Hong Kong, November 6, 2006 – NEC Hong Kong Limited (NEC) and The InnoMedia, a leading supplier of Internet and broadband access IP telephony solutions, today announced their cooperation on promoting video communication. A variety of models of InnoMedia phones have been certified to be interoperable with the SIP¹ of UNIVERGE products including the NEAX2400IPX and the SV7000.

Most IP vendors do not promote the SIP capability of their communication systems; because their IP promotion focus is still the proprietary IP phones, according to Angus Wong, sales manager of NEC Hong Kong Business Solutions and Services.

“VoIP² is not simply about changing the handsets; we are supporting organizations to deliver return on investment by moving to VoIP.” Angus said NEC’s recent case is the global VoIP network of Peninsula hotels – the first in the industry. “XML³ application on the color IP phone is an option for hotel service enhancement; now video communication is a new potential application in the hotel environment.”

“InnoMedia is honored to partner with NEC to provide a complete solution by extending the system capabilities to include video communication. The InnoMedia videophones will bring the communication facilities in the hotel environment to a next-generation level,” said Alex Chua, Senior Director of Product Management, InnoMedia.

InnoMedia’s award-winning MTA 5000 series of videophones comes with an abundance of features including high-quality LCD screen, built-in NAT router for Internet connection sharing, and easy-to-use icon-based menu interface. The MTA 5550 IP videophone offers the latest H.264 video compression technology, providing high quality video using significantly lesser bandwidth. It also comes with USB ports for interconnectivity with different peripherals.

Combining NEC’s world-class quality and reliability with InnoMedia’s innovative videophones, the cooperation will accelerate the adoption of IP communication and enhance the dimensions of communication inside the hotel between the guests and hotel staff. Besides InnoMedia’s videophones, NEC and vendors like Sony, Nokia who have products designed on SIP will further transit traditional business phone systems into a multimedia communication platform.

In the 2nd International Hotel Equipment & Supplies Expo <Hotel Expo 2006> in Macau held from 22 November to 24 November, NEC and InnoMedia will demonstrate the video communication on the new NEC telephony server UNIVERGE SV7000. “This new NEC telephony server SV7000 has all the well recognized hospitality features as our IP PBX and it is well accepted by the new hotel projects demanding a robust IP communication infrastructure, a recent case is the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Tokyo” Angus added.

###

Notes:
1. SIP: Session Initiation Protocol, an application-layer control (signaling) protocol for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions with one or more participants.
2. VoIP: Voice over Internet Protocol, a protocol that realizes voice calls through the transmission of voice data over IP networks such as the Internet and intranet.
3. XML: Extensible Markup Language (XML), a World Wide Web Consortium recommended general-purpose markup language that supports a wide variety of applications.

All products or services referenced may be trademarks or service marks of their respective companies or organizations