Amsterdam, July 5, 2005 - Eicon Networks Corporation ("Eicon"), a global leader in providing high quality communication products for networked business applications, announced today support for Microsoft Speech Server (MSS) 2004 R2. Eicon's complete Diva Server product line will be providing support for MSS 2004 R2. Eicon also announced that it will provide SIP-based gateway software to enable VoIP calls to easily traverse between Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 and legacy PBX systems by using Diva Server telephony adapters and Microsoft Office real-time collaboration (RTC) applications. The SIP-based gateway software enables users to seamlessly make PC-to-phone and phone-to-PC audio calls through the standard public switched telephone network (PSTN).
"Microsoft has already enjoyed success at the high reaches of the business spectrum," observed Dan Miller, Sr. Analyst at Opus Research. "Eicon adds more arrows to their networking quiver opening up new possibilities in the mid-market for speech and call processing solutions."
"We are excited to welcome Eicon Networks to our growing network of Microsoft Speech Server Partners," said Piyush Dogra, director of Business Development and Strategic Alliances at Microsoft. "Eicon Networks brings a wide array of telephony products in support of Microsoft Speech Server thereby providing more flexibility and choice for our customers and partners."
"Microsoft Speech Server is extremely important to the voice industry as speech-enabled applications continue to grow in medium and large enterprise businesses. Medium and large enterprises will now benefit due to Eicon's full range of products; spanning analog, ISDN BRI, 4BRI and PRI, digital E1 and T1", said Kipton Heuertz, vice president, Product Marketing, Americas at Eicon. "Additionally, Eicon products continue to be the easiest to install due to Diva Server products recognized by the Windows operating system."
Eicon Networks' Diva Server Platform
The Diva Server telephony adapters provide a full set of voice processing functions including tone detection and generation, voice activity detection and echo cancellation. Automatic Gain Control (AGC) is provided to automatically adjust the signal level of calls within a conference or for recording at normal levels. Onboard DSPs perform these complex operations in real-time, enhancing overall system performance and lowering implementation costs. Up to eight Diva Server adapters - offering 2 to 240 channels - can be installed to operate concurrently in a single server. Any type of Diva Server adapter - Analog, ISDN BRI, ISDN PRI, or E1/T1, can work together in the same server
Ease of installation is guaranteed as all Diva Server adapters conform to Plug and Play standards, eliminating the need to manually configure your server. Diva Server adapters are ready to be used with all state-of-the-art operating systems, offering drivers for both Microsoft Windows and Linux. Diva Server drivers for Windows are officially certified by the Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL).
Product Availability
The Diva Server for MSS 2004 R2 will be available from Alliance Systems (www.alliancesystems.com). Alliance Systems offers MSS 2004 R2 software and a number of leading Intel based servers in a full range of integrated and ready-to-install configurations. For pricing and technical ordering information, contact Alliance Systems at: sales@alliancesystems.com.
Microsoft Speech Server 2004 R2
Part of the Windows Server System(tm), MSS is a Web-based, speech-enabled Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and multimodal application solutions platform. As a Speech Application Language Tags (SALT)-based platform, Speech Server follows the Web application deployment model, using an ASP.NET-based Web server as the application server. The two main core components included with Microsoft Speech Server are the Telephony Application Services and Speech Engine Services, including ASR, TTS and prompt manager. MSS 2004 R2 also can be deployed in an all-in-one server configuration, giving customers greater flexibility when choosing their deployment option.
The platform offers third-party vendors the ability to add existing speech recognition and text-to-speech engines and help provide scalable, reliable and secure core speech processing services. Speech-enabled Web applications running on the platform may be developed using extensions to Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET, consisting of SALT-enabled ASP.NET controls for speech programming as well as sophisticated grammar and prompt editing tools for speech application creation.
SIP-based VoIP Telephony for Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005 Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005 is a real-time collaboration platform that enables people to connect and work together in real-time using web and data conferencing along with instant messaging and audio/video collaboration. It supports linking corporate telephone systems and computers together to integrate private branch exchanges (PBX) and the PSTN with an IP network. This requires an IP-to-PSTN Gateway to allow users to make and receive calls to and from enterprise-wide PBX extensions or external PSTN phone numbers using Communicator 2005.
The forthcoming SIP-based gateway software from Eicon adds this IP-to-PSTN gateway functionality to any Diva Server telephony adapter (PCI-board) and this can be installed into a server along with Live Communications Server 2005 to provide an integrated gateway. This allows both PC-to-PC as well as PC-to-phone and phone-to-PC voice calls.
Diva Server telephony adapters offer a choice of Analog, ISDN BRI and PRI as well as E1/T1 interfaces and scalability of 2 to 240 channels per server. Up to eight Diva Server telephone adapters can be installed in a single server allowing a mix of any combination of different board types. On digital ISDN BRI and PRI interfaces all international and most national ISDN variants are supported including a complete set of supplementary services. In addition Q-SIG protocols of all major PBX vendors are available to ensure interoperability with legacy PBX systems.
"Diva Server with crucial IP-to-PSTN gateway functionality will provide the ideal link for real time collaboration servers to PBXs," stated Franz-Josef Eberle, Senior Product Line Manager at Eicon, "this paves the way to truly integrated communications where users can simply use VoIP and PC's to make phone calls to colleagues or customers regardless of whether they are using a LAN connected PC or on the public telephone network. Furthermore, using their PC and Communicator 2005, users are reachable by their normal office phone extension whether they are at their desk, at home or on the road."
Eicon's SIP-based gateway software will be Microsoft logo certified to comply with the Microsoft SIP Gateway specifications. Product availability is scheduled for 4th quarter, 2005.
Eicon Networks
Eicon Networks is sinds 1984 wereldwijd leverancier van betrouwbare communicatieproducten voor bedrijfsapplicaties binnen netwerken. Tot het portfolio van het bedrijf behoort de Diva-reeks van mediaverwerkende producten voor spraak, telefonische conferenties, fax en documentverwerking, en de Eiconcard-reeks voor het verwerken van transacties en de Shiva-reeks van beveiligingsproducten. Eicon distribueert, verkoopt en ondersteunt haar producten in meer dan tachtig landen, via een netwerk van verkooppartners, telecommunicatiebedrijven, Internet Service Providers (ISP's) en Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM's), waaraan Eicon ook op lokaal niveau ondersteuning biedt. Meer informatie over Eicon Networks is te vinden op www.eicon.nl.
Voor meer informatie:
Eicon, Rob Sperrey, tel: 070 3538212, email rob.sperrey@eicon.com, of Monogram Communication Strategies (MCS) BV, Renée Reijers, tel: 023 5628208, email reneer@monogram.nl