The recorded session begins with a reminder of the TTS jokes contest where your entry might win a Kindle Fire. Winner announced Friday, February 3rd on the VUC.

Olle Johansson joins us again in a rare visit to discuss the state of IPv6 adoption. Also heard from, lost of us who have or have not done it and why or why not.

We did a VUC Google Plus Hangout during the call as we will often be doing. These usually begin an hour or so before the actual conference. Please make sure you have the VUC G+ Page circled! During the hangout we looked at the Invoxia Desk Phone for iOS devices and the Polycom VVX-500 touch screen SIP phone.

Radvision develops products and technologies for unified visual communications over IP and 3G networks by combining video, voice, data and wireless – in room Video Conference Systems, mobile video solutions and video-enabled desktop platforms for IP and emerging next-generation networks.

Here is a brief intro to our guests from Radvision this week:

Roger Wallman is director of product marketing at RADVISION. He has more than 20 years of experience in video conferencing, having started his career at PictureTel in the early 90s. Roger has also held key marketing and product management positions with VideoServer, CUseeMe Networks and First Virtual Communications. Roger graduated from the Wisconsin School of Electronics and the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Robin Raulf-Sager is director of communications at RADVISION, which she joined in May of this year. Prior to RADVISION, Robin spent a number of years at tech companies including Polycom, SpectraLink and StorageTek. Robin also currently serves as the marketing work group chair for the UCI Forum. Robin has a master’s and bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Illinois.

In the aftermath of the big and controversial voicemail hack starring the NOTW… wait – “controversial”, does anyone think this was OK? Anyway it’s our topic and we hope to gather some knowledgable people to chat about it including Tim Panton, Humbug Telecom’s Boaz Bechar, Truphone’s James Body, Dan York of Voxeo and anyone else ready to “testify”. Be there!

Video of the talking heads is here

Watch live video from voipusers on Justin.tv

The VUC call featuring LifeSize, originally set for February 4th, has been rescheduled to February 25th at 1PM EST. That makes it part two of a VUC double-header that begins with Safi Systems at the usual time.

All of the details of the LifeSize call remain as originally laid out. Those who received the Logitech C910 HD webcams can use the LifeSize Desktop software to connect to the LifeSize Bridge.

The video bridge will also be live-streamed via a web feed using the LifeSize Video Center. The video bridge will be connect to the ZipDX bridge for those who participate in audio only.

LifeSize will also be offering another chance for those who received the webcams to test connectivity to their bridge before Friday’s call.

The LifeSize Desktop trial installation only runs for 30 days which is one of the reasons that we’ve decided upon the Feb 25th date. An email poll of those who received the webcams did not reveal anyone who expected to have a problem with the software reaching that 30 day limit as of Feb 25th.

However, not everyone responded to the email poll. If you find that you will not be able to use the LifeSize Desktop software on the 25th please contact me asap so that we can try to find a solution.

Oh, yes. Remember that LifeSize will be giving away a Logitech Harmony One programmable universal remote control to one lucky VUC attendee.

Much dust has been raised on VUC about all the ways to share video. This week, since our schedule was blurred by weather and other factors, the LifeSize conference has been put off until Feb 18th at the earliest. If you haven’t installed Lifesize yet, I recommend putting it off since the license, a $199 retail item, can be used in trial mode for 30 days only. Conferencing in the Hollywood Squares mode is one way to share video, but the broadcast model is something else entirely. Between now and then, I decided to revive the old Mogulus channel from the “Asterisk Users Conference” days. Mogulus became Livestream, and the product has matured considerably over the couple of years. You may recall our initial tests in 2007 with Mark Spencer. One of the interesting things about Livestream is that it is a very good presentation tool. If VUC guests, such as Voxeo’s Dan York have slides or desktops to show, this is an excellent way to go. Their presentation tool, Procaster (above, presenter and slides on one screen) is available free for Windows and OS X, as is the now ubiquitous Flash app that transmits the video and audio streams. The producer of the conference then can select who has center stage.  Livestream also has a backpack video production unit called the Livepack that uses 3G/EVDO to transmit from anywhere that has coverage for these services. (see diagram below: six 3G modems!) But I digress, as usual. First, I’d like to propose a toast. Then I propose a test of Livestream this Friday. No, it isn’t SIP and it isn’t open, but Livestream is a great way for our guests to present their products and services, and I hope some of them will do this soon. Sign up for a free account and send me your username by Friday so I can add you to the production team. You can choose to sign up to “Watch” which will allow you to participate in our VUC tests and future events or go all the way and sign up for a “Broadcast” channel. Both are free, ad supported and somewhat limited in reach, but it allows you to get your feet wet in the whole video channel production thing. That includes lower thirds, crawlers and other things like channel branding. Another interesting aspect of the facilities is recording. Ustream (and the other two similar video sites) does a lot of the same things, and may do some of them better than Livestream, but Livestream is more professional in my opinion. One of the reasons I was attracted to the Mogulus beta years ago was the feature called autopilot. When the channel is not broadcasting live, you can set the channel to show a storyboard of content you choose. You can also allow video on demand. In both cases you can also use their embeded players on any web site. The new channel, if approved will be http://livestream.com/voiptv. The problem with the older channel, which was approved years ago is that it is called “asterisk”. I hope to see that part straightened out before Friday as well. Stay tuned, film at 12.

This coming Friday, August 13th will be yet another Voip Users Conference double-header. Starting at our usual 12 Noon EDT we have an overview of the Freetalk Connect SMB PBX featuring Skype integration.

Then immediately following, at 1pm EDT, we have Chris Veazey, VP Engineering of Blink Mind, to discuss the current state of the industry with regard to multi-media phones and SIP-based video calling.

Blink Mind has agreed to provide a video conference bridge (MCU) as part of their appearance. Further, as Blink Mind are a Polycom partner, Polycom has graciously provided a pair of Polycom VVX-1500 Business Media Phones on loan. One VVX is at Randy’s location in California, and the other in my home office.

As we aim to explore the capabilities of the VVX-1500 and similar desk phones, the video portion of the Blink Mind call with be limited to CIF (352 x 240) resolution using H.264 compression.

The Blink Mind bridge will allow compatible connections from a variety of clients. If you have access to a Polycom VVX-1500 or Grandstream GXV series phone you will be able to join the video bridge. Also, many larger video conference systems will drop down to CIF resolution, so they too can join the bridge.

If you don’t have access to such hardware you may be able to use a compatible soft phone. Rudimentary testing with the Mirial soft phone last Friday proved successful. Mirial is available for Windows and OSX. Mirial is a commercial product, but a 30 day trail download is available.

Since we have a relatively low-resolution video stream this time we’ll be issuing two kinds of connect details for the Blink Mind bridge. Yes, there will be two different SIP URIs for access to the Blink Mind bridge:

• Some will be able to join in a fashion that allows them to participate in the video stream.
• Others will join the bridge using a non-participatory SIP URI that gives them a view of the video stream but does not add their video to the MCU feed.

In this manner we will avoid having a 16+ way split where everyone looks like a tiny animated smudge on-screen.

If you have a suitable hardware based means of joining the video conference please let me know. While I hate to be arbitrary, there are a limited number of participatory seats available and preference will be given to those who have suitable hardware.

The details of the non-participatory connection and the web stream will be announced to the VUC mailing list early in the week before the call. We’ll also announce a SIP URI for anyone who needs to test that their end-point is capable of joining the Blink Mind video bridge.

Of course, we will join the ZipDX wideband audio bridge to the Blink Mind video bridge. A recording of the video stream will also be available after the fact, along with the regular podcast.

If you don’t have a webcam or suitable soft phone you can still view the video stream. Blink Mind will be providing a Flash-based streaming feed of the call. Since the stream is post-processed it’s a few second delayed from the bridge, but it includes the audio and video. This is a “view only” feed so you will not be able to participate in the call if this is your only means of connection.

If you are joined to the web stream and the ZipDX bridge we’d asked you to be very careful. The audio will be out of sync between these two bridges and it could become very confused for everyone if you allow the delayed audio into the ZipDX conference.

Of course, we will join the ZipDX wideband audio bridge to the Blink Mind video bridge. A recording of the video stream will also be available after the fact, along with the regular podcast

Watch the VUC mailing list over the coming few days. As more details get locked down things will be announced there.

I called him an “honorary member” of VUC, but he’s actually a regular and he did get his T-shirt at Astricon. We stopped in front of the cheapest happy hour place just long enough to record this for posterity.

Besides the few people I had time to grab, you’ll see stills of Allison Smith, Randal L. Schwartz and VUC regular Barry Kline. Allison is an amazing person when you consider how many people want to meet and talk to her (to hear that voice you’ve heard recordings of for years). She deals with it well, here’s someone who makes you feel special. Randal has always been one of my heroes and one of these days we will have to do some live video together just for grins. You’ll also get a quick glimpse of the indefatigable John Todd, aka, “tie dye man” and another VoIP hero, Olle Johanssen. Sorry Zoa, I misspelled Zoiper and can’t re-edit just now.

Many VoIP geeks aren’t into the social media part of the Internet, yet I find it to be an integral part of both business and pleasure today.

Stefan has posted the video of my presentation at AMOOCON. We all look at our talks and say “OMG, was I really that bad?” I warn you in advance, and have made note of it, my talk starts way too slowly.

The idea was to compare social networking in 1976, 1996 and 2006 and then today, 2009 by evoking my ham radio days in L.A. We used a 220 Mhz repeater and walkie talkies to talk on the phone from anywhere years before the cellphone became ubiquitous. In 1986, I was using the Internet without even knowing what it was with rlogin, rpipe, etc. In 1996, I built a PHP 2 site that basically did exactly what Twitter does, an open IM with a web interface. In 2006, Twitter came along and in 2009 we have a growing number of how to keep track of friends and more importantly, make new connections in our centers of interest.

The link with VoIP is that we now are able to meet people like Dan York, Jeff Pulver and many other movers in the VoIP space through all the usual channels and hopefully through the our own VUC as well. The VUC started around March 2007 and has grown in many ways since then, thanks to Mark Spencer’s immediate support and later, Digium’s realization of the importance of the whole social transformation that is taking place on the Internet. We have had some help from the people whose logos you see at the top of the page and I’m grateful to them and of course to every participant, especially the core group of “friends”, all of whom I hope to meet some day.

r/z

And now, hot off the FlipVideo, here’s a taste of Rostock and AMOOCON from a human perspective:

THE DIGIUM you didn’t know existed:

And then there was the “C Shanties”

Olle E. Johansson (oej) is not just another boring developer, he’s a refreshing change, a family guy, a very good presenter and he shares our enjoyment of good wine. Olle has a vision and speaks of presence and the future of VoIP.

This video was shot with a tool I just got so there are mistakes in the switching. I’d rather leave it rough, including the audio dropping out, because the most interesting stuff is there. I promise to do better next time.

Here’s a chance to meet Jason but unfortunately, you can’t hear the jokes and stories we all shared at dinner. Adhearsion is another one of those forward-looking companies that shakes up the VoIP world and adds spice and inspiration to a developer’s life.

The other Adhearsion guy, Jay Philips

Adhearsion is a new way to write voice-enabled applications. It’s not just an API or library — it’s a fully-featured framework, the first of its kind, designed for maximal code reuse and intuitiveness. The name “Adhearsion” is a combination of “adhesion” and “hear” because Adhearsion shines best when integrating technologies with voice.

Stefan Wintermeyer wrote The Asterisk Book (Das Asterisk Buch) and is working on a new book now. He’s a jovial guy with a great concept for throwing an entertaining as well as enlightening event. Here’s a little about how and why he does it.

Disclaimer, like the other videos, this was shot in the first experience with the new video tools and there are mistakes in switching. The spirit of these are linked to the fact that they are live (undeited) so please excuse ther warts.

Siemens Enterprise new OpenStage phones looked interesting. As the guys say, this is a desk phone (somewhere just under $500 retail)  made for the decision-maker (aka, “The Boss”, “Mr. Big”) yet it handles like an iPod. I’d love to check out the audio quality of this baby. OpenStage 80 is shown in the video.

More info here