Polycom to reveal multimedia app server

Howard Solomon

A decade ago, Polycom Inc. released its ReadiVoice audio conferencing solution, which enabled service providers to more easily offer voice conferencing to customers.

This month company hopes to do the same for video conferencing with the release of its Proxias application server, which it says will let service providers cost-effectively deliver rich-media conferencing services.

"We will remove the operational inefficiencies of video," James Brennan, Polycom's director of product management for network video products, said in an -interview.

Proxias is a Linux-based IMS-compliant, SIP platform that works with Polycom's InnoVox 4000IP and RMX 2000 media servers. Proxias can be arranged in a cluster for improving redundancy and can deal with peak flows, Brennan said.

Service providers may have a dozen multi-conferencing units, which need to be maintained as what Brennan called "islands of capabilities."

Proxias will allow network managers to manage those resources as an efficient, more fault-tolerant central pool, he said.

While general purpose application servers are fine for single messaging or video streaming, Brennan said, providers looking to offer very high-end collaboration services such as combinations of audio, video and Web content need a specialized server.

Ronald Gruia, a Toronto-based telecom analyst with Frost and Sullivan, noted that Proxias' high availability is one feature the company can press against competition from application servers from Alcatel, Nortel and others that may not be honed for conferencing.

Companies with competing media servers include Vancouver-based RadiSys, which in June released the Convedia Software Media Server. RadiSys bought Convedia Corp. last year.

The release of Proxias means Polycom is "starting to be a player in the IMS space," Gruia said.

Proxias will initially be sold as part of a ReadiVoice solution. A package supporting 4,000 ports of conferencing, Proxias, an InnoVox 4000 media server and ReadiVoice would work out to US$495 a port.

Brennan also said that later this year Polycom will release an on-demand video product similar to ReadiVoice that will allow service providers to offer end-users accounts with an 800-number for anytime video conferencing.