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I’m getting into Las Vegas for CES on the morning of January 4 and leaving/running away screaming on the evening of Friday, January 7. There’s at least two days where I’ll [...]]]>

Yes, this post is for you, Mr. “I would like to meet with Doug, but haven’t gotten around to it yet” PR person.

I’m getting into Las Vegas for CES on the morning of January 4 and leaving/running away screaming on the evening of Friday, January 7. There’s at least two days where I’ll (almost literally) going from dawn until dusk and beyond into the evening.

Suggestions to review before you contacting me via email(moo@vegascommando.com) for a CES meeting –

1) I’ll be at all the major CES media table top events, including–

CES Unveiled – Tuesday, January 4, 4-7 PM at the Venetian

Digital Experience – Wednesday, January 5, 7-10 PM at Caesars Palace

Lunch at Piero’s – Thursday, January 6, 11:30-12:30 PM at the Italian place across the street from LVCC

ShowStoppers – Thursday, January 6, 7-10 PM, The Wynn

If you have a presence at one of these event – and I’ll personally vouch for Show Stoppers and Lunch at Piero’s: BOTH organizers have been class acts over the years, even if Pat wants to me to march through the Piero exhibits before I hit the buffet line – I can arrange a quick meeting.

2) Limited opportunities to meet between 11 AM and 1 PM on Wednesday, January 5, around the Venetian/Sands Convention Center.

Wednesday is press day and I expect there will be a LOT of mobile HD voice/HD voice announcements during the day. 

3) Thursday, January 6.  Forget it.  Schedule is booked from approximately 7 AM through 10 PM.

Try to catch me at Piero’s or ShowStoppers if you have a tabletop at either of those events.  Early in the day is always better.

4) Friday, January 7 – Some opportunities exist.  Please contact ASAP

Friday will most likely be my catch-up day and I’m willing to extend out to 7-8 PM and potentially later, just so long as I make it to the airport on time.

6) If your client is not close to the LVCC in a suite (say, the Hilton, eh?), forgetaboutit….

Seriously. I can’t spend an hour commute between the show floor on Jan 6 and 7 during normal business hours. Can’t. Unless Stevie Nicks is personally signing autographs when I get there and she will give me a bootleg copy of the new album she’s working on.

Junction’s OnSIP phone service is typically targeted at companies with anywhere from 5 to 100 employees, with an average cost per user under $20.  OnSIP what you expect out of a hosted VoIP service these days, including a complete [...]]]>

Junction Networks (www.junctionnetworks.com) has added its 10,000-th customer to its OnSIP hosted PBX service.

Junction’s OnSIP phone service is typically targeted at companies with anywhere from 5 to 100 employees, with an average cost per user under $20.  OnSIP what you expect out of a hosted VoIP service these days, including a complete UC solution, hosted HD voice calling and HD voice conferencing, voice-to-email, IM and presence.

Now available for new Android devices such as “tablets, HD media players, IP media phones, connected [...]]]>

Last week in Japan, D2 Technologies (www.d2tech.com) announced that its mCUE converged communications software for the Android got a whole bunch of features, including the addition of IP video to its already robust HD voice and VoIP support.

Now available for new Android devices such as “tablets, HD media players, IP media phones, connected TVs and STBs,” mCUE includes a customizable user interface, an embedded, hardware-platform optimized voice/video media engine, HD voice support, an “industry leading” acoustic echo canceller (AEC), multi-protocol support including IMS, a complete Skype Integration, and a remote management interface.

Reading between the lines here, D2 is about ready to open up a lot of different Android-based devices for both HD voice and vide (see laundry list above).  While D2’s hand has been strong in wireless implementations – 4G, WiFi, WiMax, LTE — the whole TV and STB thing is going to be interesting to watch, especially with Skype thrown in for good measure.

AudioCodes is definitely expansion-minded, betting [...]]]>

Perhaps the biggest surprise/trend in LA this week was the move by established IP communications companies to start widening their playing fields, abet for different reasons.  Both AudioCodes (www.audiocodes.com) and snom (www.snom.com) rolled out new products that suggest better and better possibilities for growth in the months to come.

AudioCodes is definitely expansion-minded, betting that its backing of HD voice (HDVoIP, if you prefer) and hardware integration skills will give it a foot into the door of the ever-crowded consumer CPE space.  The company’s move – more fully documented over at HD Voice News (ITEXPO: AudioCodes announces all-in-one multimedia home gateway, bundle with mobile software) – follows a path started last year, when it started making IP phones for the enterprise space to complement its line of media gateways.

At least one service provider has signed up for AudioCodes MediaPack 252 Multimedia Home Gateway, which integrates an ADSL2+ router, WiFi, a DECT/CAT-iq radio, Bluetooth and the kitchen sink into a single box.  If that’s not enough, AudioCodes will also bundle the 252 with its mobile softphone client so you can get the whole wireless-wireline/over-the-top tie-in that seems to be the rage.

Ultimately, it appears AudioCodes wants/will be providing HD voice-enabled gear from edge to core in the consumer and enterprise. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the company roll out more consumer and business CPE in 2011, so long as it A) Has a phone of some sort and B) Supports HD voice.

Snom’s move outside of phones and into IP PBX software appears to be more pragmatic.  The company wants to have offering for SMBs so dealers can do a one-stop-shop/integration free sale of phones and a PBX.  The 10 user version of the snom IP PBX is free, 20 phones will cost you, and 30 or more phones (up to around 150) version to cost some more.

Snom tends to run pretty light, so for the company to add a software-based IP PBX solution into the line up most likely means A) Long-time partner Digium and/or the Asterisk-based IP PBX offering just isn’t cutting it like it had in the past and/or B) There’s easy money to be made in the SMB IP PBX space of 20-150 users.

Looks like I’ll be moderating three (3) panels, one on HD voice, one on mobile VoIP [...]]]>

I’ll be out in Los Angeles next week for IT EXPO West, one of the few remaining games, er events around for IP Communications/VoIP these days. It’s a great channel partners/resellers show and a good vendor/service provider show.

Looks like I’ll be moderating three (3) panels, one on HD voice, one on mobile VoIP and one on voice quality. Specifically–

Meet the HD Handset Vendors – Tuesday, October 5, 8:30-10:15 AM

Roam Free- The Future of Mobile VoIP – Tuesday, October 5, 10:30-11:15 AM

Putting the Quality Back into Voice – Wednesday, October 6, 12:45-1:30 PM

When I’m not moderating panels, I’ll most likely be in the press room, going meeting-to-meeting-to-meeting.  If you’re interested in a formal time to brief me, email todd@firpr.com; he’s handing my on-site time via TMC.

I’ll also be running around at the Avaya reception on Sunday evening, the Andy Abramson dinner on Monday evening, and the Dialogic party on Tuesday evening.  And most likely will look tired and grumpy on Wednesday afternoon…

If you want to track me down during the show, I’ll be using Foursquare to post location updates to my Twitter id DougonIPComm.  Yes, I know it sounds very tweenish, but I figure it might help someone with a smartphone.

Leap with us into the future of high-definition voice communications! Carriers around the world are starting to offer phone [...]]]>

My major face-to-face project these days is the HD Voice Summit at 2010 CES on Wednesday, January 6, 2010 in Las Vegas. More specifically–

HD Voice Summit at the 2010 CES: Communicating the Future

Leap with us into the future of high-definition voice communications! Carriers around the world are starting to offer phone calls with FM-quality sound through both broadband and mobile services. France Telecom already has over half-million HD Voice users! Where’s the industry at the moment? What challenges — and promise — does the future hold as we move from 1930s-era sound to 21st century quality?

You’ll find more info and how to register at  http://www.cesweb.org/sessions/search/results.asp?categoryID=1882

Bottom line: You have to look REALLY hard [...]]]>

You’ll find three (3) pieces about HD voice from AstriCon over at the HD Connect Now website (www.hdconnectnow.org)–

• AstriCon 2009: It is all HD voice (handsets)
• AstriCon 2009 – Dialogic talks HD voice media server
• From AstriCon: Rumors of AT&T running HD voice in San Antonio

Bottom line: You have to look REALLY hard to find a VoIP handset that doesn’t have support for the G.722 wideband codec these days.  Even Cisco’s $130 cheap-end VoIP phone has G.722 built in… and yes, I’m sure people are going to start nit-picking about mic quality, speaker quality, does the gear really sample at 16 KHz, etc… we’ll see.

Also very interesting that AT&T is quietly trialing HD voice in its back yard. No details yet on exactly what is going on; I’m hoping the company will be as forthcoming as Verizon Business, but then again, AT&T never rolled out Casabi after playing with it nearly a decade ago..

Tuesday, I’m moderating an IP Peering Panel from 3:45-4:30 PM and Wednesday I put on my HD hat to do “HD Voice Deployments” from 1:15-2 PM.