Vidyo Becomes Latest Licensor of H.264 Patent Pool

Vidyo (News - Alert), Inc., has announced that it has been offered a position as a licensor in MPEG LA’s H. 264 patent pool. The license provides access to essential patent rights for the AVC/H.264 digital video-coding standard. The standard is currently being used in everything from set-top boxes, media players, and other personal computer software.

Vidyo is a privately held company that provides software-based technology and product-based visual communications solutions. The company has shown itself as a leader in the market by being the first company to deliver personal telepresence and bring videoconferencing to the next level by integrating H.264 standard for video compression.

“From the inception of the company, Vidyo has been committed to open standards-based communications,” said Ofer Shapiro (News - Alert), co-founder and CEO of Vidyo. “Our submission and acceptance into the MPEG LA patent portfolio is further evidence of Vidyo’s pro-active role in promoting interoperability, sharing our continued investment in R&D, and of our long-term leadership in this field.”

In other news, Vidyo made another huge announcement this week. The company that powers Google (News - Alert) Hangouts, will help Nintendo take its brand-new console, WiiU, to the next level by offering free teleconferencing for gamers.

“We’re trying to bring video-conferencing to the world,” said Shapiro. “We want to carry it to the masses,” he said. “Image the yoga teacher doing online yoga to 50 people…think about an audience of 100 million people for instance buying a subscription for an online Zumba class.”

Shapiro said his plan is to not only make the Wii U more interactive for gamers, but to rival his competition by making the service free to all users and available in their living room. He explained that the big screen is more social and when communicating via a conference it is easier to move around in a free-range environment, rather than being stuck sitting in front of a computer, cell phone, or tablet, or laptop.

Although Shapiro confirmed that Vidyo would be in charge of handling the new video conferencing, he did not release details on when it will be available to the masses.