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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Industry joins forces for mobile videoconferencing
IMTC organizes first ever international 3G video telephony
interoperability testing event - Face-to-Face event looks at 3G-324M services - Major
industrial players meet at Ericsson facility in southern Sweden.
San Ramon, Calif., July 27, 2004 - Eleven major companies engaged in mobile
multimedia telecommunications met earlier this month in southern Sweden, for what was to be
the international 3G video telephony interoperability testing event held for the first time.
The event was hosted by Ericsson at their facility in Lund, and was organized by the 3G-324M
Activity Group working under the auspices of the International Multimedia Telecommunications
Consortium (IMTC). It consisted of four days of tightly scheduled sessions validating
handsets, prototype systems and protocol stacks in 50 test cases plus all scenarios for
establishing voice and video communication. This interoperability activity is expected to
provide a basis for the development of future advanced communication services on mobile
networks, including mobile videoconferencing.
"This was the first international 3G video telephony face-to-face interoperability testing
event held in history, " said Albert Wong of Dilithium Networks, Co-Chairman of the IMTC
Activity Group, adding: "Companies around the globe were very enthusiastic about the event
and testing was very productive. This forms an important milestone to the successful launch
of 3G-324M-based video telephony services worldwide."
3G-324M is the standard for 3G video telephony service. The development of 3G-324M
standard based equipment and services appeared to be slow over the past two years when most
vendors and network providers concentrated on H.323/H.320, which from a working principle
point of view are quite similar at point-to-point operation. The fact that so many leading
vendors committed resources for joining the testing in Lund is an indicator for the growing
confidence of the industry in the future of 3G-324M based services. The event in Lund was
attended by Dilithium Networks, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, PacketVideo, Qualcomm, RADVISION,
Samsung, Sasken Communication Technologies, Sharp and Siemens.
"This face-to-face event has given a boost to the group since for first time all
participants were able to test their equipment in a real 3G environment" said Sebastian
Purreiter of Siemens, co-chair of IMTC 3G-324M activity group. "Nevertheless, ongoing
activities will also continue with virtual interoperability test events using digitally
switched ISDN lines for its ease of setup".
The group expects to continue this successful activity with another face-to face event in
September in Lillestrom, Norway, organized under the leadership of the IMTC. Currently the
group is composed of 13 actively participating members, which are Dilithium Networks,
Emuzed, Ericsson, Motorola, NMS Communications, Nokia, PacketVideo, Qualcomm, RADVISION,
Samsung, Sasken Communication Technologies, Sharp and Siemens.
About the IMTC
The International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium (IMTC) is an
industry-leading non-profit organization whose mission is to promote,
encourage, and facilitate the development and implementation of
interoperable multimedia conferencing solutions based on open international
standards. The IMTC hosts interoperability testing events and demonstrations
throughout the world. Over the past three years the IMTC has hosted more than
20 interoperability-testing events to test H.323, H.324, SIP, T.120, H .320,
and Voice over IP products and services with each other. The IMTC Board of Directors
includes representatives from Cisco Systems, Dilithium Networks, Emblaze Systems,
France Telecom, Nextreaming Corp.,
Nokia, Nortel Networks, Polycom, RADVISION, Siemens AG, Sony, and TANDBERG. The
San Ramon, California-based consortium comprises approximately 70 member organizations
from around the globe. Membership is open to any interested party, including vendors
of audio, document, and video conferencing hardware and software; academic institutions;
government agencies; and non-profit organizations. "The IMTC is making Rich Media
happen Anywhere, Anytime." Further information on IMTC can be found at http://www.imtc.org.
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