Less than a week after Cisco released its Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP) to the industry, TANDBERG, who is being acquired by Cisco, showed off interoperability between its telepresence systems and those of Cisco.

The successful demonstration was conducted between TANDBERG Telepresence and the Cisco CTS 3000. According to TANDBERG, Cisco TelePresence solutions will be added to the list of third-party telepresence solutions it can seamlessly interoperate with while maintaining the three-screen, high-definition telepresence experience. Read the rest

Cisco Systems has released what it calls the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP) that will allow inter-company telepresence sessions. The company has released the protocol into the ‘public domain’ and is offering it on a royalty-free licensing basis to all industry participants.

According to Cisco, LifeSize, TANDBERG (currently being brought by Cisco), and RADVISION have already signed agreements to license the protocol.

“Release of the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol marks a significant step in creating a new open standard for telepresence, similar to other industry video standards. Cisco already supports H.323, which allows Cisco TelePresence to interoperate with standard- and high-definition videoconferencing systems and other collaboration applications,” the vendor said. Read the rest

WALLINGFORD, CT–(Marketwire - January 25, 2010) - VBrick today unveiled an integrated suite of H.264-specific products to power the full spectrum of creation, delivery and consumption of live or on-demand IP video streaming for enterprise customers, making H.264 video content available both inside and outside the firewall to upwards of 100,000 viewers simultaneously.

The H.264 product suite features VBrick’s next generation Networked Video Appliance, which is built on a completely redesigned architecture and supports both standard and high definition video delivery with maximum bandwidth optimization. Other components of the suite include a new Set Top Box (STB), hardware decoder that provides “always on” H.264 decoding, 11-slot Rack Mount shelf, as well as significant enhancements to VBrick’s Enterprise Media System (VEMS). Finally, the suite includes H.264-based FLASH™ video delivery in the VBrick Online Streaming Service (VBOSS). Read the rest

Intel has contracted new solar electric installations targeted at eight locations in four US states with an estimated total generating capacity of 2.5 megawatts of clean solar energy. The new solar power installations will be located in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Oregon, the company said.

“Intel is committed to renewable energy to reduce our own carbon footprint as well as to spur the market and make renewables more economically feasible for individuals and businesses to deploy,” said Brian Krzanich, vice president and general manager of Manufacturing and Supply Chain for Intel. “These announcements represent our broader commitment which includes diversifying our energy portfolio through solar and other clean energy investments, and this will continue to be a priority for us around the globe.” Read the rest

BT Conferencing, a long standing backer of Cisco’s Telepresence platform, has launched a fully managed automated service for TANDBERG solutions called, BT One Source for TANDBERG.

According to BT Conferencing, One Source now combines TANDBERG’s telepresence and video conferencing solutions with its management services. The solution delivers planning, design and implementation services such as BT’s One Care Preferred “white glove” services, including tiered support levels ranging from producer assisted calls or automated call launching using BT’s Engage suite of software tools. Read the rest

Juniper Networks and Polycom has announced an alliance focused on improving the reliability, cost-effectiveness and quality of the customers experience for telepresence (with a small ‘t’) and video conferencing services.

The two companies don’t say it in so many words, but obviously have some synergies in such a tie up, since both count Cisco as the main rival in many of their respective markets - Juniper in the network equipment space and Polycom in telepresence. Read the rest

Vodafone Qater and Alcatel-Lucent have deployed the first hybrid green mobile cell site in Qatar. As its name indicates, the cell site will leverage both solar and wind power generation systems using a solution that can tap into both energy sources, according to the companies.

The wind turbine at the Qatar site has been mounted at the top of the existing mast to leverage higher winds. The energy controller brings intelligent control to simultaneously draw power from both the photovoltaic panels and wind turbine, based on solar intensity and wind speed, making the most – at every second – of the two sources’ fluctuating availability, the companies said. Read the rest

Nokia Siemens Networks says that its new Flexi Multiradio base stations will now allow Singapore mobile operator, M1, to potentially reduce its carbon emissions by 35%.

M1 is introducing the new gear into its network as part of a network modernisation program, that includes a LTE trial in February.

“The extensive use of Nokia Siemens Network’s proven energy efficient equipment will ensure that we have in place a network that is well able to meet the increasingly demanding environmental standards now and in the future,” said Patrick Scodeller, chief technical officer at M1. Read the rest

A new release by Gartner predicts that 20% of companies around the world will have no IT assets by 2012, preferring instead to shift ownership and operation of their information infrastructure to third-party cloud and service providers.

“Several interrelated trends are driving the movement toward decreased IT hardware assets, such as virtualization, cloud-enabled services, and employees running personal desktops and notebook systems on corporate networks,” Gartners said. Read the rest