Featured Article from Conferencing

PGi Powers HD Conferencing from VoLTE Devices

By Michael Guta
Contributing Writer

In a recent study, 56 percent of CFOs said they would invest in conferencing as a management tool to reduce travel expenditure. But as the workforce environment continues to evolve and collaboration becomes part of the way we work, the adoption rate of audio and video conferencing solutions has grown dramatically. To improve the quality of audio and video conferencing communications, Premiere Global Services (News - Alert) (PGi) just announced the launch of its mobile collaboration exchange. According to the company, this is the first of its kind solution that will allow operators to use existing investments in their LTE (News - Alert) and VoLTE network infrastructure to deliver High Definition (HD) audio and video conferencing to their customers.

The technology PGi has developed is based on more than a quarter of a century of experience serving the end-to-end collaboration needs of enterprises with software and services. Currently, PGi serves about 50,000 customers around the world with technology that makes it possible for users to be accessible anywhere, anytime and on any device. It has hosted over 1.2 billion people from 155 countries in nearly 300 million virtual meetings over the past five years.

Presently, mobile HD audio is only experienced on a point-to-point call, but the PGi mobile collaboration exchange platform makes it possible to experience HD audio conferencing by any VoLTE customer on any network, in any country. The PGi platform can connect any device on any VoLTE or SIP network into an HD audio bridge, which further extends the investment of VoLTE by mobile operators.

The new PGi mobile collaboration exchange is a global hub designed for mobile HD communication that places higher preference for mobile first collaboration. The exchange interconnects customers during collaborations in conferencing across the networks of different operators while at the same time preserving HD voice quality with quality of service connection either directly or through an IPX.

This technology comes at a time when PGi is experiencing a shift to mobile conferencing. According to company CTO Pat Harper, enterprises are recognizing the shift to a mobile first preference for conference calls. Harper goes on to say, “Our vision is to expand and continue to add capabilities and value-added services, leveraging strengths by growing our mobile collaboration exchange operator connections. The more mobile network operators and customers that become interconnected, the more HD audio and video is utilized, the better the experience for all end-users in collaborations.”

The PGi architecture of the mobile collaboration exchange combines its Virtual IMS and Network-Network Interface (NNI) with mobile operators' IMS seamlessly to increase their investment in LTE. When operators connect to PGi's mobile collaboration exchange, their customers will be able to experience HD conferencing calls before carriers do a direct NNI with each other.

The preference of mobile collaboration and conferencing is expected to grow even more with the increased quality of HD, with PGi predicting mobile participation rates to go over 66 percent by 2020.