Newbridge Networks and Intelect Visual Communications align to offer industry's most advanced IP-based desktop video conferencing solution

Business Wire, Nov 25, 1996

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 25, 1996--

Newbridge Networks' VIVIDTM product and IVC's LANscape and VuBridge

Increase Productivity Without Changing

Corporate Network Infrastructures

Intelect Visual Communications Corp. (IVC), a subsidiary of Intelect Communications Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ-ICOMF) and Newbridge Networks have announced that they are working together to deliver an integrated LAN internetworking solution for visual communications.

At the Telecommunications Managers Association (TMA) show, Newbridge will be demonstrating VIVID, an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) Switched Virtual Router (SVR); IVC's LANscape, a desktop LAN-based videoconferencing solution; and IVC's VuBridge, a videoconferencing gateway to the WAN environment.

"The marriage of the switched virtual router and videoconferencing to the desktop is a natural one which we are increasingly asked for by our corporate and institutional customers," said David Vant, director of channel marketing, VIVID, at Newbridge Networks. "As corporations continue to adopt ATM in the local and wide area networks (LAN/WAN), videoconferencing will become a must-have application for businesses seeking greater workgroup productivity."

IVC's desktop videoconferencing, which is based on high performance Motion-JPEG compression technology and provides near TV-quality video, is already being tested in a wide variety of industries as a way to improve the efficiency and performance of workgroups. Analysts have long been upbeat about the market for LAN-based videoconferencing, with estimated market value ranging in the half billion dollar mark by 1998.

"IVC videoconferencing solutions work today under many networking architectures, but under the VIVID Switched Virtual Routing solution the number of videoconferences running simultaneously can be greatly increased," said Matthew Feldman, chief technology officer of IVC. "Plus with VIVID and IVC solutions there is no need to change the corporate networks that are currently being used. Migration to switched virtual routing will address the networking hot-spots that involve video by dramatically increasing routing capacity in the network. With dedicated Ethernet between the desktop and the ATM-based backbone, there is ample bandwidth for video."

Newbridge has created the VIVID product family to provide routing and bridging services while leveraging the scaleable performance of ATM in a switched LAN internetwork. Newbridge Networks is the first vendor to delivery fully routed LAN emulation functionality based on the ATM forum's emerging MPOA standard. MPOA enables network managers to deploy large ATM-based routed LAN internetworks.

"Once a corporation has installed the VIVID system, multimedia applications such as IVC's can be supported on hundreds of desktops and involve incremental costs and no noticeable burden on the network," said Marc Pfeiffer, director of product marketing, VIVID at Newbridge Networks. "Furthermore this solution is much more cost effective for LAN internetworks when compared to traditional packet forwarding routers."

Intelect Visual Communications Corp. (IVC) formerly known as Mosaic Information Technologies, designs, develops, and markets state-of-the-art LAN-based digital visual communications solutions for corporate, government, education and other vertical markets worldwide. Through an innovative adoption of Motion-JPEG video compression technology, IVC offers high quality picture broadcasts and enhanced multimedia capabilities for desktop and group systems.

Intelect Communications Systems Ltd. (INTELECT) (NASDAQ-ICOMF) is an international communications technology and products company that develops, manufactures, and markets multimedia transport and switching systems for telecommunications and networking applications. INTELECT's principal business units are DNA Enterprises Inc., Intelect Inc., Intelect Visual Communications Corp., and Intelect Europe Ltd. Further information about the INTELECT group of companies can be accessed on the World Wide Web at the following locations: INTELECT http://www.icomf.com; Intelect Inc. http://www.intelectinc.com; Intelect Visual Communications Corp. http://www.videoconferencing.com; and DNA Enterprises Inc. http://www.dnaent.com.

Newbridge Networks (www.newbridge.com) is a world leader in designing, manufacturing and servicing a complete family of networking products and systems that delivers the power of multimedia communications to organizations in more than 75 countries throughout the world. Newbridge products are the choice of an expanding range of customers which includes more than 200 of the world's largest telecommunications service providers, as well as more than 10,000 public and private enterprises, government organizations and other institutions. The company has facilities throughout Canada, the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia.

Newbridge Networks Corp. is a public company whose shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NN) in the United States and on The Toronto Stock Exchange (NNC) in Canada.