Lifesize picks up prize Telstra reseller

LifeSize has signed up TT Group Communications, a Queensland based reseller which won Telstra's partner of the year and unified communications partner of the year.

The vendor considered TT Group as a coup given the reseller has sold other vendors' video-conferencing products.

"TTG are not new to video conferencing. They [did not embrace it in the past, however,] because they never believed the technology was there," said Patrick Micallef, LifeSize's regional sales manager for Australia and New Zealand.

"[TTG CEO] Bob [Bishop] told me that the technology is [now mature], that they can go in with a quality solution for any business, and he's now decided to invest in that business."

LifeSize was the first video-conferencing vendor TTG has certified with, despite selling various systems for seven years.

"We've had a number of video conferencing suppliers and at this point in time LifeSize have a unique offering in their price and quality," said TTG's Bishop. "Video to desktop is the next tsunami that is going to hit."

The LifeSize system was very affordable, easy to use and very high quality, he added.

"LifeSize is way out in front at the moment," said Bishop.

TTG was looking to sell videoconferencing to the education sector and the public and private sector. Governments were using videoconferencing to make the most of scarce teaching resources.

"Distance learning is becoming a necessity," said Bishop. "A lot of organisations in the private and public sector are trying to do things better."

TTG has just signed off development on a portable videoconferencing product that uses a LifeSize unit with a Telstra NextG Turbocard.

"We can get 1080 hidef at 1.8Mbps which is very achievable through a Telsta NextG card. You don't need to have broadband from the wall," said Bishop.

LifeSize is looking to expand and is targeting resellers working in AV and technology.
It has 25 certified resellers on the books, three-quarters of which are from an IT background.

Micallef said the vendor wanted increased penetration in different markets and recent experience showed that IP telephony resellers were better suited to selling video conferencing than AV resellers.

"There's a clear indication that IP telephony partners are faster to adopt new technology. Because it's an IP technology now, [AV resellers] still rely on the IT person in the [customer's organisation] to assist them in setting up the network and getting through firewalls," said Micallef.

"That's really because videoconferencing is a highly converged product - it's got optics, acoustics, IT and telco. The IT telephony guys are trained on VoIP and are trained on IP solutions and they see video as the next step after VoIP."