Mitel, Vidyo, VMware Tackle Video Collaboration Over VDI

By Khali Henderson

Mitel Networks Corp., Vidyo Inc. and VMware announced Tuesday that they have jointly tackled the problem of running multimedia over virtual desktops by launching an integrated solution combining unified communications and video conferencing over a virtualized desktop.

Specifically, Mitel and Vidyo have integrated Mitels virtualized Unified Communicator Advanced client software and the VidyoConferencing collaboration solution to deliver a unified collaboration solution using VMware View virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), which moves desktops and applications into the cloud and delivers  them as a managed service. Users simply sign on once to a terminal or  VMware View client to gain access to video conferencing, voice, presence, secure IM, audio and web conferencing, document sharing, voice messaging and email.

The new solution builds on work VMware and Mitel announced last year at VMworld enabling  streaming virtualized voice to a virtual desktop without significant performance and latency issues. Now, the  Mitel, Vidyo and VMware solution enables media streaming by separating communications into two pieces the rich media component and the call-processing component that sets up the connections. The call-processing component is transmitted through the data center whereas the rich media component is transmitted directly to the endpoints, enabling the quality over existing networks without sacrificing performance in the data center.

Solving the performance and resource issues related to voice in VDI solutions was hard enough,” said Charles King, analyst at Pund-IT Inc. “But the ability to deliver business-quality video in a virtualized environment requires overcoming significant technical hurdles, especially when you take an open approach versus the proprietary walled garden products offered by some vendors. If the collaboration between Mitel and Vidyo and VMware performs as we expect it to, the results will be groundbreaking.” 

The VidyoConferencing solution can be initiated by users of Mitel’s UCA from a PC, laptop or smartphone. “UCA is the entry into everything,” said Alan Zurakowski, Mitel’s director of business development and strategic alliances.

Uniquely, Vidyo’s solution does not require a multipoint control unit (MCU) that most video solutions use, explained Ashish Gupta, Vidyo’s CMO and senior vice president of corporate development, during a briefing using the VidyoConferencing service.   As such, he said, it also does not utilize transcoding, which combines all the individual streams and sends them back out to all viewers  — the result being a view at the quality level of the device with the worst bandwidth connection. Instead, Vidyo’s technology is created in nine layers and automatically sends the amount of information appropriate to the endpoint — enough to fill the screen, but not choke the bandwidth, Gupta said.

The companies will demo the solution at  VMworld 2012, Aug. 26-30 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.