Vidyo Sees 68% Growth in Billings With New Round of Investors

Vidyo, a growing leader in video conferencing, has announced a 68% growth in billings after a new round of investors led by Triangle Peak Partners, LP, an investment firm specializing in technology, energy, and alternative energy. This brings the total funding since the company's inception in 2005, to $116M.

In an article written for venturebeat.com, Joe Koetsier suggests three reasons for the growing confidence in Vidyo's telepresence technology. First, Koetsier suggests Vidyo continues to build and attract new investors, largely due to its reliance on cheaper, built-in components, as opposed to room-based video conferencing, which is significantly more expensive. Secondly, it's appealing in its utilization of the cloud, which yields versatility in solutions. Finally, Vidyo's sales model positions the company to pour resources into technology development, which is the crux of telepresence services.

Vidyo's's sale's model relies on revenue sharing partnerships. This reduces the amount of resources required for sales, as the network expands organically through those of their partners. With a smaller focus on sales and marketing, new funding from investors can be used on the development of technology. In the world of video conferencing, technology development makes for sustainable and reliable services. Sustainable and reliable services make for satisfied consumers.

Such a large investment from Triangle Peak Partners, LP, an investment firm with a specific interest in and research base revolving around technology, speaks confidently of Vidyo's future. According to Ryan Lawler from techcrunch.com, Vidyo currently boasts 26 patents with an additional 56 pending. It's housed in 13 offices around the world, and with this new funding, consumers can expect to see services expand globally and the technology improve even more.

Telepresence enhances medical care, reduce costs

You’re a surgeon who wants to learn a new procedure but the pioneering doctor performing the operation is in Houston and you’re in Seattle. Besides, you can’t always see well from the gallery. Instead, you can watch the surgery in high definition on your computer, tablet or even on your mobile phone.

You’re a medic at the scene of an accident but a victim’s condition is beyond your ability.  Call up an ER doctor at the hospital, and because he or she can see the patient, they are better able to guide you through the process, than if it was described on the phone.

Streamlined Medical Care

Welcome to enhanced 21st Century medical care and the rapidly growing area of personal telepresence and video conferencing.  These practical applications are taking video conferencing beyond chatting with friends and family at a distance. The future is now as the technology is already being used for these purposes and more. Wouldn’t patients love to cut down on traveling to the doctor if they could turn on their computer and visit the doctor? House calls return.

With businesses, patients and the medical profession looking for ways to trim costs, telepresence can achieve that without sacrificing care.  According to Telepresence Options:

 “It could be a cost-saver too. Some industry analysts have said remote monitoring could lead to savings of 20 to 40 percent by reducing unnecessary hospitalizations and catching chronic problems early. Others have cited pending doctor shortages -- a national gap expected to reach 130,000 by 2025, as the baby boomer retirement wave crests -- as reason to embrace remote health-care technology.”

Walk-in Telehealth Kiosks

Vidyo recently signed a contract with HealthSpot(TM), a pioneer in patient and provider driven healthcare technology. HealthSpot has integrated Vidyo technology into its cutting-edge telehealth station that provides high-quality medical diagnostics to acute care patients anytime, anywhere. Anchoring the telehealth system is the HealthSpot(TM) Station, a private, walk-in kiosk that offers patient access to diagnosis and treatment by board-certified doctors, via Vidyo-powered HD videoconferencing and interactive digital medical devices. This provides patients a face-to-face experience with a board-certified doctor who could be miles away. Each station is supported by a certified medical attendant who facilitates check-in, helps patients with devices as needed, and sanitizes the kiosk after every visit.

With continuing emphasis on “being green,” reducing doctor visits will cut back on the fuel patients would use to drive to the doctor. With kiosks like HealthSpot, there will be a reduction in paper work.  Not to mention, the improved efficiencies with doctors delivering direct one-on-one remote consultations.

Vidyo on Windows 8

We've had a few questions about support for Vidyo on Windows 8. To clarify, there are no concerns with Vidyodesktop working in the Windows 8 operating system. The issue encountered is the latest version of Internet Explorer (IE), which comes by default with Windows 8 and is not currently supported.

Microsoft changed the browser characteristics of the current IE to be completely non-standard and non-conforming, breaking many things in the process. The next update of Vidyo desktop should be supporting the current version of IE. It's unclear at this point, weather the update will support the Metro User Interface.

Workaround: Compatibility mode

Besides using an alternate browser (Chrome, Firefox), there is a work around by changing IE to compatibility mode. Further instructions can be found here on changing Windows to compatibility mode.

From Fantasy to the Future: Holograms at the Video Conferencing Table

Something new is coming your way – Princess Leia may soon have a seat at your video conferencing table.  Thirty-six years ago this Star Wars icon was a screen dream; today she embodies the newest developing technology in video conferencing - Holograms. In the tradition of life imitating art, the hologram promises to take business dialogue where no business has gone before – LIVE, real time interaction between physical and virtual holographic bodies.     

Of course, Princess Leia is entertainment.

More recently, performance artists have created a buzz about incorporating holograms into their performance plans.  From Japan's holographic pop star, Hatsune Miku, as 2010's “J-pop avatar on tour [before] live audiences" to Samsung's singer/songwriter Leslie Feist in a triple-body appearance of simultaneous concerts on April 26, 2013, holograms have already taken to the stage.

Let's look at the business side.

Entertainment has planted the vision of possibilities and the seeds of hope and now business technology is creating a new reality.  “As cloud computing opens up the possibilities of remote working, people are turning to new, unified communications technologies to deliver the immediacy of an in-person meeting, while still being able to work from another location. “ says Jane McCallion in a recent article for ITPro.  

The keyword right now is “development” as several IT pioneers have joined the bidding war  for leadership to break the 3D wall in the business world.  Microsoft is developing these tools right now to create a proxy “’that gives the remote worker a true seat at the table, the ability to look around the room, turn to a colleague and have a side conversation,’” as stated in the company’s advert for a Principal Software Development Engineer.  In 2010 Intel unveiled a holographic presentation at their Technology Conference in Turkey. Despite the language barrier, the video is a compelling argument for the imminent marriage of entertainment and business technology for the conference room. 

Since we're discussing the vision of business in the future, let’s return to the cloud for a moment and consider the possibilities of next-generation business norms.  How helpful would it be to have everyone present at the weekly business meeting, even if they were out of town?  Patients could make virtual visits to their doctors and doctors could make virtual house calls.  Engineers walking through their designs would add dimension to project development.  Depositions might no longer require air fare and accommodations to prepare testimony and witnesses for legal a ctions.  There’s nothing more effective for recruitment than a face-to-face dialogue.  Students' and teachers' classroom interaction takes on new meaning in infinite variables.  While the types of meetings are varied, these scenarios all represent groundbreaking possibilities for video-conferencing in business.

Right now, it appears our IT visionaries have a ways to go before we have something practical to add to video conferencing services; however, lest you think this is just entertainment, remember how the telephone changed how we conduct business. 

Vidyo and Internet2 Partnership Brings Collaborative Potential to Education

April brought exciting news for America's higher education system. Vidyo, Inc. and Internet2 have partnered to offer a low-cost, subscription-based video communications system for all Internet2 university members and thousands of public K-12 schools in the United States. Early adopter enrollment is expected to begin in May.

The introduction of a reliable telepresence service into our educational system yields endless possibilities. As our capacity to connect with the world strengthens (via the internet and mass media), so does our understanding that we do not exist in a vacuum. Collaboration is imperative. Telepresence technology facilitates important collaborative relationships regardless of geographic barriers.

Vidyo technology has clear benefits in higher education, particularly between research programs. Multiple research teams across institutions and disciplines may work together to examine and solve important problems. Research teams traveling to satellite sites may remain connected to campus activities and support crews. But this partnership in education also inspires other ideas.

With Vidyo technology, we may see educational collaborations between the professional world--corporate, industrial, trade, human services, global--and education institutions, both higher and K-12. Such collaborations could improve the capacity of our schools to produce a highly and appropriately skilled work force, as participants exchange information about changing trends and needs. Such collaborations could inspire students in the choices they make regarding their futures, being given an insider's perspective not possible through strictly theory-based curricula.

With the ability to engage in real-time (face-time) communication across geographic barriers, students have the opportunity to learn from a wide variety of experts via discussions about current issues. Education becomes more meaningful when it jumps out of the textbook. Also, it shrinks the distance between the classroom and the global context. Students who see a world outside of their own neighborhoods are more likely to exercise compassion for others with different worldviews.

The partnership between Vidyo and Internet2 to bring reliable telepresence technology to education is an exciting step toward meaningful and collaborative learning and exploratory experiences.