AVSR Avistar Communications Corp (CE)

Based on its recent analysis of the desktop videoconferencing market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Avistar Communications Corporation with the 2011 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation. Avistar was the first to market with a sophisticated virtual desktop videoconferencing solution that is cost effective to acquire, deploy and maintain. The company's commitment to innovation is demonstrated by its software-based multipoint control unit (MCU) and dynamic bandwidth management products, which sets it apart from the competition.

Avistar's collaboration with Citrix enables enterprises to embrace virtual desktop infrastructure technologies (VDI) for both their business and communications applications. This capability aids considerable operational expenditure and capital expenditure savings, which are the core value propositions of convergence.

"Avistar introduced the C3 Integrator™ for Citrix earlier this year and has successfully deployed the solution among enterprise clients around the world," says Frost & Sullivan Senior Analyst Rob Arnold. "It leverages Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop to enable enterprises to move their desktop computing resources into the cloud or data center and to deliver Avistar software-based desktop videoconferencing applications remotely to distributed user endpoints."

Following the success of the Avistar solution, Citrix licensed the underlying Avistar technology to enhance the voice and video communications capabilities of XenDesktop and XenApp. Due for launch in 2012, Citrix will be the first VDI vendor to provide support for scalable communication capabilities within its solutions. "The Avistar virtual desktop videoconferencing solution is not a 'bolt-on' integration; rather, it utilizes tightly amalgamated, best-of-breed components from both Avistar and Citrix,' comments Arnold. "The Avistar C3 Integrator and Citrix virtualization software co-reside on the required server hardware to share resources and reduce operational costs and complexity."

Avistar's H.264 codec and client plug-ins are provisioned to the user endpoints where encoding and decoding is performed. While Avistar's bandwidth management capabilities optimize bandwidth consumption, Citrix's infrastructure conducts processing functions in the data center and communicates with the Avistar codec at the endpoint and the Avistar visual communication application running within the virtualized desktop. Thus, they leverage their own areas of expertise to resolve the resource allocation and performance issues that have hindered the scalability and performance of real-time communications applications in VDI environments.

The full Avistar C3 set of high-definition videoconferencing features are supported with no changes to server scalability. The lower priced solution, with easy management and maintenance features, will encourage enterprises to deploy desktop videoconferencing more pervasively in their organization.

"Avistar's software-based architecture is critical as customers can consolidate their physical infrastructure components, while existing Citrix accounts can add value to their current investments," notes Arnold. "On the whole, the capabilities should allow enterprises to implement desktop videoconferencing much more cost effectively than siloed, hardware-centric designs and therefore, obtain quicker return on investments."

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated innovation in product development product. The recipient has leveraged leading edge technologies to offer value-added features while increasing the ROI for customers. In turn, the innovation has enabled the company to acquire new customers and increase their market penetration.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About Avistar Communications Corporation

Avistar (PINKSHEETS: AVSR) delivers the industry's most advanced and proven desktop videoconferencing capabilities to technology partners and end users worldwide. Many leading technology firms such as Citrix, IBM, LifeSize, and Logitech choose Avistar's modular software technology to power their unified communications solutions because it is a more flexible, efficient and smarter alternative. Avistar's innovative software-only, fully virtualized and bandwidth managed technology solves major infrastructure and user challenges associated with enabling video communications between individual employees and/or teams throughout an organization. Companies across a wide variety of industries depend on Avistar's desktop videoconferencing solutions for everyday business communications with deployments ranging in size from 30 to 35,000 users. To learn more about Avistar's industrial, scalable and economical desktop videoconferencing technology, please visit www.avistar.com.

About Frost & Sullivan

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Contact: Mireya Espinoza P: 210. 247.3870 F: 210.348.1003 E: mireya.espinoza@frost.com