, CEO of Kolmisoft stated.

    He added that the platform includes a “how to make a first call” guide and has default provider Kolmisoft so users could instantly test the system, see how call is billed and start using MOR system for their VoIP business.

  • Barracuda Launches Integrated Local and Cloud-based Backup Solution in Europe


    Barracuda Networks announced the European launch of its Barracuda Backup Service, a local and cloud-based data backup and disaster recovery solution.

    It combines the Barracuda Backup Server for restoration on the local network with the Barracuda Backup Service, a cloud-based backup service hosted by two data centres in Europe.

    This new service provides a SME/SMB data backup solution from a single vendor, can back up data directly from nearly all operating systems and comes included with backup software to natively provide application backups of Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server and Windows System State.

    The company claims they had designed an advanced data de-duplication technology: their backup service reduces the storage and transfer requirements for backups by analyzing each file at the bit level and only copying, transferring and archiving new bit sequences. This technology is applied within a single file’s revision history as well as across the entire backup volume.

    “Customers in Europe, particularly those in the midmarket, have trended toward on-site solutions for data backup and recovery primarily due to security and privacy concerns,” said Carla Arend, program manager, IDC European Storage Software and Services Research.

    “Barracuda Networks’ approach in combining a server on site for fast restore of data locally as well as replicating data offsite should serve this market, as well as larger enterprise customers, very well because it has a very reasonable pricepoint and is backed by strong security for data protection.”

    According to Michael Hughes, Barracuda vice president of channels, their backup service offers Europe’s SMBs and SMEs access to enterprise-class data protection and disaster recovery at a “fraction of the traditional cost.”

    “Simple to use and occupying up to 1/50th of the normal backup storage footprint, customers are welcoming the Barracuda Backup Service for its convenience as much as for its exceptional value,” he said.

    Barracuda Backup Server pricing starts at £899 depending on model and Barracuda Backup Service plans start at £59 for 100GB of storage per month.

  • IBM Delivers First Integrated Solid State Drive Support

    IBM announced that its storage virtualization offering, the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC), “is now faster, more scalable, and delivers the industry’s first integrated Solid State Drive support.”

    SVC is a storage virtualization system that complements server virtualization technologies and enables a single point of control for storage resources (both IBM and non-IBM arrays) to support “improved business application availability, better IT infrastructure flexibility, and greater resource utilization.”

    Building on IBM’s Quicksilver technology, IBM is introducing SVC 5.0, which now supports Solid State Drives (SSDs).

    The tight integration of SSDs with SVC enables to take advantage of the high throughput capabilities of solid state by delivering up to 800,000 operations per second, and with response times of approximately one millisecond, nearly one-tenth of traditional disk storage.

    SVC support of SSDs is highly flexible with a minimum configuration of only one SSD, helping make the technology more affordable yet scalable without disruption to enterprise requirements, as the company claims.

    According to IBM, additional enhancements to SVC include 8Gbps Fibre Channel support, enabling higher throughout across Storage Area Networks, a tripling of the maximum cache to 24GB per engine, and support for consolidated DR configurations, enhancing SVCs business continuity capabilities.

    SVC also supports attachment to servers using iSCSI protocols over IP networks, which can help reduce costs and simplify server configuration.

    SAN Volume Controller 5.0 will be available November 6, with a US starting list price of $40,000.

  • Thumbs Up For SA's "Call Me Back" Technology

    South African mobile cellular phone companies have been praised for implementing a free “Call Me Back” short messages (SMS) information technology.

    Speaking at the inauguration of Mobile Web Africa conference in Sandton, Johannesburg on Wednesday, executive chairman for Krazyboyz Digital, Zibusiso Mkhwananzi, said the innovative information technology was simple and a popular way of communication for those who may not have airtime to send billed SMSes or make a call.

    “Voice and data messages are very expensive in this country (South Africa) thereby discouraging telephone calls by most local communities.

    “I would suggest that our local communities (in townships) utilize such technologies by packaging the mobile cellphones (Call Me Back) with contents that are sustained by advertising,” said Mkhwananzi.

    The two-day Mobile Web Africa conference was mainly focusing on harnessing the potential of the internet and applications on mobile devices aimed at improving people’s standards of life through affordable and readily accessible technology.

    Mkhwananzi was one of the panelists during the discussing on “Creating Africa’s New Generation of Mobile Designers, Entrepreneur and Success”.

    However, programme manager for Web Foundation/W3C, Stephane Boyera, said SMSes were not made for people who could neither read nor write.

    “It has to be appreciated that SMSes are not for people who can’t read or write. Voice message is the answer to those that can’t read or write.

    “They simply talk. They have voices,” said Boyera.

    The conference drew information communication technology (ICT) experts from as far as Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Algeria.

    Other issues discussed during the conference included topics on how to enhance the development of the technology ecosystem, reaching out to communities that may not be easy to touch base with, seizing the opportunity of the potential of mobile services and content, contributing towards bridging the digital divide by informing, involving and empowering.

    The Mobile Web Africa conference is the first of its kind in Africa and it is expected to be conducted annually on a rotational basis around the continent.

  • HD LCD TV with Integrated iPhone/iPod Docking Station Coming in November

    While looking for some nice gadgets at this year’s IFA, Biz-New.com came across Vestel’s LCD TV with integrated iPhone/iPod docking station. Barış Altinkay, Product Manager for Vestel, gave us a demonstration on the product as well as a short introduction to the company.

    Vestel Group is comprised of 24 companies operating in manufacturing, technology development, marketing, and distribution fields in the consumer electronics,digital technologies, IT and household appliances, with € 3.7 billion turnover.

    According to the company, they account for 21% of the total TV, 10% of the TLC TV, 25% of the digital set-top boxes, and 10% of the household appliances markets in Europe.

  • LCD-TV Market Growing Fast in Russia

    Defying hard economic times, the Russian LCD-TV market is set for strong growth this year, with shipments rising by 13.6 percent in 2009, according to iSuppli.

    Shipments of LCD-TVs in Russia will rise to about 5 million units in 2009, up from 4.4 million in 2008. By 2013, shipments will nearly double from the 2009 level, increasing to 9.6 million units.

    Revenue will increase to $5.7 billion by 2013, up from $3.1 billion in 2008.

    The research shows LCD-TVs are the only segment of the Russian TV market that is expanding, with shipments of Plasma Display Panel-Televisions (PDP-TVs) and Cathode Ray Tube-Televisions (CRT-TVs) decreasing in 2009 and beyond.

    “One of the main reasons for the switch to LCD-TVs in Russia is that they have become a status symbol. Consumers in Russia are very image conscious and prefer to own televisions that they can show off to neighbors and family members,” said Riddhi Patel, principal analyst for television systems for iSuppli.

    While the 32-inch size dominates shipments as an ideal upgrade or first television, the larger-sized TVs are becoming trendier.

    Among brands in Russia, South Korean OEMs are in a winning position because of their strong brand recognition. Furthermore, the South Korean OEMs also have domestic production capabilities and vertical integration—factors that allow them to have better control over their costs and prices.

    According to Patel, as far domestic Russian brands go, they are suffering from a lack of financial strength as well as the absence of branding. However, with a strong marketing strategy and the capability to be price competitive, Russian brands could challenge global OEMs in the domestic market.

  • Internet On The Go: Interview with Deb Hall, Managing Director at Web2Mobile

    Web2Mobile is a company that specializes in making your content mobile ready for ease of use for your customers on the go.

    In the last 12 months we seen a lot change in the mobile market with a huge transition of users putting their mobile devices ahead of their laptops and desktop computers.

    Web2Mobile works with companies to strategize efforts to make the transition as easy as possible for both the company and the users will access that content.

    When asked whether companies understand the need to transition to mobile technology, Deb Hall states, “there is confusion on the term mobile marketing and what it entails and the opportunities it can offer.” To ease some of the misunderstanding, Web2Mobile specializes in creating a suite of tools that help to erase that confusion and make the client feel comfortable changing the format of their content.

    The tools created by Web2Mobile apparently make it easier for marketers or publishers to upload their content into Web2Mobile’s self serve system and convert it, making it mobile friendly. Being a service oriented business, it looks to reduce the costs based on consultants helping companies make the change and puts the power of the transition into the hands of the client themselves.

    “We’ve all seen content not formatted for mobility, such as bad email newsletters, unformatted websites, and this content just does not transition to the world of mobility,” says Deb Hall when asked about companies that think they can do it on their own. She made it a point to stress that there is a definite need to understand the difference between the normal web and the mobile browsers and that development for the two is very different.

    Deb Hall

    Deb notes that even on a personal level, using mobile devices create a difference in behavior in how we use and read content and how we interact with our devices. No longer are we worried about being at a desktop, nor do we have to worry about the life of a battery on a laptop. In the last ten months she notes that this transition has become more apparent as the iPhone, specifically, has immersed itself into the general populace.

    She also notes that “the mobile browsing space has increased as much as 400% month to month,” make it apparent that companies want to make it easy for the end user to use the devices and access their content. With the increase in wifi tethering, the ability to access content anywhere, and making the technology tools easily accessible to just about anyone, it’s not surprising to see such high numbers of adopters.

    Is the Western World Ready?

    There is a distinct difference in how the West uses mobile technology compared to our counterparts in the Far East. Our Eastern counterparts are using mobile technology for entertainment, streaming TV, music, maps, directions, and just about every basic need possible. The advancement of technology in mobility is leaps and bounds ahead of the West.

    In response to our conversation Deb Hall states that when “[she] worked for Yahoo mobile she noticed distinct differences in how both side of the globe use technology. There are behaviors that are distinct to each country. Pricing models are different and that drives the behavior.” She notes an example on how fast mobile technology picked up in the UK and how it was based on the nominal fee for use compared to Western pricing.

    There is no doubt that the West is slowly catching up with our overseas counterparts, but there is still a long way to go. Web2Mobile is doing it’s part to help companies understand just how important mobile technology can be to their business and eventually their overall bottom line.

    Key Points

    At what point does a company consider going mobile? It’s a matter of strategy, and companies like Web2Mobile look to help companies develop that strategy. When Deb hears the word strategy she thinks about how they are going into battle. The goal is to get their clients in front of as many people as possible.

    “How do we know we’re implementing the right strategy? It’s very important to determine the key objective, is it sales, awareness, or creating a good user experience? It’s all about prioritising,” Deb Hall says regarding the key points that must be identified.

    In all the studies done on mobile users it’s been determined that mobile users are more than likely to act on a call to action. The key then becomes how to make the call to action easy to find. It’s vital for companies to make their sites, emails, and advertisement mobile ready and easy to use.

    Tracking Metrics

    A key factor for a company is to know how much interaction is being done with their new mobile strategy. Metrics give good insights on the success of the campaign, and having access to those metrics can determine the direction.

    “One of the first questions we get when we work with new client is which platform they should be on. Should I be on an iPhone or Blackberry,” says Deb about the confusion of entering the mobile space.

    An inside tip that Deb shares with us is that most companies can evaluate what is happening on your current website and from there determine what devices are accessing your content. Based on those metrics you can better plan your mobile strategy based on those percentages of iPhone vs Blackberry vs any other mobile device.

    An example Deb gave was their involvement with the Masters Tournament. Based on the metrics they analyzed they were able to serve up distinct content to users on various platforms. This makes the content unique to each user experience and helps to build that relationship between the company and their end user.

    Web2Mobile is very excited with the involvement in FITC and hopes to interact with marketers, developers, and agencies and introduce them to their suite of tools. They look to share with all attendees what they are doing and hope that more companies understand the importance of making their content accessible via mobile devices, especially companies serious about extending their brand online.

  • Apple Ranks Highest Among Both Consumer and Business Smartphone Owners

    Overall satisfaction among smartphone owners has increased considerably over time as manufacturers continue to improve styling, feature sets, usability and software, according to the J.D. Power and Associates studies.

    Satisfaction among consumer smartphone owners has increased by 14 index points (on a 1,000-point scale) from just six months ago, while satisfaction among business owners has increased by 43 index points from 2008 as these devices have become more stylish, customizable and user-friendly, the report says.

    Among traditional mobile phone owners, overall satisfaction has declined by six index points from April 2009, likely as a result of heightened awareness among traditional mobile phone owners of advanced features available on smartphones.

    J.D. Power and Associates studies measure customer satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets and smartphones across several key factors. In order of importance, key factors of overall satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets are operation (30%); physical design (30%); features (20%); and battery function (20%).

    For consumer smartphones, key factors are ease of operation (30%); operating system (22%); features (21%); physical design (18%); and battery function (9%). For business smartphones, key factors include ease of operation (29%); operating system (23%); physical design (21%); features (16%); and battery function (11%).

    Apple ranks highest among manufacturers of smartphones used primarily for personal reasons, with a score of 811, and performs particularly well in ease of operation, operating system, features and physical design. LG (776) and RIM BlackBerry (759) follow Apple in the rankings.

    Among customers who use their smartphones primarily for business purposes, Apple ranks highest with a score of 803, followed by RIM BlackBerry (724).

    LG ranks highest in overall wireless customer satisfaction with traditional handsets with a score of 723, performing well across all factors, particularly battery function, features and operation.

    The proportion of consumers who purchase more affordable smartphones (those costing less than $100) has significantly increased among most of the manufacturers included in the rankings, compared with the previous wave of the study six months ago. This indicates that wireless carriers are discounting their devices to attract new customers who are willing to pay for more costly service plans.

    "Attractive rebates or discounts offered to current smartphone owners, as well as incentives given to traditional handset owners to upgrade to smartphones, are effective ways for wireless carriers to generate revenue and increase market share," said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates.

    "It is important, however, that manufacturers meet the expectations of those taking advantage of such offers by ensuring the features are intuitive and ultimately rewarding to them in the long run. Providing an easy-to-use, yet powerful operating system with the ability to customize applications to suit owners’ individual needs is essential to providing a high-quality and rewarding wireless experience."

    The studies also find the following key wireless handset usage patterns:
    • Among consumer smartphone owners, 22 percent want Wi-Fi capability in their next handset, while 21 percent want touch-screen capabilities and 17 percent want GPS capability.
    • More than 40 percent of consumer smartphone owners report entirely replacing landline calling with mobile phone calling, while only 27 percent of traditional handset owners have done the same.
    • Among business smartphone owners, more than one-half report downloading third-party games for entertainment, while 46 percent report downloading travel software such as maps and weather applications-indicating business users are also integrating their devices into their personal lives. In addition, nearly one-half of owners (46%) report downloading business utility applications to increase productivity.

  • Automating Phone Calls: Interview with Irv Shapiro, CEO of Ifbyphone


    Ifbyphone does something very very simple. They automate phone calls. The process of automation can be done with pretty much any phone call.

    “Lets say for example you wanted to have a toll free number, an 800 number or even a local number for your business, and when your customer called that number, you wanted to take their caller ID and automatically look up if they have any orders outstanding with your business and if they did, you wanted to tell them when those orders would ship,” said Irv Shapiro, CEO & CTO of Ifbyphone, in response to how the automation works.

    Previously companies were using a call center to do this and it was costing them $20, $30, $40 an hour depending if it was onshore or offshore. Any company can do this using automated technology for about $3 an hour. So from the very first month, you save money.

    But let’s say also the company wanted someone to say “Operator,” “Agent,” “Help Me” at any time, and then you wanted that call transferred to your office or even better yet, transferred to people at home because one out of 10 Americans is looking for work today. All of this is possible and furthermore you could build a home-based call center very inexpensively.

    What is Cloud Telephony

    In today’s world of cloud computing, we have a concept called time sharing, people sharing large computer resources. By sharing these large computer resources, a company is able to save everybody money.

    So in today’s world of cloud computing there are a couple different models we could simplify it by saying there’s the model where you rent computer time but you bring all your own programs, that would be the Amazon Model. And then there’s the model where you rent programs and you can customize those programs and integrate those programs with your business, Salesforce is a good example of this method.

    Irv Shapiro goes on to share that “what changed was in the last three decades, more and more people bought equipment and they put that equipment in their businesses. And it was attached to the telephone system and maybe your business was big enough that there was the Telephone Guy who was the only one in that business that knew how to maintain the telephone system.”

    One of the major advantages of replacing a networked phone system with a system in the cloud is that software updates are automatic, your system does not become obsolete, there are engineers on call 24/7 so it’s a totally different level of service. Irv Shapiro stresses that this is where Ifbyphone excels in service.

    When asked how Ifbyphone ranks differently from other VoIP companies, he responds, “Ifbyphone allows small to medium sized businesses to do the things with the telephone that very large businesses routinely do. So if you call your stock broker or if you call your airline or if you call a very large mass retailer in all likelihood they are using some kind of automated telephone system to process your order. It’s more cost effective, and work works more rapidly for you.”

    Getting Over the Fear by Saving Dollars

    One of Ifbyphone’s customers is an organization called Go Configure. They are a small to medium organization that most people have never heard of. If you go to a big box retailer and you buy a bicycle and you say to the salesperson “I don’t think I want to put this together, can you have somebody put this together for me?” they will say “sure, we’ll send somebody to your home once you’re bicycle gets there.” Go Configure is that company that no only fields the customers calls, but also has the second side, the installer calls.

    What they found that on average they had to make 5 phone calls to make sure the consumer was going to be home at the right time and that the installer was going to be there at the right time. And they have replaced that all with automated telephone applications from Ifbyphone. So they expect within their first year that they will have saved $70,000. They will be able to take two people who were just making phone calls all day long, on average 5 calls to set up every appointment, those 2 people will be able to do other things for their business.

    “Saving money and resource is what is important to companies today,” responds Irv Shapiro when questioned as to what is the most important factor of moving to unique services such as these.

    What is the broader vision of the industry itself? Is technology growing with the customer’s need?

    Irv Shapiro seems to think that there are two parts to that answer. The first part is of course technology is moving faster. Google is a 12 year old company with hundreds of billions of dollars of market value making billions of dollars every year. They’ve done it for a dozen years, that’s unheard of in the history of commerce.

     

    Technology is moving faster, the challenge is that when tech moves quickly it usually leaves people behind in its wake because not everyone can move at light speed. Some people need a little time to absorb things. Things have to be put in their perspective.

    Ifbyphone’s goal is to make it so easy that if you know how to use email, you now know how to set up your own phone application; you know how to route phone calls; you know how to set up interactive phone dialogue; you know how to do voice based phone messages; because we’re going to make it as easy as reading your email.

    So you do have to be computer comfortable to use their technology, but the challenge is not the rate of changes in technology, its taking that technology and making it so easy that anybody can use it.