First Virtual Communications Releases Click to Meet 4.0
Redwood City, Calif. – June 7, 2004 – First Virtual Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: FVCXE), a premier provider of infrastructure software solutions for real-time, rich media communications, today announced the new version of its award-winning Click to Meet™ rich media communications solution. Click to Meet now offers an increased level of customization and integration capabilities, while delivering an infrastructure software solution that may improve the return on investment and lower the total cost of ownership over the long term.
Click to Meet 4.0 improves on the performance of previous versions, while delivering additional enhancements including improvements in security, scalability by now supporting 500 concurrent users and integration with desktop applications, such as Microsoft Outlook and Active Directory. Conference Server, the engine that powers Click to Meet, has also been upgraded to help enterprises, government agencies and educational institutions gain greater control over their voice, video and data network costs, bandwidth and deployments. With the enhancements to the server, middleware and Conference Client, the new Software Development Kit (SDK) provides additional flexibility and integration capabilities to developers who want to add new functionality to existing products or create entirely new products to serve vertical markets.
“Integration is the major thrust behind Click to Meet 4.0,” commented Jonathan Morgan, president and CEO of First Virtual Communications. “We’ve integrated with the environments our customers already have deployed through our support for standards-based systems. We’ve integrated more of the common desktop applications for improved workflow efficiencies, but most importantly, we’ve provided an SDK so that others can integrate the more than 10 years of experience we bring to this technology into the products of tomorrow.”
Click to Meet provides a rich media communications platform that allows multiple users to communicate in an online meeting with voice, video, data and text chat all integrated into a single application and single-window environment. As a software solution, Click to Meet offers more affordable, more flexible deployment options, easier upgrades and lower cost processing power than hardware-based solutions.
NJEDge.Net, a non-profit corporation of the New Jersey Presidents’ Council, is a broadband statewide network designed to enhance the teaching, research and public service missions of New Jersey’s colleges and universities. It is planning a network-wide rollout of Click to Meet 4.0 this summer.
“A major charge of NJEDge.Net’s mission is to promote new forms of inter-institutional collaboration,” said Charlie McMickle, director of technical services for NJEDge.Net. “We have chosen Click to Meet 4.0 to be a key means of meeting this charge. After evaluating the pre-release version, our staff is very excited about Click to Meet’s power and simplicity. We particularly like its ability to transparently overcome the network obstacles that plague other applications we use, particularly video.”
Click to Meet 4.0 provides a number of enhanced features for real-time communications:
- • Integration – provides improved integration in a Microsoft environment, including the option of using Outlook for scheduling, Windows Messenger and Live Communications Server for presence and call setup, as well as Active Directory. Integrated iCal calendaring support for meeting notifications extends invitation functionality to other calendar systems, such as Lotus Notes
• Improved Security – display secure web sites to other conference participants without divulging passwords using web snapshot functionality and control
• Enhanced Functionality – includes a new personal document repository, conference scheduler, audio transcoding, voice-activated switching and contact list
• Complete SDK – offers three levels of customization and integration of Click to Meet for 1) customizing the conference room or in-conference experience, 2) adding functionality into Click to Meet from other applications, and 3) bypassing Click to Meet’s conference entry pages for direct control of Click to Meet from another application
• Open & Standards-Based – supports industry-recognized standards, such as H.323, T.120 and H.320, extending not only investments in existing videoconferencing and VoIP infrastructure, but also implementing the groundwork for new and updated connection protocols as they evolve, such as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and others
• Scalability – allows 500 concurrent users in conferences, 10,000 users in directory database and 1,000 users logged in checking calendars and availability in the Click to Meet system
Further, Click to Meet’s scalability is enhanced by its Intelligent Linking™ technology where a decentralized conferencing model with distributed server linking takes into consideration the major factors that affect bandwidth use and network performance in the IP environment. Through Intelligent Linking, multiple, distributed media servers (Click to Meet Conference Servers) balance the conferencing load on a network, routing audio, video and data streams from distributed endpoints through appropriate local paths.
David Alexander, industry manager for Frost & Sullivan’s Multimedia/Conferencing and Collaboration Group commented, “Industry research has found that enterprises are continually looking for new ways to implement presentation/application/desktop-sharing applications into their communications framework in an attempt to streamline business processes. Click to Meet 4.0 turns commonly used applications into an integrated communications solution that allows organizations to work together more quickly and efficiently.”
Pricing and Availability
Click to Meet 4.0 is expected to ship worldwide this month with pricing starting in the US at $1,850 per concurrent user. All inquiries, including additional pricing, can be obtained from First Virtual Communications and its authorized reseller channel by sending email to salesinfo@fvc.com.
Click to Meet 4.0 will be demonstrated at InfoComm 04 in Atlanta, Ga., June 9-11, 2004 in First Virtual Communications’ booth, #5039.
About First Virtual Communications
First Virtual Communications is a premier provider of infrastructure and solutions for real–time, rich media communications. The Company’s award-winning Click to Meet™ product line is enterprise-class software that enables corporate, education, healthcare and government customers worldwide to present, share, sell, train and collaborate. Click to Meet integrates the user’s choice of data, audio and multipoint interactive video into existing work environments and into everyday communication tools, such as instant messaging, web browsing and e-mail. Click to Meet software solutions are widely deployed in more than 1,500 customer locations and excel in challenging environments, such as military intelligence, emergency response, disaster recovery, corporate training and geographically dispersed tele-working locations, among others. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, First Virtual Communications has operations in France, United Kingdom, Japan and China. More information about First Virtual Communications can be found at www.fvc.com or by calling 1-800-728-6337 or +1-650-801-6500 outside North America.
Cautionary Statement
Except for the historical information contained herein, this news release contains forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements containing the words, “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects” and words of similar import. Such forward-looking statements have known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of first virtual communications, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: the aggregate value of and impact on the company of the investigation described in the company’s press release dated April 30, 2004, including any possible expansion of the investigation and any possible restatement of previously announced financial results; any adverse impact arising from the delay in filing required periodic reports; any delisting from the Nasdaq smallcap market; the risk that sales of the company’s click to meet(tm) and conference server products will not increase or that new versions will not be released on a timely basis; the company’s variability of operating results; market acceptance of web conferencing technology; potential inability to maintain business relationships with integrators, distributors and suppliers; rapid technological changes; competition and consolidation in the web conferencing industry; the importance of attracting and retaining personnel; and other risk factors referenced in first virtual communications’ public filings with the securities and exchange commission, including the company’s report on form 10-k for the year ended December 31, 2003.
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