Unified Communications Week in Review: Vertical, Mitel, Avaya, and Drones

By Dominick Sorrentino
Editor

There’s never a dull moment in the UC universe. This week we saw new releases, big changes in UC hospitality solutions, and the first real push to drone-based videoconferencing. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane with our week in review coverage.  

First up, Vertical Communications (News - Alert) made an announcement early in the week that they officially released Wave IP 5.0, which boasts three primary improvements: endpoints, total cost of ownership enhancements, and usability and feature set enhancements. TMC’s (News - Alert) Paula Bernier gets into the nitty-gritty with the full story.

Next on the wire, hospitality communications provider, Mitel (News - Alert), has announced a comprehensive update to its Hospitality authorizedPARTNER program.  The news treads in the wake of the company’s acquisition of TigerTMS, and Mitel says that these pushes are being made in an attempt to encourage the hospitality industry to seamlessly adapt to changes in the communications world. TMC’s David Delony has the full story.

Another company that continues to blaze ahead with new updates is Avaya (News - Alert), which announced the release of updates to the Collaboration Pod 2400 Series Software, which helps clients manage applications, data storage units, servers and networks. The impetus for the release is to better address the needs of its customers, who will now be able to deploy the Collaboration Pod in weeks, as opposed to the months that it takes many other engagement products to deploy. Get all the details, HERE.

And finally, for the big news item on the week, Stampede and Vidyo (News - Alert) have announced a collaboration that will make videoconferencing a drone-based endeavor. In fact, the companies intend to reveal more about this development at the upcoming InfoComm 2015 event. As TMC’s Steve Anderson points out in his report, the use for this type of technology will have use beyond professionals who work out in the field—such as police forces, fire fighters, forest rangers, etc. Without giving too much away, let’s just say that Amazon’s drone delivery system would have a lot to gain from this type of deployment.

And that’s a wrap! Come back early and often with news, updates, features, and analysis of the big events in the world of Unified Communications.

Have a lovely weekend.