In the mean time, here is a look back at Q2. Q2 was an interesting quarter, even though as far as announcements go, it didn’t seem as jam-packed as Q1 when we had a plethora of industry shows happening. Still progress was made in a few categories. Here’s my song again:

On the Twelfth day of UC the industry gave to me, figuring out the plumbing (Interoperability and standards)
the value of video, not hyping, (good solid uses of video of all types)
no more pagers beeping, (customers lining up to buy unified communications solutions)
interface enhancing, (ASR and TTS improved and integrated into more UC applications/interfaces)
CFOs bilking, (UC sales up with good ROI stories)
overuse of power dimming, (Green, green, green)
applications plug ‘n playing, (integration and out of the box use)
five phone rings, (carriers solving access problems)
the voicemail market girds, (installed base churn of voice mail in favor of UC)
an AT lens, (incorporating more assistive technology components into UC solutions)
what SMB loves, (paving the way for SMB adoption of UC)
And a clear definition of UC

Interface Enhancing

New telephones are perfect for the theme of enhancing the user interface, and to this end Toshiba American Information Systems, Inc., did not disappoint, particularly as it involves call center agents as well as general end users. In May they announced their newly enhanced Net PhoneTM (V6.0) that included presence capabilities for the enterprise and the contact center. The phone includes a presence viewer (with auto-dial from presence viewer), real-time user status, click to call or chat, and collaboration tools. The phone was designed to work with the Toshiba Strata® CIX™ family of IP business communication systems and all Toshiba IP, digital and soft phone telephones. The phones also have built-in integration with Toshiba applications, such as Strata ACD and with Toshiba-certified third-party applications.]

Speech Technologies

Within speech technologies we saw non-telephony kinds of interfaces being “enhanced” - that is, if you like talking to your appliances. I’ve wondered whether or not I would use a speech interface that was built into an appliance, and decided that it was ok as long as it wasn’t my bathroom scale talking back to me. Along these lines, in May, Indesit, Europe’s second-largest home appliances manufacturer, introduced Sophius, a prototype voice-controlled oven that uses speech technologies from Loquendo and Amuser, a multimedia solution provider. Indesit claims that Sophius is the first fully voice-controlled domestic appliance, allowing users to change cooking times, set temperatures, or preset times and temperatures by being guided by Loquendo’s TTS prompts or through naturally spoken commands. For example, Sophius understands commands such as “Cook the pizza at 180 degrees for 20 minutes”. This is one area of speech that has been bandied about for years in the speech community, but hasn’t gotten any serious traction before, with some minor exceptions. I still think it will be awhile before we get any solid end user feedback on it.

Going Green

In Q2, everything was still coming up green in UC and telephony, including brouhaha between Nortel and Cisco. No comment on that one. However, we did see more green announcements in the news including Cisco getting a “Green Certification” from Miercom, the network consultancy that does networking and communication product testing and analysis, for Cisco’s Catalyst 3750-E, 3560-E, 3750, 3560 and 2960 Series Switches. The ‘Certified Green’ testing program is a new one for Miercom, who intends to use it to provide guidance for companies looking to improve their green IT and business practices, and to challenge networking vendors to create products that lower energy and power consumption.

Similarly, in conjunction with Earth Day, Polycom, Inc. announced a green services program, Going Green with Polycom, a professional services offering which is a three-step program offered through authorized Polycom channel partners that provides companies with video readiness, green rollout planning and implementation, and tracking and measurement programs. The intent of the program is to help organizations reduce their carbon emissions through increased usage of video applications as an alternative to travel.

Finally, IBM announced that in the year since they launched Project Big Green they have already helped more than 2,000 clients implement green initiatives to reduce cost and environmental impact as well as simplify IT systems. Additionally, IBM reported that they have recycled more than one billion pounds of IT equipment removed from clients' data centers in the process.

Assistive Technology

Probably the most important news in the assistive technology space wasn’t a product announcement, but legislation on accessibility. On May 1, 2008, Congress heard testimony on draft legislation, the "Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act." The legislation was requested by a coalition of organizations from the disability community, including the American Federation for the Blind (AFB) and the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) to ensure that new information and communications technologies are accessible. The hearing took place before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. If passed, it would address communications technologies that use the Internet to send and receive information, including the telephone and TV. Existing legislation regarding telephone accessibility, Section 255, was passed in 1996 before the Internet was a factor, and needs updating. This new legislation would also require increasingly more video description of TV programs, both in the programs themselves and for on-screen menus and electronic program guides. In addition, provisions are included for improvements to be made for those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

However, Q2 was not without its accessible product announcements. Audiopoint announced it will launch a new Voice Terminal Service (VTS) to provide instant access to Internet content in real time, via any telephone for visually impaired consumers or those with limited Internet access. Audiopoint claims this is a first of a kind announcement because there are not limitations on any content on the web. Using TTS users can listen and reply to emails, or surf any web site.

SMB Market

Lots of things are happening in the SMB market. In Q2 more vendors came out with speech-activated auto-attendants aimed at SMB, such as Active Voice’s SPEAK, which is powered by LumenVox speech technologies on a Digium platform. SPEAK is an out of the box, turnkey system that is priced right for the market.

In UC, Nortel introduced the Software Communications System (SCS) 500 for the SMB market. The SCS 500 is a software-based, open source solution that scales from very small up to 1000 users. It provides VoIP, IM, presence, UM and on-demand audio/video conferencing, along with auto-attendant and ACD functionality. The SCS 500 comes with two softphones, but can also use Nortel IP phones or others. In addition, plug-ins for MS Outlook and IBM Lotus Notes are also available. Nortel also announced that they will be selling this solution bundled with both IBM and Dell hardware.

In another Nortel announcement in Q2, they announced a hosted joint UC application with Microsoft for SMBs, based on Nortel’s Communications Server 2000 and Microsoft Hosted Messaging and Collaboration (HMC) 4.5.

Mitel also announced SMB products in Q2. The Mitel Applications Suite 1.1 provides audio and web conferencing, UM, single identity mobile integration and mobile worker support for SMBs. Mitel also rebranded its PBX for SMBs as the Mitel 5000 Network Communications System, with support for their Mitel 5200 and 5300 series IP phones. A single server solution, the software can come pre-integrated for easier installation.