Segments within telecom – though slowed in many areas by the down economy – haven’t been affected as much as many industries, an official with a Montreal-based provider of media and wireless modem processing silicon and software solutions told TMCnet in an interview.
James Awad, product marketing manager at
Octasic Inc., told TMC CEO Rich Tehrani (
News -
Alert) in an interview – printed in full below – that, at worst, product demand slowed and demand management became more difficult as customers sought to minimize inventory by only ordering against orders in hand.
“OEMs have focused on cost reductions of existing products rather than launching new projects in an attempt to wring every profit dollar from current deployments,” Awad told Tehrani.
Awad – whose VoIP and multi-standard wireless basestation DSP solutions are based on Opus, and who is speaking during a session titled “
Leveraging Video in an Enterprise Setting” at
ITEXPO West 2009, to be held in Los Angeles from Sept. 1 to 3 – also said that it’s seeing more and more activity in wireless gateways, Interactive Voice and Video Response and enterprise IP-PBX (
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Alert).
Their full exchange follows.
Rich Tehrani: What has the economic crisis taught you, and how has it changed your customers?
James Awad (pictured left): There is no doubt that the economic crisis has touched all industries, including the telecommunications industry. However the industry has, perhaps, not seen the extremes of say the automotive or consumer industries. At the worse case, product demand slowed and demand management became more difficult as customers sought to minimize inventory by only ordering against orders in hand. OEMs have focused on cost reductions of existing products rather than launching new projects in an attempt to wring every profit dollar from current deployments.
RT: What’s the strongest segment in the communications industry?
JA: Asia has remained our fastest growing geographic market. Activity has been found across a wide range of market segments from wireless gateways, IVVR (Interactive Voice and Video Response) and enterprise IP-PBX.
RT: I understand you are speaking during ITEXPO West, to be held Sept. 1 to 3 in Los Angeles. Describe your talk and tell us what companies or people should attend.
JA: The presentation will address the issues of Leveraging Video in an Enterprise Setting. We all know the video revolution is upon us, but it seems to be arriving in spurts.
We’ve seen an explosion of video content on the Internet, and the uptake of video conferencing, but why can’t I access all this from my mobile phone yet? Why hasn’t this reached mass market adoption? This talk will address the remaining hurdles in developing efficient video gateways to support all these future services. Come find out what equipment you should be designing right now to address today’s needs in the video market.
RT: Why should customers choose your company’s solutions? How do they justify the expense to management?
JA: The largest factors stalling video service adoption are cost and quality. Octasic’s (
News -
Alert) Vocallo MGW solution allows OEMs to attack both these problems. Vocallo MGW is composed of an efficient DSP coupled with VoIP and Video firmware. This all-in-one solution reduces the cost and complexity of dealing with multiple vendors.
Offered as a scalable solution, OEMs can design a system for VoIP first, and at a later time, upgrade to support video, eliminating the need for forklift replacements at customer sites.
Finally, the Vocallo firmware includes Octasic’s high quality audio and video algorithms, meaning the system designer can focus on developing his/her application and still deliver impeccable audio and video quality.
Learn more about Octasic at ITEXPO West — the biggest and most comprehensive IP communications event of the year. ITEXPO (News - Alert) West will take place in Los Angeles, Sept. 1 to 3, 2009, featuring three valuable days of exhibits, conferences, and networking opportunities you can’t afford to miss. Don’t wait. Register now.
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Michael Dinan is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To read more of Michael's articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by
Michael Dinan
