VoiceCon more like VideoCon

Before you know it, the “V” in VoIP is going to stand for “Video”…

At this year’s VoiceCon are quite a few vendors showing off their latest products and partnerships related to video delivery, video conferencing, and telepresence. There are the usual suspects — Cisco, TANDBERG, Polycom, and Avistar — and a few others joining the fray — Grandstream and Vidyo. Not to mention the partnerships being announced with some of these companies from delivery specialists such as AT&T, HP, IBM, Microsoft, and Verizon Business, just to name a few… In essence, if you’ve got an kick-butt IP network, you’d better have a partner in video or nobody would believe you.

From tin cups to TDM to VoIP — today, are we witnessing the maturation of video technologies? Transporting voice over Internet protocol seems so passé as vendors now push for video (be it high-end telepresence or lower-end desktop) as the next natural course of development in enterprise communications.

And obviously there’s a big market for video, just look at what’s developed in the consumer market recently. Surging sales in webcams. Inclusion of a webcam on laptops and LCD monitors. The skyrocketing popularity of Skype and IM-based video services. Google playing catch-up with video-enabled Gtalk. Also, dare I say… Chatroulette.

I’m excited to see so many new video products and updates at VoiceCon. Hearing the voice of a friend or coworker over VoIP is a pleasant experience, but to see their faces at the same time would be an exceptional encounter.

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Tagged as: at&t, avistar, cisco, grandstream, hp, ibm, polycom, tandberg, telepresence, verizon, vidyo, voicecon