That is as it should be.  Success stories, also known as references, help people identify and describe their problems and that, in turn, helps them form a vision of a solution.  It takes all kinds to make the business world go around and an “early adopter” success story can be just the thing a more conservative company needs to know that someone else has ventured into less familiar technological territory and gained an advantage in doing it.

Therefore and accordingly, we have resolved to get back to gathering and publishing more IPQ success stories.  You can reach the most recently published example through the Stories page.  It features global supplier to the coatings industry Lorama, Inc. and tells a tale that stretches and from Canada to Barbados with stop in Miami but not on airplanes.  The company is actually saving more than $10,000 every month on travel, but this one is also a story of unquantified costs avoided.  That is to say that without IPQ, the quality of experience Lorama now enjoys could only have been available with expensive and complex MPLS links, and as Pat Amiel, Lorama CEO, puts it, “That was not an option.”

It’s all good.

IPeak Networks’ Confirms that IPQ^TM Protects Base and Enhancement  Layers to Optimize SVC-encoded Video Conferencing

OTTAWA – Feb. 9, 2010 – IPeak Networks, a leading developer of network performance and quality management solutions today announced the results of a comprehensive analysis of the interworking of its IPQ^TM (Internet Performance & Quality) technology and the emerging Scalable Video Coding (SVC) standard, an extension (Annex G) of the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video compression standard.  The company confirmed that IPQ^TM is fully compatible with SVC and can be deployed to optimize SVC-encoded video.

“By design, SVC scales back the amount of video information that is transmitted when it encounters poor network conditions,” said Matt Williams, founder and CTO, IPeak Networks.  “It is a way to ensure that something usable arrives at the receiving endpoint and this is certainly a useful thing to do but it means that SVC-encoded HD video transmitted over the lossy public Internet will be decidedly less than high definition.”  Williams says that IPQ takes a different approach.  “Where SVC removes layers of video information to accommodate poor quality networks, IPQ actually protects the video against that poor quality network.”

Martin Horne, CEO of IPeak Networks sees the two approaches as complementary.  “An enterprise running SVC-encoded video conferences over the open Internet may be getting the basic functionality but they are likely not experiencing the quality they bought with their HD codecs, cameras, and monitors.”   Horne says that by adding a plug-and-play IPQ Network Appliance at each endpoint, the network quality is improved by a significant margin.   “IPQ enables SVC to deliver a much higher quality video signal.  I would say that IPQ optimizes SVC-encoded video.”

IPQ is patent-pending IP network packet loss protection technology developed by IPeak Networks.  The company has launched a family of IPQ-based products for the video conferencing market.  A recent analysis by Wainhouse Research found that IPQ technology reduced network packet loss by 90% without adding latency enabling effective video conferencing over low-cost lossy networks.  The company markets IPQ products through video conferencing equipment distributors and resellers worldwide.

ABOUT IPEAK NETWORKS

IPeak Networks is a privately held Canadian networking technology development company headquartered in Ottawa Canada.  The company’s IPQ™ products reduce the damaging effects of the packet loss that is endemic to the public Internet.  IPQ adds the performance and quality to the Internet that is required to supp ort HD video conferencing and the highest possible quality video conferencing experience.  With IPQ, enterprises can deploy HD video conferencing to run over the Internet and avoid the high costs of the MPLS networks that would otherwise be required.

For a free copy of the Wainhouse Research report on IPQ, click here.

To learn more about IPeak Networks and IPQ, visit www.ipeaknetworks.com.

# # #

Toward the end of December last year, we had the pleasure of briefing Bryan Denyer, editor of AVNews, on IPQ; on the facts and features of the IPQ technology and products.  Bryan subsequently saw fit to cover IPQ in a full page story in the January 2010 issue of AVNews.

Check it out right here:  AVNews Article on IPQ Jan 2010 Issue

Our thanks to Bryan for a thoughtful, balanced write-up.

OTTAWA and BUDAPEST — Jan. 28 2010 — IPeak Networks is excited to announce that RamCom, a division of  Ramiris Communications, has entered into a distribution agreement that  makes IPQ, the only vendor-agnostic inter-business video packet protection technology, widely available to video conference and visual communications systems resellers throughout Eastern Europe.

“Economic growth in Eastern European is strong and the pace of business community is brisk,” said Attila Turi, managing director of RamCom.  “Throughout the region, video conferencing has quickly become the preferred way to bring distant partners, co-workers, and project teams together to solve problems and collaborate on opportunities.”  Turi notes that some enterprises have been trying to use the Internet for video conferencing for a few years now, without success.  “Now, with IPQ, those that have been disappointed will see a great improvement in video over the raw Internet and those that have been waiting for an affordable but high quality network solution will be confident in making their move to video conferencing.”

RamCom and IPeak Networks begin the partnership roll-out through a series of meetings with top tier resellers beginning at IS Europe 2010, February 1-3, 2010, in Amsterdam.

About RamCom
RamCom is a division of Ramiris Communications Ltd.   The Ramiris group of companies distribute, sell, install and service  teleconference and visual communications equipment, software and services throughout  Eastern Europe.   For more information, visit www.ramcom.hu.

Claremont Group Interiors has a unique take on the design and fit-out business.  The company understood that new technologies were going drive the forms and functions of the business interior of the future.  They had a vision of Intelligent Interiors and they positioned themselves accordingly.  That’s why I was really pleased to learn that Claremont Group Interiors has chosen IPQ to ensure a high quality video conferencing experience between and among their three office locations without resorting to expensive network access services upgrades.  It is great to have our vision and our products validated by this forward-looking outfit.  This is what they had to say.

Packet loss is no longer a problem for Claremont Group Interiors
Leading interior design company Claremont Group Interiors based in Warrington use videoconferencing to hold multisite meetings across 3 geographically dispersed locations in the UK. Packet loss was becoming an issue until the Group implemented leading edge IPQ technology from iPeak Networks. Not only did the iPeak boxes give codec agnostic packet loss recovery meaning any VC system could benefit from having a box it also saved thousands by not having to invest in expensive networks.

Viewpoint AV, Claremont’s audio visual solutions division installed the solution. Viewpoint comment, ‘ We can continue to get high quality VC calls over public internet connections. After seeing the benefit IPeak brings to our own organisations we also feel confident we can help our existing customers improve their VC networks too.’

Find Claremont Group Interiors (and Viewpoint) at www.claremontgi.com.

TubeMogul.com recently reported that four out of five online video watchers walk away when they encounter the first re-buffer.  The sensible therefore?  Far fewer ads are getting clicked (or watched) than a publisher would hope for.We all know that re-buffering is caused by network packet loss so let’s cut right to the if list:

• If you are an advertiser, you should insist that your publishers are protected against rebuffering.
• If you are a publisher, you should insist that your CDNs have protection against packet loss and rebuffering
• If you operate a CDN, you must protect your business against packet loss.

Questions?

Is it just me, or is the subject of packet loss coming up in more conversations at the bar, on the bus, and in the office?  I just came across some promotional material from Silver Peak and I was flabbergasted (a good thing) to see that packet loss is the prominent and recurring theme.  (Search for Silver peak and packet loss.  You’ll see what I mean.) It makes me wonder where Silver Peak has been all this time.  If not packet loss, the single most vexxing problem for packet switched networks engineers, what pressing problems have they and their competitors been solving?  But the answer to that question isn’t that important.   It doesn’t really matter where Silver Peak and Riverbed and Bluecoat have been .  It’s the here and now that matters and Silver Peak is finally in the here and now with their acknowledgement that of packet loss is the most damaging threat to realtime network applications.  Finally.

This is good for IPeak Networks: more talk about packet loss means more people are understanding that when you solve the problem you can get truly super quality out of a lossy network.  But for network users (which means just about everybody) there is a downside to the Silver Peak message because they are talking about tackling the packet loss problem with FEC; a fifty-year-old answer conceived before anyone had imagined packet switched networks.  Surely we understand by now that FEC as we know it doesn’t work in a realtime network application scenario.  FEC as we know it adds latency, the mortal enemy of realtime apps.  And we certainly understand that a network that can’t support realtime applications is a thing of seriously diminished value.

By now you know that the only solution for the packet loss problem that does support realtime apps is IPQ from my company, IPeak Networks.  The fact is, IPQ is the only true innovation in protection against packet loss since 1960 when Messrs Reed and Solomon put forward their notion of forward error correction.  (You’ll say that’s a long time to wait for an innovation.  True, but it’s the here and now that matters, right?)

And don’t take my word for it.  I can visit and show you.   IPQ will add quality to a lossy network (and remember that ALL networks are lossy to some extent.)  I can do it right before your eyes.  Better yet, I’ll give you the wheel and you can drive the demonstration.

I’ll wait for your call.

Third Party Evaluation Reveals IPQ Consistently and Automatically Reduces Packet-Loss by Over 90 Percent

OTTAWA – Nov. 9, 2009 – IPeak Networks, a leading developer of network performance and quality management solutions, today released the findings from an objective, third party assessment of the company’s IPQ™ technology, by Wainhouse Research, an independent market research and analyst firm specializing in conferencing, collaboration, and unified communications.According to the Wainhouse Research report, IPQ consistently and automatically reduced IP network packet loss, in some cases by over 90 percent, enabling useable, high quality video conferences over lossy networks.

IPQ is IPeak Networks’ unique, plug-and-play packet protection technology optimized for video conferencing. IPQ has the proven ability to work with any standards-compliant video conferencing system and deliver the benefits of emerging visual communications tools to the far edge of the enterprise LAN and beyond.

“As the use of video conferencing increases within organizations of all sizes, there is an increasing urgency to address the negative effects of packet loss,” said Ira Weinstein, senior analyst and partner at Wainhouse Research. “IPeak Networks’ IPQ technology met, and in many ways exceeded, our initial expectations for this type of packet-loss protection solution. With IPQ’s relatively low cost and plug-and-play design, we believe this solution would be valuable to virtually any organization seeking to conduct high quality video conferencing sessions over loss-prone IP networks.  This is especially true for organizations with multi-vendor video conferencing deployments.”

“We are thrilled by the findings of the Wainhouse Research report,” said Martin Horne, CEO, IPeak Networks. “The report not only validates our innovative packet protection technology, but underscores our commitment to providing effective, low-cost solutions to the video conference market.”

A full copy of the report is available at the following URL: http://www.wrplatinum.com/Content.aspx?CID=10745

ABOUT IPEAK NETWORKS

IPeak Networks is a privately held Canadian networking technology development company headquartered in Ottawa Canada.  The company’s flagship product, IPQ™ reduces the damaging effects of the packet loss that is endemic to best-efforts networks like the Internet.  IPQ adds the performance and quality to those lossy networks that is required to support the demands placed by HD video in conferencing applications, in virtual desktop implementations, and in wireless and mobile applications.  With IPQ, enterprises can deploy these real-time networked applications to run over the Internet and avoid the high costs of the QoS networks that would otherwise be required. To learn more about IPeak Networks and IPQ, visit www.ipeaknetworks.com.

ABOUT WAINHOUSE RESEARCH

Wainhouse Research, LLC (WR) provides analysis and consulting on the market trends, technologies/ products, vendors, applications, and services in the collaboration and conferencing fields. Areas of coverage include hardware, software, and services related to audio, video, and web conferencing, unified communications, and enterprise social networking. The Company publishes market intelligence reports, provides customized strategic and tactical consulting and studies, and produces industry events (conferences). Additionally, the Company operates industry-focused and end user-focused Web sites and publishes a weekly sponsored bulletin for news and analysis.  For more information on Wainhouse Research, visit www.wainhouse.com.

Press & Analyst Relations:

Kevin Thornton
Nadel Phelan Inc.
831-440-2404
Kevin.thornton@nadelphelan.com

Brett McAteer
IPeak Networks
613-599-6267
brett@ipeaknetworks.com

IPeak Networks Packet Loss Recovery Solutions to Complement FVC’s Rich Media and VoIP Offerings

OTTAWA and DUBAI – Oct. 22, 2009 – FVC, a leading value added distributor in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), has announced the signing of a distribution agreement with IPeak Networks for the MENA region. FVC will be selling and supporting IPeak Networks’ IPQ Network Appliance and IPQ Concentrator throughout the MENA region.

K.S. Parag, managing director at FVC, said, “As the demand for IP based communication grows in the region, we see a need for IPeak Networks’ automatic packet loss recovery solutions that will benefit real time applications like video conferencing and VoIP. This technology will help our video conferencing and VoIP customers run their calls much better on public IP networks and will be a useful addition to our Rich Media portfolio.”

IPeak Networks’ unique patent-pending zero-latency protection against packet loss allows its IPQ products to greatly improve the quality of video conferences conducted over the public Internet.  Packet loss is endemic to the Internet and as little as 1 percent packet loss can make a video conference unusable.  IPQ reduces packet loss by 95 percent and more to enable smooth and synchronized video conference calls using the public Internet. IPQ products for video conferencing provide low-cost plug-and-call protection against packet loss: IPQ’s transparent operation mode means there is no need for network engineering, no changes to installed video conference systems required, and an immediately positive impact on the video conferencing system user experience.

Brett McAteer, director of marketing, IPeak Networks, said, “Right from the start, FVC demonstrated a complete understanding of the way IPQ is changing the game for video conferencing over-the-top of the public Internet. We were looking for the right partner to help build the market for our ground-breaking technology and there is no doubt that the partnership between FVC and IPeak Networks represents a regional force for change, bringing the quality and the performance required for real-time network applications to the public Internet.”

FVC and IPeak Networks will be available at Gitex on FVC’s stand Z-L1 in Zabeel Hall.

About IPeak Networks

IPeak Networks is a privately held Canadian networking technology development company headquartered in Ottawa Canada.  The company’s flagship product, IPQ™ reduces the damaging effects of the packet loss that is endemic to best-efforts networks like the Internet.  IPQ adds the performance and quality to those lossy networks that is required to support HD video conferencing, virtualized line of business applications, and unified communications.  With IPQ, enterprises can deploy these real-time networked applications to run over the Internet and avoid the high costs of the QoS networks that would otherwise be required.  For learn more about IPeak Networks and IPQ, visit www.IPeaknetworks.com

About FVC

Founded in 2000, FVC is one of the leading Value Added Distributors across the Middle East and North Africa with dedicated offices in United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt and Morocco, working through its growing network of more than 130 channel partners in over 44 countries across the region.

With new technologies and solutions driving the pace of change of businesses in the region, FVC has built a successful business by drawing on the best of global solutions. Uniquely in the region, its combination of full support for its channel partners and market-leading solutions from emerging technologies provides both FVC’s partners and their customers with the full confidence to invest in integrated next-generation IT and networking solutions from rich media communications to security to bandwidth management that will benefit their businesses. For more information on FVC, visit www.fvc.com.

Press & Analyst Relations:

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A while back, we approached Wainhouse Research to conduct an independent evaluation of IPQ, our packet loss protection technology.  We felt it would be very helpful if a third party could put IPQ through the paces in a series of real-world video conferencing situations.  And that’s what they did.I am pleased to report that Wainhouse took up the challenge—with gusto—and that their evaluation of IPQ has been completed.  A great report of their findings is available from the Wainhouse Research site.

I want to extend my personal thanks to Ira Weinstein and David Maldow of Wainhouse Research for undertaking the work and for keeping us on our toes.  When these guys evaluate a product, they play no favorites.  They say what they mean and mean what they say.

I have also made a downloadable copy available at our own Documentation page.  Take a look and let me know if you have any questions.

–Matt–