Imago has begun distributing solutions from Tely Labs, a US-based manufacturer of secure and affordable videoconferencing solutions.
Ian Vickerage, Imago Group managing director, commented: “We believe Tely Labs have found a place in the market that no-one else has – and they’ve attacked it with tremendous gusto.”
Launched four years ago in California, Tely Labs has gained significant presence in North America: according to Wainhouse Research, in Q4 2013 its share of the single-codec VC market was 20%; the company believes that by next quarter, overtake Polycom and move into second place behind Cisco.
However, both Tely Labs and Imago say the company operates in a different part of the market from Polycom – which Imago also distributes.
According to Tely Labs CEO Sreekanth Ravi (pictured), the company’s mission is to address sectors of the market that are unserved by the established providers. These sectors include smaller and medium sized businesses, and secondary meeting rooms and huddle spaces in larger enterprises. Other use cases involve installing TelyHD into the homes of old people, enabling medical staff – and their families, to maintain regular contact with them. In general. he said, “our customers are not new to video – they understand the benefits but find existing solutions too expensive.”
The distribution agreement covers the UK, France, Benelux, Spain, and South Africa. The two core products available from Imago are the telyHD Pro (available from £429 in the UK), which has been won Polycom’s ‘Polycom-Ready’ certification; and the telyHD Base Edition (from £179) for point-to-point HD Skype video calling, which can be upgraded to the Pro model. By contrast, competitive products from Cisco, LifeSize and Radvision cost thousands of dollars, said Wayne Mason, Imago’s head of group marketing.
The recently released Google Chromebox retails for $999 but, pointed out Vickerage, incurs significant additional ongoing costs if customers wish to use Lync or other common, non-Google VC platforms. “Tely Labs fits with what you have now,” he added.
A TelyCloud option is also available for users who do not want to invest in infrastructure.
The press launch also featured an appearance – down the line from Boston, US via TelyLabs HDPro – by Andrew Davis of Wainhouse Research, who gave a brief overview of the videoconferencing market. The market is being affected by economic, technological and social changes, he said – and on the enterprise side, the justification for VC is moving away from reducing travel coss to improved levels of collaboration and decision making.
