Here’s a summary of my talk at ITEXPO given on 2/3/11.
“Telefacsimile” went commercial 150 years ago. Seems like yesterday, doesn’t it? G3 fax, made possible by the microprocessor, is now 31. And T.38 turned 12 last October ... a mere kid.
Cliff Schornak[/caption]
In marketing, it’s axiomatic that the market leader enjoys the highest margins, but it doesn’t end there. It extends to giving the large company a ride when it comes to interoperability problems in the field. If there’s a problem, it must be the little guy. Right? In this case, the little guy is Commetrex. And even though we can make a very strong case for being the industry’s interop leader, we still must prove that it’s not our problem if the other vendor is much bigger then we are. Goes with the territory.
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.
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.
