Vienna Systems Corp, a Kanata, Ontario-based affiliate of Newbridge Networks Inc, has announced Vienna.way, a product it claims is the industry’s first multi-port gateway between public telephone networks and the Internet or intranets. Vienna.way combines call processing software, digital signal processing technology and IP Internet Protocol networking with a graphical user interface, connecting traditional telephone users on the public telephone network with computer users connected via an IP network. It consists of server software for Intel-based Windows NT or Unix systems, software for each client desktop, plus DSP digital signal processing cards of its own design and Public Switched Telephone System interface boards supporting basic rate, primary rate or T1 connections. End-users interact either through the telephone or through the client software installed on their personal computer. The custom-designed DSP boards are optimized for real-time voice transcoding between IP-based packet switching networks and circuit switching networks. The company insists it’s not just interested in offering its customers cheap telephone calls by routing them over the Internet, but wants to use the IP network to add value to current telephone systems. It’s easy to set up voice and data conferences using the technology, and to automatically re-route telephone calls using IP addresses and the call processing functionality within the server. Currently limited to voice, data and fax, the product will support full video conferencing around the future, once standards efforts – based on the Intel Corp supported H.323 standard – are solidified. Vienna expects to gain business from private companies, Internet service providers, telecoms carriers looking to move into the Internet market, and from hardware OEM customers integrating Vienna.way into their systems. Servers, which support up to 96 channels, cost $16,000 for an eight channel system. Vienna expects competition in the future from the likes of Northern Telecom Ltd, Siemens AG and Ericsson Telefon AB, but currently claims to have the field to itself.
