Global conversations – with a personal touch

Face-to-face interaction makes all the difference in critical discussions. But travelling to meetings costs time and money – and increases your organisation’s carbon footprint.

BT provides market-leading Cisco TelePresence technology for instant “in-person” communication. Using ultra-high-quality immersive video and audio, it enables face-to-face conversations with your global offices, as well as external partners, suppliers and customers, so you can rapidly respond to market changes.

Be there – without being there

BT Unified Communications Video helps you communicate with your colleagues, customers, business partners and vendors face-to-face – without the need for global travel. This enables you to:

• Make informed decisions quickly: using ultra-high-quality video conferencing gives you instant access to specialists around the world.
• Improve productivity and job satisfaction: reducing the need to travel leads to increased employee efficiency and a better work-life balance.
• Minimise travel expenses: limiting travel enables you to cut business expenditures while still providing personal, face-to-face communications.
• Enhance working relationships: delivering subtle visual cues, via life-like images of remote colleagues, customers and partners, promotes greater understanding.
• Limit your environmental impact: restricting business travel enables you to meet CO2 emissions and corporate social responsibility (CSR) targets.
• Maintain business continuity: meeting face-to-face in realtime improves responsiveness in times of crisis, or when travel is difficult or impossible.
• Increase collaboration: enabling distributed teams to work more quickly and effectively on projects, company strategy and other crucial functions.
• Gain a competitive edge: scheduling video meetings with global customers has never been easier, and can help you close the deal while your competitors are still on the plane.

Focus on the conversation, not the technology

BT Unified Communications Video (UCV) removes the barriers that limit the effectiveness of conventional systems. With outstanding visual representation and crystal-clear sound, meetings can proceed smoothly – unspoiled by audio-visual difficulties – to improve interaction and collaboration with your global colleagues.

To ensure the best possible meeting experience, BT UCV features:

Ultra-high-definition video: enables users to convey subtle gestures and facial expressions through:

• Native 720p and 1080p high-definition cameras for exceptional image quality – jitter, latency and glare are practically non-existent.
• Life-size images of remote participants displayed on 65-inch plasma screens.

Spatial audio: delivers a natural, crystal-clear sound that moves with the person speaking, using:

• Multiple speakers that reproduce sound from left, right and centre
• Echo cancellation and filters to eliminate feedback from mobile devices.

Simple controls: uses familiar desktop tools to simplify the end-user experience. This means you can:

• Use Microsoft Outlook to schedule meetings.
• Start conferences with a single button on Internet Protocol (IP) telephone keypads/screens.

Professional meeting experience: enables participants to make eye contact with and talk to remote participants as if they were in the same room, because:

• Cameras are pre-positioned so you don’t have to adjust them during meetings.
• Technology works behind the scenes to deliver a clean, professional environment.

End-to-end service: provides complete Cisco solutions that are:

• Designed, configured, installed and maintained by BT.
• Delivered over BT’s global multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) technology that offers predictable, reliable service levels.

BT also offers Global Video Exchange, an award-winning service that further extends UCV capabilities. Delivering the same immersive experience used for internal collaboration for external parties, it enables you to establish “in-person” relationships with key partners, customers and suppliers worldwide. It builds authentication and encryption into your UCV platform, enabling you to communicate securely across virtual private network (VPN) borders.

One-button launches a whole new world

With BT Unified Communications Video, your global “in-person” meetings are as easy to schedule as a conference call. Using familiar desktop tools, such as Microsoft Outlook you can:

• Schedule video meetings and invite participants using the same process as for traditional meetings.
• Send required information to an IP phone in your conferencing suite.
• Start your session by simply selecting the meeting from the phone’s display.

BT’s advanced network services ensure quality, reliability and security for each conference.

BT Unified Communications Video features a number of key components:

BT MPLS network: our global Next-Generation Network:

• Delivers predictable, reliable service levels and is currently available in more than 170 countries.
• Provides the platform and quality of service (QoS) you need for remote collaboration around the world.

Cisco TelePresence suite: provides advanced conferencing solutions that:

• Enables small and large enterprise-wide group meetings in a professional, natural meeting environment.
• Features high-definition screens, speakers and microphones, cameras, IP phones and furniture.

Cisco TelePresence Manager: integrates with your enterprise groupware, including Microsoft Outlook and network and video communication devices to:

• Help you manage meeting scheduling, helpdesk and status reporting.

Global Video Exchange: extends the internal collaboration capabilities of Unified Communications Video securely, and:

• Bridges the gap between your organisation, suppliers and partners, improving business-to-business relations and supply chain management.
• Enables secure communication with external parties with integrated authentication and encryption across VPNs.
• Maintains network integrity with session border controllers (SBCs) to route calls between sites and maintain authorised access lists.

Customised meeting rooms: provides fully-fitted capacity for 8 to 56 participants. Tailored to meet your specific requirements, BT:

• Provides furniture, collaboration LCD screens, power connections at every seat and a wireless keyboard and mouse.

BT Operational Efficiency services: ensures a smooth, trouble-free service that:

• Manages all local area networks (LAN) and wide area networks (WAN).
• Maintains all IT and communication elements under a single service level agreement (SLA).

Advantages that are crystal clear

With BT Unified Communications Video (UCV), not only can you improve employee interaction and collaboration, but the system can also be extended to include external parties. BT Global Video Exchange enables you to communicate with partners, vendors and customers outside your organisation via UCV technology. The service enables point-to-point and multipoint “in-person” video meetings with global associates. This means you can participate in realtime conversations with suppliers and potential customers without leaving your offices.

While you’re broadening your communication boundaries, Global Video Exchange makes sure your network is not vulnerable to abuse. It uses session border controllers (SBCs) to route calls between authorised sites and maintain VPN access lists. Additionally, the SBCs provide:

• Topology and address hiding services
• Network address translation (NAT)
• Firewall traversal
• Fraud and theft of service prevention
• Distributed denial of service (DDoS) detection and prevention
• Call admission control policy enforcement
• Quality of service.

We are one of only two global providers– and the only one in Europe – to achieve Cisco Certified TelePresence Connection certification. To ensure a high-quality video meeting experience, you can expect comprehensive service delivery from BT, including:

• Ultra-high-definition conferencing: delivering advanced conferencing and network technology that capture subtle facial expressions with life-like visuals and crystal-clear audio.
• End-to-end management: supporting your operations with LAN, WAN, security and project management services, reducing your administration costs.
• Straightforward implementation: featuring a managed service that requires minimal initial investment under a simple, end-to-end service agreement.
• Assured performance: delivering predictable and reliable service levels over the BT network platform, reducing the time IT personnel spend troubleshooting communication problems.
• Operational efficiency: helping you design and implement an effective unified communications strategy, creating the right infrastructure to enhance operational efficiency across your organisation.

Unified Communications Video is just one of many BT products that can help your organisation benefit from voice, video and data convergence. We’ll help you implement the network platform you need for a wide range of converged services – enabling you to improve your operational efficiency and do business in completely new ways.

Our incremental approach enables you to make best use of your existing infrastructure, and implement each solution at your own pace. This minimises disruption to your business, and enables you to maximise your investment in existing technologies wherever possible.

Reach out to your global partners

Unified Communications Video and Global Video Exchange are ideal if you:

• Need to improve communications and productivity within a globally-dispersed organisation.
• Wish to improve collaboration with external partners and suppliers, and improve customer relationships, to help you gain a competitive advantage.
• Want to reduce travel costs and meet your corporate social responsibilities by cutting carbon emissions.
• Are renewing, expanding or updating your current voice portfolio, WAN or LAN.
• Manage a remote, mobile workforce or are implementing a flexible working strategy.
• Are adding new sites, relocating or involved in mergers and acquisitions.

Unified Communications Video is currently available in the UK, Germany, USA, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Nordics, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Asia-Pacific, South Africa and the Middle East. However, the solution can be deployed wherever we have a network node, in over 170 countries.

Bringing immersive video to a global audience

As one of only two global partners – and the only one in Europe – to be awarded Cisco Certified TelePresence Connection certification, we have the expertise required to deliver a quality video meeting experience.

Our relationship with Cisco has enabled us to develop award-winning services that extend the capabilities of Unified Communications Video. Our Global Video Exchange service, which enables organisations to have “in-person” global conversations with external partners, vendors and customers, won Best Business Video Project of the Year at the Cisco Networkers 2009 Innovation Awards.

For more than 25 years, we’ve been delivering robust, reliable and innovative conferencing solutions – from simple videoconferencing with webcams, to immersive video collaboration – backed by high-quality service and support.

Our MPLS technology is the backbone for delivering a smooth, reliable service. Currently available in 170 countries, our MPLS has the global network capacity you need to support Cisco’s life-like virtual meeting solutions. In addition, we can deliver end-to-end networked IT services for the whole solution, not just the technology. We can manage all LAN, WAN and IP telephony elements critical to delivering a high-quality business solution.