Hitachi High-Technologies Signs Agreement with Compunetix

MONROEVILLE, Pa., Feb. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is an article by Compunetix partner Hitachi High Technologies (HHT) for the Japanese market. It appeared in the CNA Report on January 31, 2011. The translation is credited to Keisuke Hashimoto. Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (HHT) announced that HHT has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Compunetix, Inc.

Under this agreement, HHT will sell Compunetix's The "EVERGREEN" family of MCUs and "STix", PC based videoconferencing software, in Japan.

The EVERGREEN family has three lines with 14 models of MCUs: the first line is "EVERGREEN Cedar", a 3U server with 2 slots, the second one is "EVERGREEN Cypress", a 5U server with 6 slots, and the third one is "EVERGREEN14 Sequoia", a 13U server with 14 slots.

These three respective lines have multiple numbers of MCUs with different port capacity, offered as standard configuration, which however, can be customizable depending on user requirements.

Compunetix comments on the new EVERGREEN family, "EVERGREEN meets various requirements from a broad range of users starting from telecom carriers to enterprises of all sizes."

EVERGREEN supports video codec of H.264, H.261 and H.263, with 720p, 4CIF and CIP resolutions. And it has features like transcoding, dial-in, continuous presence, H.239 dual stream, encryption (AES slated to support in this May), and web based console.

The port capacity varies depending on a resolution that you require for a video call. When the MCU delivers HD resolution, Cedar has the maximum of 15 ports capacity, Cypress 45 ports, and Sequoia 90 ports respectively.

But if you have lower resolution, you will have more port capacity. In 4CIF mode, the port capacity will double. However, Cedar goes up to 31 ports. In CIF mode, it will give you more port capacity than the other higher resolutions of 4CIF and 720p.

In addition, EVERGREEN can be configured to interlink up to 5 chassis (what they call, "Fiber Link") enabling itself to further expand the capacity. With this, you will be able to have videoconferencing deployment on a much larger scale. For example, Sequoia with 5 chassis interlinked can increase port capacity up to 450 on HD resolution, and 3,000 on CIF.

Other features include ATCA (Advanced Telecommunication Computing Architecture), connection card, redundancy in chassis and power supply, safe operation, and API for EVERGREEN for custom configuration.

Looking at management side for EVERGREEN, the MCU can be operated and managed by "EZ Kaigi" (footnote: "conference" in Japanese) or videoconferencing management software which HHT has developed and marketed for Japan market.

What you can do with EZ Kaigi is that you can launch a videoconference either by on-demand or by reservation. EZ Kaigi can take care of operations like booking, setting up and running meetings, as well as managing installed endpoints on the network, retrieving usage data from a log, all of which are controlled and managed by an easy to use web browser user interface.

Now, turning to the business side, over the past years, HHT has sold many of videoconferencing systems in Japan market, whose products are from makers like LifeSize and TANDBERG, and thereby putting vigorous energy into efforts like comprehensive customer support by launching "HTVC High-Tech Vision Techno Center" in Tokyo as they see it is indispensable for achieving utmost quality of user satisfaction.

With the new launch of EVERGREEN for Japan market, HHT will position it as a core product in HHT's comprehensive visual communications solution: They will offer video and audio products as well as provide the relevant services such as consulting, maintenance and support all in one-stop shop basis.

HHT comments on the position of EVERGREEN in their picture for their video business going forward. "We are now seeing in the market ongoing diversification all around in networks and devices. When looking at the network trend, we now have ubiquitous IP with NGN on the horizon, in addition to the conventional ISDN. And speaking of devices, we see various smart phones coming into play such as Android, iPhone/iPad. In such a heterogeneous world, we think that EVERGREEN will play a pivotal role in bringing all of these different networks and devices together."

Besides EVERGREEN or video MCU, Compunetix has developed and marketed audio MCUs like "Summit/Sonexis" as well. And as part of the audio business, the company has a fully owned subsidiary called, Chorus Call, Inc. Chorus Call provides a host of conference services such as bridging, tailored meetings for customers, conference recording. And its business is currently operated in 10 countries; US, Australia, Brazil, Germany, and India. To address broader conferencing needs in the market, HHT intends to work together with Compunetix also in this conference call space going forward.

As a company, Compunetix was established in 1967, to deliver a business model starting from developing their own chips and all the way down to manufacturing of products and providing the relevant sales and services to the market.

The revenue in 2010 combining both Compunetix and Chorus Call, was approximately 100 million dollars with no debt. According to the company, 20% of the total revenue is devoted to R&D to strengthen the competitive advantage in the market.

Compunetix is privately held. However, 42% of the company stock is owned by its employees. Many of them work for the company as long as 10 to 25 years. As for headcount, currently about 500 people are working for Compunetix, and about 150 for Chorus Call.

In the past, Compunetix has developed communications systems tailored for the federal government, the US navy, NASA, and the likes. NASA, for example, bought 4,000 port MCU from Compunetix.

In fact, the government agencies demand for very high reliability and robust security in systems they purchase for themselves. Therefore, Compunetix recalls, "In those days, when it came to audio bridging, the technology was based on audio mixing and the scale of the system was small compared to current systems available today. So given that situation, developing of 4,000 port MCU was a challenging project as NASA was trying to deploy the largest system ever developed."

After the successful completion of the NASA project, Compunetix decided to expand into enterprise market and, up until now, has successfully won many businesses from world-class telecom carriers and enterprises.

"Collaboration market is rapidly growing these days. In response to that, we are launching EVERGREEN to increase our presence in the market. With the today's agreement, we believe this will bring about a good synergy to both HHT and Compunetix in Japan market, and look forward to the long lasting relationship towards the future," according to Compunetix.

About Compunetix, Inc.

Compunetix is the global leader in carrier-grade multimodal conferencing and collaboration solutions including VoIP and HD video, all powered by superior hardware design. With nearly one million ports installed in more than 28 countries, the company has the industry's largest worldwide deployment of digital conferencing systems. Dedicated to customer-focused and innovative technology, Compunetix engineers and manufactures all aspects of its conferencing equipment, ensuring its customers that their media processors are the highest quality, most reliable and most flexible solutions on the market. For more information, call Mario Rimini at (412) 373-8110, or visit Compunetix at www.compunetix.com.

SOURCE Compunetix, Inc.