Avistar Partners With Paradial to Bring Consumer-Style User-Friendliness to Enterprise...

Avistar Partners With Paradial to Bring Consumer-Style User-Friendliness to
Enterprise Videoconferencing and Collaboration
Move integrates firewall traversal into Avistar software and extends adoption
of industry standards for multimedia communications

SAN MATEO, Calif., June 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Avistar
Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: AVSR) has partnered with Paradial AS to
integrate advanced firewall traversal technology into C3, Avistar's
industry-leading software for desktop and room-based videoconferencing and
collaboration. The move means that C3 now offers similar simplicity and
ease-of-use as consumer software, but in an enterprise-strength package that
includes bandwidth management and proven across some of the largest desktop
deployments on the globe. This enables organizations at all levels of a supply
chain to securely link key personnel with face-to-face communications and
collaboration tools, between virtually any location, and without concerns over
ability to connect.
"With Paradial, Avistar has taken a significant step forward in increasing
the availability -- and therefore the impact -- of videoconferencing and
collaboration tools in the workplace," said Chris Lauwers, Chief Technology
Officer at Avistar. "Our C3 software is now capable of independently managing
interconnectivity with different vendor systems, and is a cinch to deploy and
manage. These factors make it realistic, indeed even compelling, to extend the
rollout of more effective video-enabled communications beyond the borders of
an enterprise to include external clients, suppliers and home-based or mobile
workers."
A good example of this new connectivity is the development of the
Securities Community Network (SCN), a strategic platform for real time desktop
video and data collaboration for the financial services sector, buy-side and
sell-side research communities and their corporate clients. The SCN enables
research leaders and corporate issuers to gain competitive advantage through
improved communication and collaboration with relevant parties throughout the
securities industry. The SCN also enables securities professionals to
instantly share time-sensitive and valued information among their industry
contacts. Avistar's partnership with Paradial means that financial sector
firms and corporate clients seeking to join the network can easily download
the SCN software and launch directly into the community.
Ingvar Aaberg, CEO of Paradial added, "A key challenge for the video
communications industry is to move from being an intra- to an inter-company
solution. The agreement to embed our software within Avistar C3 means video
and audio collaboration traffic can flow outside of the corporate network
without hassle or compromise to security."
The partnership sees Paradial's RealTunnel(R) Firewall/NAT embedded into
all versions of Avistar C3 -- Desktop, Teamroom, Teamroom MP, Executive
Teamroom, Mobile Teamroom -- and available through both hosted and on premise
deployments. Support for latest SIP-based industry standards (ICE, STUN, TURN)
for multimedia communications enables C3 to work across virtually any firewall
and network in a non-intrusive way, without any reconfiguration, and helps
ensure the highest possible call quality. The improvements to
interconnectivity and minimal need for administrator intervention also extend
the value of Avistar's video-enabling capabilities for integration into third
party unified communications systems.
Avistar selected Paradial following a thorough market evaluation of
specialist providers of firewall traversal technologies. "We were impressed by
Paradial's dedicated solutions, and pleased to find a partner that has
established relationships with other leading vendors in the video and IP
communications industry which complement those at Avistar. This helps towards
universal adoption of multimedia standards that are vital to the success of
unified communications," said Lauwers.
About Avistar Communications Corporation
Avistar creates technology that provides the missing critical element in
unified communications: bringing people in organizations face-to-face, through
enhanced communications, for true collaboration anytime, anyplace. Its latest
product, Avistar C3, draws on over a decade of market experience to deliver a
single-click desktop videoconferencing and collaboration experience that moves
business communications into a new era. Available as a stand-alone solution,
or integrated with existing unified communications software from other
vendors, Avistar C3 users gain instant messaging-style ability to initiate
video communications across and outside the enterprise. Patented bandwidth
management enables thousands of users to access desktop videoconferencing,
Voice over IP (VoIP) and streaming media, without requiring substantial new
network investment or impairing network performance.
Avistar's desktop videoconferencing and collaboration installations are
among the world's largest, including more than 18,000 seats sold in more than
40 countries. Clients report as much as a 20 percent reduction in travel
expense and carbon emissions, increases in productivity, and immeasurably
improved relationship building within their organizations, as well as with
suppliers and customers. Avistar holds a portfolio of 80 patents for
inventions in video and network technology and licenses IP to
videoconferencing, rich-media services, public networking and related
industries. Current licensees include Sony Corporation, Sony Computer
Entertainment Inc. (SCEI), Polycom, Inc., Tandberg ASA, Radvision Ltd. and
Emblaze-VCON.
For more information, visit http://www.avistar.com
About Paradial
Paradial develops and markets software technologies that solve one of the
most critical challenges in IP-communications: NAT Traversal. Paradial's
RealTunnel(R) product enables secure and high quality media solutions to work
across IP networks. RealTunnel supports STUN, TURN, ICE, H.460 and other
traversal technologies for SIP and H.323 -- ensuring enterprise and corporate
users can place and receive calls whenever they have an internet connection.
SOURCE Avistar Communications Corporation

Lisa Farley of Avistar Communications Corporation, +1-212-949-1137,
lfarley@avistar.com