Avaya Touts Video Tablet And ‘Flare Experience’

Avaya is looking to add the X factor to video conferencing, with a new tablet, the SIP protocol, and a new name: the “Flare Experience” previously known by an internal codename, Mojo.

Avaya promises its Flare Experience will bring an intuitive end-user experience to video, voice and text communications delivered through products including a personal desktop device, a tablet, and multi-screen room systems. The Experiend has high-definition and low-bandwidth abilities, and Avaya boldly states the solutions operate at one-third of the cost, and use significantly less bandwidth, than competing solutions, according to its internal testing.

First True SIP Architecture?

The new solution is based on Avaya Aura, the unified communications range that Avaya launched in October 2009 and extended in July 2010. This time round, Avaya claims to have the first true Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based architecture, though SIP has been underlying Aura since early in 2009.

The company says the new solutions make video calls and conferencing as easy as making a telephone call by using the same platform for both. How it works is that a business integrates real-time video into its core Avaya Aura infrastructure.

“It is part of unified communication portfolio at Avaya,” explained Nigel Moulton, Director of Product & Solutions Marketing EMEA. “Some of it relies on the Aura architecture, but there are some absolutely new elements to this, all of which are unpinned by SIP architecture.”

“When we look at what we are announcing, Avaya “Mojo” Experience is a piece of of software that runs of variety of devices, but only on Avaya devices at launch,” said Moulton, speaking to eWEEK Europe UK. “It combines video, applications, and voice into an intuitive end user experience that is gesture driven.”

It will initially be sold with the Avaya Desktop Video Device and will be available on other Avaya devices. However the Flare Experience will soon be made available for other environments, including Windows-based PCs and laptops, smartphones, and Apple products sometime in 2011.

Into The Spotlight

“The software itself is important as it brings together complex elements, and one of those are directories,” said Moulton. “In past if you wanted to phone someone, you used the directory to place the call, but there could be a number of different directories. Mojo brings it all together in a virtual Rolodex application that allows you to select the user you wish communicate with, and it then gives you options you want to communicate with them. If you selected my name for example, you would press the letter M, find my contact, and my picture appears along with my presence information (am I available via IM video etc). It gives you a list of options, so you know looking at contact what possibilities will be.”

For text messages, a pop-up keyboard appears when a user taps a text-based icon under a contact’s photo.

According to Moulton a spotlight then appears in the centre of your screen, and the user simply drags the contact into the spotlight to place the call. This removes the need for contact information such as telephone numbers etc.

And if you want to create a multiple person party conference, you simply drag others into conference. If two or three people need a sidebar conference, then the call administrator can create another spotlight, and drag them into a separate conversation. Once they are finished, they can use the IM tool to notify that they wish to rejoin, and the administrator can then reinstate them back in by dragging them into the spotlight.

Tablet Device

Moulton also said that Ayaya is launching a desktop video device, which is an 11.6 inch diameter HD touchscreen tablet device supported by a HD 720-pixel camera and HD-quality voice supported by built-in dual microphones. It uses a touchscreen that allows for the usual zooming and pinching for example.

Available in the fourth quarter, it comes with a docking station and allows the user to roam around the office conducting a video call on the move by using the Wi-Fi network or SIP. It comes with USB interfaces on it, so the user can plug in a 3G adapter to connect it when outside the office, or an optional keyboard. Upcoming versions will support remote access over VPN connections and 4G access.

Android Apps

The third major element to the announcement is the third party tools which are a set of Android apps. Moulton cited the example of a lawyer, who may find it tricky to integrate billing information when conducting a call, along with the case reference and data. He said that you can develop an app, and then simply drag a billing app into the spotlight.

Moulton also said the user will be able to reference previous communications with that client, case histories, case files etc. “It absolutely simplifies the way a lawyer would do billing, as it is entirely controlled by individual, and the app suite becomes part of the conversation,” he said.

“Here is some real value, with levels of integration previously not done, so it is absolutely ground breaking,” he said. “Businesses can start to benefit as Android is a open platform, so they can develop bespoke apps, based on SIP, which adds another value and another saving.”

“I think this is significant announcement as a company, and is the result of 12 months work of work,” he said. “It really does close things after the Nortel acquisition early this year.”

Moulton expects street pricing for the desktop video device with Flare to be around the $2,000 (£1,293) mark.