“We built this company to deliver an experience so compelling that people would naturally select video communications instead of traveling,” said LifeSize CEO Craig Malloy at the launch of three new products in October 2007. “With our expanded product portfolio, superior video quality and price leadership, we see the end of the standard definition video era and the beginning of mainstream adoption of high definition for everyone.”

LifeSize Communications is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The company has been well supported by venture capital firms from Austin and Silicon Valley to the tune of $81 million. It was founded in 2003 by industry veterans led by Craig Malloy and Michael Kenoyer. Their previous start-up company ViaVideo Communications set out to produce a more affordable, easy-to-use SD VC system. Polycom agreed to buy this company in June1997 and launched the ViewStation starting at less than $5,000 in October 1997. So it is not surprising that LifeSize intends to disrupt the videoconferencing industry with their three new HD VC products.

The price and performance of the three new LifeSize HD VC products is truly amazing: The entry level LifeSize Express (very positively reviewd by our Craig Brown on 12 November 2007) has an RRP of under $6,000; the LifeSize Team MP costs less than $9,000; and the LifeSize Conference for telepresence costs less than $36,000 without 60-inch flat screen monitors and room furnishing. (Prices quoted on www.buylifesize.com on 20 December 2007.)

These three new products, alongside the existing LifeSize Room (RRP under $11,700), give the company a complete range of HD VC systems for a single office, for small-, medium-, and large-size conference rooms and for rooms designed as Telepresence Suites. They each include the LifeSize® Phone and the LifeSize® HD PTZ camera. There is also LifeSize® Control™ - a video management software solution that provides complete video network management for multi-vendor VC endpoint environments.

Furthermore the LifeSize HD VC endpoints are supported by a complete range of infrastructure products: LifeSize® Transit™ – A complete firewall and NAT traversal solution; LifeSize® Networker™ – An all-in-one, enhanced SD gateway; LifeSize® Gateway™ – An enterprise-class HD ISDN to IP gateway; and LifeSize® Multipoint™ – A High Definition (HD) multipoint control unit (MCU).

LifeSize has over 100 video communications resellers in 30 countries who have joined the LifeSize Partner Program to market, sell and support LifeSize products worldwide. When the full range of HD VC products was completed in October 2007, LifeSize announced wholesale distribution partners: Tech Data, a leading distributor of IT products, with more than 90,000 customers in over 100 countries for American markets Review Video for the UK, Westan in Australia and ZTE in China. This will enable the company to develop many more users among small and medium-size enterprises.

We held the view one year ago that High Definition VC products will eventually replace Standard Definition VC products. We even went as far as saying in November 2007 that HD VC systems will win over 30% of the UK market in 2008 and over 60% in 2009, with the affordable LifeSize products becoming the main force that drives that market transition.

Craig Malloy, LifeSize CEO, said recently: “Our global market momentum is accelerating through strong adoption for LifeSize products from traditional and non-traditional videoconferencing users alike. In fact, more than 30% of our customers are net-new users to video communications. Over the past year, we have broadened our overall footprint by achieving record sales, acquiring well over 1000 customers, releasing several new products, and receiving widespread industry recognition. High definition video over IP networks will be the most important growth area in communications technology over the next decade, and LifeSize is uniquely positioned to make this a reality.”