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LifeSize (News - Alert) today released a flurry of news, including its acquisition of mobile video solutions provider Mirial; the introduction of a cloud-based HD videoconferencing service; and the launch of a room-based HD video system targeted at small locations and home offices.

Universal video collaboration is what drives everything LifeSize does, explains Mary J. Miller, director of product marketing at Logitech's enterprise videoconferencing division (Logitech bought HD videoconferencing company LifeSize late in 2009). UVC, she continues, is about performance and always striving for a higher quality experience, providing flexible choices for customers so they can connect in a variety of ways, simplicity, openness and interoperability.

As part of that drive, Logitech announced today its purchase of Mirial (News - Alert), a Milan, Italy-based provider of business-class personal and mobile video solutions, which already are interoperable with the LifeSize solutions, she says. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

For LifeSize customers, Miller continues, the Mirial deal means that customers will now have access to full enterprise desktop solutions and best-in-class mobile device support; seamless video collaboration from any mobile to any conference room; and full HD quality and firewall/NAT traversal capabilities to the PC, Mac, iOS and Android (News - Alert) devices.

Meanwhile, the cloud-based offer introduced today is called LifeSize Connections. Scott Lomond, vice president of videoconferencing services, explains that the new service will enable seamless HD calling from PCs, Macs, and LifeSize endpoints; simple deployment without IT expertise; reduced upfront capital investment; firewall traversal, bridging, global directory and management functionality; a feature called guest invitation that allow users of the service to initiate calls with a touch of an icon; integration between rooms, desktops, and guest clients; data sharing to enable collaboration on PowerPoint documents; auto configuration of endpoints and software clients including directory services; click to call, directory dialing with seamless call escalation to multi-party; up to nine-way video bridging at 720p30 with fully encrypted media and signaling; data sharing and text chat capability; and bandwidth control, reporting, management via a special user portal.

With this service, Lomand adds, LifeSize controls all of the components in the ecosystem – whether you’re looking at the camera from its parent Logitech or the firewall traversal capacity from Paradial (News - Alert) (which Logitech acquired last summer). He says LifeSize is leasing rooms at data centers in North America (Las Vegas and Santa Clara, Calif.); Germany; and Singapore initially to support the cloud service.

The service, which will be globally available starting this quarter, is sold for about $30 per user per month per desktop client, and about $100 per seat per month for each endpoint. That includes unlimited usage.

The company’s new room-based system for small applications, meanwhile, is called LifeSize Passport Connect. It’s the first LifeSize product with an integrated Logitech camera.

LifeSize Passport Connect is designed to work with the cloud service. And it is available at what LifeSize says is a low price point, enabling new adopters to give HD video a try and opening the door for existing users to expand their implementations, Miller says. LifeSize Passport Connect is $1,500 for the first subscriber endpoint; $999 when bundled with LifeSize Connections.

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