BT offers cross-vendor videoconferencing support

BT promises quicker videoconferencing RoI

BT Conferencing is to offer interoperability with Cisco, Polycom and Tandberg videoconferencing systems as part of its BT One Source managed service.

The new cross-vendor support will allow customers to use BT One Source and its Engage Meeting Manager to initiate a video call between Cisco TelePresence systems and Tandberg and Polycom video systems.

Aaron McCormack, chief executive of BT Conferencing, claimed that the move will help businesses improve return on investment (RoI) in video technology.

"Our goal is to help customers maximise their investments in video technology by allowing them to collaborate with partners, suppliers, customers and others around the globe," he said.

BT also said that the interoperability will allow BT One Source customers to save on travel costs, cut carbon emissions and quantify RoI using the Engage Tracker tool.

The move highlights the growing maturity of the videoconferencing space. Cisco announced earlier this year that it intends to submit an interoperability standard to help drive take-up of the technology.

Polycom, meanwhile, has said that it will support H.264 video compression technology which it claimed can reduce bandwidth requirements for videoconferencing and unified communication technologies by up to 50 per cent.

Polycom recently joined forces with Juniper Networks to offer low-cost and reliable telepresence and videoconferencing services.