Boca Raton, Florida-based Boca Research Inc is shipping a new videoconferencing system, the BocaPRO Video Phone Elite, which is designed for use over standard analog phone lines. The product is based on the International Telecommunications Union’s H.324 standard, and the company claims to be the first to ship an H.324-compliant system – although it is obviously unaware of PictureTel Corp’s Vivo system, itself sourced from Vivo Software Inc, which started shipping towards the end of June (CI No 2,95 7). The system itself takes the form of a PCI-based board, designed to operate with any V.34 modem. Boca is only responsible for producing the hardware design for the new product, since it is based on Lucent Technologies Inc’s new AVP-111 Video/Audio Processor videoconferencing chip, and application software from MultiMedia Access Corp. It runs at the 15 frames per second that is typical for H.324-compliant systems, and is to be pitched both at business and consumer applications. The system is to cost $400, although this does not include a video camera: Boca plans to start selling its own camera, probably costing around $150, but says the system will work with any third-party camera, or with a camcorder.
