NMS Communications (NASDAQ: NMSS), a leading provider of technologies and solutions for mobile applications and infrastructure, today announced it is enabling application developers to build cost-effective, IP video over broadband applications with the introduction of its Video Access 2.0 mobile and IP video applications toolkit (http://www.nmscommunications.com/videoaccess).
Video Access 2.0 works with NMS’s carrier-class CG series of high performance media processing boards, including the recently introduced CG 6565. In conjunction with the Video Access 2.0 toolkit, the company is also announcing its Video Transcoder 2.0 networked transcoding software (http://www.nmscommunications.com/VideoTranscoder), which can be used with the Video Access 2.0 toolkit or separately. Video Transcoder 2.0 enables enhanced streaming video capabilities that support CIF (common interchange format) screen resolution.
Solution developers such as Italy-based Reitek are seeing high demand for solutions that enable IP video over broadband. “The rate of change from audio to video VoIP services is indicative of a real explosion in that market. Within just one year of going mainstream with audio capabilities, VoIP providers are already offering support for SIP-based video phones,” said Daniele Barki, CEO of Reitek. “Video Access 2.0 will enable developers like ourselves to participate in that explosion.”
The early market for video communications has been mobile video services using the 3G-324M mobile format. By extending video capabilities to broadband, Video Access 2.0 is dramatically extending the size of the available video communications market to include both wireless and wireline VoIP consumers. Analysts predict that by 2006, revenue for VoIP equipment alone will already be worth $5.7 billion, with a 60 percent growth rate expected by 2008. The advent of new SIP-based video phones allows developers using the Video Access 2.0 toolkit to attach themselves to that six billion dollar a year and growing market.
“This is about the evolution of entertainment and communications,” said Mike Katz, director of product marketing for NMS Communications. “Technology such as Video Access 2.0 is bringing visual communications to a much larger target market by making it available through the oldest communication technology known to our culture – the telephone.”
With Video Access 2.0, developers can now deploy high performance video applications on either a 3G-324M or an IP network. When used in conjunction with NMS’s high performance CG 6565 platform, Video Access 2.0 is able to double the number of video ports provided. Video Access 2.0 includes support for CIF video streams from multiple vendors’ SIP phones, transcoding and transrating of CIF, video tromboning and streaming gateway support for SIP-based IP video terminals.