1)  So, we understand Digium has released three new products recently.  Please provide a quick introduction to each product and its use?

Yeah, that’s right. We’ve actually been really busy. And I’ll start out by saying that this is just the beginning. We’ve really got just an amazing line up of products that you’ll be seeing hit the market over the next 6 months or so. But I’m going to talk right now about the three that we’ve already released.

The first of those is the TE820, which is the 8- port digital telephony interface card and that is capable of going up to 240 concurrent calls on a single card, which is our highest density card, and it’s really only priced a few hundred dollars over  our 4-port model, for an 8-port card. So it’s a pretty good deal.

Like the rest of our digital interface line, the TE820 can connect to T1, E1 or J1 circuits. It’s available in PCIe form factor, which has really become kind of the standard for servers over the last few years. And it is available either with or without hardware echo cancellation. We launched this back in November at Astricon and it’s been selling really well.

The next product is actually a whole new family of devices that we call the Redundancy Series, or R-Series Appliances. These are small 1U devices that act as sort of a switch for PSTN circuits. They basically allow you to set up a pair of identical Asterisk servers: one that is active and another that is standby. And then to move the PSTN servers between those two systems, normally the R-series connects the circuits through the Digium cards on the primary system, but in the event of a failure on the primary, the backup system will take over, and will command the R-Series to switch the lines over to the backup box. And we’ve actually got two versions of this.

The R800 is an analogue version for doing POTS circuits, and the R850 is a digital version for doing T1, E1 and BRI circuits.

The third product that we’ve released is actually Asterisk, called Asterisk 10. It’s the latest version of the Asterisk platform, which is our classic, our original reason for Digium being around. We announced this back at Astricon, and we released it just before Christmas. And if you’re familiar with Asterisk, you may be going, “Huh, wait a minute, Asterisk 10? I thought the last one was 1.8. What’s with the big jump?”

Well, we talked about it. And the next version was going to be 1.10, but a lot of people went, “Shouldn’t 1.10, be 2.0?” No, that’s not actually the way the version scheme works in open source.

But some people pointed out that a 1.x product is generally a pretty new and immature product. And Asterisk has been around for 12+ years at this point and is anything but new and immature. So after thinking about it, we decided to drop the leading 1 and just call it Asterisk 10. So next year we’ll have Asterisk 11 and so on.

So those are the three new products and we’re really happy to have them out in the market.

2)  What are the unique selling points compared with manufacturers that already have products that exist in this market?

Well the TE820 offers the highest port capacity at the lowest price of any card in the Asterisk market. If you’re running it in E1 mode, that’s where you’ve got 240 channels total, or 30 channels per span, the price breaks down to $7.00 per channel without echo cancellation or about $12.00 with. It also comes with our five year manufacturer’s warranty, our ESP guarantee, and it is coming straight from the guy that makes Asterisk.

The R-Series appliances, well they support up to eight lines, making them the highest density redundancy solution on the Asterisk market. They are aggressively priced. The street price for the R850 works out to roughly $100 a circuit. They are also deeply integrated with a whole suite of redundancy tools, to handle things like IP reallocation or file system synchronization, so they are really very powerful.

And Asterisk 10? Well, there really aren’t too many competitors out there for Asterisk. It is still the world’s leading open source telephony platform.

So the new features that we’ve added in include a completely re-built media engine that’s built for a post telephony HD world. We’ve updated the conferencing module, ConfBridge, to support wide-band audio. We’ve added a limited, but very powerful form of video conferencing. And Asterisk can now route text messages and text messages the way you can route calls. So that’s another big step forward for us. And we’ve also added better internet faxing with T.38 gateway support.

We’ve done a lot of other internal stuff, upgraded the database etc., so it’s a big leap forward, and we’re really happy to have Asterisk continuing to grow and to have a healthy evolving community.

3)  Why is there no FXS support, or support for Digium Switchvox, freepbx-based trixbox or Elastix in the Digium R series?

Well, our requirements for the R-series were really based on trunk requirements. So, the FXS and FXS port is of course a station port in the analog telephony world. And what we wanted to do is really be able to handle the primary-backup failover. So what we’ve set it up as is basically a trunk router, to route your trunks from the PSTN over.

Now in terms of the other sort of distributions that you mentioned, SwitchVox, Elastix, etc., I know we’re going to have support for Switchvox very soon. Usually a product takes a little while before we’re able to integrate it directly into the Switchvox. It takes the usual amount of engineering effort.

And in terms of trixbox and Elastix, that will be something an engineer could do. We’re hoping the teams from FreePBX or Elastix will do that with the R-Series. But we had to put out what we basically call a reference implementation. The implementation that we read about in the user guide is what we can easily support. It kind of takes the basics of doing true redundancy. And so, we can build it to that spec, we’re able to provide 100% support on it. But we fully understand that there are going to be people that are going to use it in slightly different means, and we’ll do our best, but that’s just the way it works when you are manufacturing something that is really complex like a redundancy solution.

4) Are there any new hardware developments at Digium or improvements you can tell us about that may be coming out in the future?

 Actually, I can’t tell you any details, but I can tell you that 2012 will be our biggest year yet for new products. The last two years have been years of incredible effort and investment, working towards new products that you’ll see released this year. Please keep your eye on Digium, I think you’ll see some really amazing stuff in the really near future.

Thanks again for your time today Steve. Steve Sokol, Digium’s Marketing Director for Asterisk.

This has been a VoIP Uncovered Podcast brought to you by VoIPon Solutions. For more information please visit www.voipon.co.uk.

Xorcom, a privately-held manufacturer of business telephony interfaces and appliances, today announced the formal launch of an integrated, multi-point video and voice conferencing solution called the XV Series. The XV Series includes two lines: the XV3000 – a video conferencing platform bundled into a Xorcom high-end IP-PBX; and the XV0500 – a stand-alone video conferencing appliance compatible with any Asterisk-based IP-PBX. Designed to integrate seamlessly with Xorcom’s Asterisk® based IP-PBX telephony appliances, the XV Series makes video conferencing capabilities affordable and accessible to businesses of all sizes.  

The Benefits Video Conferencing Brings to Enterprises

Due to the enormous growth in smart phone use and the widespread adoption of multimedia applications, video conferencing is quickly becoming the natural choice for communications in the larger enterprises. The main benefits of this type of communication that immediately come to mind include:

• Cost-effective meetings – cut down travel expenses
• Improved communication – visual aspects, such as body language and object displays, promote better understanding of concepts
• Efficient meetings – video is engaging, increasing participants’ attention span
• Keeping remote workers involved – stay in better touch with tele-workers and road warriors
• Remote training – update staff on the fly
• Timely customer support – troubleshoot issues without onsite visits

The larger the enterprise, the greater the financial benefit of the video conferencing solution. As a result, larger enterprises have adopted large-scale video conferencing solutions that require dedicated resources and therefore carry a big price tag. Smaller organizations, for the most part, have had to forego the benefits listed above, since they are hard-pressed to make the large investment required for dedicated video conferencing solutions. Those days are now over.

Video Conferencing Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) Can Afford

With the launch of Xorcom’s XV Series, video conferencing, once available only to the high-end enterprise, is now an affordable option for SMBs. In contrast to other video conferencing solutions currently in the market, the Xorcom product enables organizations to conduct high quality multi-point video conferencing at an affordable price. The solution integrates seamlessly with Xorcom’s award-winning Asterisk based business telephony solutions, which support from 30 to 1000 users. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) signaling ensures compatibility with a wide variety of endpoints, including the leading IP-based video phones as well as soft phones, significantly reducing the total cost of the solution.

Key Features of the XV Video Conferencing Series

• Wide Range of End Points Supported: The system is built on a solid media processing foundation that uses standards-based SIP protocol. Consequently, a wide range of end points is supported – from room systems, to desktop video phones, to video software clients running on smart phones and tablets.
• Optimal Quality Matching Each End Point’s Capabilities: Low latency, high quality voice and video for different resolutions is guaranteed as the XV Series identifies the resolution capabilities of each end point in the conference and performs dynamic transcoding to ensure optimal user experience for each end point individually.
• High Definition Voice and Video: Resolutions of HD (720p) down to QCIF video, and wideband HD VoIP are supported.
• Intuitive Web Management: Real time conference control, monitoring and management is performed via Web management or DTMF (Dual Tone Multi Frequency) codes. During conferences, full control can be provided to all levels of participants, from conference moderators to invitees. The management system supports localization for multiple languages.
• Video IVR Support: An IVR (Interactive Voice Response) flow for participants with voice only, and video IVVR (Interactive Voice / Video Response) for the complete video experience is provided.

Video Conferencing Solution to be Demonstrated Live at IT EXPO

The XV Series video conferencing solution will be demonstrated live in the Xorcom booth (#617) at the IT EXPO event, taking place at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida, from Feb. 1-3.

With the release of Elastix 2.2, all Sangoma TDM interface boards (analog, digital and BRI) are now automatically detected and configured through Elastix’s hardware detector interface tool. The web interface also allows the configuration of different parameters, such as echo cancellation, the mode on PRI cards (E1 or T1), timing source, line build out, framing, and coding. Elastix is one of the leading distributions of Asterisk® and was designed to enable unified communications and VoIP systems within an Open Source solution.

Multi-point high quality video and voice conferencing capability in open source IP-PBX brings cost-effective functionality to small and medium sized businesses

Yokne’am, Israel and Misgav, Israel – October 18, 2011 — Surf Communication Solutions (“Surf”), an industry leader in high-capacity processing solutions for real-time multimedia communication systems and applications, and Xorcom, a privately-held manufacturer of business telephony interfaces and appliances, today announced that they have collaborated to develop an integrated, multi-point video and voice conferencing solution designed for use in Xorcom’s Asterisk® based IP-PBX telephony appliances. The joint effort effectively makes video conferencing capabilities affordable and accessible to businesses of all sizes.

Video Conferencing Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) Can Afford

Today most businesses recognize the advantages of video conferencing, but many do not implement such systems because of the total cost of the existing solutions.  In contrast to other video conferencing solutions currently in the market, the Surf-Xorcom product enables organizations to conduct high quality multi-point video conferencing at an affordable price. The solution integrates seamlessly with Xorcom’s award-winning Asterisk based business telephony solutions, which support from 30 to 1000 users. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) signaling ensures compatibility with a wide variety of endpoints, including the leading IP-based video phones as well as soft phones, significantly reducing the total cost of the solution.

Key Features of the New Product

• High Definition Voice and Video: Resolutions of up to 720p and wideband HD VoIP are supported
• Unmatched Quality: Low latency, high quality voice and video for different resolutions
• Smooth Transcoding: Transcoding and transrating between different endpoints with unmatched media quality
• Complete Control: Real time conference control via Web management or DTMF (Dual Tone Multi Frequency) codes
• Seamless Interoperability: Built on a solid media processing foundation and providing standard based SIP protocol to connect different devices
• Video IVR Support: IVR (Interactive Voice Response) flow for participants with voice only, and video IVVR (Interactive Voice / Video Response) for the complete video experience
• Intuitive Web Management: Full control provided to all levels of participants, from conference moderators to invitees

Video Conferencing Solution to be Demonstrated Live at AstriCon

The new video conferencing solution will be demonstrated jointly by Surf and Xorcom personnel in the Xorcom booth (#300) at the AstriCon event, which takes place in Westminster, Colorado from Oct. 25-27.

About Surf Communication Solutions

SURF Communication Solutions (SURF) is an industry leader in high-capacity processing solutions for real-time multimedia communication systems and applications.  Since 1996, SURF’s products have delivered the integral technology behind many of the leading vendor’s multimedia servers and gateways deployed to operators and service providers worldwide.   SURF-powered multimedia applications are delivering value added services to millions of end-users every day.  Today, SURF is ideally positioned to stimulate change in the way we communicate.  The video-ready SURF solution supports multimedia processing including full video, voice and data IP to IP communications, as well as modem and fax over IP. It is a fully converged multimedia processing subsystem that integrates easily into media gateways and servers.  Since there is no such thing as “one size fits all,” the SURF solution is available in various form factors or DSP chips affording unmatched density and optimal performance.

About Xorcom

Founded in 2004 and privately-held, Xorcom designs and manufactures business telephony solutions that support both traditional and VoIP communication. Xorcom solutions are easy to install and maintain, and are cost-effective since there are no per user license fees. Various utilities provide backup and restore, immediate recovery, and a full redundancy solution for the entire PBX to maximize uptime. Xorcom’s bundled solution for hospitality features the only MICROS-Fidelio certified Property Management System (PMS) interface for Asterisk. Xorcom sells its products via a worldwide distribution channel and OEM partners.

The T3Mux connects to a DS3 via a coaxial BNC connection from a Telco provider and grooms the signal to individual T1 circuits via 14 RJ-45 connectors with each connector carrying two circuits. This is directly compatible with the full line of Sangoma digital interface boards, including the A101, A102, A104 and A108.

“The T3Mux was created in direct response to customer requests, particularly for use in large data centers and Telco operations,” said Frederic Dickey, director of product management at Sangoma Technologies. “It allows a customer to order a DS3 interface from their provider, which is less expensive than ordering individual circuits when an implementation requires a significant number of T1s. It also makes the installation and maintenance easier and less costly as it simplifies cabling. Plus, the T3Mux is guaranteed to be interoperable with other Sangoma products that our customers are already using in their installations. This release demonstrates our commitment to be ‘Not Just a Board Company Anymore’ as Sangoma continues to sharpen the focus on product innovation to broaden our portfolio.”

While Sangoma now has the Vega Media Gateways from the acquisition announced two weeks ago, this is a significant release for Sangoma, because it is the first appliance-based product developed by the company. Sangoma plans about a dozen product releases, including a number of new appliances, over the next twelve months.

Digium has recently upgraded its award-winning Switchvox UC solution to version 5.1, delivering the enterprise-class features businesses want at a price you can’t afford to pass up.

For starters, with seamless connectivity between your desktop and mobile phone, you can truly work wherever you want.  Thanks to the addition of Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC), Switchvox 5.1 introduces enhanced mobility, so you can integrate any type of phone with Switchvox.  You can select up to five phones of any type, including VoIP, digital, analog, smartphone or a softphone, to converge with your Switchvox extension. This means you can now use the power of Switchvox to route, record or transfer calls appropriately, regardless of the phone you’re using, and regardless if you’re in the office or on the road! Plus, expanded language support extends Digium’s reach.

In addition to enhanced mobility, the new Switchvox 5.1 features advanced reporting, easier admin features and further integration with third-party business applications – giving you more visibility into your business using the tools you already have, such as existing customer relationship management (CRM) software, enterprise resource planning (ERP), or accounting systems.

Register for this webinar to learn more.

Title: Take a closer look at Digium’s Switchvox Unified Communication Platform – What’s New in the new Release
Date: Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM GMT

Please check your time zone below:
Corresponding (GMT) Wednesday, September 21 at 12:00:00

London (United Kingdom – England) Wednesday, September 21: 1:00:00 PM BST+1 hour

Johannesburg (South Africa) Wednesday, September 21: 2:00:00 PM SAST +2 hours

Dubai (United Arab Emirates – Dubai) Thursday, September 21: 4:00:00 PM GST+4 hours

Chicago (U.S.A. – Illinois) Wednesday, September 21:  7:00:00 AM CDT-5 hours

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer

Space is limited.

Sangoma Releases Version 4 of NetBorder SS7 Media Gateway (formerly known as SMG)

Sangoma SS7 Media Gateway Solutions continue to evolve with the release of Sangoma NetBorder SS7 Media Gateway (or NSG), formerly known as Sangoma Media Gateway (SMG). Improvements in this version include the addition of Telco grade SS7 protocol stacks with multiple ISUP variants, a single ISO-based installation process, and a web-based GUI for easier installation, configuration and management of the system.

Sangoma ISDN BRI Board Now Supports Dadhi Natively

The latest WANPIPE drivers (version 3.5), released on August 25, add the native support of Dadhi for our Sangoma A500 ISDN BRI line interface boards. Customers using our Sangoma A500 boards can now benefit from the native support of the BRI protocol in Asterisk, as well as leveraging software based echo cancellation when appropriate.

Xorcom are introducing another telephony interface board to their product family, P/N XR0126. It will contain two FXS ports and six FXO ports. Like its “older brother”, the XR0035/XR0036, which has six FXS ports and two FXO ports, it will be connected to the mainboard using two cables and identify itself to the Asterisk server as two modules.

The price and assembly policy are identical to those of the existing combination board; it can be used in the Astribank and all IP-PBX models (factory installed only), with no other modules present.

The formal announcement will take place later this month, and all marketing materials (including the price list) will be updated at that time.

Modular and any installation scenario is possible from low to high density with modules for PRI, BRI, FXS, FXO, BRI-FXS Combo and now GSM.

The OS is on-board, so you get driver-free Plug’n Play 5 minute installations, build-in echo cancellation and even T.38 Fax.

Best of all, you buy manufacturer direct and save money, get a dedicated account manager, updates and Free training.

There is a module for everything

The business operations of VegaStream will be quickly integrated into Sangoma’s, with VegaStream staff being welcomed as part of the respective Sangoma teams, the majority being in R&D and Sales and Marketing. The VegaStream products will become part of the Sangoma portfolio with customers rapidly benefiting from Sangoma’s reputation for efficient supply chain management and quick turnaround of customer orders.

Sangoma is investing in new marketing, sales and product development initiatives, and this transaction is further evidence of such investments to drive ongoing growth. The acquisition of VegaStream helps Sangoma to achieve several of its strategic objectives: broadening its portfolio, adding to its distribution network, delivering existing channel partners a more comprehensive set of products, affording Sangoma an EU office to enable better service to this critical part of the world in local time zones, expanding its customer base and customer segments (including more network operators), and penetrating more deeply into developing regions, including significant upside in the key market of India with some excellent large clients.

“VegaStream has some truly great products, people, customers and distributors”, said Bill Wignall, President and CEO of Sangoma. Wignall continued, “As the IP Communications market evolves, Sangoma is re-inventing itself in order to become a significant player in more segments within that market. This acquisition supports one of our key corporate messages, ‘We are not just a board company anymore’. For years, Sangoma has provided the industry’s leading portfolio of TDM to IP cards for use inside servers, and we will continue to dominate that space. However, external gateways which provide much of the same functionality but reside outside the server as their own appliance, are becoming increasingly popular, and we want to offer our customers both options. External gateways expand our addressable market, can be easily integrated into Virtualized and Cloud based solutions, and so we hope to capture additional opportunities in this space as well as in our traditional segment. We decided to accelerate our entry to this market segment, using a ‘buy versus build’ decision, adding the well-respected VegaStream products to our portfolio. I expect this transaction will create value for Sangoma shareholders and customers alike.” We plan to continue our growth by both organic means and a few more strategically selected acquisitions.

Alexis Argent, Sales Manager at VoIPon in the UK stated, “As a customer/partner of both Sangoma and VegaStream, we believe that this acquisition will allow us to meet even more of our customers’ demands with a more comprehensive portfolio from a much stronger partner in Sangoma. We look forward to being able to offer enterprise customers and network operators their choice of either internal cards or external gateways for their IP networking needs.”

This is an all cash purchase and no new shares are being issued by Sangoma as part of this transaction. The company paid £0.9M (approximately $1.4M) in cash, subject to some minor closing adjustments, for all of the key assets of VegaStream which were partly purchased through an administration process in the UK. In addition to the operating assets, Sangoma purchased the VegaStream share of VSNPL, a JV in India. Sangoma expects the VegaStream assets to begin to contribute to the company’s earnings during the second half of fiscal 2012 once it has integrated these operations and ramped up production, and be accretive for fiscal 2013.

About Sangoma Technologies Corporation

Sangoma is a leading provider of hardware and software products that enable or enhance IP Communications Systems for both telecom and datacom applications. Enterprises, SMBs and Carriers in over 150 countries rely on Sangoma’s technology as part of their mission critical infrastructures. Through its worldwide network of Distribution Partners, Sangoma delivers the industry’s best engineered, highest quality products, and offers the industry’s first lifetime warranty. The product line includes data and telecom boards for media and signal processing as well as gateway appliances and software.

Founded in 1984, Sangoma Technologies Corporation is publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX VENTURE:STC). Additional information on Sangoma can be found at: www.sangoma.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the future success of our business, development strategies and future opportunities.

Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning estimates of expected expenditures, statements relating to expected future production and cash flows, and other statements which are not historical facts. When used in this document, the words such as “could”, “plan”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “may”, “potential”, “should” and similar expressions indicate forward-looking statements.

Although Sangoma believes that its expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties and no assurance can be given that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date that the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements. Sangoma undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management’s estimates or opinions should change except as required by law.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other events contemplated by the forward-looking statements will not occur. Although Sangoma believes that the expectations represented by such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct as these expectations are inherently subject to business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Some of the risks and other factors which could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements contained in the management’s discussion and analysis include, but are not limited to changes in exchange rate between the Canadian Dollar and other currencies, changes in technology, changes in the business climate, changes in the regulatory environment, the decline in the importance of the PSTN and new competitive pressures. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.