Avaya fires up Flare Experience for collaboration

The Desktop Video Device offers touch-screen capabilities for starting conference calls

Avaya has announced a SIP-based collaboration system called Flare Experience that it claims will change the nature of communication for business personnel.

The platform runs on the firm's Aura platform, and allows workers to use touch-screen devices to start voice and video calls or conferences and IM conversations by dragging contacts into 'spotlights' that represent conversations.

Contacts are imported from a range of locations, including email accounts and social networking sites, to make it straightforward to add new participants to calls or start secondary calls, the firm explained.

"With the Flare Experience platform we can dramatically improve the way businesses and business users collaborate, offering a truly unified environment that is compelling and fun to use," said Alan Baratz, senior vice president of global communications solutions at Avaya.

To offer the full benefits of the platform, the firm has also launched a desktop product called the Avaya Desktop Video Device.

The tablet combines an 11.5in capacitive touch screen and HD videoconferencing capabilities with either Ethernet or Wi-Fi connectivity, and offers HDMI-out connections for external displays, three USB ports and Bluetooth.

The Flare platform will come as standard on the Avaya Desktop Video Device, but the company will also bring the platform to other devices such as the iPad.

"We will be making the Flare Experience available across all communications devices that are important in the enterprise environment, including PC, Mac and smartphones," he added.

Baratz also announced a series of future products for the Flare platform, including improvements to the firm's 96X1 desktop phone to run Flare and PC support for its one-X communicator platform.

Finally, Avaya announced the availability of its web.alive virtual meeting room software.

"Web.alive is a 3D immersive communication and collaboration environment that is hosted on the network and can be configured to look however you wish for avatar-based communications, including spatial audio and visual capabilities," said Baratz.

All the products are available today, but no pricing information was given.