LifeSize, a division of Logitech, has qualified its LifeSize Passport HD video conferencing product to be a room-based, business-class video conferencing service to be plugged into Skype.
The move will allow LifeSize Passport users to conduct video calls with Skype users around the world.
Skype Enterprise vice-president and general manager David Gurle said the initiative enables Skype to be part of the room-based enterprise video conferencing market.
Gurle said, "With the ‘consumerisation of IT’ whereby people are bringing Skype into the workplace, more enterprises are looking for synergistic solutions like this that include Skype. We’re delighted that LifeSize is helping them address customer demand by delivering enterprise-class video conferencing with Skype."
LifeSize Passport is a telepresence-quality service that enables organisations to deploy HD video conferencing as a mainstream business tool for small meeting rooms, individual offices, teleworkers and small to medium-sized businesses.
LifeSize and Logitech senior vice-president Craig Malloy said the qualification of LifeSize Passport to enable Skype video calling is an incredibly significant milestone in the video communications industry.
Malloy added, "We’ve been working closely with Skype over the last two years, helping us deliver on our shared vision to make video communication truly accessible to anyone, anywhere."
To use the service, customers must first be a registered Skype user. Upon logging into LifeSize Passport using their Skype log in credentials, their Skype contacts are automatically populated into the LifeSize directory. To make a call, users have to click on a contact name in the directory.
The LifeSize Passport users can also make calls to landlines and mobile phones through Skype, said the company.
The software to enable LifeSize Passport and Skype video calling — software version 4.8 — will be globally available for download in April 2011.
