Commetrex’ CEO, Mike Coffee, was recently interviewed at ITEXPO West 2010 in Los Angeles, and discussed Commetrex’ “Smart FoIP”, the MSP product family, and BladeWare. This interview is featured on TMCnet.com.
While you are at it, check out Mike’s CEO Commentary to learn how “We Make FoIP Work!” And, there’s more information on his blog, Mike’s Musings.
The wide-scale deployment of V.34 fax terminals is making the design of FoIP-capable IP-PSTN gateways much more of a challenge since V.34 terminals employ a completely different start-up sequence than non-V.34 machines. Moreover, since gateways typically begin calls in G.711 pass-through mode (rather than T.38), V.34-capable endpoints can actually “hear each other” well in advance of the resolution of the SIP signaling resolving the session’s setup. This means the gateways must take an “activist” role to ensure that T.38 is “given a chance” prior to the endpoints going on their merry way, leaving the gateways behind.
Because this technology isn’t widely understood, it’s probably safe to say that there are no T.38 V3 gateways with V.34 support that can actually establish a T.38-based V.34 session outside the lab. If you’re a gateway developer, you probably know that a called V.34 terminal has a completely different answer tone than a V.17 terminal, and, to make matters worse, it’s the same tone as a V.34/V.90 data modem. And if the calling terminal hears that tone and its response reaches the called terminal prior to T.38 being established, it’s too late for the two gateways to do anything about it. The endpoint machines are off to the races in G.711 mode. If the SIP peers then attempt to switch to T.38, the session will fail. The only hope, then, is for the session to continue in G.711 pass-through mode, where it at least has a fighting chance.
But, Commetrex’ Smart FoIP gives it much more than a fighting chance. With Smart FoIP’s patent-pending technology, even G.711 sessions are reliable. (Yes, you read that correctly.)
So, gateway developers, you need not despair, because Commetrex’ Smart FoIP is here. Smart FoIP handles the four fax-session configurations you need to be concerned about:
And, Smart FoIP encapsulates the media technologies you need to do it: V.8 modems, ANSam generation-detection, and call classification…all in one handy module.
There’s only one company with the mantra: “We make FoIP work!” So, if you intend to do anything about moving to V.34 fax support in your gateway, there’s only one place to go if you want it to actually work.
Want more information? Send us an e-mail at support@commetrex.com or comment on our blog at http://commetrex.blogspot.com.
2 Ring, spol. s.r.o., of Bratislava, Slovakia, is among the growing number of enterprise fax-server OEMs that base their products on BladeWare™. And, a few weeks ago, 2Ring announced the availability of NetFAX 3.0, which is their first release utilizing BladeWare as the fax-resource platform. According to 2 Ring’s Jiri Princ, “We chose Commetrex BladeWare for its extensive features, stability, scalability, and great developer support. We also wanted a system that supported both T.38 and G.711 IP fax for maximum market coverage, and BladeWare is the only product we could find that did so.”
NetFAX, a business fax solution, has been on the market since 2001. A key feature of the system is its robust Web interface, which supports system administration for the entire system and the individual user interface. NetFAX, also includes the user-friendly NetFAX client application that allows faxing from any desktop application with a printing function (such as Microsoft Word).
2Ring is a proud member of the Cisco Developer Network at the level of Cisco Solution Developer, focusing, since 2001, on the development of IP telephony and contact-center applications, as well as on productivity-enhancement solutions. But, as reported by 2 Ring’s Princ, NetFAX’s addressable market was constrained by its use of the Cisco’s T.37 feature for FoIP send-receive operations.
Princ explained: “We could only deploy NetFAX in Cisco-based networks using H.323 in order to use the Cisco feature of terminating faxes in the gateway. This often caused our customer’s cost to go up and kept 2 Ring from addressing opportunities with Avaya and other providers. Now, with BladeWare, we can use any SIP-based gateway, SIP-trunking, and SIP-peering applications. And, with BladeWare’s excellent support for G.711, we can even handle networks that do not support T.38.”
2Ring now has more than one hundred partners and certified professionals in Europe, and is experiencing rapid growth in the North American market. 2Ring’s suite of products includes IPPS, IP phone services that enable companies to integrate contacts and database information with IP phones and wireless handsets; and the state-of-the-art 2Ring Agent Desktop that enables Cisco Unified Contact Center deployments to be easily integrated with information systems and extends the after-call wrap-up collection time to cover the call’s entire duration. Other products include MACC (Multitenant Admission Control Center), and TAS, a fully-integrated call accounting solution.
To learn more about 2 Ring, go to www.2Ring.com.
Chances are that if you have been looking for a VoiceXML application-creation tool for your kit bag, you have come up empty. Over the years, this market has seen nothing but change. Of the major players, Audium was acquired by Cisco, Voice Objects by Voxeo, and ViCorp, virtually disappeared.
Well, good news. We’ve got you covered!
Commetrex’ BladeWareStudio is an easy-to-use, GUI-based VoiceXML application builder, designed specifically for developers and OEMs. BladeWareStudio’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface enables non-technical users to quickly develop applications that take advantage of the latest speech technologies and standards and to more easily and rapidly develop, manage, and publish speech-enabled and Touch-Tone voice applications.
And, here’s the really cool thing about BladeWareStudio: It provides you with the flexibility to export your source code from BladeWareStudio to a flat file for portability. Unlike other tools that force you to publish to an expensive runtime server, BladeWareStudio gives you the option of publishing applications to Java Server Pages (JSPs) for separate deployment to any J2EE-based application server. Of course, applications created in BladeWareStudio can run on a Commetrex’ BladeWareVXi interpreter-based browser or any other VoiceXML-compliant browser.
Aspect, a global provider of unified communications and collaboration services and software, is one of Commetrex’s business partners. Aspect needed a cost-effective, easy-to-use, VoiceXML application-creation environment, that was customizable, extensible, and could be branded for its voice self-service product, which BladeWareStudio provides.
Want to learn more? Drop us a line or give us a call: sales@commetrex.com or 1-770-449-7775 and press 1 for sales.
At Commetrex, communications is our business. That’s why we’ve launched a new social media portal, “Get Connected!”.
It’s all about connecting with our customers, our partners, the media, and consultants, in whatever style best fits your needs. Whether you are looking for the latest Commetrex video on YouTube, up-to-the-minute happenings in the company on Twitter, the latest technical news on Facebook, corporate updates and employee information on Linkedin, or opinions and insights from our CEO, Mike Coffee, in his , “Mike’s Musings” blog, we’ve got you covered.
And, here’s what’s really cool: all of these social media tools promote two-way communications, and give you the opportunity to connect with us anytime, anywhere, from any device, and by whichever media you choose.
So, check it out and let’s Get Connected!
As you know, a V.34-capable fax is capable of 33,600 bps, halving the time it takes to send an image. But you won’t always get 33,600. Whether you do will depend on the channel and whether the connection is analog or digital, and, if analog, how good the board’s interface is. There are also fax terminals that top out at 28.8K. We recently did some broadcasts with our analog- and digital-based V.34. Here’s what we found for V.34 connections:
To learn more about support for V.34 on BladeWare or how you can license Commetrex’ renowned fax technologies for your embedded application, send an e-mail to sales@commetrex.com.
Mike Morris, Director, Platform Development, is responsible for all system-level product development, including BladWare and SIPfaxEngine. Mike’s 32-year software-engineering career ideally prepares him for this position as the scope of his experience spans driver development to the API and to user-level applications.
Former VP, Corporate Development; General Counsel at Voxeo Corporation, is an advisor to Commetrex. Mr. Ivey has founded four startups, and his business plans/pitches have raised more than $71 million during the last ten years from VCs like Crosspoint and Mayfield.
VP & GM, Premiere Global Services is an advisor to Commetrex. He was previously President of Vocalocity LLC, a technology leader in the open systems speech technology market.
Bob Cooke is President of R.W. Cooke & Associates, an international petrochemical brokerage. Prior to this, he spent 29 years with E.I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company, holding senior positions in manufacturing and international marketing. Mr. Cooke holds a degree in mathematics from Florida State University.
Bruce Adams, Director, Signal Processing Technologies, brings an 18-year career in signal-processing and telephony-systems development to Commetrex. During his 8-year Principal Engineer assignment at Hayes Microcomputer, he completed his PhD EE coursework at Georgia Tech. Subsequently, he was Chief Executive Officer and GM at Signals+Software prior to joining Commetrex. He has also served as rapporteur on numerous ITU committees.
Cliff Schornak, CTO, Commetrex’ co-founder, was president of Systems By Design, a telecommunications design consultancy firm. Prior to this he was a senior researcher at Digital Communications Associates and the VP, Engineering at Innovative Technology, Inc. (ITI). Schornak holds master’s degrees in computer science from Georgia Tech, business and finance from George Washington, and undergraduate degrees in math and physics from Marycrest College.
Mike Coffee, President & CEO, prior to founding Commetrex, was VP, Marketing & Sales, with Natural MicroSystems, where he brought NMS into the computer-telephony market and introduced the idea for MVIP, the industry standard that propelled NMS into the market’s technology-leadership position. Prior to NMS, he served as VP and chief marketing executive at Innovative Technology, a digital-media technology developer, and Autodynamics, a worldwide marketer of process-plant simulators. Mr. Coffee holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech.
