Tandberg, a leading Middle East-based telepresence provider, has launched its E20 video IP phone, making scalable, DVD-quality video on every desktop a reality.

Designed to replace the standard office phone, the Tandberg E20 provides a superior quality video experience combined with CD quality audio to enable face-to-face collaboration from any desk, a company statement said.

According to a recent study by the International Association of Business Communicators, direct face-to-face communication practices are the most valuable for building employee engagement and increasing productivity.

Yet the expanding global and remote workforce makes in-person communications challenging and expensive.

With the E20, organizations can affordably connect all employees face-to-face from their desks, no matter where they are located, enabling instant knowledge sharing and collaboration to drive innovation and productivity, it said.

The superior quality, scalability and design of the E20 sets a new industry standard, the statement added.

With its ability to integrate into any unified communications platform, the E20 enables everyone in an organization to easily and securely connect face-to-face over business-quality video.

They also have access to familiar telephony features such as call transfer, message waiting and call forwarding, as well as quick keys for access to advanced IP phone and video services.

The E20 has a 10.6 inch LCD widescreen coupled with a five-megapixel high-resolution camera for users to clearly see facial expressions and read body language.

The camera is positioned at eye-level to provide a head-on image that eliminates the "nose view" typical of other video phones currently available.

Moreover, users can seamlessly switch to audio-only when the need arises, with an ultra wideband 20 kHz speaker phone and 10 kHz handset.

Tandberg CEO, Fredrik Halvorsen said that in these challenging times, organizations that continue to innovate will come out ahead.

“Collaboration is paramount to innovation, and companies can’t afford the misunderstandings that often arise from audio-only communication or the costs and lost productivity that result from travel,” he noted.

“With the E20, employees at all levels and locations can stay visually connected from their desks, bringing together expertise from anywhere to drive efficiencies and speed decision making. This is The New Way of Working,” he added.

Nancy Gofus, senior vice president (Business Products for Verizon) said that by employing a high-quality video-enabled IP phone like the E20, businesses and government agencies can experience a greater return on investment from their existing IP connections and begin to make desktop video conferences as common as joining an audio conference call.

Andrew W. Davis, Sr. Partner, Wainhouse Research said with the E20, Tandberg is breaking down the barriers to mass adoption of video by bringing the superior video quality and interoperability for which the company is known to a scalable and easy-to-use personal video application.-TradeArabia News Service