Direct Visual, The UK's Leading Videoconferencing Supplier & Reseller of TANDBERG, Polycom, Aethra, Sony, Codian, Cisco, Radvision, Emblaze VCON

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The year that was: 2007

2007 was a year of transition and a year of endeavour in the videoconferencing industry that has seen it end in a much stronger position than when it started.

With the mass deployment of High Definition videoconferencing, the emergence of Telepresence into the market and the reassertion of Direct Visual as the UK’s leading independent videoconferencing supplier have all made it a year to remember.

Some of the Direct Visual team have shared their highlights of the year with us.

Steve Shaw, Sales and Commercial Manager
“Our sales team are young and dynamic, and over the past two years we’ve invested heavily in training and development and it has been wonderful to see all of that effort come to fruition in 2007”.

“Over the course of the last year we have seen a number of huge contract wins, a sign that our team have what it takes in the very competitive videoconferencing market.”

“The changes and advancements in the team have allowed us to press towards our highly ambitious targets, set at the start of our 3 year project, Double Dec-ker, which started in 2006. And if we continue at the current rate of growth we expect a 90% increase in turnover in our 2007/08 financial year.”

“We always believed that we would achieve our targets, so much so that our service and support teams are already geared up for the increase in work that would come with the achievement of our targets. It is so wonderful to see that the faith that our Directors and Management showed in the team has been repaid. It really has made my year.”

Adele Thornton, Head of Sales
“The highlight for me has definitely been the HD revolution. It has re-energised the industry and brought videoconferencing inline with the rest of the high technology industries.”

“The products that emerged several years ago from Lifesize paved the way, but the TANDBERG and Polycom HD systems have injected a bit of pace into its adoption and with their exceptional reputations they have become the leaders in the HD space.”

“Another highlight for me, on a personal note, was being promoted to Head of Sales at Direct Visual, I’m extremely proud to lead such a special team at such an exciting time for our industry and our business.”

Marina Shaw, Managing Director
“I could sum my Industry highlight with one word, Telepresence. Since our inception as a business in February 1996 we have seen a number of hugely exciting products launched, with the industry changing organically year-on-year”

“With the arrival of Telepresence we finally see video communications the way we always envisaged, true to life images, clear as crystal, as if all participants are in the same room. It really is as good as being there in person.”

“On a personal level, my highlight of the year is the success that our team have had in a number of areas. The sales team with several huge contract wins, the installation team and their achievements with development in the AV arena, our Technical Service and Customer Support Teams in personal development and making sales engineering a great success and finally our Project Management Team for becoming the most efficient in the country.”

She then surmised; “I could go on, but watching Direct Visual develop into the most envious team in the market has been wonderful. Adding to that, knowing that Double Dec-ker, our three year project, will be successful, as we move from £5 to £10 million turnover in three years, whilst maintaining our reputation, is such a fantastic feeling.”

Mike Phillips, Chairman
“The highlight of my year has been seeing our business mature and shape into the business we planned it to be. We have embraced industry changes, trends and challenges and have come out of 2007 having had a record year financially.”

“We have, as relatively small group of people; worked together to produce a series of enormous contract wins which will be remembered as long as there is a Direct Visual.”

And finally, our Technical Services Manager, Glen Sykes, made his predictions for 2008.

“I believe that finally, and I’m sticking my neck out here, because many well known analysts have been making this prediction for years and it hasn’t quite happened, but 2008 will finally be the year of large scale video-to-the-desktop software deployments. TANDBERG MOVI will come of age, and I have a feeling that Polycom will release an equivalent product. It’s quite well known also that TANDBERG and Polycom are both collaborating closely with large vendors such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Avaya and Nortel with their SIP platforms to enable seamless, software based, high quality video to the desktop. As a result of this, we will also start to see some real SIP based deployments taking place.”

“I also see 2008 as the year that finally, the old 4:3 PAL camera that has served videoconferencing so well over the last 20 years, will be replaced almost entirely by the newer 16:9, HD capable cameras. It’s hard to see much of a justification for any of the major videoconferencing vendors carrying systems with this older technology going forward into 2008, and my advice to customers would now be to really only consider 16:9 technology for future investments.”

“Finally, following the TANDBERG acquisition of Codian I believe they will enjoy bigger success by leveraging the Codian infrastructure in deals alongside TMS. I also feel that Codian will not lose its uniqueness, quite the opposite in fact; TANDBERG R&D will be refreshed by the new thinking available from the Codian team. And so it is fair to expect some big developments from TANDBERG in the networking space in 2008. It’s certainly an area I will be watching with keen interest.”

And as for DV?

“We’ll become a £10 million business.”

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Videoconferencing - Just What
The Doctor Ordered