Educators Look to Conferencing Solutions as Competitive Differentiator And Source of New Revenue

Videre is a full-service organization that manages every aspect of the conferencing project, from best practices consultation, to product selection, custom installations, training, maintenance and support. Videre has completed dozens of conferencing projects for education clients including UMASS Online, UMASS Medical School, Massachusetts Department of Education and Boston College High School.

"Vendors have recognized the potential of conferencing in the education market and have moved aggressively to offer custom solutions that fit their needs," said Bill Benoit, co-founder of Videre Conferencing. "There is a perfect storm happening right now in terms of technology improvements, improved functionality, lower pricing and increasing demand for these solutions. It all adds up to broader deployment of conferencing technology in classrooms ranging from primary to secondary to graduate schools."

New Products Designed Specifically for Education Marketplace

Videre has established partnerships with the conferencing industry's leading suppliers in order to provide their customers with the best products on the market today. By providing complete product objectivity, they are able to offer best-in-class technology tailored to meet any application, requirement or budget.

Conferencing vendors have recently brought to market a host of new products designed specifically for education applications. Manufacturers have moved further away from proprietary systems to standards-based equipment and have begun to incorporate PC functionality. Today's new "media-conferencing" approach is seamlessly integrating audio, video and multimedia tools, enabling the use of PowerPoint and other desktop applications typically used in a teaching environment to now be available in a videoconference. The increased functionality, combined with intuitive, easy to understand user interfaces, makes it easy for an educator to adopt new technology quickly into the classroom setting.

Polycom ClassStation Solutions

Polycom (NASDAQ: PLCM) recently announced four new educational solutions based on its Polycom VSX(TM) 7000 and VSX 8000 video communications platforms - ClassStation(TM) Primary, ClassStation Secondary, ClassStation Small and ClassStation Large. According to Polycom, the new solutions are specifically designed by educators for educators, for use within any environment and any application, including K-12, universities, medical, military and corporate training. The complete systems enable teachers to expand the classroom across the world achieving more educational equity, gaining access to two-way interactive content, subject matter experts, museums, research, different cultures and even electronic field trips.

Tandberg Educator MXP

Tandberg recently introduced a new suite of products called Educator MXP which furnishes schools with high quality audio and video, state-of-the-art collaboration tools and advanced multi-site capabilities. According to Tandberg, the dramatically improved video, audio, collaboration tools, plasma displays will transform the education experience for students and educators.

Centra Symposium

Centra Symposium replicates typical classroom interaction - with a complete set of features for highly interactive, effective group learning, bringing together voice, video, data and graphics in a structured online learning environment for up to 500 simultaneous users.

Videre assisted in the tailoring of a Centra-powered solution for the specific needs of UMASSOnline. Centra and Videre made possible an approach to distance learning that blends self-paced education with live Web-based sessions for degree and non-degree programs, enabling guest lecturers from corporations and other universities around the world to take part without leaving their offices. The university is using the solution for programs in information technology, business, nursing, public health and education courses.

"We expect that conferencing vendors will continue to work closely with educators to deliver products that bring the right technology and user experience to the classroom. We are seeing demand for these solutions not just at the university and post-graduate level, but increasingly within the K-12 setting as well," said Videre's Bill Benoit.

About Videre Conferencing
Videre Conferencing, Inc. of Quincy, MA specializes in video, audio and Web conferencing and collaboration solutions for the commercial, education, health care and state government markets. Videre's expertise includes consultation, design, sales, implementation and support of the leading remote meeting and distance learning technologies. The founders of Videre -- Todd Luttinger, Bill Benoit and Steve Cogliano -- have close to 40 years of collective experience in conferencing systems design, sales, implementation and support. For more information, visit www.videreconferencing.com