LifeSize

Founded	In 2003, Austin, Texas
Founder(s)	Craig Malloy
Headquarters	Austin, Texas, USA
Key people	Colin Buechler, CEO Michael Lovell, Chief Financial Officer Casey King, Chief Technology Officer
Products	LifeSize Desktop LifeSize Passport LifeSize Passport Connect LifeSize Express Series LifeSize Team Series LifeSize Room Series LifeSize Conference Series LG Executive, powered by LifeSize LifeSize Phone LifeSize Softphone LifeSize MicPod LifeSize Cameras LifeSize Virtual Link LifeSize Video Center LifeSize Networker LifeSize Transit LifeSize Control LifeSize Bridge LifeSize ClearSea LifeSize Connections
Owner(s)	Logitech
Employees	500+
Website	LifeSize

LifeSize's international headquarters in Austin, Texas.

LifeSize, a division of Logitech, is a video and audio telecommunications company in the United States which provides high definition videoconferencing endpoints and accessories, infrastructure products and a cloud-based video collaboration platform. LifeSize's worldwide headquarters is located in Austin, Texas. Its Europe-Middle East-Africa regional office is located in Munich, Germany and its Asia-Pacific regional office is located in Singapore.

In 2009, Logitech acquired LifeSize for US$405 million in cash. LifeSize then became "LifeSize, a division of Logitech," but continued to operate as a separate division led by Craig Malloy as its Chief Executive Officer.

Company history

LifeSize was founded by Craig Malloy and Michael Kenoyer in January 2003. It operated in “stealth mode” under the name KMV Technologies from 2003 to 2005. Investors in LifeSize included Redpoint Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, Pinnacle Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners and Tenaya Capital. The company name change to LifeSize Communications was unveiled at the Interop trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada in May 2005. This is also when LifeSize announced its first product, LifeSize Room, which was the first high definition video conferencing endpoint brought to market.

Craig Malloy was a product manager at VTEL Corporation in Austin until 1996, when he left and founded ViaVideo. ViaVideo was acquired by Polycom in 1998. Malloy was the senior vice president and general manager of the Video Communication Division of Polycom through 2002, when he left to found his own high definition video telecommunications company.

Malloy served as the LifeSize CEO from 2003 – 2012.

Technology

LifeSize focuses the technology on replicating face-to-face communications through high definition videoconferencing, often called telepresence. LifeSize product stable includes high definition endpoints and accessories, NAT\firewall traversal, audio phones, ISDN gateways, Multipoint Control Units and management systems, as well as mobile videoconferencing software and a cloud-based IaaS offering for video conferencing. LifeSize also offers a streaming, recording, and auto-publishing server called LifeSize Video Center. LifeSize has partnered with various other technology companies, including Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Inc., BroadSoft, Inc., Microsoft, ShoreTel, Inc., Siemens, Skype and VBrick Systems.

Telepresence

Main article: Telepresence

Rather than people traveling in order to have a meeting, it is now commonplace to instead use a telepresence system, which uses single or multiple video codec systems. Each member or party of the meeting uses a telepresence room to 'dial in' and can both see and talk to every other member on a video screen as if they were in the same room. This allows time and cost benefits. It can also be superior to telephone conferences, as the visual aspect enhances non-verbal communication, allowing for perceptions of facial expressions and other body language.

Product features

The first HD videoconferencing endpoint brought to market, the LifeSize Room. Features include 6-way Continuous Presence and resolutions at 30 fps.

LifeSize videoconferencing codecs have the following features:

• True HD at 720p30 and 720p60, Full HD at 1080p30
• Resolution: 1280x720 at 30fps, 1280x720 at 60fps, 1920x1080 at 30 fps
• Single/dual HD display support
• Integrated multipoint control units
• H.261, H.263, H.263+, H.264 and H.239 compliant
• Session Initiation Protocol
• H.323
• Low-latency architecture and low bandwidth utilization
• Wideband advanced audio coding with low delay (AAC-LD)
• Multichannel spatial audio with echo cancellation and interference filters to eliminate feedback from mobile devices
• Interoperability with legacy video conferencing both SD and HD.
• Interoperability with other vendor video conferencing (i.e. Polycom, Siemens Enterprise Communications, Cisco, Tandberg).

Operations

Partners

LifeSize operates through channel partners, with more than 1,500 partners in over 100 countries worldwide. Potential customers find a local partner through the LifeSize website's "Find a Partner" section, and any purchases of LifeSize systems is made through the channel.

Customers

LifeSize videoconferencing is used by a wide array of customers, from worldwide enterprises down to small businesses, and across several industries (education, financial services, manufacturing, design, government, technology, retail, health care, construction, real estate, public utilities, legal services, arts organizations, nonprofits, transportation, media and entertainment).

Some LifeSize customers are:

• Activision
• Aviat Networks (formerly Harris Stratex Networks)
• Barnardo's
• California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology
• Goodbaby Group
• Grossman Burn Centers
• Hyundai Motor Company
• Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD)
• NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• National Geographic Society
• Olympus Corporation
• Seattle Science Foundation
• Virgin Mobile India

See also

• Telepresence, for high-end video conferencing
• Telecollaboration
• Teleconference
• Videoconferencing
• Videotelephony

External links

• Official Site