AT&T, BCS Global, Bharti Airtel, BT, Glowpoint, Masergy, Orange Business Services and Verizon collaborate on first OVCC video services
TIA 2012 INSIDE THE NETWORK, Dallas, Texas - Jun 06, 2012 : Enterprise users will soon be able to place and receive video calls as easily as they place phone calls using the first Open Visual Communications Consortium™ (OVCC™) compliant services supported by eight different network and managed service providers. The commercialized collaboration marks the first service milestone for the group of leading service and solutions providers creating the blueprint to deliver high-quality video collaboration that connects any vendor, any network and any device, anywhere.
Four network service providers have developed the first OVCC compliant interconnect network that provides the backbone to support video connections between carrier platforms:
- AT&T
- Bharti Airtel
- Masergy
- Orange Business Services
This approach will allow OVCC members to connect into this backbone, and offer network-agnostic video services. The OVCC members that will participate in initial OVCC compliant services based on that interconnect network in Fall 2012 are:
- AT&T
- BCS Global
- Bharti Airtel
- BT
- Glowpoint
- Orange Business Services
- Verizon
"These OVCC members will support and deliver the first high-quality, multi-network video calls that are as effortless for enterprise users as setting up an audio conference," said Andrew McFadzen, OVCC president. "The OVCC blueprint and best practices for multi-network video calls will remove the burden of technical details like network interoperability and service coordination from the enterprise so business users can focus on business."
The OVCC blueprint makes interoperability requirements invisible to the user, who will simply contact the service provider to set up a video conference, just like scheduling a phone conference. It increases the value of video conferencing equipment investments.
"Video vendors should take note – these are market levers that will drive your success," said Henry Dewing1, principal analyst at Forrester Research, Inc. "First, support information workers within the processes and activities of their daily collaborations with capabilities like mobility, and business process integration. Second, drive awareness, adoption, and value by making video easy and natural to use, including scheduling meetings, connecting endpoints, and managing infrastructure. Third, connect more endpoints by enabling interoperability between independent vendors, across separate networks, and among independent user organizations."
The first wave of multi-network OVCC compliant video service offerings will include at least:
- Scheduled Meetings – Users schedule their meetings for a specific date, time and number of participants and will use an access number and password to dial into their meeting.
- Content sharing – The ability to share presentations, documents, and PDFs while simultaneously operating a video conference
- Encryption – Standards-based encryption technology so users are assured their conversations are confidential.
OVCC members contribute to and implement the OVCC technical and commercial blueprint, using established standards and best practices to accelerate and commercialize business-to-business video communications. OVCC members are committed to providing video around the world to enable enterprise users to place and receive video calls beyond corporate firewalls and across standards-based and proprietary video platforms.
Service providers will develop and implement OVCC technical and commercial specifications based on industry standards, best practices and business approaches to answer the need for interconnection, addressing, signaling, interoperability and service coordination. Interoperable, high-quality connectivity across networks and devices should allow network providers to profitably and predictably monetize their inter-enterprise video exchanges. By making interoperability requirements seamless, the OVCC specification enables enterprise users to leverage video conferencing investments and enable more efficient value chains – spanning customers, distributors and suppliers – to improve the speed and efficiency of doing business.
The independent Open Visual Communications Consortium launched in October 2011 with industry leaders AT&T, BCS Global, Bharti Airtel, BT Conferencing, Dialogic, Inc., Masergy, Orange Business Services, Polycom, Inc., Teliris, Telstra and Verizon.
