US : Mobile operators can now leverage a seamless video delivery environment that integrates all of their applications, provides a single brand image, and delivers all video applications through a single access point for a dramatically improved customer experience - and reduced deployment costs. NMS Communications (NASDAQ: NMSS) today introduced the Vision family of video delivery systems, which includes the Vision GW video gateway, the Vision TR transcoder and the Vision Portal video delivery system.

Based upon existing NMS solutions developed over three years of work with select network equipment and service providers including Fujitsu, NEC and NTT DoCoMo, the Vision suite addresses the common challenges of seamless application delivery that operators and their system integration and application partners face when introducing new mobile entertainment services, including video. The first of the Vision products will be available in the second quarter.

The Vision Portal is delivered on a Network Equipment Building System-compliant rack-mountable device built to carrier-grade standards. The solution is designed to reduce time to market for system integration and application developers and help them capture the tremendous opportunities emerging for a range of mobile video services.

"The Vision family represents a significant leap forward in 3G-324M products, making cost-effective and scalable mobile video solutions possible for operators," said Shuji Arima, Senior Vice President, NTT-ME, Japan. "Through our long experience with NMS, we've come to expect this sort of highly reliable innovation that advances the telecom industry and enables more exciting applications for consumers."

The Vision video solution set provides a patent-pending solution that enables "video blending," a process that combines live video streams with dynamically-generated menus that allow application developers to seamlessly switch between applications, yet mask the differences between them. The end result is that the mobile video subscriber is able to easily access a range of video applications in an intuitive, consistent manner. And, because the NMS solution works with any 3G video-enabled phone, even those at entry-level price points, operators can now target a broader range of subscribers with mobile video offerings.

"There is a service evolution happening in the mobile applications market for operators," said Dario Betti, Senior Analyst, Ovum. "Operators have to prepare for the rapid development and delivery of applications to match the demands of subscribers. This is becoming more complex with the arrival of video on the mobile phone. A single platform solution for content aggregation and delivery that is flexible and works with the existing handsets of subscribers will be an important strategy. This will have the end result of improving the quality of the end user's experience, and at the same time providing operators with new revenue opportunities, as well as decreasing the costs of multi-platform applications," he says.

NMS' Vision Portal allows mobile operators to deliver a broad range of applications to subscribers, including:

-- Video mail

-- Conversational mobile video

-- Video chat and two-way video conferencing

-- User selectable live content such as MobileTV applications

-- Streaming video

The NMS Vision Portal is a true "services aggregation" solution that gives operators the freedom to deploy the most profitable mobile video applications and lets them choose the best-of-breed solutions that meet subscriber needs. Among the benefits to operators are:

-- Seamless video transmission to the handset, which ensures that subscribers never see a blank screen once connected

-- Buffering and padding of the video stream with operator-selected content, enabling ads, service announcements and help files

-- Dynamic video stream rerouting, allowing the operator to aggregate services through a branded portal and provide one-number access to subscribers

"Until today, mobile video services deployment has been hindered by a silo'ed approach that required large capex and opex commitments from operators and resulted in a frustrating user experience for subscribers," said John Orlando, Vice President of Marketing at NMS Communications. "NMS' silo-busting video delivery portal addresses these challenges by creating a common platform for provisioning and marketing distinct mobile video solutions."