IP-enabled PBXs and its ability to leverage enterprise directories and e-mail servers earned it the top pot. Communité uses LDAP-supported directories as a central repository for user information and attributes such as e-mail addresses, preferences, call-screening rules and message notification. Communité also integrates fax services with the unified messaging server and provides broad support for mail clients. Its client applications support handheld devices running Microsoft Pocket PC, Palm and RIM BlackBerry. And for those with voicemail only, Communité employs XML to utilize a standard file system as a message store.
Finalist:
Cisco Unity 4.0, Cisco Systems, (800) 553-6387. www.cisco.com
Sean Doherty is a technology editor and lawyer based at our Syracuse University Real-World Labs®. A former project manager and IT engineer at Syracuse University, Doherty helped develop centrally supported applications and storage systems. Write to him at [email protected].
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MGW 2400, Optibase, (800) 451-5101, (650) 230-2400. www.optibase.com
Our digital convergence winner streams live, on-demand video over IP for corporate communications and training applications. It uses Microsoft Windows Media Technology (WMT) and leverages Windows Media servers without added configuration. With external disk storage and two 10/100-Mbps NICs--one for streaming services, one for management--the appliance supports as many as six encoding modules for input from analog audio sources, S-video and composite (NTSC/PAL) video sources, and SDI (Serial Digital Input). With the maximum number of modules installed, the MGW 2400 encodes and streams as many as six live WMT channels for delivery over UDP and HTTP in unicast or multicast. The management console, the SNMP-based Element Management System (EMS), commands encoding modules and sets up streams using a default 44.1-KHz sample rate for audio signaling and a maximum 2-Mbps encoding rate while supporting screen resolutions from 160x112 to 384x288. The MGW 2400 can deliver low-bandwidth streams over slow WAN links or DVD-quality video over the enterprise LAN. And you can adjust the bit rate dynamically to reduce bandwidth requirements as more users access a unicast stream or join a multicast broadcast.
Convergence Links at NWC.com...
