The VXi UC ProSet is a step up in style and comfort, making it perfect for use in contact centers, at-home offices and other business settings. Designed to be lightweight and deliver crisp, natural audio, the UC ProSet also blocks 87 percent of all background noise.

said President and CEO Michael Ferguson of VXi Corporation.

VXi also state

Here are some of the main features that are available in the VXi UC ProSet headsets.

Features

• Wideband audio for clearer conversations and greater productivity.
• Superior noise canceling eliminates background noise and improves communication.
• UC-ready to fit right into your Unified Communications strategy.
• Lightweight, attractive design is easy and comfortable to wear, all day long.
• High-quality durability stands up to all-day, every-day use.
• Interchangeability with other headset brands lets you maximize your existing equipment investment.
• Two models to choose from, binaural (two speakers) and monaural (one speaker).

The VXi UC ProSet delivers a host of real-world business benefits.

• More productive conversations. Wideband audio and advanced noise canceling provide consistently clear, natural sound.
• More focused users. Smart, ergonomic design is comfortable and stays put, so users spend time working, not constantly adjusting their headsets.
• More efficient communications. Leading-edge technology maximizes Unified Communications potential.
• Better all-around value. High quality materials and construction means it’s built to last and last, even when used all day, every day.
• Best possible return on your investment. Compatibility with VXi, Plantronics and GN Netcom®/Jabra equipment means you can keep on using your existing amplifiers and direct connect cords.

VoIPon: Broadcasting from various countries around the world using voice over IP technology, this is VoIP Uncovered — A VoIPon Solutions UK podcast.  Representing, VoIPon, I’m Kathleen Reed.

Today, we’re happy to have the folks from Sangoma, a leading provider of hardware and software components that enable or enhance IP communication systems for both voice and data join us again today to bring us up to speed on the latest developments at their company.

Joining us today is Bill Wignall, their president and CEO and Jeff Dworkin, their director of marketing. Thanks for taking the time to talk with us.

So, I’m going to jump right in with the first question. In the last year, Sangoma has undergone a lot of changes; can you share VoIPon’s listeners what’s going on with the company and why the Sangoma channel and end users should be excited about these developments?

Bill Wignall: Sure Kathleen thanks. Well, 2011 is truly a year of reinvention for Sangoma. I came in to take over the reigns at Sangoma about one year ago, and since then, we’ve completely rebuilt the executive management team and established an entirely new strategic direction for the company. Even with the reputation of the highest quality products in the industry, the company’s evolution had slowed and we had experienced flat sales for the couple of years. The new leadership team has reignited the growth engine and that’s the big change internally at Sangoma.

But frankly, customers and partners don’t care so much about that. They care about new products, more engineering talent to help support them and their applications. They care about having Sangoma staff closer to them. That’s how we’re driving these renewed growth initiatives.

We’re focused on delivering more value to those customers and to our distribution partners around the world. We’ve begun to see some results in just the first three quarters together as an executive team our quarterly sales are about 30%.

We dramatically expanded our product road map; we’ve launched aggressive new marketing programs and hired key new experienced senior sales executives in regions closer to the customers. And we have begun expanding our addressable market beyond traditional telephony interface boards into new product categories to both organic initiatives and via selected acquisitions.

VoIPon: Okay. So, speaking of acquisitions, recently Sangoma acquired Vegastream effectively entering the appliance market, which by some had been long awaited and by others might be considered controversial. So, how’s the channel responding?

Bill Wignall: One of the fundamental objectives at Sangoma is to do exactly that: Diversify beyond the telecom interface boards market, a space in which we’ve been a dominant player for a number of years. Months ago, our executive team identified they are ready to deploy appliance market as one of those areas in to which we should to expand. So, you’ll see many new appliance space products from Sangoma over the next year. And that category is where gateways come in.

We actually plan to develop our gateway products ourselves. But once we got into the development cycle planning, we decided to needed these products now. Not in the year plus that would take us to build them.

So we decided to acquire Vegastream to expand our presence from our legacy market segments, which will remain critical for us. And Vegastream gives us a bunch of advantages: great products, an office in UK to better serve our European customers, and expanded distribution network with little overlap to existing partners.

Vegastream was stuck in neutral due to problems with manufacturing and supply chain management and Sangoma has a history of being really good at doing these things.  We get new customers in a variety of geographic regions including India and Russia and we got an excellent team of both engineering and sales.

So, you could imagine with those advantages, the response from the channel is overwhelmingly positive. We have increased the options available to deliver on their customer’s needs. This expands the addressable market for those partners. Now, when a customer requires an external appliance, as part of their solution, Sangoma can deliver. We simply want it to be able to offer both solutions. Internal cards that get inserted into servers and external appliances, it’s that simple.

Kathleen: Fantastic. So, recently you announced revised pricing on the A500 BRI card and a firmware update that directly integrates with DAHDI, so the customers with lower density systems can effectively save up to 50% on the price of systems of 4 ports or less. Have you seen a shift to lower density systems in the EMEA and what other trends have come to light for this market?

Bill Wignall: Sure Kathleen. Well, Jeff, why don’t you take this one?

Jeff Dworkin: Sure. Well, since as Bill mentioned above are corporate objective for the coming years, 2012 especially, one of our goals is to build our key business in international markets. So, this was done in direct response to sort of better serve the European and generally, the entire EMEA market.

So, we recently hired a UK sales channel manager and this is one of the first things he sort of brought to the table, that we weren’t really getting the most bang for our buck with our BRI technology. We made these changes, they’ve sort of been on roadmap but they get crashed and accelerated, so we could better deliver on this very particular segment now. It doesn’t mean we’ve really seen a big shift to lower density systems. Again, it was more of just a response to what our channel manager saw: is that we were missing out on any of this lower density solutions and opportunities because we didn’t have this direct integration with the DAHDI driver for Asterisk. And, we were creating extra expense by requiring people to have hardware-based echo cancellation on these lower density systems, which is really necessary.

So, again, we lower the price, we fixed up our driver, and now we are really ready to attack this particular segment. So, this is really why it’s important that regionally placed sales people. You know, Steve came in and he really got a sense of what the local market needed and help us turn out into a product and hopefully new opportunity very quickly.

VoIPon: Fantastic. So, in terms of the market, where does Sangoma see the telephony marketing in general heading next?

Bill Wignall: Hmm, that’s a tough question Kathleen. You know, Sangoma doesn’t really focus on what the next single big thing will be. Our strategy involves selecting multiple products categories that target many of the key trends in our industry. So you will see us launch products that make use of the cloud and social networking, as just a couple of examples.

But if Sangoma had to prognosticate onto the year ahead, we’d say that perhaps 2012 will not be year, where we see a single new revolutionary technology, like tablets for instance. But rather might be a year of integration or update. We feel this way due to the fact that several new technologies have really just emerged recently, and because of the economic uncertainty, especially in Europe. When much financial uncertainty exists, companies and network operators tend to focus more on adopting efficiency improvements rather than on revolutionary technology.

So, offerings like SIP or VoIP will get fully more integrated into the fabric of business communications. Every business from the SOHO to the international enterprise will only be talking about when we will move to these technologies not if.  

Newer offerings like the cloud or the tablet usage will move out of the innovation, pilot and early adopters phase and move into the mainstream of business regular operations. We fully expect Sangoma to benefit from those trends as well.

Kathleen: Ok, excellent. Well, I want to thank both of you for your time today and for bringing VoIPon’s listeners up to speed on the latest developments.

This has been a VoIPon, VoIP uncovered podcast. For more information, please visit www.voipon.co.uk.

• PSTN and legacy PBX connectivity support with T1, E1, BRI and analog protocols
• Survivable Branch Appliance to add voice resiliency to your branch offices
• Connectivity of fax machines and analog devices

Microsoft Lync is a unified communications solution that delivers presence, instant messaging, conferencing and enterprise voice capabilities through a single, easy-to-use interface that is consistent across PC and browser. Administrators benefit from a single, consistent management infrastructure, capabilities to increase availability, and interoperability with existing systems. 

“Our NetBorder Express Gateway was always designed to be compliant with the Microsoft Lync solution,” said Frederic Dickey, director of product management for Sangoma. “This announcement shows we’ve met our goal.”

“Sangoma’s NetBorder Express gateways provide customers an expanded choice in Media Gateway solutions that operate using Windows Server 2008,” said Kapil Sharma, Principal Group Program Manager, Microsoft. “Sangoma Technologies is working with us to help customers transition their communications into the future with Lync.”

Sangoma NetBorder Express Media Gateway is a software application that runs with Sangoma telephony hardware boards. This unique implemenation enables the Media Gateway functionality without having to add an additional server or appliance to the Microsoft Lync implemenation. The NetBorder Express software can run co-resident on any server that is already a part of the deployment. Sangoma Media Gateway works with Lync.

Combining H264 real-time video compression for analog video cameras, video decoding for displaying on TV, and voice/video public announcement systems (PAS), Grandstream is pleased to announce the new GXV3500 IP Video Encoder Decoder PAS for surveillance, security monitoring and facility management applications.

In a single, compact device, the GXV3500 extends investment in existing analog video cameras by helping businesses to easily upgrade network applications to IP while delivering higher resolution digital imagery using less bandwidth and less hardware devices. This “3-in-1” device combines advanced single channel H264 real time video compression or decompression functions at up to D1 resolution and up to 30fps in a single box. It also offers two-way audio paging and video streaming using SIP/VoIP to receive and display live video anywhere in the world on mobile phones, TV, PC and video phones. The device can also be a voice and video PAS for a variety of facilities including office floors, lobbies, shopping malls, warehouses, and more.

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.

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.

The new GXP1100/GXP1105 target those customers who want an entry-level, flexible, and high performance phone with HD audio and robust telephony functionalities but don’t need to invest in more sophisticated multi-line phone models with LCD displays. The GXP1100/1105 supports a number of popular telephony features of Grandstream’s more advanced GXP21xx/14xx series HD phones,  such as security protection using TLS/SRTP/HTTPS, 802.1x, automated provisioning using AES encrypted XML configuration file and TR069, comprehensive voice codecs including the wideband G.722, etc.

More specifically, the two new models of GXP phones support these features:

GXP1100: entry level business HD IP telephone supporting single SIP account, up to 2 calls, 4 programmable keys, HD Handset with wideband audio, single 10/100Mbps network port, wall-mountable design with a desktop stand, 7 dedicated function keys for Hold, Flash/Call-Waiting, Transfer, Message, Mute, Volume, Dial/Redial.  The phone is energy green efficient with an average power consumption of less than 1W. Its Web configuration interface also supports multi-languages including English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

GXP1105: Includes all of the same features and functionalities of the GXP1100 but it additionally offers integrated Power-over-Ethernet (PoE).

“In 2011 Grandstream placed focus on, and successfully gained significant momentum in, the sub-$99 IP phone category by introducing a wide assortment of HD IP phones that meet the varying size and application needs of SMBs and enterprise customers,” said David Li, CEO of Grandstream Networks. “The release of the new GXP 1100/1105 phones demonstrates our continued commitment to serving this fastest growing market segment with a variety of innovative, high quality and affordable product offering.”

For more information on the GXP1100/1105 please Contact Us.

In order to maximize protection there needs to be a collaborative effort between:

• the PBX supplier and the reseller
• the phone service provider and the end-user network engineer

This article is intended to prepare Xorcom Resellers to deal with toll fraud issues – before and after they occur. Below are some frequently asked questions about PBX toll fraud and the relevant Xorcom responses.

1) If the phone company expects full payment for calls not made by their customer, what arguments, if any, can the Xorcom Reseller provide the end user so the phone company can give their customer some relief on the bill?

Xorcom Response: As the phone company is the “service provider” for their clients, they should have safeguards in their Central Office to ensure that if they see an unusual increase in “minutes of use” (MOU) for their customers, they should shut down the phone lines, or at least inform their client!

Unusually high phone traffic should be treated by phone companies just like credit card fraud is treated by credit card companies. If a credit card begins to register unusual charges, the credit card company shuts it down and forces the client to call. The same rules should apply for long distance charges. Customers should be allowed to set a maximum MOU amount per day for their phone service.  If the specified MOU amount is exceeded, or there are many more international calls than normal for the client, then the phone lines should get shut down automatically.

PBX toll fraud is not a new problem and not doing anything about it in the network to protect customers from toll fraud is a lack of responsibility on the side of the service provider.

2) Should I be advising my clients to have insurance, if it exists, to protect them against PBX toll fraud and hacking?

Xorcom Response: We’re not sure an insurance policy exists to protect against toll fraud. However, the mere fact that the Sony Play-station network got hacked not once but twice shows how sophisticated hackers are getting.  Think about that – Sony gets hacked and over a million customers have supplied their credit cards through Sony play stations to get their games, and Netflix movies, and the Sony engineers could not keep it from happening a second time?  We believe Sony employs some pretty smart network engineers, but even they could not prevent hacking. So the answer is yes – if such insurance exist, recommend buying it.

3) What is Xorcom’s position on PBX toll fraud and/or hacking, with regard to taking responsibility?

Xorcom Response: We do our absolute best to prevent hacking by including software to detect bad logins, and highly recommend the use of strong passwords, etc.  But Xorcom, along with any PBX manufacturer, is not in charge of the client’s network or Internet services and cannot be responsible for damages incurred. We will provide our best efforts in technical support to help prevent fraudulent intrusion into the PBX.

4) What advice would Xorcom give the Reseller on how to respond, if the customer asks the Reseller to pay the bill?

Xorcom Response: We would give the same response we suggest our resellers give their customers (see question #3).  If you happen to be the person in charge of managing the customer’s router and firewall and providing Internet services – then see our suggestions in question #1, in order to prevent this kind of request from ever arising…

5) What proof can the Reseller offer the end-user, to demonstrate that Xorcom and the Reseller did everything reasonably expected to protect against hacking?

Xorcom Response: We are aware of security threats and post them to our blogs (see http://blog.xorcom.com/?p=381 for example), and inform our Resellers about this and how to take action to prevent hacking. We also added our own script files to enhance passwords, but hackers keep getting more sophisticated with password discovery software to break these codes.

Xorcom USA is now in the process of developing software that will measure minutes of use on the Complete PBX, since it seems that service providers don’t want to do it, where the customer can set a maximum amount of minutes of use per day and if the limit is exceeded it shuts down all trunks. We hope to have this done sometime during Q3/2011.

Additional Notes

PBX toll fraud is not a new issue, however, with the advent of IP PBXs, which are connected to Local Area Networks (LANs) and have access to the public Internet through the company’s router, hackers now have a new way to enter the PBX to cause damage.

This is a complex issue and at Xorcom we take it very seriously. In order to maximize protection there needs to be a collaborative effort between:

• the PBX supplier and the reseller
• the phone service provider and the end-user network engineer

Finally, installing a phone system on your local area network normally involves upgrading the elements of your network in order to properly facilitate new features like voicemail-to-email, fax-to-email, proper control and registration of IP Phones (which can be local or remote), and a Web-based operator panel.

Most large companies have already invested in high-end firewall appliances and routers with VoIP security capabilities, and rarely get hacked (even with all the protection they have, some still get hacked, but they plug the holes fairly quickly).

It is typically the small business owner that is the victim of toll fraud. Often, a new IP PBX is installed but the customer fails to invest in a proper firewall or router, mostly due to cost, and does not enhance the network to minimize hacking. These are the customers that need to be advised most strongly about the dangers of skipping these important steps.

For more on configuring your own VoIP System please see the Xorcom Configurator

2N BRI Enterprise

Advantages

• Saves money
• Remote supervision via GSM
• Counting free minutes
• DialThru mode
• Sending/receiving SMS
• Auto CLIP Routing
• CallBack
• Optional Ethernet interface

The 2N BRI Enterprise is another GSM/UMTS Gateway in the 2N portfolio using a digital ISDN BRI interface for connection to the telephone exchange. One difference between the 2N BRI Enterprise and 2N BRI Lite is that the Enterprise version makes it possible to use TE and NT ports at the same time, i.e. in the through-put (DialThru) mode. This mode not only enables you to save money, but also ports for a private branch exchange and the time necessary for installation.

The 2N BRI Enterprise Gateway features all the functions of the BRI Lite. Counting free minutes with an efficient automated cost-saving solution create an ideal tool for reducing call charge costs. The CallBack service eliminates roaming fees on business trips abroad and sending and receiving SMS from PC is also a cinch.

The 2N BRI Enterprise version with an Ethernet port allows remote setting of the gateway and its administration via the IP network. You can also administer the gateway using a data connection via the GSM network, which makes it unique compared to other ISDN GSM gateways on the market. The sooner you opt for the 2N BRI Enterprise, the sooner you start to enjoy its easy-to-use functions and save on company overheads.

2N BRI Lite

Advantages

• Saves money
• Remote monitoring via GSM
• Counting free minutes
• Sending/receiving SMS
• Auto CLIP Routing
• CallBack
• Possibility to select between a TE/NT port

The 2N BRI Lite makes superb use of 2N Telekomunikace production know-how in the sector of GSM and UMTS Gateways. All its functions pursue a single common goal – to simplify and especially to cut the cost of solutions for your company’s communication needs. Just like other ISDN GSM Gateways, you can connect it to any private branch exchange with a digital ISDN BRI interface. At the same time, you can choose whether you want to connect the gateway to a TE or NT port.

The functions of a 2N BRI Lite also include counting free minutes on inserted SIM cards and sending or receiving SMS messages from a PC. If your staff spend a lot of time outside their office, you will certainly appreciate another SMS service sending a missed call message to the respective mobile phone number showing the caller’s number. For foreign business trips, the CallBack service eliminates roaming charges.

As soon as you connect the gateway to your private branch exchange, you start to significantly save on telecommunication charges. The 2N BRI Lite will become one of the quickest returns on investment you have ever made in your company.

Featuring multi-rate H.264 and MJPEG real-time (30fps) video compression and full HD (1080p) video imaging, the GXV3651_FHD incorporates an advanced imaging sensor with wide dynamic range and excellent low light sensibility, day/night mode with built-in IR_CUT, integrated PoE, manual and auto IRIS, SDHC interface for local storage, ONVIF compliance and HTTP API for easy integration with various video management systems. The GXV3651_FHD raises the bar with its ability to capture hard-to-see image details with extremely high quality under various light conditions such as employees counting money or players’ activities in casinos, face recognition in high traffic areas such as airports or train stations, money transactions in various bank teller windows and car plate recognition at busy toll booths or in a large parking lot, for example.

“We embrace the receptiveness received to date and focus on market input from our worldwide partners as we expand our IP video surveillance product line,” said David Li, CEO of Grandstream Networks. “This new 5-Megapixel camera adds another layer to our solutions offering by addressing large area surveillance applications with the need for extremely high resolutions and sharp imaging details under various light conditions. The GXV3651_FHD delivers the utmost resolution and functionality at a staggeringly attractive price.”

Key Features – GXV3651_FHD Camera:

• Advanced 5 Megapixels CMOS sensor with exceptional low light sensitivity and wide dynamic range, as well as high quality lens to ensure razor sharp picture quality
• Multi-streaming-rate real-time H.264, Motion JPEG at 1080p resolution and 30fps frame rate
• Manual and Auto IRIS, alarm input/output, audio input/output, RS485, USB 2.0 port, SD slot
• Integrated Power-over-Ethernet (802.3af), embedded imaging sensor processing technology and video analytics, SIP/VoIP support for full duplex two-way audio as well as video streaming to mobile phones and video phones
• Built-in high performance streaming server to allow up to 3 simultaneous 1080p viewers, 16 D1 viewers or 25 CIF viewers

Bi-Directional SIP/VoIP Audio and Network Management Grandstream’s complete line of GXV IP network video cameras, as well as the new GXV3651_FHD 5M pixel 1080p HD IP camera, uniquely offers bi-directional SIP/VoIP audio and video streaming capabilities to mobile phones and video phones, from anywhere in the world including Grandstream’s GXV3140 and GXV3175 IP multimedia phones. This delivers a unified audio + video + surveillance solution that is fully compatible with Grandstream’s entire VoIP product line as well as other SIP-based IP PBX’s and Service Provider Networks.

All GXV camera models can be managed with GSurf, Grandstream’s FREE advanced and intuitive video management software that controls up to 36 cameras simultaneously.