mazzarak
11-18-2004, 09:46 AM
Hi guys,
so I went to WAVE yesterday at Olympia in London, UK. It was all nicely presented, with stands from most UK major players, along with seminar rooms covering all aspects of conferencing collaboration from beginner through to advanced.
It wasn't as big as I'd expected, but then, having seen pictures from InfoComm, I guess that shouldnt be a huge surprise. There were stands by Tandberg and Polycom, as well as a stand that was Sony-branded, but I think it was a joint venture between themselves andseveral channels of theirs including Genesys's neighbours Imago Micro, and some time collaborators Albany Interactive. Also present were various Service providers besides Genesys - MCI, ACT, Worldwide ISDN. For a full list see www.wave-conferencing.com.
To coin a phrase - Here's what I think: There were some very clear eye openers at this show. Very high profile (and very hands on) was the EyeCatcher from Exovision. This looks an interesting product, although in my mind it still looks a bit too "arcade game" for my taste. Nevertheless this was a real ... ahem... eye catcher.
Another winner, for me, was the Sony TL50. This is the new plasma integrated camera, to compete with the VS3000 and Tandberg 1000. I didn't get a look in on this, as it was in such high demand on the stand. The other big winner, which I suppose shouldn't be a surprise, was Codian. It's great from a UK perspective to have a british competitor in this market, who by all accounts have become the benchmark in certain parts of the world. Their MCU attracted a lot of attention, and the team didn't disappoint. In fact their product seems to be a reflection on the team themselves. No frills, very approachable; an MCU with a smile :).
I'm hoping this event will become bigger and better next year. Aethra made minor contributions to a few stands, as did VCON, but had no stand of their own. For the Bridging companies, its difficult to sell a virtual product on a stand, and most customer contact seemed to be with customers they already had signed up.
On a personal note it was great to meet friends of the forum Glen Sykes from Direct Visual, who made a very eloquent presentation, and Kevin Bernitz from Codian, who was able to allow his product to speak for itself ;)
Any comments are welcome, and if you were there, tell us what you thought of it all.
so I went to WAVE yesterday at Olympia in London, UK. It was all nicely presented, with stands from most UK major players, along with seminar rooms covering all aspects of conferencing collaboration from beginner through to advanced.
It wasn't as big as I'd expected, but then, having seen pictures from InfoComm, I guess that shouldnt be a huge surprise. There were stands by Tandberg and Polycom, as well as a stand that was Sony-branded, but I think it was a joint venture between themselves andseveral channels of theirs including Genesys's neighbours Imago Micro, and some time collaborators Albany Interactive. Also present were various Service providers besides Genesys - MCI, ACT, Worldwide ISDN. For a full list see www.wave-conferencing.com.
To coin a phrase - Here's what I think: There were some very clear eye openers at this show. Very high profile (and very hands on) was the EyeCatcher from Exovision. This looks an interesting product, although in my mind it still looks a bit too "arcade game" for my taste. Nevertheless this was a real ... ahem... eye catcher.
Another winner, for me, was the Sony TL50. This is the new plasma integrated camera, to compete with the VS3000 and Tandberg 1000. I didn't get a look in on this, as it was in such high demand on the stand. The other big winner, which I suppose shouldn't be a surprise, was Codian. It's great from a UK perspective to have a british competitor in this market, who by all accounts have become the benchmark in certain parts of the world. Their MCU attracted a lot of attention, and the team didn't disappoint. In fact their product seems to be a reflection on the team themselves. No frills, very approachable; an MCU with a smile :).
I'm hoping this event will become bigger and better next year. Aethra made minor contributions to a few stands, as did VCON, but had no stand of their own. For the Bridging companies, its difficult to sell a virtual product on a stand, and most customer contact seemed to be with customers they already had signed up.
On a personal note it was great to meet friends of the forum Glen Sykes from Direct Visual, who made a very eloquent presentation, and Kevin Bernitz from Codian, who was able to allow his product to speak for itself ;)
Any comments are welcome, and if you were there, tell us what you thought of it all.