Vox Telecom has supplied video conferencing solutions for a number of years, but is now creating a dedicated division, called Vox Pureview, for the purpose. It intends offering video conferencing solutions, including support for mobile devices, including the iPad and iPhone, with the Android and BlackBerry platforms to follow in the next few months.
Part of Vox’s offering is Scopia, a suite of applications developed by Radvision, which allows users to participate in presentations, meetings and video conference calls via existing video conferencing equipment, desktop and laptop computers, and mobile phones and tablets.
The system works with both standard- and high-definition devices and can integrate across existing platforms including Microsoft Lync and systems from Alcatel Lucent. Scopia also incorporates 128-bit encryption for security.
“Previously, companies took to video to lower travel and productivity costs but found that they were limited to internal usage,” says executive head of the new division, Gene van der Walt. “Now, with proper security, we can break them out of that restrictive environment.”
Rather than requiring entirely new equipment, Van der Walt says Vox can implement its system on a variety of legacy equipment. “Most equipment from the last seven years can be integrated.”
Van der Walt says one of the traditional barriers to entry was price. “It costs close to R1m for a decent conference room, but we offer clients rental options. When clients near the end of their contracts they can opt to renew and have their equipment upgraded at the same time, whether the customer is using a fixed boardroom environment or a trolley-based, portable system.”
Vox will also continue to offer clients the choice of buying equipment outright.
The company is also offering hosted services, which minimise the amount of hardware clients require and ensures they needn’t concern themselves with software or system maintenance. “They connect to our bridge environment and we host the calls for them. We provide the infrastructure, but communication remains secure and we aren’t able to eavesdrop,” says Van der Walt.
Customers can set up a “virtual room environment” for a once-off R2 500 setup fee and a monthly subscription of R249, and will then be billed per usage at around R150/hour.
Users can also invite outsiders to participate in presentations or video conferences via e-mail. The e-mail will prompt the user to download and install the Scopia software.
Vox has also partnered with Smart Technologies to supply interactive whiteboards and accompanying software that allow audio, video and presentation material, including slides that may have been annotated, to be sent to participants immediately after a meeting has been concluded.
Van der Walt says users can record training sessions that would otherwise have to be repeated. Similarly, video conferences can be recorded either for later use by other people in an organisation, or for archival purposes. — Craig Wilson, TechCentral
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