Deutsche Telekom inks agreement to OEM Zydacron desktop videoconferencing systems; German telephone company chooses Zydacron H.320 System based on audio/video quality; Solution will support ISDN- and LAN-based videoconferencing systems

Business Wire, May 6, 1997

MANCHESTER, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 6, 1997--Zydacron today announced that Deutsche Telekom (DT), a leading European telecommunications company, has chosen to private label one of Zydacron's OnWAN single board videoconferencing systems as Deutsche Telekom's Teledat 2500.

Teledat 2500 is a complete desktop videoconferencing system designed to bring two-way, real-time audio and video communications to any Wintel PC. Teledat 2500 includes a single board audio and video compression engine designed by Zydacron.

Zydacron's hardware is based on silicon and firmware provided by Lucent Technologies as well as integration, design, communications, and software technology from Zydacron. The Deutsche Telekom offering also includes a telephone, camera, microphone, and application software provided by Zydacron.

Teledat 2500 hardware and software complies with the international H.320 standard and will meet the emerging ITU standards for videoconferencing over packet switched LANs and WANs.

The agreement covers multiple hardware options for Deutsche Telekom, and could be valued at more than $20 million to Zydacron over 3-4 years, making the agreement one of the largest videoconferencing contracts in the industry.

Teledat 2500 was developed by Zydacron in collaboration with RADvision, which worked to integrate that firm's LAN/WAN Gateway to the data streams output by Zydacron's codec engine. The RADvision Gateway allows the Teledat 2500 to operate over a corporate local area network. Zydacron's board includes an ISDN connection for connectivity over the digital public telephone network for installations where ISDN is brought directly to the desktop.

ImagINE, Zydacron's authorized German distributor, translated Zydacron's application software/user interface into German to facilitate DT's sales efforts to German companies.

"This is a significant announcement," according to Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, a Tempe, AZ market research firm which has reported on the videoconferencing industry for the past three years.

"Deutsche Telekom has been one of the largest supporters of Intel's ProShare product line, and this is a significant commercial victory for Zydacron. Given the strength of ISDN phone services in Germany, and given the direct tie in to future LAN conferencing technology, we would expect the Teledat 2500 to be an enormous success."

Deutsche Telekom product manager Herr Peter Beckman adds enthusiastically, "We have been more than pleased to partner with Zydacron. Their commitment to high video quality and usability has more than met our expectations in a technology partner."

According to Christine Perey, of Perey Communications & Consulting (Placerville, CA) and an independent analyst concentrating on business applications of videoconferencing, "This is really a strong validation of Zydacron's strategy to provide the highest possible audio/video quality and a robust user interface, rather than shooting for the very lowest possible cost.

"Their careful integration of the codec to the ISDN lines, and commitment to providing quality video and a bulletproof Windows application will serve users well."

Privately owned Zydacron, based in Manchester, NH designs and markets a range of standards-based videoconferencing products and PC-compatible communications boards and systems. Zydacron products enable a user to participate in high quality, high reliability videoconferencing and multimedia applications.

The company believes that videoconferencing is fundamentally about video, and its designs are optimized around providing the highest quality image resolution and frame rates in order to make videoconferencing a natural communications medium.

RADvision, headquartered in Tel-Aviv, Israel, is a leading provider of standards-based internetworking gateways for videoconferencing and telephony over IP networks, Intranets, and the Internet. RADvision was and continues to be an active player in the development of the H.323 standards. RADvision gateway products enable H.323/LAN users to communicate with any remote stations via H.320 and ISDN.

For further information, contact Ed Govoni, Vice President of sales at Zydacron.

CONTACT: Zydacron

Ed Govoni, 603/647-1000