As usual, the VoIP routers community was busy announcing new products and advanced technologies this past week. Both experienced and new players had interesting announcements to make.

For instance, as per TMCnet contributor Jayashree Adkoli’s report, VoIP company Integrated Research (News - Alert) (IR) released a solution to monitor, measure and manage multi-vendor unified communications (UC). Called Prognosis VoIP Monitor 4, it offers multi-vendor support for Avaya, Microsoft Lync and Cisco (News - Alert).

As per the report, IR has integrated voice quality monitoring for Avaya, Microsoft Lync and Cisco UC manager voice quality management in real time into Prognosis (News - Alert) VoIP Monitor 4.

According to IR, the Prognosis VoIP Monitor 4 is built using the latest mobile and tablet-friendly technology for increased productivity even while on-the-go. In addition, it has the ability to rapidly identify the root causes of problems without using probes to eliminate network’s security risk, wrote Adkoli.

Likewise, contributor Cavin Azuri reported that Broadcom Corp.’s GPON product portfolio, featuring complete residential gateway software, is now available for Broadlight (News - Alert) GPON system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions. The report indicates that Boradcom’s GPON portfolio has been developed to allow effective and faster GPON penetration by manufacturers into telecommunications markets.

In other news, TMCnet contributor Jyothi Shanbhag reported that HD-quality free home phone service provider Ooma Inc. has unveiled a new Ooma HD2 handset and Ooma Linx remote phone jack. The report shows that these two products complement the Ooma Telo, a home phone that offers U.S. calling for free using a high-speed Internet connection.

According to Shanbhag’s report, the new Ooma HD2 handset can be used with Ooma Telo as a combination that offers HD voice call clarity. The HD2 handset comes with a two-inch color screen and speakerphone that enables users to see the picture of a caller in his or her contact list when the phone rings. This picture feature is enabled by importing pictures from Facebook, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Outlook and Mac AddressBook.

Lastly, contributor Allison Boccamazzo reported that VoIP provider Patton (News - Alert) Electroncs’ CEO Robert R. Patton was named chair of the External Advisory Committee to the Graduate and Transfer STEM Talent Expansion Program (GT STEP) at Montgomery College (MC). The project was funded by a recently-awarded grant from the National Science foundation (NSF) in hopes of growing Maryland’s science and technology workforce by increasing the adoption and attention to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates.

In addition, the report indicates that the program also works to promote transfers from Montgomery College to partner institutions including the University of Maryland at College Park (UMCP), the University of Maryland Baltimore Campus (UMBC) and the Universities at Shady Grove.

Boccamazzo also reported on a new VoIP router app embedded in the Linksys ea4500, which serves as the first router to have an app that users can download to their Android or iOS device for complete remote control of their VoIP router. It allows you to actually reset certain parameters from work, wrote Boccamazzo.