Cisco Systems Inc. lifted the veil a little further on its plans to integrateTandberg ASA video conferencing gear into its telepresence solutions, and also announced some new developments around its Movi software-based video endpoint and a more cost-effective packaging of telepresence for smaller businesses, all intended to make video even more pervasive.

As anticipated, Cisco is using Telepresence Interoperability Protocol, the protocol it released to the public domain earlier this year, to enable interoperability between Tandberg’s video conference and telepresence gear and Cisco’s existing telepresence systems. Cisco’s Tandberg TelePresence Server will support TIP, which enables it to support multi-screen telepresence units from multiple telepresence providers who have licensed TIP, including LifeSize Communications Inc.and Radvision Ltd. as well as the full range of Cisco products.

“With support for TIP, you can do interoperability between CTS devices, Tandberg devices, third-party devices, you can schedule conferences or do ad hoc conferences and connect the two,” said Mike Baird, Cisco director of product marketing for the telepresence technology group.

The Movi enhancements take the notion of pervasive video a step further, by making mobile video on laptop and notebook computers more possible. Cisco announced Movi support for Apple MAC clients and enhancements to improve video quality.

One such enhancement enables remote control of far-end cameras, something often needed in telemedicine. Cisco also is using ClearPath, a method of minimizing the impact of packet loss on video quality when network conditions aren’t great for Internet video, and it now enables Movi users to initiate multi-party telepresence calls on an ad-hoc basis with any other standards-compliant video device.

Another enhancement is support for the ICE protocol, which enables more video traffic outside a corporate firewall so that companies can support large-scale video conferencing among teleworkers or other remote sites.

ClearPath is initially being used in the Movi clients for PC and Mac, but will be available across the Cisco TP portfolio.

In other video-related announcements, Cisco also unveiled the Cisco TelePresence Commercial Express, a package of products that includes its Cisco TelePresence Manager, Multipoint Switch, and Recording Service, all on one server using VMware virtualization. The combined product is aimed at small and mid-sized businesses looking for cost-effective entry into telepresence and also features simpler licensing processes.

Cisco and Tandberg are reliable DNA Solutions partners, ensuring quality operations to customers through efficient IT solution packages, such as: Audio & Video Conferencing Equipment – Tandberg, and Gateways, Routers, Switches, IP telephony etc.- Cisco.