OVCC champions video-conferencing adoption, interoperability; but where are Cisco and Vidyo?

Videoconferencing and video calling is becoming popular enough to have prompted service providers and equipment manufacturers to launch a new organization to help accelerate its adoption.

The Open Visual Communications Consortium (OVCC), which actually was created in June, held its coming out party today at CTIA in San Diego. It includes many of the industry's largest players--AT&T (NYSE: T), BCS Global, Bharti Airtel, BT Conferencing, Dialogic, Orange Business Services, Polycom (Nasdaq: PLCM), Teliris, Telstra and Verizon (NYSE: VZ)--and says its looking for more partners to come on board (it has a three-tiered membership program).

Originally spearheaded by Polycom, the OVCC has been a while coming; but it arrives just as the videoconferencing industry looks like it really set to take off.

A true industry standards body could help push the uptake of video adoption even more quickly, especially as it states as one of its main concerns the interoperability issues that keep systems from communicating across service-provider borders.

"The formal launch of OVCC will help drive greater value for customers and spur broader video adoption," said Rich Costello, senior research analyst of unified communications for IDC. "True B-to-B interoperability requires exactly this type of service provider interconnectivity as the need for intercompany UC federation, of which video and telepresence are critical components, continues to grow."

OVCC said it will specify standards, best practices and connectivity agreements, and it said that service providers would be able to deliver a consistent business-to-business video experience that enables enterprise users to place and receive video calls beyond corporate firewalls and across proprietary video platforms as early as mid-2012.

The OVCC said its members will collaborate in the effort, encompassing both standards-based and proprietary video systems.

According to the OVCC, service providers will develop a Technical Specification Document based on industry standards, best practices and business approaches to answer the need for interconnection, addressing, signaling, interoperability and service coordination.

It said interoperable, high-quality connectivity across networks and devices should allow network providers to profitably and predictably monetize their inter-enterprise video exchanges.

"OVCC is the only organization of its kind addressing the requirements of enabling ubiquitous video calls by truly bridging the islands of communications users have today between enterprise, mobile and consumer applications," said Andrew McFadzen, OVCC president.

Telepresence and videoconferencing adoption have long been hamstrung by "islands" of technology. And, while OVCC looks like it's looking to overcome those walls, it's interesting to note that one of the segment's biggest and most-established players, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO), isn't on the group's roster. Neither is upstart Vidyo, which has stirred up the space since launching its own technology sans MCUs.

If OCVV really is to succeed, it's going to need to add those big names--and many more--to its lineup.--Jim