For the past few years I have been aware of another company, aside from Skype, that develops communications software in the form of SIP-based softphones: CounterPath, working out of Vancouver, B.C.

I have always been a bit frustrated by SIP-based connectivity – my one learning across several attempts over the years to configure SIP-based softphones was that it’s not a simple exercise but rather requires a certain level of technical expertise.

But the team at CounterPath persisted. Much like Global IP Solutions (“GIPS”) they found a market for their software in the enterprise space as well as an OEM for telecomm carriers, such as Verizon and BT, and telecommunications hardware vendors, such as Cisco and Mitel. From their website:

CounterPath Corporation is a leading provider of innovative desktop and mobile VoIP software products and solutions. The Company’s product suite includes SIP-based softphones, server applications and Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) solutions that enable service providers, enterprises and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) to cost-effectively integrate voice, video, presence and Instant Messaging (IM) applications into their VoIP offerings and extend functionality across both fixed and mobile networks.

Recently I have been setting up a prototype FREETALK Connect PBX in preparation for its launch later this summer and found that CounterPath’s Bria softphone for PC and Mac could be one way to access the FREETALK Connect (in addition to Skype clients and IP-based phone sets). Let’s say it was not a totally trivial process but I now have it working. In the course of getting it to work I learned more about where CounterPath positions their software as outlined above.

Basically larger enterprises and carriers are looking for a softphone client that they can incorporate into various IP-based communications service offerings. CounterPath’s original x-Lite and recently released Bria for Windows and Mac are filling that gap. Sticking solely to being an infrastructure software developer, CounterPath does not provide a full telecommunications service such as Skype but rather integrates into VoIP service offerings of other VoIP service providers. Their focus is on providing a platform that supports Fixed-Mobile Convergence and Unified Communications activities within these third party services.

So it was not a total surprise last week, when, in addition to supporting PC’s and Mac’s as end points, they announced Bria for iPhone, available for $3.99 at the Apple App store. Two of my blogging colleagues provided lots of details:

Alec Saunders at Saunderslog: CounterPath Launches Bria on iPhone:

Today CounterPath has launched Bria iPhone Edition, their first softphone for Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.  Think of this feature-rich VoIP client for iPhone as being the mobile equivalent of a business desk phone.  With enterprise class features ranging from speaker phone to hold/unhold, swap, mute, conference, and security, this softphone is a credible tool for the road warrior. Moreover, with a strong focus on usability as well, CounterPath VP Todd Carothers proudly says “it could have been developed by Apple themselves!”.

Dan York does a great video explanation in Emerging Tech Talk #51 – Review of CounterPath’s Bria SIP softphone for iPhone and iPad:

Have you wanted to use a VoIP softphone from your iPhone or iPad? Sure, Skype is available, but what if you want to use a softphone that works with SIP and can connect to a corporate IP-PBX? In this episode, host Dan York reviews the new Bria softphone for the iPhone that was released this week by CounterPath Corp. He shows how it works, how it can connect to applications running on Voxeo’s Prophecy Hosting or Tropo platforms and offers some other comments about the app.

As a result I installed Bria for iPhone on my iPhone (but look for “CounterPath” in the App store, not “Bria”) and made the connection to the FREETALK Connect PBX. It certainly worked for making outbound calls to the PSTN. Ironically the call was via Bria as the calling client into the FREETALK Connect and then going out over SkypeOut to the called phone number.

(Note, however, that my Skype for iPhone client can also call into the FREETALK Connect from anywhere worldwide; it’s really becomes a matter of what client is convenient for the individual user’s situation. Taking inbound calls does currently require that you have the relevant client open on the iPhone, whether it’s Skype or Bria.)

In talking with CounterPath VP Todd Carothers, he pointed out how much effort had been put into the user interface to make it much easier to configure. Fortunately I had my Bria for Mac configuration available from which I copied the key parameters required. The FREETALK Connect uses the same “phone” configuration for Bria for iPhone as used with Bria for Mac.

Once configured you have access to a “familiar” iPhone calling interface from which you can call any of your iPhone contacts; most obviously the colors have been slightly modified to give it some “branding”. (Personally I find the amber numbers easier on the eyes than the traditional white.) Other screens provide access to call history, additional settings and your iPhone contacts.

And why did CounterPath start with support of the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad? Basically they had watched as Apple gradually introduced features, such as full Microsoft Exchange support with the upgrade to iOS3 earlier this year, and felt now was the time that their customers’ end user base would need access to their IP-based services from the iPhone, etc. Later this year they intend to introduce Bria for Android. Given CounterPath’s focus on the enterprise/operator market, a BlackBerry offering would be an obvious one. However, for similar reasons to the lack of a carrier agnostic Skype for BlackBerry, they are not in a position to produce such an offering now.

Bottom Line: Within its target market, CounterPath appears to be ready to play a role in the enterprise IP-based communications market, providing infrastructure to IP-based communications services that are quickly infiltrating this market space. Whereas Skype’s high level of adoption by consumers and small business results from its ease-of installation and configuration, Bria is an offering that definitely needs a level of technical expertise, usually a resource available in larger enterprises, for configuration but, once configured, fulfils a need within its target market space.

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Ok so I’m the last to write about Google’s announcement this morning on its acquisition of Global IP Solutions, a major provider of IP-based communications infrastructure with not only its voice and video codecs but also voice and video engines that mean simply “supply me with an Internet connection, a microphone and a set of speakers” and we’ll handle the conversation on your PC or smartphone.

Combine this acquisition with Google’s experience with Google Talk and Google Video Chat, its acquisition of Grand Central to become Google Voice, of On2 for its video codec (used by Skype amongst others) and of Gizmo, Google now has a full set of the underlying tools required to bring out some interesting communications offerings. Can Google integrate these tools, and overcome the inherent management and organization integration issues, to deliver a coherent and effective communications offering? What will we see as end user offerings? And how will Google work with the competition?

After all four weeks ago I had a demonstration at GIPS of a video call received on an iPad (notice I only said “to”). And, as I reported at the time, they basically affirmed that we should be seeing video calling supported on mobile smartphones before year end. Perhaps with a GIPS mobile video engine. Will this now simply be an Android offering or will their offerings also involve smartphone video calling support for Apple’s iPhone/iPad and, say, RIM’s BlackBerry?

It’s interesting to note that I’m already observing the Skype – Google competition in my GMail window. Hover your cursor over the appropriate location at a sender’s name and I get one of two “click-to-call” options: to converse with a contact using Google Talk/Video or to converse directly with the same contact in Skype voice, chat or video:

Google has long been a customer of GIPS for its voice technology and more recently for its video technology on Android. As have Nortel, Cisco (Webex), Communigate (one of the world’s largest suppliers of enterprise email services), Yahoo, IBM/Lotus and many others for both its voice and video technology. It will make for an interesting world of co-opetition.

Other bloggers have made some interesting points:

Thomas Howe, Voyces.com in Tick, Tock, Core, Edge implies that, with the pendulum swinging from the core to the edge, IP-communications infrastructure is going to be supported primarily by two players, Skype and Google:

More important, though, is what these battle lines say about the other players. Which is to say, these guys aren’t even on the battlefield. If fellow Cape Codder David Isenberg is right, and we are in the era of the dumb network, then anyone not-Skype and not-Google is not in the running. Although I agree, appreciate and applaud Orange’s work with their core (in particular, the API program), where are they in this battle? Where is AT&T? Now, doesn’t Verizon’s deal with Skype seem much smarter? To me, it does.

Voxeo’s Dan York, in Google buys GIPS for $68 million – to take on Skype? Apple? Microsoft? gives a short course in IP Communications 101 to explain Google’s motives for this acquisition by pointing out where the real battleground lies:

The issue is that while the control channel is increasingly around the open standard of SIP, which anyone can implement, the “codecs” used in sending media from one endpoint to another have long been a proprietary battleground, particularly with regard to wideband (or “HD audio” as some call it). Yes, there have been and are standards, but usually there have been intellectual property or licensing issues. Now, there is work within the IETF to create a standard wideband codec (and as I wrote earlier, Skype is involved with this effort) but that may take some time and the outcome is not known right now.

But there’s one aspect to this acquisition that can tend to get overlooked – cross licensing. When I worked in the NMR spectroscopy industry during its early evolution in the 1970’s, the two major players (Varian and Bruker) would be filing and acquiring patents and then suing each other. But the final outcome was that both players set up cross licensing arrangements such that the entire NMR spectrometer market benefited by always being able to benefit from the best of both companies’ innovation. And it all subsequently contributed to the rise of Magnetic Resonance imaging that plays such an important role in today’s medical imaging space across six or seven vendors. Will we see Google and Skype cross-licensing their technologies so that overall IP-based communications offerings can ultimately provide best-of-breed services to both their customer bases?

Bottom line: What I see emerging is a communications market where each of Google and Skype will continue to bring forth unique communications offerings that may appear somewhat competitive to their respective customers. Recall the final value add is in the customer benefits exposed by the user interface, not the underlying technology. As a result we can expect a world of co-opetition and cross licensing such that customer offerings by either party are not held back by some intellectual property dispute that really relates to technology and infrastructure in which the customer has no interest. In the end its about growing a bigger market for the benefit of all.

Other posts:

• Alec Saunders on Voyces.com: Google Targets Skype
• Alec Saunders on Saunderslog: GIPS acquired by Google. How does Abramson pick them?
• Rich Tehrani on TMCNet: Google Buys GIPS – Here’s Why where he provides a short history of GIPS and then analyzes some interesting reasons behind what may have motivated Google.
• Garrett Smith on Smith on VoIP: Google the service provider

Update: Andy has written Congrats to The Great Team At GIPS – it’s his 18th client who has been acquired and the second acquisition by Google. He has also given me credit for the small role I played in introducing him to GIPS:

And with this acquisition, for me and my agency, Comunicano, the number of companies to “exit” or in this case “get bought” in the last 8 years now has hit 18. Alec Saunders referenced that feat in his very well written post yesterday. GIPS came to my agency and I in the same way the other 17 had. We were asked to work with them. In this case the door opener was trusted friend and colleague, Jim Courtney, who has known Emerick Woods for longer than most dating back to their days at Quarterdeck. Jim always said that Emerick is the consummate professional, and someone who knows how to win. Looks like Jim’s matchmaking ability came through.

Full disclosure: GIPS CEO Emerick Woods was the Vice-President, Internet of Quarterdeck Corporation in the mid-1990’s who became a mentor to the author on several business development projects at Quarterdeck involving partnerships with ISP’s of the time. Over the past 14 years, Emerick, in his capacity as CEO of several startups, which have gone on to be sold, has hired the author at various times for his business development services. The author, however, has no business relationship with Global IP Sound.

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Ok, so the iPad does not have a camera of any type. But is its form factor not a “natural” format for video calling? When Global IP Solutions put out a press release yesterday I was a bit skeptical about who would take up on their “one way Video Conferencing/Chat capabilities for iPad developers, powered by GIPS VideoEngine™ Mobile”.

We’ve heard a lot of speculation about video calling on the next generation iPhone. Global IP Solutions has been offering their GIPS Video Engine Mobile to iPhone developers for the past several months. When the iPad came along they were able to port it quite readily to the iPad as announced in the press release linked above:

GIPS VideoEngine Mobile supplies iPad developers with a simple to integrate, high-level software API that contains the complex video conferencing/video chat capabilities [that can be embedded] into applications running on Apple’s iPad operating system.

Of course without a camera of any type on the iPad a video conversation involving the iPad would have to be one way (receive) video and two-way voice. One had to wonder why would there be interest in video calling using the iPad?

Yesterday the answer came home loud and clear. I had a demonstration of a video call received on an iPad over the GIPS internal WiFi network. Having experienced lots of video on the iPhone and BlackBerry Bolds (usually You Tube) and video calling using Skype, one aspect of this experience turned me from skeptic to advocate for using iPad for video calls.

The iPad form factor is an ideal format for receiving video calls. Its medium “family” picture frame size is very familiar to consumers. Propped up in a vertical position on a coffee table or physical desktop, it would be receiving video in a format and size that is quite suitable for family participation in a video call. With the accompanying (wideband and superwideband) HD voice, it delivered a perfectly natural conversation. Overall, the iPad is a natural size for video calling.

Where will we see this? Keep in mind that Global IP Solutions delivers engines that take voice and video input and transmit it efficiently over the Internet to a final destination. Their customers, who specify and provide the end user interface to the GIPS engines, include Yahoo, Lotus/IBM, Communigate, Nimbuzz (with an iPhone app), Citrix Online and many other vendors of IP-based voice and video services. And, again from the press release:

As video access becomes available from Apple, GIPS VideoEngine will support 2-way video chat/conferencing.

Bottom line: From this demonstration, and listening to the sessions at this past week’s eComm America 2010, by year end I expect low cost and mobile video calling and conferencing services will be breaking out in a big way:

• We’ll see mobile smartphone video calling not only on iPhone but also on Android devices, (RIM, BlackBerry?). Read through the GIPS blog to get more in-depth perspective on why I say this.
• Where feasible with the device display screen, the video calling standard will become HD over consumer broadband connections with the launch of the HD webcams for Skype in the next month or so.
• But the resolution standard for smartphones and tablets will actually be determined by the individual device’s screen properties; in general they will require less wireless data bandwidth than HD video calling over (cable, DSL) consumer broadband.
• We’ll be seeing low cost multi-party video conferencing solutions from a variety of vendors bringing onsite telepresence to small business.
• And there is reason to justify a built-in video camera on the next generation of iPad (but on the dipslay side a la MacBook Pro).

Update: San Francisco’s KRON-TV also visited Global IP Solutions last week and witnessed prototype video calls using mobile phones:

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When Martin Geddes started out his eComm Europe launch keynote talking about real customer pains and how they needed to be addressed from a user interaction viewpoint, I had hope that maybe we would be hearing more about real business cases in the emerging communications world. What we have learned from the subsequent presentations include:

• Carriers and operators are gradually figuring out they need to be in the “Internet pipes” business (as a channel simply for transporting IP packets) OR the service provider business (acting as a retailer providing specific services as basic as email or as complex as multi-currency transaction processing engines). Those that don’t get it will fade away.
• We’re a long way from having LTE accepted, let alone available, as an ultra high speed wireless protocol. The business case, from both a technology and financial perspective, has yet to be made.
• Value add is through “wow” user experiences; value your customer’s time when handling voice communications and the issue of cost goes away.
  • Calliflower detects callerID to eliminate need for PIN numbers
  • Time Warner will auto-confirm that a service person is coming.
  • Voxygen’s “revolutionary callerID” demonstrates a “rich callerID” experience for both the customer and the merchant in completing an online sales transaction.
• The most promising and innovative application: Layar – an “augmented reality” web browser that sets new levels of performance for location-based services; they won the eComm Application award. Available at the Android Market and the iPhone App Store. Watch for Layar to spawn a network of location-based services application developer partners such as Winvolve.
• Small but important facts that came out:
• GIPS Video engine is using the H.264 SVC codec to allow the viewing experience at the end points of a video conference call to reflect the quality of connection at the end points.
• Skype’s SILK codec is the first voice codec that has not evolved from a TDM codec which has implications from an engineering and development viewpoint (noted by Tim Panton of phonefromhere.com in his presentation on deploying the SILK codec in a yet-to-be-announced project).
• Skype’s Sten Tamkivi pointing out that, whereas most carriers will have, on average, 2,000 calling corridors for completing calls internationally, Skype has over 40,000 calling corridors. Very significant as Skype for Business launches its new services. (A calling corridor determines that actual routing of an inter-carrier call from the caller end-point to the terminating end point.)
• Perhaps the most interesting prototype demonstration was Tim Panton’s Google Wave – Skype – Asterisk prototype demonstration. Phil Wolff at Skype Journal calls it a “Cool  Demo”.

But, I’m with Alec Saunders on a key point: we heard lots about the technology, the carrier and financing issues, “neat” applications. But we heard little, if any, about business implementation cases. We need to hear more about:

• • Who is using these offerings?
  • Where have the new paradigms for telecom allowed small businesses to take advantage of what were previously enterprise level services, such as call centers and voice as a service?
  • Where are the business case studies of implementations?

Alec sums it up best in his post, eComm: Time to Change the Station,:

It is, however, time to stop talking about the death of the incumbent. Let’s instead change the conversation – acknowledge that the carrier network is a platform, and that the carrier has a need for an application community, and begin the dialog between network partners and developers about the ability for those operators to help us get to market.

While we’re at it, let’s also change the channel, dial away from the conversation about “mash-ups”, and focus instead on user needs, the user experience of communications, and the economics associated with that user experience.  By focusing on the business value of the services being developed instead of the technology platform, we can all become better able to reach the customer with game changing new communications services.

Make sense?  It’s an idea who’s time has come.

Full disclosure: Why do I have this viewpoint? I have recently completed managing a project that takes advantage of cloud computing and software-as-a-service to develop a website for a vacation home condominium project where the primary hotel renting our units went under and closed due to Mr. Madoff’s impact on the owner’s finances. As a result we, as the condominium owners, had to implement our own reservation management and booking website with services that would have cost over $500,000 fifteen years ago but had an initial cost this  summer under $20,000. We replaced a telephone switchboard, an onsite reservation system and guest registration system with much more flexibility in the entire guest experience from initial reservation to final check-out. We incorporated WordPress, OnState (with Skype as a calling option), InnRoad, YouTube, Google Maps and Twitter.The entire story will be in another post but you can check out the website here.

There must be many similar stories building up these days; eComm needs to find and tell these types of stories. (And, Lee, you have your first submission for eComm America 2010.)

However, to end on a positive note, eComm Europe 2009 was still the learning experience I was looking for. How important was eComm? My own home carrier, Rogers Communications, had two attendees – one of the few carrier companies at this most important industry-altering event.

Acknowledgment and disclosure: The author’s attendance at eComm Europe 2009 was supported by In Store Solutions, vendor of the FreeTalk Everyman Headset for Skype. In Store Solutions provided an Everyman headset to all eComm Europe 2009 attendees. The author provides business development services to In Store Solutions due to his previous experience with distribution channels and partner programs.

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In the lead-up to the forthcoming eComm Europe Conference organizer Lee Dryburgh interviews some of the speakers. This past weekend he posted an interview with GIPS CTO Jan Linden (picture below) and CMO Joyce Kim where they talked about (i) the role of codecs in delivering overall high quality HD voice and (ii) the emergence of H.264 SVC as a video codec standard.

Lee started off the questioning by asking about where the audio codec plays its role in delivering wideband audio and HD voice; Jan responded by talking about “the total HD voice experience”:

A codec is obviously an important part, but it’s not everything that makes the HD Voice experience. If you look at the analogy of a car, you have a lot of different things like tires, body, steering wheel, etc. and – the codec – let’s say that’s the tires. It’s one very important part that makes the whole thing run smoothly, but without all the other pieces, you don’t get the full experience.

That said, we’re very much focused on HD Voice, and the things we do, in addition to codecs, is things like jitter buffer and packet loss concealment. Those are things to address what happens on the network. We also address things that handles on the device, like sound card. For video, it’s cameras, microphone adjustments, speaker adjustments; all those things are necessary for the great experience.

They go on to talk about how GIPS is emerging as a full R&D facility, innovating incrementally and building voice quality expertise in a way such that third party attempts at replication run up against time-to-market issues due to GIPS’ long term experience with codecs. (Ed. – Perhaps Skype, with its SILK codec and experience with network bandwidth management is the only other company developing superwideband HD voice at this level.) When asked about where SILK could play a role Jan responded:

We do so much more than a codec, and in fact, SILK is a very attractive codec for our customers to use, in conjunction with the rest of what we do. Again, we look at SILK as the wheels or the tires of the car and we provide the rest of it to put the whole car together. That means that SILK, standard codecs like G72.1 AMR [G.721] wideband, you name it; they all fit into our solution.

Lee then opens up a discussion about GIPS’ widely implement iSAC wideband codec and the recent development of a superwideband mode for this codec. Lee effectively summarized GIPS role in the market, for companies that want to incorporate voice and video calling into their offerings, stating:

Okay, so what you’re doing is knocking down time to market for companies and you’re also knocking down the cost of providing voice – audio, I should say, to be more general, and video solutions for devices, software, and so forth. It’s about time to market, it’s about saving money.

Lee, Jan and Joyce then went on to talk about the emerging H.264 SVC video codec and its layering architecture that optimizes performance in a video conference that bridges a range of end point devices and the various devices’ respective network speeds. Click here for the complete interview. But since that will be the subject of Jan’s talk at eComm Europe 2009, I’ll end this post by suggesting that you consider attending for the conference to learn more details.

Click here to register with a 10% discount.

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During my three plus years of blogging, the most educational and informative conference for keeping up with innovation in the “Emerging Communications” space has been eComm, the Emerging Communications Conference (and now Awards). And now eComm is coming to Europe in two weeks.

Conference organizer Lee Dryburgh and his team of advisors have assembled many of the top thinkers and activists in the IP-based communications space with the goal to “promote and accelerate communications innovation”. On the website’s home page is an outline of the forthcoming changes foreseen:

Telecom is becoming software

Today’s model of the telephony and SMS cash-cows will significantly dry up long-term

“Phones” are becoming general purpose always-on computers

A march is underway to change how spectrum is allocated and utilised

Applications innovation is being democratised

The media industry is converging with personal communications

Internet-style ecosystems are starting to pressurise the traditional value chain

Search engines and computer manufactures are encroaching into the space

App downloads; media content and even communication streams are increasingly routing-around operator’s billing systems

The telecom kingdom is fragmenting daily.

It’s only at eComm that you will find respected experts such as Martin Geddes, Thomas Howe, Alan Duric, Brough Turner, Dean Bubley, James Enck, Jonathan Christensen, Jan Linden and Gerd Leonhard all under one roof at the same time. But amongst the others, there’s always at least one or two who will surprise us and challenge our thinking about how the telecommunications industry will evolve. While we all talk about “networking” from a technology perspective, the personal networking at eComm is just as valuable as the presentations.

Also this week it was announced that Skype has taken on the role of Headline Sponsor of the show while innovative companies such as Voxbone, Voxeo, GIPS and Voice Sage are Platinum Sponsors. Without their support Lee would have to triple the registration fees and probably put the conference out of reach for many of the attendees.

Alec Saunders has bought his tickets to go; have you? Click here for a 10% discount when registering.

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As the supplier of a key element in delivering voice-enabled solutions, Global IP Solutions’ activities provide a window into the world of voice- and video-enabled applications and IP-based communications beyond the Skype ecosystem. The GIPS Voice Engine contains API’s that allow a service provider or application publisher to readily incorporate robust, reliable, high quality voice and video calling into their offerings. A recent announcement from Global IP Solutions provides a classic example where we catch a glimpse of the role of IP-based communications in delivering commercial and large enterprise communications solutions.

I first learned of CommuniGate Systems as a provider of Internet-based communications infrastructure software solutions when one of my business planning clients from ten years ago, a business services ISP, was installing the CommuniGate Pro Messaging Suite as the backbone of their email offerings. From that time until last June, when an acquiring ISP failed to provide an appropriate level of support, my own email had been run through this particular CommuniGate-enabled server.

But CommuniGate, building on their CommuniGate Pro communications architecture, has gone on to be a major supplier of unified communications infrastructure. From their website:

CommuniGate Systems’ goal is to consolidate all forms of Internet Communications into one address space, making the single address for email, IM, VoIP and video calling, more productive, portable, and independent of tariffs and tolls of closed network topologies. We see all Internet Communications becoming accessible to multiple media types through one account, providing true portability of an “address” no matter where you access the Internet.

Communigate’s 12,000 strong customer base services over 2 billion email accounts through broadband, wireline and wireless service providers as well as larger enterprises who require “private” communications services. Secure airline communications services, such as required by British Airways, is one significant vertical enterprise market for CommuniGate.

In the fall of 2007 CommuniGate announced the launch of a Flash-based unified communications client, Pronto!, that now serves as a “single dashboard for e-mail, collaboration, secure instant messaging, RSS feeds, and Rich Media”. Pronto!, with an Outlook-style interface and built on Adobe Air, supports contacts, calendar, email, Instant Messaging, voice calling, conference calling, voicemail, news, photos, audio and video player. Users can access their communications services via the Pronto! client on any PC and network connection.

Over time CommuniGate has been adding features to Pronto!; for instance, last summer they announced the addition of video mail, contact and calendaring features, RSS “news” feed support and audio media support. But they also had been evaluating solutions that would improve the voice calling experience with a more robust voice engine that incorporates the enhanced sound quality characteristic of wideband audio HD Voice. After an investigation of their options over the past few months, it was announced at the end of March that CommuniGate had signed an agreement with Global IP Solutions to incorporate the GIPS Voice Engine into Pronto.

“Global IP Solutions has been a pioneer in HD Voice for many years. They have over 800 million downloads and a growing list of brand name customers to prove it,” says Jon Doyle, VP Business Development CommuniGate Systems. “GIPS has a unique engineering team that is focused on addressing the processing issues related to IP communications on various network topologies. With GIPS superior engineering skills, we are able to deliver on the promise of a truly business grade UC experience.”

In a recent interview with CommuniGate’s John Doyle and Larry Golob, GIPS Senior Director of Business Development it was pointed out that:

• CommuniGate was seeking a solution that met HD Voice specifications supporting 8KHz wideband audio during voice calls; the GIPS wideband iSAC codec meets these specifications.
• However, they were also looking for a full voice engine package that could call quality issues such as jitter, packet loss, echo cancellation while adapting readily to network congestion conditions through bandwidth management features.
• In the future, CommuniGate may elect to investigate Skype’s superwideband SILK voice codec for incorporation into their GIPS Voice Engine; however, as its royalty-free licensing had only recently been announced, they would consider the SILK codec at some point in the future, especially if customer demand existed
• CommuniGate is also evaluating the expansion of the role of video in Pronto!; they will be evaluating GIPS video technology later this year.

While services using Pronto! are distributed to end users via either Internet Service Providers or large enterprise “closed network” operations, one can experience Pronto! by setting up an account at TalktoIP.com.

A final question: how will Pronto! users be able to have access via mobile smartphones? Is there an opportunity for GIPS’ mobile offerings?

Bottom Line: Meeting large enterprise and service provider requirements for low cost, secure IP-based communications creates a separate market space – of significant size – not addressed by Skype’s current business model and strategy. On the other hand, it will be interesting to see if CommuniGate incorporates connections with Skype users as another offering within their unified communications suite. Certainly Skype for SIP opens up an interesting opportunity for CommuniGate to consider as they move forward.

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Last week Skype announced that their new superwideband SILK voice codec would be made available royalty-free to any vendor who wants to incorporate it into their calling infrastructure. So how does this impact a voice engine supplier such as Global IP Solutions?

Very simply Global IP Solutions focuses on selling “engines” – voice engines for voice calling, mobile voice engines for mobile devices (initially iPhone) and video engines for video calling and messaging. These engines are then embedded in customer applications developed by IBM Lotus Live, Yahoo, Oracle and many other software publishers.

A voice or video codec is one component of these “engines”. The value-add and differentiation comes with the feature set of the entire “engine” which will address issues such as:

• bandwidth management (adapting to network and end point conditions)
• jitter and packet loss (addressing packet errors and synchronization)
• establishing a connection between parties (with GIPS this will be a SIP connection)
• user’s audio environment: echo cancellation, background noise
• battery life (for voice engine on mobile devices)

Bottom line for the GIPS customer is to supply a bidirectional Internet connection as well as a speaker and microphone connection. GIPS then worries about all the digital signal processing and related voice quality management issues. From the GIPS “Implementing Voice and Video over IP for the iPhone and Smartphones” White Paper (registration required):

While GIPS developed the highly respected  iSAC codec several years ago (and which was used in Skype clients for the first few years), their voice “engine” architecture allows for the use of any codec within the overall voice engine. Speaking with Global IP Solutions CEO Emerick Woods last week he welcomed the availability of Skype’s SILK codec and, being customer driven, said it would be available within a GIPS voice engine for any customer who requested it.

Recall that Jonathan Christensen, is his announcement at eComm 2009 last week, pointed out that the SILK codec is not only available to any vendor but also its use will not require any association with a Skype offering. Skype basically wants the voice communications industry to have available an HD Voice capability that will lead to clearer voice calls, reducing confusion due to low audio bandwidth, accents, speech inflections, expressive intonations, etc. Recall that studies have shown that HD Voice, such as offered on many Polycomm products, will lead to more productive call centers and customer support operations for this reason alone.

Following an “engine” vendor such as Global IP Solutions will provide us with a view into how readily accepted the SILK codec becomes as its availability and feature set awareness increases across the voice communications market space.

Sometimes an industry is more about co-opetition than competition delivering a win-win-win for all parties, especially the end user.

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Perhaps the most informative event I have attended during my two-and-a-half years of writing for Skype Journal was last spring’s eComm 2008. Out of a sense of frustration organizer Lee Dryburgh took it upon himself to risk organizing this event when the former eTel Conference announced it would be no more. The 300 attendees were treated to a buffet of information about various initiatives being undertaken to deploy IP-based communications in innovative ways. From communications enhanced business processes to a garage-based operation to monitor security of abandoned farm houses, we all learned a lot. And the networking opportunity was excellent.

eComm 2009 has been announced; in fact, a call for speakers flooded Lee’s email over the past few weeks. He has put together a tentative schedule and been recruiting sponsors. Last year’s sponsors included many vendors we have written about since the event including iSkoot (Skypephone), Voxbone (iNum), VAPPS (HiDef Conferencing) and Brough Turner’s NMS Communications. Sponsors recruited to date for eComm 2009 include, once again Voxbone, and newcomers Global IP Solutions and Voxeo.

Today we learned that Skype has added its name to the list of sponsors. This is a new initiative for Skype in that they have previously tended to maybe provide speakers but not sponsorship at this type of event. In a statement to Lee Dryburgh this evening, Skype’s GM Audio and Video (and a keynote speaker last year) Jonathan Christensen said:

… thinking about why we did it.. We believe that communications is going through a major shift from hardware devices on dedicated networks to software applications. A new paradigm is emerging. As a clear leader in this new age of communications, it makes sense for Skype to sponsor the eComm event as it is all about celebrating this innovation and sharing our vision for the future of communications with those individuals and companies who are most interested in changing the way people around the world communicate.

It’s been pretty quiet recently on the Skype scene. But then President Josh Silverman did tell us in our September interview that Skype was undergoing a major restructuring. And we have not heard of any layoffs. So it would only be natural to assume that development efforts (beyond the Skype for Windows 4.0 beta program) are under way and we can assume we’ll see new product and service announcements in 2009.

Would any be made at eComm 2009? Speakers from Skype include Jonathan Christensen and Director of Strategy Julien Decot.

Registration for attendees opens December 2, 2008.

Note: Skype Journal editor Phil Wolff, Skype’s Jonathan Christensen, Voxeo’s Dan York, Brough Turner and Jon Arnold are on the eComm 2009 Advisory Board.

Tags: eComm2009, Skype, Jonathan Christensen, Lee Dryburgh, Julien Decot, Voxbone, GIPS, Voxeo

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Global IP Solutions today announced a white paper on Desktop Video Conferencing, providing a background for their video infrastructure technology that has the potential to make video calling and video conferencing available to a much broader user base beyond Skype’s (even though it is quite large) and SightSpeed.

Many of you will recall that Skype’s original voice engine came from Global IP Solutions (formerly Global IP Sound) and contributed to Skype’s initial adoption through both its ease of use and voice quality. In April 2006, Skype acquired Camino Networks whose voice engine provided improved features such as echo cancellation. Camino’s President and CEO was Jonathan Christensen, Skype’s current General Manager for Audio and Video.

Global IP Sound went on to supply their voice engine to other players, such as Oracle and Yahoo but, as a company, they have been struggling; their most recent quarterly report demonstrated the extent of the revenue drop-off after loss of the Skype royalties.

This past April, GIPS announced the appointment of a new CEO, Emerick Woods (see full disclosure below). Since joining GIPS Emerick has led a reorganization of the company that included dropping their professional services offerings due to not only lackluster revenue but also the channel conflicts that operation created for their core audio and video infrastructure technology business. They have also closed a Tokyo office and settled outstanding customer lawsuits, including one with Skype where GIPS’ previous claims were denied in an arbitration resolution. As indicated in this interview with iLocus, they are moving to extend their customer base for their Voice Engine product line. As an initial move in August there was the announcement of Voice Engine for iPhone accompanied by a white paper.

In my interview with Emerick at that time, he pointed out that, while GIPS offers, through its various Voice Engine products, a total solution linking the Internet inbound/outbound connection to the user’s microphone/speakers, customers can also customize the voice engine, particularly when it comes to codecs. Customers can use either the GIPS codecs available with the voice engine or any other standard codec. Another feature he emphasized was their independence from operating system restraints and their support for various mobile platforms.

One additional focus has been on working with their current customer base to build stronger customer relationships that can extend their various Global IP Solutions implementations. And, going forward, GIPS will be investing in innovation with video as a key focus.

Today GIPS released a Desktop Video Conferencing (DVC) white paper, authored by analyst Jon Arnold, outlining “the value proposition behind desktop video conferencing, especially in conjunction with other solutions, such as telepresence. Supporting this is an analysis of the trends that create the momentum we believe will make desktop video conferencing as ubiquitous as PCs themselves, and even mobile phones in the years to come.”

Jon talks about the spectrum of video conferencing solutions from telepresence systems employing large “real life” HD video displays, such as offered by Cisco and Polycom, to boardroom systems that provide the basics of teleconferencing via standard display monitors, to desktop conferencing where the user does not have to leave his/her desk to participate in a video conversation.

In short, compared to other video conferencing solutions, the value proposition for DVC is based on three variables: quality, cost and flexibility. Today’s DVC solutions can deliver a high-quality experience, at an affordable price point, and across a wide variety of environments. Aside from complementing the other types of video conferencing solutions, DVC can be deployed in a host of scenarios that are simply not practical any other way.

Jon goes on to provide tables comparing the three scenarios and then goes into details on potential market size for DVC as well as enabling trends that will help provide an appropriate infrastructure for DVC. On a SquawkBox conference call this morning (recording will be linked once posted) we discussed one aspect: support for HD video. Its minimum 720p resolution will require higher bandwidth upload speeds (> 1.5 Mbps) that I have been told will be coming to Rogers Internet next year with an implementation of the DOCSIS 3 infrastructure and probably to other cable Internet services; recall that the widespread availability of broadband Internet was one factor in the rapid adoption of Skype back at its launch in 2003.

He then goes on to discuss the complexities of the providing and adopting the underlying technologies starting with video quality. Synchronization of audio and video, a consistent user experience, the variability of DVC end point configurations and support for a wide range of camera devices are other factors.

And, now for the commercial: GIPS is offering four products, Voice Engine and Video Engine for the PC client side and Voice Conference Engine and Video Conference Engine for the server side, that will allow ready embedding of desktop video conferencing into their customers’ services. Basically GIPS is providing platforms that allow developers, enterprises, service providers and end users to have a high quality DVC experience. Jon concludes:

With GIPS, they have a complete engine that handles all the complexities of IP communications, and with that, a clear path for allowing DVC to reach its full potential, not just at the desktop, but in the mobile world as well.

GIPS has put up two demonstration videos for comparison: one “Traditional Video Conference” and the other “Video Conference Using Global IP Solutions”.

The only current customers using these services are Oracle and Baidu, the Chinese portal; however, discussions are being carried out with several prospective customers, probably including many in their current customer Most interesting is their potential for mobile video; the only North American carrier supporting video to date has been Rogers; however, its most obvious problem is finding other users who can take video calls. Introduction of the Nokia N95 8GB was supposed to expand the video calling-enabled user community; however, iPhone and BlackBerry Bold have stolen the 3G phone market.

Skype’s High Quality Video, SightSpeed’s acquisition yesterday by Logitech, Qik on Blackberry and Nokia N-Series combined with news of GIPS platform offerings are all precursors to a much broader adoption of user-friendly video in both business and personal conversations in the future. (Yes, we all know users have been looking for Skype video conferencing; when?)

Skype Journal: On2 Powers Skype High Quality Video

Full disclosure: GIPS CEO Emerick Woods was the Vice-President, Internet of Quarterdeck Corporation in the mid-1990′s with whom I worked on several business development projects involving partnerships with ISP’s of the time. Over the past 12 years, Emerick, in his capacity as CEO of several startups, which have gone on to be sold, has hired the author at various times for his business development services. The author, however, has no business relationship with Global IP Sound. One more clarification: Emerick has the same initials as a well known Tiger and loves golf just as much.

Tags: Global IP Solutions, GIPS, Emerick Woods, Jon Arnold, Skype High Quality Video, Polycom, Cisco, Nokia, BlackBerry, Qik.com, Logitech, video conferencing, video calling, video, Jonathan Christensen, Desktop Video Conferencing, Voice Engine, Video Engine

The secret sauce used by Skype that results in the excellent voice quality of Skype-to-Skype calls and facilitates quality in Skype-to-SkypeIn/Out calls is the Voice Engine for PC and Voice Engine for (Windows) Mobile licensed by Skype from Global IP Sound (“GIPS”). Combining codecs, echo cancellation technology and other voice and packet management features the various GIPS Voice Engines eliminate or minimize the impact of inherent (wired or WiFi) network problems and deficiencies introduced by factors such as delay, jitter, packet loss, clock-drift, acoustic and network echo.

In a press release last Monday, Global IP Sound announced the extension of this relationship to include Skype’s licensing of Voice Engine for Embedded such that the GIPS features and technology can be deployed in voice-enabled hardware devices. In an interview with Wendy Toth, VP Marketing, and Dr. Jan Linden, VP Engineering at GIPS, we learned:

• This agreement will permit the incorporation of GIPS Voice Engine technology into future WiFi phone offerings. (It is not included in the recently released WiFi phones announce last month.)
• It would facilitate the offering of a Skype for Symbian phones (such as Nokia’s N-Series) although no such client has yet been announced by Skype.
• In July Skype/eBay and GIPS resolved the patent dispute that Skype effectively assumed upon Skype’s acquisition of Sonorit and Camino Networks.

Eleven years ago I had been close to the scene when Microsoft did an original one-time licensing of the Spyglass Mosaic web browser that formed the core of the original Internet Explorer; Spyglass then went out of business within the following year as they had no sustainable revenue stream. I asked Wendy what was different about the GIPS business model such as to sustain and grow their revenues, given that Skype has licensed GIPS but has no ongoing revenue base for basic Skype calls. She responded:

• GIPS has developed a business model that relies on both initial one-time and ongoing usage revenues.
• GIPS has built up a diversified customer base such that GIPS’s success is not significantly dependent on their Skype relationship.
• GIPS has set the bar for voice quality through their unique overall methodology for voice processing, incorporating echo cancellation and their proprietary codecs.

Other questions we posed to Wendy and Jan:

• What is the status of Global IP Sound’s video technology which was demonstrated at Fall VON last year? Effectively they have extended their Voice Engine into a Multimedia version that incorporates video technology. The initial licensee of Voice Engine Multimedia is AOL. To date there has been no licensing by Skype but she would not reveal whether there were any negotiations to extend Skype’s license to include Voice Engine Multimedia.

• Where do you see the real push or pull for compatible hardware devices? Dual mode WiFi handsets and compatible ATA devices.

• What is the most significant trend you have seen in the past year? Asia is a market that is growing much faster than our North American and European markets. Of particular note are Korea and India.

• Where do you see the market in three years? We will see VoIP go away as a term as it becomes transparent to all voice communications infrastructure. On the other hand it will impact how we communicate as new voice applications evolve. GIPS will be a player anywhere there is voice processing on the network. As an example, have a look at GIPS Border Interface Engine, bringing GIPS technology to the carrier market at the VoIP/PSTN gateway.

In summary:

• Expect to see new Skype-Certified hardware incorporating GIPS Voice Engine Embedded in the not too distant future.
• Given that their relationship has matured to the point where they can quietly resolve potentially divisive issues such as the patent dispute, the GIPS-Skype relationship that is a key element contributing to Skype’s success has become much stronger.
• Going forward GIPS will be a player in the VoIP communications ecosystem at the client, device, network and carrier level .
• Question: Will Skype take advantage of other GIPS Voice Engine technology to provide improved video as well as a Symbian Skype client?