In recent days after the announcement of a new Google+ Hangouts platform, we’ve received many inquiries about just how Vidyo fits into the new solution. First, let me just say how excited we are about Google’s new communication platform. This cross device messaging approach, that connects Android, Chrome, Gmail and iOS alike, is a huge step in making the user experience as simple as can be, and that means wider adoption. It’s also further testament to the success the product has had and how visual communication is becoming an increasingly important part of the way people interact.

Some diligent bloggers have taken a look at the legal notices of the new Hangouts product and noticed that Vidyo’s patent notice is not there, which triggered a lot of rumors about Vidyo being ‘out’ of the Google+ Hangouts platform. Some people speculated that Google had replaced our technology for WebRTC. The truth is this was just an editorial oversight and the media technology in Google+ Hangouts did not change. Our partnership remains as strong as ever, and frankly, we couldn’t be happier. Hangouts is turning into a mainstream and useful form of communication which is in line with the trends we see across our business, from consumers to business applications.

# # #

Ofer Shapiro, Vidyo’s co-founder and CEO, has been an innovative force at the heart of two major architectural transformations in the videoconferencing industry seen over the past two decades. Ofer was integrally involved in the development of the H.323 specification and the first IP based multi-point control unit architecture, which provided a platform for multi-point conferences that were unconstrained by bandwidth limitations of an externally programmable Gatekeeper, enabling the transition from ISDN to IP transport. The products introduced by Ofer during his tenure at RADVISION were adopted by Cisco, Tandberg and Polycom, and reached almost 100% market share. A decade later, he innovated the use of Scalable Video Coding for video conferencing and led the development of a new media relay based architecture designed for affordable scale and extended reach over unmanaged IP networks and general purpose computing devices. The Vidyo architecture has been hailed and accepted as the market shifting innovation necessary to address the burgeoning $19B personal telepresence market. Ofer is a named inventor on 20 issued and 19 pending patent families and has 14 years of experience in bringing innovations in this field to successful, wide-scale adoption.