John Stepp, president of Free Tech Consultants, continues his coverage of InfoComm 2011 Orlando. Check here for Day 1 coverage.

I had a chance to sit down and chat with Mark Noble, Director of Product Marketing at Vidyo, about the impact of VidyoPanorama and the HP-Polycom announcement. There has been thorough coverage from last week’s announcement of the VidyoPanorama product from CNBC and many tech blogs such as this one. The real breakthrough for Vidyo is not only about the product itself, but the fact that it rounds out the product line so well. The VidyoPanorama joins the VidyoRoom, VidyoDesktop and the soon to be released VidyoMobile to span the entire range of video conferencing experiences. VidyoMobile is nearing general release on the Apple App Store and an Android release will follow soon after. This means that Vidyo will be particularly difficult to compete with given their intrinsic price advantage. No longer will competitors be able to sell against Vidyo on scalability.

I asked Mark about the HP-Polycom alliance impact on Vidyo. He mentioned that HP was only one partner of many and the VidyoPanorama announcement takes the sting out of the eventual severing of ties with HP. I believe the sale of HP’s video assets to Polycom will be one of many consolidations in the market. Larger players will need to cut costs to be more price competitive, while smaller players will become either niche video marketers or fade into the sunset since their price advantage from being small nimble companies simply no longer exists. It will be interesting to see the changes in the market over the next year as video conference companies adjust to the changing competitive landscape. It is entirely possible that lower prices will bring about a surge in revenues that will benefit everyone in the enterprise video space in the short term.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oy1Lo8J09Q

For more photos and videos of Microsoft at Enterprise Connect 2011 please visit the album on Facebook.

Microsoft made waves at last year’s VoiceCon because it was such a newbie in the voice business. It grabbed lots of headlines in 2010 with its Lync (formerly codenamed “14″) release. The Redmond Giant was the company many other exhibitors love to hate. Who can blame them? Nobody — certainly not the Avayas and Siemens of the world — would’ve thought a software company becoming a considerable threat in their telecom market. That’s why it’s always a treat to see Microsoft’s keynote.

Kirk Koenigsbauer, Corporate VP Office Business Productivity Group, had the honor to keynote at Enterprise Connect. As expected the keynote centered around Microsoft Lync and its capabilities (of course, with the obligatory kick-off video filled with scenes similar to Minority Report technology). But a few things really stood out with this year’s presentation.

First, Koenigsbauer’s role at Microsoft encompasses a spectrum of products: Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, etc. It’s very likely that this man determined how you did your work in the office today and everyday. One of the main selling points of Lync is the tight and seamless integration with all the other Microsoft software that’s prominent in the workplace.

Second, during the demo Koenigsbauer and his team had set up a Kinect game console for use with Lync. The Kinect was hooked up to the widescreen TV, and using VideoKinect he was able to conduct a Lync video conference. The Kinect’s one of the company’s best selling hardware and sort of one-upped Nintendo’s Wii in the whole motion-detection game market. But the VideoKinect demo was very intriguing because it can be the teleworker’s telepresence setup. With all the talk about the consumerization of IT, here was Microsoft bravely treading the water to embrace and leverage the success of Kinect in a business video use case.

Lookin' good, my VideoKinect'd colleague...

Third, the company is coming out with the iLync client for the Apple iOS platform and plans to support all the major mobile platforms going forward — Nokia Symbian, RIM BlackBerry, Google Android, and Windows Phone 7 — possibly all by the end of this year. The demo with an iPhone went smoothly, but I thought Koenigsbauer should’ve gone with a WP7 first then perhaps with an iPhone. Many folks disagreed with me on this, however, and thought that I was being too anti-Microsoft. I know I’m an Apple fanboy, but my thinking was more about Microsoft’s marketing and branding. I applaud Microsoft for supporting other mobile platforms and this demo got that message across, but from a marketing presentation standpoint, imagine an even stronger message had the demo started off with iLync on WP7. That would’ve reinforced Microsoft’s commitment to WP7 as a powerful prosumer smartphone in light of all the negative publicity about the WP7′s lackluster sales. Some audience members may even have considered WP7 then if they’re on the fence about getting the next smartphone. And to top it off after a WP7 show and tell — sort of like a Jobs-ique “One more thing” — demo iLync on the iPhone. The crowd would’ve gone wild.

Here’s a video from John Stepp, President of Free Tech Consulting, taken yesterday at the Cisco demo of its telepresence interoperability during InfoComm Las Vegas.

Mike Baird of Cisco discusses interoperability enhancements to the Cisco product line from the Cisco Telepresence Room at InfoComm 2010 in Las Vegas.  Over 39,000 people are attending the event that showcases the latest advancements in audio visual technology.

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.

Verizon Business is aiming to be the one-stop shop for all your communications needs by partnering up with technology leaders like Microsoft and Cisco, and services outfits like Accenture. Today at VoiceCon Orlando it announces closer relationships with Microsoft and Cisco.

Verizon IP Trunking is now certified by Microsoft to work with its Office Communications Server 2007 R2. The technical benefits and cost savings associated with SIP trunking need no further emphasis. According to my briefing with Tom Dalrymple, Product Management Director of Global Voice Solutions at Verizon, what customers will get out of this the most is that Microsoft will offer tech support to Verizon customers who implemented its IP trunking with OCS. And as the press release points out, Aspect is mentioned as an early adopter — not surprising considering Microsoft has some equity interest in the company.

In the area of video conferencing the company partners with Cisco to offer Verizon Immersive Video Conferencing Service for Cisco TelePresence — quite a mouthful when placing the order. This is definitely the high-end spectrum of video conferencing — Cisco equipment and over Verizon’s dedicated network — and should serve large corporations well. If you are a jetless CEO in NYC who needs to speak to somebody in Syndney, Australia, then this could work out for you as long as you remember to shave and tidy up (remember, high-definition video). In my pre-VoiceCon briefing with Roberta Mackintosh, Product Management Director of Global Unified Communications and Collaboration, I’d made a note that Verizon specifically built the network so that it would scale both ways (up and down) in anticipation of future interoperability between telepresence products, which is something that Cisco supposedly is advocating. This trend is definitely something to watch out for as BT has also invested in such a “unified” video conferencing network.

BT has made a smart move and investment to support interoperability among multiple video conferencing vendors like Cisco, Polycom, and TANDBERG. Okay, so it’s really two vendors considering in October 2009 TANDBERG had agreed to be gobbled up by Cisco. Still, BT One Source is a good business idea as there exists no standards in video conferencing interoperability. Although recently Cisco has somewhat warmed up to the idea of a telepresence open standard, there hasn’t been much momentum or talk to accelerate the processes involved. But that shouldn’t surprise anyone — Cisco enjoys a foothold in the telepresence market, so why be in a hurry to open it up to competitors?

Official BT One Source press release:

BT Conferencing today announced that it now offers interoperability between the video conferencing systems of the three top manufacturers of video conferencing equipment: Cisco, Polycom and TANDBERG, as part of the company’s managed service offering, BT One Source.

Inter-company video conferencing helps businesses maximize their investment in video technology by allowing them to collaborate effectively with partners, suppliers, customers and others, around the globe. BT One Source provides an end-to-end solution for each manufacturer’s video conferencing system resulting in an easy-to-use, reliable, and cost-effective environment regardless of the technology platform.

Aaron McCormack, CEO of BT Conferencing, said: “BT has successfully deployed this interoperability service for several large multi-national customers, enabling them to use a mixture of different endpoints in a video meeting. We also currently operate this service within BT’s internal video estate. Our goal is to help our customers maximize their investments in video technology by allowing them to collaborate with partners, suppliers, customers and others around the globe.”

BT One Source includes Engage Meeting Manager, BT’s universal customer interface that allows customers to operate different manufacturers’ products, creating a seamless, automated customer experience. BT customers can use Engage Meeting Manager to initiate a video call between Cisco TelePresence systems and traditional TANDBERG and Polycom video systems with a simple point and click.

BT’s managed video conferencing service also includes an Engage Tracker tool which helps organizations quantify the return on investment (ROI) of their video conferencing estate by tracking travel cost savings and carbon emission reductions resulting from video usage. Engage Tracker tallies savings on actual installed and utilized systems, not on industry averages, estimates or models. The tool is a unique feature available to BT’s video conferencing customers regardless of the equipment platform they use.

Notes to Editors:

[1] BT Conferencing, a global leader in offering fully managed video conferencing services across multiple vendor platforms, provides customers a complete solution within their enterprise or business-to-business (B2B) to external business partners via BT’s Global Video Exchange.

[2] BT has installed more than 500 immersive telepresence rooms around the world by technicians certified to install equipment from Cisco, Polycom and TANDBERG. BT currently has more than 25,000 video endpoints and 400 multipoint control units under management and support.

[3] BT offers customers a full suite of services, from planning, design and installation of video systems to full management and support including hosting and management of system components, network connectivity, enhanced “white glove” level service, adoption programs that help drive return on investment, and results tracking.

[4] BT’s expertise in managing telepresence and video conferencing for its customers, coupled with coverage provided by BT’s extensive global IP network across 170 countries and 24x7x365 Helpdesk support, helps ensure high quality conferencing services for customers worldwide

Cisco is betting on high-definition telepresence to be as common as Skype and iChat videoconferencing by giving away its Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP) license to third parties. The company hopes to plant the seeds to see a flourishing telepresence product market which operates on its protocol.

The move is not surprising as the trend has been for companies to “open up” or to adopt open standards. For instance, in March 2009 Skype released its wideband audio codec SILK for free to third party developers.

Once a company has made such commitments to offer such free licenses, the biggest hurdle has always been getting others to adopt the technology. Less than a handful of companies have signed up as TIP licensees so far. It remains to be seen how hard Cisco will push or incentivize others to jump on the TIP bandwagon.

In comparison, Skype has gained traction in the open source telephony community. Asterisk now supports Skype calls, albeit without the SILK codec (yet). But more importantly, Skype decided to submit SILK to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the first step to applying the codec to become an Internet standard.

Right now Cisco is going about TIP without the blessing of any standards organization. The FAQ is vague on how it intends to tackle this potential problem. Could this deter users in fear of vendor lock-in in the future?

Cisco is making a positive move with this offering, and it could be a win-win situation for everyone. However, it seems there are still some details to be ironed out, but some customers may overlook that simply because Cisco is the dominant market player.