News

7/8/2003

VCON and Orca Interactive Present High-Quality Videoconferencing for TV Set-top Boxes

Premium Service Enables Subscribers to Send and Receive Video Phone Calls via Their TV Sets, Thereby Increasing Revenue and Customer Loyalty for Operators

VCON, a worldwide leader in visual communications solutions, and Orca Interactive, an Emblaze group company and provider of interactive television (iTV) applications that allow service delivery to multiple consumer devices, announced they will demonstrate a high-quality videoconferencing solution for home TV subscribers. The solution combines the VCON HD100 videoconferencing engine with Orca's RiGHTv(TM) for TV set-top boxes, enabling home subscribers to communicate visually using the familiar TV user interface. This unique videoconferencing demonstration will be shown September 12-16 at the International Broadband Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam in booth # 2.230.

The solution will be demonstrated in two ways, TV to TV videoconferencing as well as TV to PC videoconferencing. In TV to TV videoconferencing, a subscriber would use their TV remote control to establish and conduct a videoconference on their home TV to another home TV subscriber. The HD100 videoconferencing engine sits next to the TV set-top box and is managed by Orca's RiGHTv application. In TV to PC videoconferencing, a PC user could use their IP videoconferencing system to call a home user on their TV, or vice versa, allowing for business to home video communications.

"Video conferencing provides Telcos with an excellent source of additional revenues as well as helps to reduce subscriber churn," said Yosi Glick, vice president of business development, Orca Interactive. "It is a premium, high-quality service with a user-friendly interface and a high number of applications that are very enticing to consumers. For example, sports fans can chat with friends about the big game as they watch on live TV and grandparents can see and talk to their grandchildren as they say goodnight from far away."

The HD100 is a videoconferencing engine in a compact design, producing high quality video with extremely low latency and IP conferencing data rates up to 2Mbps. With integrated streaming and an embedded MCU, Orca's RiGHTv application could include not only point-to-point calls but also multipoint video calls and streaming applications.

"We are excited to see a consumer-based videoconferencing application created with the HD100," said Gordon Daugherty, president, VCON, Inc. "With the HD100's exceptional video quality and low latency, combined with the RiGHTv technology, home users could enjoy high-quality videoconferencing at a reasonable price for the first time."

www.orcainteractive.com
www.emblaze.com
www.vcon.com