By Gina Narcisi, SearchUnifiedCommunications | View original article here

Managed video-conferencing services are rising in popularity as many enterprises look to service providers for the expertise and the resources to administer and support their video-conferencing and telepresence technology.

Selecting a provider for managed video-conferencing services isn’t simply a matter of price and convenience. Much like video-conferencing equipment vendors, which vary in their features and functionalities, managed service providers also tailor their offerings to specific needs.

An enterprise must pay attention to how its employees are communicating and who they are communicating with. This collaboration profile is a big factor in selecting the right provider for managed video-conferencing services.

Managed video-conferencing services shortlist: What does the enterprise need?

Before researching vendors and service providers, enterprises should identify who will be using the video-conferencing technology and what services the users will need, said Ira Weinstein, partner and senior analyst at Wainhouse Research.

“Choosing a certain vendor because another department I know uses them is easy, but it’s not necessarily the right way to go,” Weinstein said. “[Enterprises] must first understand how they are going to use video conferencing and then decide what features are needed.”

The IT department should analyze how employees collaborate internally, as well as how they communicate with people outside the company. This analysis will steer the enterprise toward the right managed video-conferencing services, said Henry Dewing, principal analyst at Forrester Research.

“It really depends on the types of meetings being conducted and who is communicating,” said Dewing. “Then, you can look at the vendors and service providers behind it.”

Employees who require person-to-person communication may only need a desktop video service, while employees who must communicate more often with more individuals internally as well as externally may require a room-based video-conferencing or telepresence service.

Larger enterprises will typically require higher-end managed video-conferencing services from a provider than will a small or medium-sized business (SMB), Dewing said. A large enterprise that conducts frequent meetings and communication among headquarters, remote offices and business partners could require a service provider to bridge the calls, organize meeting schedules and change the resolution within a telepresence room while the meeting is taking place, he added.

“On the high end, the point of video conferencing is to make it look like everyone is sitting in the same room, and some enterprises will need a service provider to manage the camera angles, audio and lights during the meeting,” he said.

Return Path, an email certification company, selected Vidtel for managed video-conferencing services because of its point-to-point video and multi-party video calling capabilities, which can integrate with Skype and Lifesize.

“Return Path has 10 worldwide offices and a number of remote employees, so the most important thing for us is the point-to-point video calls,” said Matt Blumberg, CEO and chairman of Return Path. “Interoperability with Skype and Lifesize is also critical, as not everyone in the organization has a video phone.”

Interoperability with other video-conferencing equipment from multiple vendors is becoming an increasingly important feature for managed video-conferencing services, especially for enterprises who want a provider to take over management of legacy equipment. Video managed-service provider Teliris recently added this capability to Lentaris, its cloud-based video managed-services platform.

“Traditionally, Teliris has not provided a managed service for other manufacturer’s endpoints,” said Jeff Tench, chief marketing officer of Teliris. “Many enterprises have a mixed bag of other providers, but Lentiris allows us to manage the entirety of the video estate for an enterprise in a unified fashion.”

As enterprises begin to reexamine video as a business and productivity driver, they are taking inventory of their existing services and equipment, noted Tench. “[Enterprises] want to get the most out of their investments, and they are starting to ask how they can bring an expert in to better manage [video conferencing services] for the enterprise.”

Managed video-conferencing services: Lowering risk for the enterprise

A video-conferencing failure can embarrass an enterprise and disrupt business, Weinstein noted. “There is a need for experts who can make video conferencing work immediately, and who are available 24/7 and trained on the right equipment. Enterprises are paying to outsource the stress.”

And while enterprises have choices when it comes to managed video-conferencing services, such as hosted, managed on site, or managed in the cloud, interest in outsourcing video management is on the rise, Dewing said.

“Video technology is changing so rapidly, there are uncertain standards and the enterprises might not have certified employees that know how to use the equipment,” Dewing explained. “It’s an enormous technology risk to deploy video today because there are so many factors up in the air.”

Deploying video conferencing is a high-risk endeavor for the enterprise; it can mitigate the risk by using a video-conferencing service provider that can step in with more expert resources and better established relationships with vendors. “That’s the kind of risk mitigation enterprises are willing to pay for,” Dewing noted.

Japan-based service provider to become global partner for video collaboration solutions

Teliris (http://www.teliris.com), the leading provider of video collaboration solutions, and KVH Co., LTD. (http://www.kvh.co.jp), Asia’s leading information delivery platform providing integrated cloud and network solutions, today announced KVH as a Founding Partner of the Teliris Channel Partner Program.

As a channel partner, KVH will now deliver to its customers a broad range of Teliris video collaboration solutions and its industry-leading managed services paired with KVH’s global network services and bilingual service desk for a truly differentiated video solution in Japan and the Asia-Pacific market.

KVH will also deploy Teliris Express™ and Teliris StartPoint™ solutions for internal corporate use, relying on lightweight, software-based architecture by Teliris for seamless video communication throughout the organization. KVH selected Teliris Express systems for a cost-effective, immersive telepresence experience. This deployment will be augmented with Teliris StartPoint, a lightweight solution designed to telepresence-enable any conference room, maximizing the value of its video estate. These video solutions are delivered via Teliris Lentaris™, a cloud-based platform providing managed services and cloud-based interoperability.

“Teliris welcomes KVH as both a customer and channel partner, leveraging their reputation in the region to expand the Teliris presence throughout Asia,” said Neil Hobbs, Teliris CEO. “This is the start of a great relationship that allows KVH to enhance its video collaboration suite to deliver a comprehensive offering to its customers.”

“We are pleased to partner with Teliris to offer their products to our customers, allowing us to provide end-to-end managed video collaboration solutions,” said Joe Duhamel, Executive Vice President, System and Technology of KVH. “KVH will address the needs of enterprise real time communication and will contribute to the improvements in productivity and the cost saving by offering the managed video collaboration solutions as a part of KVH’s Information Delivery Platform. Teliris’ flexible products and services are the ideal choice for us.”

As video becomes the cornerstone of enterprise collaboration, Teliris is broadening its product and service portfolio to deliver a comprehensive video offering for customers of all sizes with its Lentaris platform. Teliris now offers expanded managed services for any video endpoint and increasingly cost-effective video solutions, allowing any business to access the benefits of immersive collaboration with its industry-leading reputation for creating the most natural and reliable virtual meetings.

About Teliris

Teliris delivers immersive visual collaboration managed services and solutions designed to drive value across its customers’ video estates. Built on its lightweight Lentaris™ platform, Teliris’ comprehensive capabilities include end-to-end managed services, immersive video solutions ranging from boardroom to desktop and cloud-based interoperability. Founded in 2001, Teliris is headquartered in New York and London with deployments and Teliris Channel Partners across the globe. For more information, visit http://www.teliris.com.

About KVH

KVH was established in Tokyo in 1999 by Fidelity Investments as a Japan focused IT/communications service provider. As an information delivery platform that allows enterprise customers to store, process, protect and deliver their vital business information, KVH offers integrated cloud and network solutions that include infrastructure-as-a-service, managed services, data center services, professional services, data networking, internet access, and voice services. KVH operates the lowest latency network in Japan, and with over 450 financial services customers, is the leading provider of ultra low-latency network and proximity hosting solutions to the high-frequency trading community in Tokyo and Osaka. KVH also offers low-latency connectivity services between major financial markets in the Asia/Pacific region and the US including Tokyo, Chicago, Aurora, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Sydney. More information on KVH can be found at http://www.kvh.co.jp/en/

Cloud-Based Lentaris Platform Generally Available For Management of Virtually Any Video Endpoint or Infrastructure

New York, NY (April 11, 2012) –  Teliris (http://www.teliris.com), the leading video collaboration and managed services provider, today announced the general availability of Lentaris™, a cloud-based platform delivering comprehensive video managed services and multipoint collaboration to any video endpoint across the enterprise with guaranteed reliability.

Teliris Lentaris combines cloud-based infrastructure for multipoint and interoperability with Teliris’ comprehensive managed service: including scheduling, meeting production, VNOC support, monitoring and reporting. Lentaris is deployed on commodity hardware and integrated with Teliris InfiNET, a network purpose-built for video.

Teliris customers will benefit from the greater scale and efficiency delivered by Lentaris. By deploying Lentaris globally, Teliris allows customers to conveniently access the on-demand services, making video collaboration more accessible than ever before.

“From day one, Teliris has understood the value of managed services in driving utilization for better ROI by making it core to our video offering with cost effective and reliable solutions and services. With Lentaris, we are now extending the same quality and reliability to users of virtually any video endpoint with that goal still in mind – greater adoption for greater value,” said Teliris CEO Neil Hobbs.

Customers using Teliris’ broad range of video solutions will continue to experience the same high-quality managed services backed by the industry’s highest SLA (99%+ reliability) along with built-in multipoint and virtual meeting room capabilities. Additionally, these endpoints can enjoy unlimited interoperability through Lentaris, which provides seamless integration of the entire video estate into a single managed service and scheduling system.

Users of other videoconferencing products can now maximize their video investment by wrapping it with Lentaris managed services. Reliability is key to driving utilization, and Lentaris ensures a hassle-free user experience.

Enterprise users simply access the Lentaris cloud for multipoint and management without the added cost of purchasing infrastructure. With Lentaris, Teliris also manages existing video infrastructure for increased reliability and integration with the rest of the video deployment.

Lentaris offers both scheduled start or managed self-start for maximum flexibility. When users schedule meetings through the Teliris AccessPortal, they can simply walk in and meet. Managed self-start calls allow for ad-hoc meetings through either direct dial or virtual meeting rooms while still allowing for comprehensive management through monitoring and VNOC support on demand.

In order to drive video adoption across the enterprise, Teliris now offers increasingly cost-effective video solutions. With the general availability of Lentaris, Teliris also delivers the Teliris StartPoint™, a low-cost managed video solution and Teliris @nywhere™, the first fully managed video software client. Both endpoints include built-in multipoint capabilities and access to the full suite of Lentaris-based services.

To learn more about Lentaris managed services packages and supported endpoints or to become a Teliris channel partner, visit http://www.teliris.com.

About Teliris Telepresence
Teliris delivers immersive visual collaboration managed services and solutions designed to drive value across its customers’ video estates. Built on its lightweight Lentaris™ platform, Teliris’ comprehensive capabilities include end-to-end managed services, immersive video solutions ranging from boardroom to desktop and cloud-based interoperability. Founded in 2001, Teliris is headquartered in New York and London with deployments and Teliris Channel Partners across the globe. For more information, visit http://www.teliris.com.

The following is an excerpt from an article by Laurence Reisman that appeared on TCPalm.com

Read the full article here.

Tom Brokaw, Walter Cronkite, Martyn Lewis.

The latter name might sound out of place to Americans, but Lewis is a household name in the United Kingdom, where for more than three decades he served as an anchorman on the BBC and two other networks. On Thursday, he’ll give what promises to be a fascinating presentation at the annual Love of Literacy Luncheon in Vero Beach.

Since leaving television, Lewis helped found and is now European chairman of Teliris, which offers state-of-the art, high-definition teleconferencing services. Moreover, for years he has been deeply committed to charity work, and he has been named a Commander of the British Empire in 1997 for his work with hospices and young people. More recently, Lewis also has worked for charities that provide extra financial support to families of those killed in recent conflicts and that help people with learning disabilities.

He recently answered several questions for me via email…

Q: As European chairman of Teliris, you’ve used technology to bring people together virtually. How long will it take before people have the ability to have as high-quality videoconferencing on their smartphones?

A: Not long — with the rate at which technology is advancing. The challenge is to make it totally reliable for the mass consumer market. Teliris has already reinvented videoconferencing to an extremely high quality — and taken it down to desktop level. But smartphones, of course, have relatively small screens, and, for my money, nothing beats the global corporate networks which Teliris has created, where people appear life-size in high definition, creating real-time conversation across a table that is, in effect, thousands of miles wide. Our clients are slashing millions of dollars off their travel bills — all very exciting!

Q: Conversely, will people long for more personal interaction, or is virtual interaction just a way of life?

A: The great thing about Teliris’ high-quality videoconferencing (some call it Telepresence) is that it really does replicate in every sense the personal interactions of a normal conversation. It’s as good as “being there.” The only things you can’t do are shake a person’s hand or take them out for a drink or a meal afterward — and most people only need to do that after, say — a third of their meetings. It’s the other two-thirds where high-quality VC comes into its own — because it is so reliable it hands back to busy executives 50 or 60 days a year when they’re not flying or jet-lagged, and can put that time back into personal interaction at home.

from your friends at Teliris

On Monday, the New York Times published an article about the security concerns surrounding videoconferencing, reporting that an IT security firm has found a way to dial into and monitor video calls unauthorized.

The vulnerabilities observed by the security firm were the result of end-users not enabling the appropriate security features on their networks and endpoints.

Teliris would like to remind our customers that we are committed to the privacy of your data, and will always work with you to ensure that the maximum amount of security is put in place to help prevent any unauthorized access to your video calls.

Teliris leverages a proprietary signaling protocol so outside users are not able to connect to Teliris endpoints with a simple IP address. In addition, Teliiris managed services prevent unauthorized users from accessing a Teliris solution. Meetings must be scheduled or initiated by a Teliris VNOC operator using Teliris’ patented Dynamic Scenario Manager.  Users on non-Teliris endpoints are connected through a Teliris bridge dialing out or by dialing into a Teliris meeting using a user-defined confidential meeting pin code.

Teliris’ Lentaris platform is protected by session border controllers to allow for authorized users to connect securely via the Internet or a private network connection. By leveraging the Lentaris platform, Teliris’ investment in cloud-based infrastructure prevents unauthorized access.

If you have any questions about this article or want to know what you can do to enhance the security of your video calls, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Telepresence provider Teliris has rolled out a cloud-based interoperability platform that it said will deliver seamless, managed connectivity across a broad range of telepresence and videoconferencing endpoints without the heavy infrastructure traditionally required.

Lentaris, is a software-based platform that’s being supported by cloud-solution provider Virtustream. It eliminates the need to purchase MCUs to achieve interoperability across different endpoint types. The company said it will be deployed on commodity hardware and paired with Teliris InfiNET, a network built for telepresence.

Teliris last month was among an assortment of telepresence and video conferencing providers that launched the Open Visual Communications Consortium, a consortium of industry players focusing on establishing standards it hopes will accelerate the uptake of video adoption.

Teliris said Lentaris is a combination of cloud-based central infrastructure wrapped with Teliris’ comprehensive managed service. It should, the company said, allow customers to benefit from greater scale and efficiency in a global deployment. And, of course, interoperability is key: Lentaris will allow users to connect with most standards-based telepresence or videoconferencing endpoints within an organization and for business-to-business interoperability.

“In order to make video collaboration truly ubiquitous, an expensive MCU-based model is not sustainable. With Lentaris, Teliris aims to provide an affordable solution through a virtualized approach for smarter interoperability regardless of deployment size or endpoint,” said Teliris CEO Neil Hobbs.

In order to deliver more productive meeting experience, many organizations are looking for video integration.  To create a face-to-face meeting experience over managed network, Teliris (News – Alert), the telepresence innovation company, has introduced Lentaris, a cloud-based interoperability platform delivering seamless, managed connectivity across a broad range of telepresence and videoconferencing endpoints without the heavy infrastructure traditionally required.

Enterprises that are installing Lentaris will be able to eliminate the need to purchase expensive MCUs to achieve interoperability across different endpoint types. According to a press release, Lentaris will be deployed on commodity hardware and paired with Teliris InfiNET, a network built for telepresence.

Teliris Lentaris is a combination of cloud-based central infrastructure wrapped with Teliris’ comprehensive managed service, including scheduling, meeting production, monitoring and reporting with guaranteed reliability.

“In order to make video collaboration truly ubiquitous, an expensive MCU-based model is not sustainable. With Lentaris, Teliris aims to provide an affordable solution through a virtualized approach for smarter interoperability regardless of deployment size or endpoint,” said Teliris CEO Neil Hobbs.

Teliris customers will take advantage from greater scale and efficiency and leverage the on-demand service offering interoperability more accessible than ever before. Lentaris will provide users to be connected with most standards-based telepresence or videoconferencing endpoints within an organization and for business-to-business interoperability.

“By choosing to partner with Virtustream, we look forward to building on their advanced understanding of cloud environments to make real-time video solutions accessible and affordable for our customers,” said Hobbs.

“We are thrilled to work with Teliris to create a virtualized offering for video interoperability. As Teliris continues to expand its services, Virtustream is uniquely positioned to deliver complex video solutions over the cloud,” said Virtustream CEO Rodney Rogers (News – Alert).

In other news, Teliris recently introduced a low-cost telepresence solution called the Teliris StartPoint, which delivers a high-quality managed telepresence experience. Officials said that the Teliris StartPoint appliance and camera, provided by Teliris will connect to virtually any HDMI-compatible display and will allow users to telepresence-enable a conference room.

Teliris Partners with Virtustream to Deploy Distributed Cloud Architecture for Video Collaboration Interoperability

New York, NY (November 1, 2011)– Teliris (www.teliris.com), the telepresence innovation leader, today announced Lentaris, a cloud-based interoperability platform delivering seamless, managed connectivity across a broad range of telepresence and videoconferencing endpoints without the heavy infrastructure traditionally required.

Through a software-based platform, Teliris’ solution eliminates the need to purchase expensive MCUs to achieve interoperability across different endpoint types.  Lentaris will be deployed on commodity hardware and paired with Teliris InfiNET, a network built for telepresence.

Teliris Lentaris is a combination of cloud-based central infrastructure wrapped with Teliris’ comprehensive managed service: including scheduling, meeting production, monitoring and reporting with guaranteed reliability.

Teliris customers will benefit from greater scale and efficiency in a global deployment when leveraging the on-demand service making interoperability more accessible than ever before. Lentaris will allow users to connect with most standards-based telepresence or videoconferencing endpoints within an organization and for business-to-business interoperability.

“In order to make video collaboration truly ubiquitous, an expensive MCU-based model is not sustainable. With Lentaris, Teliris aims to provide an affordable solution through a virtualized approach for smarter interoperability regardless of deployment size or endpoint,” said Teliris CEO Neil Hobbs.

Teliris has partnered with Virtustream, a leading cloud solution provider, to deliver a service built on the Lentaris platform. By leveraging Virtustream’s extensive experience in deploying virtualized environments, Teliris is able to deliver a true cloud-based offering.

“By choosing to partner with Virtustream, we look forward to building on their advanced understanding of cloud environments to make real-time video solutions accessible and affordable for our customers,” said Hobbs.

“We are thrilled to work with Teliris to create a virtualized offering for video interoperability. As Teliris continues to expand its services, Virtustream is uniquely positioned to deliver complex video solutions over the cloud,” said Virtustream CEO Rodney Rogers.

As a part of its commitment to interoperability, Teliris recently joined the board of the Open Visual Communications Consortium™, a group of global video exchange providers, network providers and equipment manufacturers dedicated to accelerating the adoption of business-to-business video communications.

As video becomes the cornerstone of enterprise collaboration, Teliris is broadening its product and service portfolio to deliver a comprehensive video offering for customers of all sizes. Teliris now offers increasingly cost-effective video solutions and expanded managed services, allowing any business to access the benefits of immersive collaboration with its industry-leading reputation for creating the most natural and reliable virtual meetings.

Teliris’ Lentaris platform will be generally available to Teliris existing customers and all other video collaboration users in the first quarter of 2012.

About Teliris Telepresence

Teliris develops and implements the world’s most innovative fully managed telepresence and collaboration solutions, realistically replicating the human dynamics of an in-person meeting experience. Through its dynamic core platform and unique intellectual property, Teliris has radically simplified the acquisition, deployment and operating costs of telepresence, breaking new ground in adoption and reach of the technology. Teliris is headquartered in New York and London and has deployments across the globe, offering with end-to-end integration, market-leading 99%+ availability guarantee and interoperability with all telepresence, traditional videoconferencing and unified communications solutions. For more information, visit www.teliris.com or email info@teliris.com.

About Virtustream
Virtustream (www.virtustream.com) is an innovative cloud provisioning firm committed to delivering next-generation infrastructure services to enterprise class customers. We leverage our secure high performance platform, xStream, to deliver highly available and elastic compute resources at true consumption-based pricing. We lead our Cloud Platform Services with Cloud Advisory Services, providing expertise in the areas of cloud adoption, migration and architecture strategies and infrastructure-related integration services. We provide ongoing support for our Cloud Platform Services through two groups: our Cloud Cover team provides a managed service, from core infrastructure through enterprise applications and the Cloud Staging and Networks group that provides colocation, security and network services. Virtustream owns and operates its own data centers in the U.S. and U.K., and has offices in Washington, D.C., New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, London, Dublin and the Channel Islands. Keep tabs on us with Twitter: www.twitter.com/rjrogers87 and www.twitter.com/Virtustream.

Teliris has been an innovative force in the telepresence industry for over a decade and is known for developing and implementing high quality, fully managed, telepresence and collaboration solutions. The company leverages a software based platform to provide a telepresence experience over the usually lossy public internet, and boasts strong interoperability with telepresence and videoconferencing (VC) products from other manufacturers. 

Teliris has recently announced three new offerings which can greatly increase the availability, flexibility, and reach of an organization’s VC footprint. The announcements include a meeting room system starting at $5,000, a managed desktop endpoint, and an extended managed service offering. These new offerings will allow companies with existing deployments to affordably extend their VC services to more people and locations. In addition, smaller companies that can’t afford traditional large scale VC infrastructure can now take the VC plunge a few systems at a time.

Teliris StartPoint

In a clear shot across the bow of traditional room system codec vendors, Teliris is offering a “lightweight video endpoint” starting at $5,000. Designed with ease of use in mind, it simply connects to a standard HDMI-compatible display and is operated via a mouse and an onscreen menu. This high definition VC endpoint comes with all the benefits of any fully managed Teliris endpoint (including full VNOC support). Teliris bundles managed services into all of its offerings to ensure that their customers always have guaranteed reliability and 24/7/365 support. This helps to explain the impressively high usage rates (up to 40% of business hours) reported by Teliris for some of their currently managed solutions. Like all Teliris endpoints, StartPoint supports SVC, leveraging Vidyo’s SDK which helps to provide a quality video experience over the public internet.

 Teliris @nywhere

According to Teliris, their @nywhere solution is the first fully managed software based desktop client. What this means is that desktop videoconferencing users can enjoy all benefits of the Teliris managed services described above on their PC or Mac. Scheduled calls and full VNOC support at your desktop. The solution is still in beta (expected release in Q1 2012) and UC integrations (OCS and Lync) are planned for future releases.

Expanded Managed Services

Teliris is extending their managed service offerings to include equipment from other videoconferencing manufacturers. This allows for customers to support mixed environments including various types endpoints, all managed by the Teliris’ experienced VNOCs and backed by a 99% SLA. Teliris was one of the first companies in the world to manage multi-screen, multi-codec telepresence installations. Leveraging their patented Dynamic Scenario Manager (DSM), they can ensure an optimum experience between different types of endpoints. DSM understands the screen setup and layout options of each endpoint so that during multipoint meetings it can intelligently create an appropriate layout at each end.

Managed services has always been a big part of the Teliris story. Teliris states that the systems under their management have a significantly higher usage rate than reported industry averages. As industry veterans, Teliris has understood for a long time that you can’t simply install video equipment in a conference room and expect successful adoption. The support and guaranteed meeting success provided by managed services can prevent users from having that one bad experience which turns them off of videoconferencing. The expanded service offering is set to launch in Q1 2012 and is expected to cover all standards based videoconferencing systems and telepresence suites offered by the leading vendors (Cisco, LifeSize, Polycom, Radvision, etc.)

“Teliris sees delivering our industry-leading services beyond our boardroom solutions to both new endpoints and other video collaboration endpoints as being key to driving greater utilization and real business change.” Says Hana Jeddy, Teliris Marketing & Public Manager.  This combination of Teliris’ new endpoints and their expanded service should be interesting to those looking to extend the reach of their VC environments, or start new ones, without large infrastructure investments.