Lucent Technologies Tuesday launched both its new venture, Persystant Technologies, and the venture’s first product, BitRoom, an Internet-based collaboration tool for online meetings.
The new software server creates virtual conferences by linking networked users by phone, laptop, or multimedia PC over the Internet or corporate intranets. The scalable meeting-by-modem system, based on Bell Labs technology, integrates with legacy telephone and LAN products.
“Today’s convergence revolution, led by Lucent, is possible largely because of Bell Labs efforts in multimedia collaboration,” said Tom Uhlman, president of the Lucent New Ventures Group. “Further, our creation of Persystant Technologies supports Lucent’s initiative to promote what we refer to as a ‘Communications Valley’ in New Jersey.”
Persystant Technologies will be jointly owned by Lucent and collaboration software developer Unixpros, and sold through Lucent Global Learning Solutions.
BitRoom users can integrate real-time collaboration capabilities into network environments, and ISP and traditional carriers can offer hosted IP services and applications to business customers.
Customization and integration services allow the solution to be scaled while managing available bandwidth, minimizing the need to modify underlying software.
“Integrated, two-way voice and data communication over the Internet has been a problem until now. With the BitRoom system, the exchange of information is actively managed so that collaboration is more efficient, stable, and of a higher quality than previously available,” said Jay Thompson, Persystant Technologies chief executive officer.
“BitRoom takes advantage of a ‘connectionless’ environment in which interactive communications can be held. This is a breakthrough for companies concerned with network performance and security.”
Company trials of the BitRoom Collaboration System are underway.
A suite of applications, including interactive classroom, auditorium and help desk environments, will be available in the summer and a software development kit will be available for users to customize their own environments in the fourth quarter.
