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Tag: video-conferencing

  • Facebook introduces Free Video Calling in Messenger

    Facebook introduces Free Video Calling in Messenger

    facebook-messenger-video-call

    Facebook just recently introduced video calling in Messenger. With the update, you can now have face-to-face conversations with your fellow “Facebookers” via Messenger.

    You can quickly turn a chat into a video call by tapping the video icon available at the top right corner of the screen and you can do this from within an existing Messenger conversation.

    Facebook Messenger already has the voice calls function and the introduction of the video calling function will more than likely expand Messenger’s user base. It is interesting to see how the 600 million plus Messenger users receive the service.

    The video calling function is available across platforms regardless of one’s OS and it is the latest feature to be added to Messenger, which is great news to users who are already using Messenger to send money to friends.

    The video calling feature is already available to Android and iOS users living in Greece, Norway, Oman, Poland, Ireland, Laos, Portugal, the UK, the US,  Lithuania, Nigeria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Mexico, France, and Uruguay.

    The service will be rolled out on an ongoing basis to other locales and regions in the coming months.

    Also read: WhatsApp now with Free Calling Service, new Sharing Extensions, and More…

  • Video Conferencing Becomes More Common Among U.S. Physicians

    Seven percent of U.S. physicians use online video conferencing to communicate with any of their patients, according the new Taking the Pulse study of physician digital adoption trends from pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research.

    This year’s study of 2,041 U.S. practicing physicians includes a focus on how physicians are using technology in the practice, such as for electronic health records, electronic prescribing and interaction with patients.

    As video chatting becomes more common, this type of communication is emerging as a way for physicians to consult with patients about non-urgent issues, such as follow up questions from an office visit, or to connect with geographically dispersed patient populations that may not have nearby access to specialists. The study also found that certain specialties, such as psychiatrists and oncologists, are more likely to be using video conferencing with patients.

    “Telemedicine has the potential to open up consultations with top specialists, regardless of your location,” said Meredith Ressi, Manhattan Research President. “Combined with the impending shortage of primary care physicians, the implications of these technologies for how healthcare is delivered in our country are remarkable.”

    However, the study found that physician concerns regarding reimbursement, liability and HIPAA are still major barriers to communicating online with patients. Some of these issues are starting to be addressed as telemedicine solution providers such as American Well partner with insurance companies to facilitate payment and increase their security measures. “Despite these hurdles, we still expect to see more physicians use this model to improve practice efficiency and expand their patient base, without the overhead associated with only in-office visits,” Ressi said.

  • VoIP-PAL Working on New iPad 2 App

    VoIP-PAL announced the development of integrating the video conferencing feature on forthcoming new PointsPhone Mobile App for the iPhone 4G and Apple’s new iPad 2. The App and the new Video Calling feature will soon be available for free downloading at the Apple App Store.

    According to VoIP-PAL, its goal is to provide "a quality, reliable, cost-effective and safe solution" for the casual and business international traveler who must rely on their smartphones to communicate.

    "Apple has once again proven to be the leader in innovation," stated Dennis Chang, President of VoIP-PAL. 

    "When it comes to providing what the consumer seems to want. A front facing camera on its iPhone 4G has made it practical for video calling and conferencing. Apple’s own FaceTime App is available from the Apple App Store, but we are developing a new version of our PointsPhone Mobile iPhone App that will also incorporate video calling. This new iPhone App will also be compatible and allow video chatting on Apple’s latest iPad 2. The new iPad 2 is a modest but significant upgrade and it’s important for our PointsPhone iPhone App to work on Apple’s latest product," he added.

    According to him,  video valling capabilities for smartphones is an important step in bringing the world closer together. Face-to-Face communication will not only improve family and friends’ connectivity, but it will help strengthen business relationships.

    "The first step is to complete the work to upgrade our iPhone App," said Mukesh Mohanbhai, VoIP-PAL’s Chief Technical Officer. "A beta version has been completed and tested. The new version will be fully capable of supporting our new Video Calling feature. Some of the new features of the Video Calling will be highly competitive to some of the others offered, such as transports to various popular Instant Messaging (IM) protocols such as MSN, Google Talk and Yahoo. Again, we will not release a product until I am sure it is truly a quality product and that it is safe and reliable. At VoIP-PAL we have adopted the doctrine of ‘Right the First Time’ release."

  • KDDI to Deliver Video Conferencing Service

    Vidyo has announced that KDDI, a carrier headquartered in Japan will deliver a video conferencing service based on Vidyo’s multi-point, telepresence-quality solution. VidyoConferencing enables carriers, service providers and unified communications vendors to offer SVC-based video conferencing technology that delivers telepresence-quality over the Internet or general purpose IP networks.

    KDDI’s service will be available in Japan in January 2011.

    According to Vidyo, its architecture is the first in a new generation of software solutions that leverages the H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC) video compression standard enabling a video stream to be broken into multiple resolutions, quality levels and bit rates. Utilizing this capability and Vidyo´s intellectual property, VidyoTechnology eliminates the Multipoint Control Unit (MCU), and offers unprecedented error resiliency enabling natural, high quality video to work over the Internet, LTE, 3G and 4G networks.

    Because Vidyo’s solution is software-based, it can easily be expanded, upgraded, and customized for customers’ individual Enterprise and vertical market video conferencing needs.

    "As the first SVC-based solution to eliminate the transcoding MCU, Vidyo reduces the latency in the video stream so our customers will enjoy superb, natural, telepresence-quality solution over KDDI’s Wide Area Virtual Switch Service, even over the Internet or wireless networks."said Yasuhisa Yamada, General Manager of Data Network Product Planning Department at KDDI.

    Ofer Shapiro, co-founder and CEO of Vidyo, said: "Carriers today need enterprise-ready, highly scalable, telepresence-quality solutions that can address both desktop and room system requirements. By leveraging our patented solution, KDDI is able to provide their customers with a communications service that is on the leading edge of video conferencing with bandwidth guaranteed circuits and best-effort network. KDDI’s service is further evidence of the growing worldwide interest and support we’re seeing today from service providers for our SVC-based video communication solutions."

  • Report: European Videoconferencing Endpoints Market

    Videoconferencing has proved to be a viable solution for companies that are reducing their travel expenditure, thereby boosting the European videoconferencing endpoints market growth, says Frost & Sullivan.

    New analysis from the research group, European Videoconferencing Endpoints Market, finds that the market earned revenues of $383.6 million in 2009 and estimates this to reach $1.03 billion in 2015 at a compound annual growth rate of 18.0 per cent.

    According to Frost & Sullivan, the major growth factors of the videoconferencing endpoints market in Europe include the need for companies to decrease travel expenses, search for alternative ways to meet their workers and clients and the stringent environment policies imposed by the European Parliament.

    Additionally, videoconferencing is stepping up the decision-making process and enhancing teamwork in the more-than-ever dispersed workforce.

    "The videoconferencing endpoints market has been witnessing a slow transformation in the recent years, largely attributed to the introduction of high-quality products, such as high-definition conferencing and telepresence, the market’s shift towards converged audio, video and web conferencing solutions, and integration with other existing collaborative applications," states Iwona Petruczynik, Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst.

    However, the report says, the European videoconferencing endpoints market is restrained by several factors. For example, the misconception that videoconferencing services are communications tools used only by large enterprises is hindering the adoption among small and medium businesses.

    Moreover, new communications and collaboration vendors are delivering videoconferencing as a part of a unified solution, creating a one-stop-shop for their customers; however, this is hampering the growth of standalone videoconferencing providers. Poor infrastructure and low bandwidth, especially in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), also have adverse effects on the videoconferencing endpoints market growth.

    "The two main challenges with which the market is constantly battling are – the long-standing belief that videoconferencing is a complicated tool, reserved only for the top level management in large enterprises, and the rise of unified communications (UC), where audio, web, and video-conferencing tools are converging," said Petruczynik.

    Analyst claims that overcoming the first barrier is a constant challenge for vendors. However, with the recession spurring the growth of videoconferencing, these collaboration tools and their benefits have been brought to the fore, especially their increasing ease of use.

    “Videoconferencing vendors should be able to proactively address their clients’ needs and evolve constantly in this market. The trend of shifting towards UC is leading to an increased attention to the adoption and usage of visual collaboration in business,” concluded Petruczynik.

    Related articles
    Goober Introduces New HD Voice and 6-Way Video Conferencing Solution
    Skype Introduces New Monthly Calling Subscriptions and Group Video Chat
    GIPS Enables Video Conferencing with HD Voice to iPhone Developers

  • Goober Introduces New HD Voice and 6-Way Video Conferencing Solution

    Goober Networks, a Unified Communications provider, announced goober 3.0 as a public beta*, a new collaboration solution that includes multi-protocol instant messaging, HD Voice to landlines and cell phones and 6-way video conferencing calls to PCs including Windows and Macintosh.

    goober 3.0 delivers its HD VoIP calling across multiple PCs, including Windows and Macintosh, and the iPhone and iPad with gooberVoIP, which works over Wi-Fi and 3G networks.

    It delivers HD voice quality from 8-16 kilohertz and is able to support video conferencing resolutions from 720 to full HD. No additional hardware is required by the service provider or the end user, and the software-only client can be downloaded for free.

    It supports 227 countries, offering HD VoIP calling worldwide. According to Goober, their flat rates are “versatile and flexible”, offering an average per-minute price “that’s 25-50 percent less expensive than any other VoIP provider.” Calls in the US and Canada are $.01 USD per minute.

    “Goober 3.0 is compatible with today’s 100 million VoIP subscribers worldwide, the 1.6 billion people projected to use IM services by 2012 and the projected 1.9 billion email users by 2013, plus the growing population of social networking and instant messaging sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, GoogleTalk, Jabber, ICQ, MSN, QQ, Yahoo and AOL,” the company said.

    "Goober Chat offers multiple protocol messaging features, allowing friends to join chats, even if they’re using other messengers besides goober, such as ICQ, MSN, GoogleTalk, Jabber, AOL, Yahoo! and QQ – no other UC provider offers this cross-platform chat capability and we’re excited to be the first to bring this capability to the market, so people can simplify their communications from one location," said goober Networks’ CEO Peter Uhlich.

    The solution will be powered by Global IP Solutions’ GIPS VoiceEngine and GIPS VideoEngine.

    *The current beta version offers 4-way video conferencing; however, the final public release of goober 3.0 will support a record-setting 6-way video conferencing capability.

  • Skype Introduces New Monthly Calling Subscriptions and Group Video Chat

    Starting tomorrow, Skype is rolling out new calling plans to more than 170 countries.

    1-month, 3-month and 12-month calling plans will be available in 60-, 120-, 400-minute and unlimited packages.

    The range of subscriptions start from $1.09 (€0.89 /£.69) per month and offer effective rates as low as €0.01 ($.01/£.01) per minute to almost any destination around the globe.

    According to Skype, this provides customers with a savings of up to 60 percent compared to Skype’s standard Pay As You Go rates.

    Skype also announced that it will be releasing the new beta of its Windows software next week. It will feature video conference calls for up to five callers.

    Related articles
    Skype Mobile for Verizon Wireless Now Available
    Skype Goes Symbian
    Skype’s On-Net International Traffic Growing Fast

  • GIPS Enables Video Conferencing with HD Voice to iPhone Developers

    Global IP Solutions announced the availability of video chat technology for iPhone developers to incorporate video conferencing/video chat into their mobile applications.

    According to the company, with GIPS VideoEngine Mobile, iPhone developers can rapidly integrate high quality real-time video chat or multi-point video conferencing into iPhone applications that resolves the issues related to IP networks such as delay, jitter and echo.

    “iPhone developers are at the forefront of cutting-edge mobile applications, and with such fierce competition, it’s incredibly important to offer consumers a robust application that delivers a great quality experience,” said Joyce Kim, GIPS’ Chief Marketing Officer.

    Ira Weinstein, analyst and partner at Wainhouse Research, said “GIPS VideoEngine allows application developers to support two-way video chat on a variety of IP devices.”

    The addition of iPhone support to the GIPS stable of products allows solution providers and mobile carriers to provide videoconferencing, including one-way video and two-way synchronized audio, to an even larger audience.

    As iPhone market share continues to grow rapidly with more than three billion application downloads in nearly 80 countries, application developers can rapidly build and deploy video chat applications that overcome typical mobile constraints such as packet loss, bandwidth constraints, background noise and lip synchronization.

  • SoliCall Broadens Reach of its VoIP Voice Quality Software

    SoliCall has signed three international deals with companies from the UK, US and India for its noise reduction and echo cancellation (AEC) technology.

    The Israel-based provider of software for VoIP solutions, mobile phones and IP PBXs has developed patent pending algorithms for audio improvement.

    Shlomi Simhi, director of marketing for SoliCall, said SoliCall SDK would provide the three companies with features for audio improvement that is suitable for all VoIP applications.

    He said the new clients would be using the software for a variety of uses:

    • a British company will be implementing SoliCall SDK across its new video conferencing servers
    • a New-York based company will be using the technology for its gaming applications
    • an Indian software company will integrate the solution as part of distributed Internet-based multiparty, multimedia interactions for on-line education

    Simhi said the new deals align with SoliCall’s vision to deploy its voice quality solution on any voice platform and to ensure high standards of call quality and reliability.

    "The variety of the companies who will be using our solution both on the client side and on the server side, only emphasizes the on-going demand for our solution," he said.

    SoliCall has developed a personalized voice pass filter that identifies the voice of the speaker and extracts it from the audio signal.

    The company offers a free SoftPhone add-On for private users, which controls the filtering of the incoming audio; live graphs of the audio (before & after filtering); recording options (in WAV or in MP3 format).

  • Mirial's Softphone Video Conferencing Software Upgraded to Full-HD


    Mirial has released version 6.2 of its video conferencing software that steps the Softphone up from 720p to 1080p.

    Cristoforo Mione, business development director at Mirial, said that with Full-HD resolution up to 1080p for both decoding and encoding, the upgraded version set the pace of the evolution in video and VoIP technology.

    He said that whatever the PC settings and available bandwidth, the Softphone automatically optimizes configurations to provide the best user experience and video quality, even in case of floating call conditions such as bandwidth drops/peaks.

    "Video resolution was upgraded from 720p to 1080p, 3-party video calling and H.239 collaboration features are embedded and ready just with a few-clicks installation," he said.

    Mione described the Softphone as "nearly like having a top-class HD camera, an enterprise-fit MCU and a shared meeting room, all in one single piece of software to be launched everyday, anytime, from any desktop".

    Some of the Mirial Softphone’s other features include:

    • Call Management (2 lines: call hold, call transfer)
    • Concurrent support for SIP and H.323, field-proven interoperability
    • Video call recording, playback and export to a Windows Media Player file
    • Natural, full-motion video up to 2Mbps @ 30fps @ H.264 @ 1080p
    • Cristal clear audio with full duplex echo canceller
    • Web integration (single click call)
    • Remote Update