Frost & Sullivan's recent analysis, North American VoIP End Points Market, selected Viseon, Inc. as the recipient of the 2005 Frost & Sullivan Excellence in Technology Award for its development of the VisiFone II digital multimedia telephone, a low-cost broadband device that offers two-way live video communications as well as other features that were until now, unavailable on home or office telephones.

Viseon designs and markets the VisiFone II digital multimedia telephone to VoIP providers such as cable companies, regional bell operating companies and others that offer packet-based telecommunications for use by consumers. The VisiFone II offers 30-frames-per-second video and CD-quality video.



Viseon's IP-based VisiFone operates on many industry standards including: H.264, G.722, wideband audio, G.711, iLBC voice codecs and a fully html 4.0 compatible embedded browser that can empower VoIP providers to offer many additional services which will differentiate their offerings from those of a traditional phone company. Examples of these offerings include:

• Ability to change account preferences directly from the device.
• The provision of Interactive Yellow Pages, which enables consumers to click-and-dial directly from a directory list.
• Voice and video mail
• Downloadable ring tones
• Access to popular search engines

By publishing its application program interfaces (APIs), Viseon expects to increase the number of features for the phone. It is currently collaborating with content providers to test the content that will be most useful and yet, least intrusive to consumers.

"Additional content and features (for example, customization of information) will also be available and users will be able to print out coupons and/or make immediate purchases through the phone," says Frost & Sullivan research analyst Lynda Starr. "There will be targeted advertising for the device, which will benefit both users due to relevance and advertisers due to Viseon's database of personal user profile and content preferences provided by the consumer on an opt-in basis."

Additionally, Viseon is working with session initiation protocol (SIP)- based H.264 softphone vendors for interoperability.

The company began delivery of the Visifone II in July to selected VoIP providers for initial testing and anticipates piloting multimedia applications in 2006 through its subsidiary, ViseonMedia. ViseonMedia provides consumers with information, entertainment, and other content including targeted advertising.

"While other manufacturers are offering videophones, other products do not contain the features available in the VisiFone or are not available in this price range," notes Starr. "While the rest of the industry has been talking about the possibility of a feature-rich videophone, Viseon has developed it and therefore is worthy of Frost & Sullivan's Excellence in Technology Award."

Each year this Award is bestowed upon the company that has pioneered the development and introduction of an innovative technology into the market -- a technology that has either impacted or has the potential to impact several market sectors. This Award recognizes a company's successful technology development that can bring significant contributions to the market in terms of adoption, change, and competitive posture. It also recognizes the overall technical excellence of a company and its commitment toward technology innovation.