Pexip, one of the most disruptive newcomers into the Video Conferencing Industry, is taking Europe by storm.
The team – a brainy bunch of ex-Tandberg’ers – have found their niche in simplicity & interoperability, whilst solving a whole host of problems associated with the likes of Microsoft Lync (“Skype for Business”!), bandwidth challenges and WebRTC.
Here, we take a dive into what’s going on in the world of virtual video conferencing infrastructure and help answer the question, “What the flip is Pexip?!”
Any-to-Any: Playing that broken record again?
The “Any-to-any” phrase has become the video conferencing world equivalent of a mobile phone provider offering “unlimited data”… you can be pretty damn sure there’s going to be a catch. But just as you’d be rather pleasantly surprised if you could download films on your mobile to your hearts content with no hefty end-of-the-month bill, we are pretty surprised of what we have managed to bring together with the help of Pexip.
As an unbiased team of video obsessives who’s roots lie within interoperability & multi-vendor integration, we can sometimes be pretty hard to impress. But we’re pretty impressed with what we’ve seen in our labs so far. Seamless Microsoft Lync integration, connectivity between any of our 35 in-house video endpoints (Including Cisco, Polycom, Lifesize, Tandberg & Telelabs), simple & effective tablet & smartphone connectivity and one-click access into a superb quality Virtual Meeting Room, from any browser, via WebRTC. And it works as an audio bridge too.
We are seeing Pexip Infinity automatically connecting and transcoding any legacy and current codec, such as H.323, SIP, H.263, H.264 SVC, RTV, VP8, RDP, for video, and a similarly long list for audio. It’s Skype audio compatible, and is already ready for Skype for Business when it’s launched in 2015.
And for absolute piece of mind, future protocols & codec will be provided for, for free, within a simple software update. Now that’s impressive.
Connect Lync… to everything
“The biggest challenge in technology today is connecting Microsoft Lync to the outside world.”
Well maybe not. With Pexip, our team have easily integrated each one of our legacy and current video conferencing systems with our in-house Microsoft Lync 2010 AND Lync 2013, with full datasharing, both ways, between Lync’s own H.264 SVC/RTV/RDP and H.263, H.264, VP8 (WebRTC) and BFCP/H.239.
And not only that. Pexip actually improves the features offered by Microsoft Lync alone. Every Lync user is given their own Virtual Meeting Room, available at all times, and can be used for ad-hoc and scheduled meetings for an unlimited number of people. Showing up in your buddy list, with presence, Lync users can connect with any non-Lync users, whether a room video conferencing system, a mobile device or a web browser user.
With Pexip, Microsoft Lync in no longer an island. It’s just another communication tool to keep your team collaborating in which ever way they choose.
100% Software Based
The virtualisation of infrastructure is one of the biggest trends to have affected IT in the last 10 years. By being software only, a solution is easily scalable, and provides immediate access to upgrades and updates.
And as a pure software offering, there is no need to invest in expensive hardware for the solution to run on. So whether your organisation is running a VMWare or Hyper-V platform, deployment & management of Pexip is easy. Updates can be deployed in minutes. Extra capacity can be added almost instantly. And the revolutionary distributed architecture means you can have as many gateways as you want – wherever you want them and wherever you need them.
Plus, Pexip Infinity supports VMware High Availability (HA) and vMotion functionality and failover capabilities so if your virtual machine does crash, then there is no need to panic – Pexip will be automatically moved across to another functioning server.
Find out more benefits of Virtualising Video Infrastructure with our free whitepaper here.
Cloud or On-Premise? It’s your choice!
Many organisations are moving to the cloud. But due to security policies, restrictions & business needs, many may also choose to stick with in-house infrastructure. There are benefits for choosing either. And there are benefits for a hybrid of both.
Does this matter? Not one bit.
No matter whether you choose to deploy Pexip Infinity within your own premises or datacentre, inside a private cloud or in a completely public cloud, Pexip works. And it can also be deployed as a hybrid solution too – partly on premises, partly in the cloud – for those businesses who recognise the benefits of both!
In addition, VideoCentric can provide Pexip-as-a-Service, meaning you have every option available, whatever works best for your business. Not sure? Give us a call & we will talk you through the options.
Our thoughts?
Although a relatively new solution on the market, we are finding Pexip to be one of the biggest disrupter’s to the video communications market today. Without the limitations of protocols, devices, location or deployment model, Pexip provides a revolutionary solution that makes video communication available to everyone.
The Pexip solution is highly professional, secure & resilient, and provides huge cost savings for any collaborative business or organisation, whatever size it may be.
We have put it through its paces, and we believe that Pexip works, and works well. Whether for room based video solutions, desktop endpoints, Microsoft Lync, web browser, mobile & tablets, laptops, soft clients or audio, Pexip provides the most interoperable solution available today. It provides exceptional quality video, audio & data, simple deployment & usage, and a platform that doesn’t leave you stranded on a communication island, now or into the future.
Speak to us today to organise a test drive and let us help you find out for yourselves, “What the flip is Pexip?“
