Founded in 2008, Vidtel set out to solve a problem that everyone was talking about but no one was solving: the interoperability mess. Vidtel recognized an enormous opportunity to solve two principal problems with the video conferencing industry: 1) Devices from different vendors did not work together. 2) The cost of deploying enterprise-grade video conferencing was prohibitively high for all but the largest enterprises. A cloud solution was needed.
Enter technology upstart Vidtel. We set out to develop a solution based on software that would enable interoperability between devices and networks and bring carrier-grade scalability, flexibility and redundancy to customers at a price organizations of any size could afford. Our initial SIP-based service, Vidtel Connect, provided point-to-point interoperability as well as firewall/NAT traversal and device registration. Vidtel Connect was launched at the end of 2008 and enables interoperability between different vendors’ devices. In 2010, Vidtel demonstrated the first ANY-to-ANY® multi-party video conferencing service.
Then we got to work incorporating consumer video conferencing into a boardroom scenario. We began working with Skype and Google and had our first Skype and Google Talk users in beta in 2010.
In 2011, we began our channel partner program with InFocus, delivering Vidtel Connect and Vidtel MeetMe on the Mondopad. Vidtel MeetMe was the first multi-party video conferencing service to connect endpoints from different vendors. The partnership formed the blueprint for the formal launch of our program later in 2011, which has led to many partnerships with vendors and video conferencing VARs. Since then, competing cloud video conferencing services have entered the market from upstarts to established video conferencing vendors. We view this as a strong validation of our strategy.
In 2012, we released Vidtel Gateway, another industry-first solution. This service enables Skype and GoogleTalk users to point into existing customer (or partner) MCUs/bridges without the “cascading” effect of multiple bridge views. A technology company first and foremost, Vidtel is continuously working on bringing the latest cloud video conferencing innovations to market.