Tandberg’s Advanced Media Gallery Offers Promise to Office Communicator Users
The product transcodes Microsoft’s Real Time Video (RTV) format to the industry-standard H.264, which is essential for enabling HD video and audio interoperability between Office Communicator 2007 R2 and other standards-based systems.
Tandberg announced its Advanced Media Gateway to EH Publishing this week. The solution enables millions of Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 users to connect and collaborate in high-definition (HD) with other standards-based video and telepresence users. 
When combined with the company’s Video Communication Server (VCS), the Advanced Media Gateway offers scalable and resilient high-definition video access to the entire enterprise from familiar business tools.†
In a statement to EH Publishing, Tandberg says the Advanced Media Gateway is the only product in the industry that can transcode Microsoft’s Real Time Video (RTV) format to the industry standard H.264, which is essential for enabling HD video and audio interoperability between Office Communicator 2007 R2 and other standards-based systems.
According to Tandberg, the launch of the Advanced Media Gateway marks a major milestone in the company’s collaboration strategy for enabling organizations to increase the value of existing unified communications (UC) investments.
“The Advanced Media Gateway is a significant step in delivering on our vision to provide business-quality video access for everyone,” says Tandberg CEO Fredrik Halvorsen. “By enabling ubiquitous HD video between Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 and standards-based video, we are helping companies leverage their existing collaboration infrastructure to deliver an optimal video experience to everyone from familiar tools. This is critical for creating an open video community, where individuals and teams can easily collaborate in high-definition.”
Brent Kelly is a senior analyst and partner with Wainhouse Research. From his perspective, the Tandberg Advanced Media Gateway exemplifies “the power that unified communications has for driving video.”
“One of the challenges SMBs face with mass video adoption is interoperability between desktop video, high-definition group video, and telepresence environments,” Kelly observes. “Tandberg’s Advanced Media Gateway embodies a well-conceived strategy and an innovative solution for instantly enabling the millions of desktops running Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 to interoperate with (and properly display on) high-definition video and telepresence units.”
Kelly adds that the new Advanced Media Gateway will “inevitably drive greater video usage in all sectors as people experience business-quality visual collaboration between Microsoft desktops and group systems that was previously not possible.”
