Startup WYDE Voice on Wednesday unveiled its portfolio of voice conferencing appliances that support 16-bit, 16 kHz wideband audio. These products are based on the Asterisk (News - Alert) platform.

 

David Erickson, the founder and CEO of Free Conferencing Corp., which is backing WYDE Voice, said that the opportunity to create a voice product that bridges the gap between PSTN and VoIP was a no-brainer—he was completely on board.

 

“WYDE Voice introduces a new level of conferencing technology with unparalleled flexibility and reliability,” Erickson said in a statement.

 

The new appliances, which deliver wideband voice for conferencing environments, took two years to research and develop. The Asterisk platform was picked to offer flexibility without sacrificing performance.

 

“We have developed these products to accommodate the needs of both service providers and enterprises to deliver conference services and applications that were once cost prohibitive,” said Michael Eastman, vice president of global sales for WYDE Voice, in a statement. “We are truly pushing the envelope with these turnkey products that will offer customizable features at the most cost effective price point on the market.”

 

WYDE Voice is offering two appliance models: VM1000 (starts at $160 per port) and VM3000 (starts at $140 per port). Eastman said those prices are much, much less than competitive conference bridge products available from other vendors.

 

Marc Beattie, partner and CSP (News - Alert) practice manager at Wainhouse Research predicted that WYDE Voice’s conference appliances have the potential to disrupt the industry and push the adoption of new technologies.

 

“From a pure cost per port perspective, the WYDE Voice product could really shake things up, and that alone would be a disruptor,” Beattie said in a statement.

 

The WYDE Voice appliances enable a variety of conferencing capabilities, including instantaneous active speaker update, real-time conference control using SIP, Web service API for integration with third party applications and sites, pre-configured call flows, and integration with/support for authentication protocols such as RADIUS. The appliances accommodate 500-7,000 concurrent G.711 callers and as many as 3,000 16-bit/16 kHz iSAC callers.

 

WYDE Voice is now in the process of building an applications infrastructure around its conference bridge products. In the company’s announcement, Eastman said he envisions premium audio conferencing services, integration with social networking sites, tools for distance learning, and online collaboration via Webcasts.

 

“We will support this launch with an aggressive reseller program with attractive pricing for service providers, systems integrators, and VARs,” Eastman said. “In addition, enterprises can easily take a WYDE Voice product and integrate it seamlessly within their organizations to conduct internal conference calling, especially those that are high volume users.”