Primus launches videoconferencing service

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 18 May 2011 14:26

Business IT - Networking

Primus has launched a hosted videoconferencing service, Accella Cloud VC, with a demonstration at the launch of the mainland NBN in Armidale, where Primus is one of the participating ISPs.

Accella is the brand name for Primus' BroadSoft based hosted IP telephony and unified communications offering, launched officially last November, but which had been in operation for considerably longer and which also includes video telephony. The new service, however it provided from a different platform, not operated at present by Primus, but resold.

Andrew Sims, Primus' general manager, marketing and products, told iTWire: "[The new platform] is capable of things that BroadSoft cannot do very well: supporting high definition, and the different types of video codecs. This is the next evolution, and the basic premise is that you can just dial in and set up meetings on the fly, and use a variety of proprietary kit."

Sims said that, as demand grew the company would look at taking the service in house. "That will give us full control and we will be able to manage reliability of the platform," he said. He declined to name the current service provider.

According to Sims, "This new cloud video conferencing format will deliver all the quality without the expense or compatibility problems of the traditional model. We've kept costs to a set monthly fee and, importantly, we are endpoint agnostic, so can work with different cameras in different locations.

"Additional collaboration features can include Q&As, polling sessions and the ability to share documents such as PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets and software applications. Meetings can be scheduled and managed via the Accella Video Cloud portal or Microsoft Outlook integration."

Accella Cloud VC will be available in four packages ranging from executive level to a high specification package with dual 46" screens and an HD pan-tilt-zoom camera. All packages are hardware inclusive. However customers will also be able to use their own video hardware with the service.