If you’re reading this blog regularly, or if you’re following RADVISION closely, you know that on March this year we announced our mobile app, SCOPIA Mobile. SCOPIA Mobile was a great example of our vision: making video conferencing a daily habit, easily used and massively deployed, and what’s more daily and natural than using your smartphone or smart device.

Ever since we announced our mobile app, everybody was asking me when will they be able to connect their devices to the conference, and not only control the meeting but also actively participate in it. And we know that it’s not just a nice-to-have requirement. We are now more mobile than ever, and according to Forrester Research nearly 75% of the work force will be mobile by 2012. Until then employees will be increasingly using smartphone and other devices, and according to Forrester enterprises are drastically underestimating this phenomenon.

Well, we’re not. In fact, in RADVISION, where video conferencing is used as a working tool regularly, we see this trend very well. And we know that employees want to connect to the conference when they’re on the go, and nothing is more natural than using their smartphones.

But that’s not the whole story. Imagine you are in a conference room, connected to a video conference just like the rest of the people in the room. What you would usually lack is a “personal” experience – the ability to gain some control over the call, even if you share it with others. One thing that comes to mind is the ability to review the presentation personally, with disregard to what is presented in the room system.

Introducing SCOPIA Mobile V2

Well, that’s exactly what we had in mind with SCOPIA Mobile V2, which we announced publicly today. SCOPIA Mobile V2 allows users, for the first time, to use their iPhone and iPad devices in order to participate personally in video conferences, with standard-based audio and data collaboration. The app is already available on the Apple App Store, with two different versions – one optimized for the large, high resolution display of the iPad, and one optimized for the high resolution retina display and additional telephony capabilities of the iPhone.

SCOPIA Mobile users can now view presentations, spreadsheets, documents and images shared in a video conference or telepresence meeting with H.239 interoperable data collaboration.  Participants can also immediately review previously shared materials if they arrived late to a meeting or spend additional time on critical points in material presented without interrupting other participants or disturbing the meeting flow.  In addition, iPhone users can easily connect to a video conference and participate by audio through the telephony capabilities of the iPhone.

One of the best features of the new SCOPIA Mobile app, and one of my favorites, is our unique data collaboration capabilities, based on our advanced data collaboration technology, announced a few months ago. This groundbreaking feature allows mobile users to control the data being shared in the conference, review it in their personal device, move back and forth, and create a “personal” connection to the conference, even if they are located in a conference room. This is, for me, a very important piece in the video conferencing user scenario, and a great differentiator between what RADVISION visions and executes and what the rest of the market is doing.

Video, presentation with a personal touch on the iPad.

Roberto Giamagli, the GM of our Video Business Unit, defined it best: “SCOPIA Mobile V2 is another example of RADVISION’s aggressive technology leadership and innovation.”, he said. “The significant enhancements and extended reach in our free SCOPIA Mobile application provide an even greater incentive for users to embrace video conferencing.”