Videoconferencing specialist, VideoServer Inc of Burlington, Massachusetts, has released its Encounter Family of Internet Protocol products for the delivery of videoconferencing over the internet. The VideoServer Encounter Family includes the Encounter NetServer, an H.323 Multimedia Conference Server for LAN-based conferencing applications; the Encounter NetGate, a gateway server connecting ISDN and IP conferencing endpoints. Both are compliant with the standard for IP-based conferencing, H.323. The family also includes Encounter GateKeeper, which controls access and bandwidth use. The NetServer is claimed to be the only LAN conferencing server to include audio gateway features, allowing participants on regular telephone networks to join a conference. It optimizes IP bandwidth by incorporating an audio compression standard and transcoding technologies. Its conference management features let any user with access to the web to schedule, launch and control conferencing activities. The NetGate server connects conferencing endpoints attached to a mixture of ISDN and IP networks. It reconciles the differences in the network protocols allowing users to collaborate in real-time via audio, video and data regardless of their network type. The GateKeeper, a software application that runs on any Microsoft Windows NT server, allows the network administrator to tailor the deployment of multimedia conferencing to their specific network configuration. The NetServer is out now in configurations for 8, 16, 24, and 48 users, with prices at $2,000 per user in larger user configurations.The Encounter NetGate is available in configurations supporting 8 and 16 users at the same prices.
