Voice, Video Improve in Communications Server 2007

Communications Server and the Communicator client have been substantially improved for voice and video. The improvements make the products a more viable platform for unified communications systems, in which voice calls, video calls, e-mail, instant messaging (IM), and other forms of communication run over a single network. Unified communications can deliver productivity and usability improvements to users and reduce costs for organizations, but Microsoft and its partners will have to prove that they can match the reliability and quality of conventional telephone systems as well as the integration capabilities and market experience of major hardware vendors like Cisco.

The voice and video improvements described here complement separate improvements for Web conferencing described in “Web Conferencing in Communications Server 2007” on page 8 of the Oct. 2007 Update.

Voice, Video Central to Unified Communications

First introduced in early 2004 (under the name Live Communications Server), Communications Server and its associated client, Communicator, delivered enterprise IM and presence but not voice or video calling. With each subsequent release, however, Communications Server has added more support for other forms of real-time communication, such as voice calls, video calls, and application sharing. Communicator 2007, the main PC client application for Communications Server 2007, also provides better support for voice and video, and Microsoft has lined up phone vendors to create Communicator-compatible desktop phones that work with Communications Server 2007. (For coverage of phones that work with Communications Server, see “Handsets and Headsets for Communications Server 2007“.)