3 de Septiembre de 2003

Adopts H.350 Architecture Developed by Internet2 Working Group

WASHINGTON, D.C. A new standard announced today by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) will make videoconferencing with colleagues, friends and relatives via the Internet easier and less expensive. Resulting from an Internet2(R) Middleware Initiative Video working group, the new H.350 standard provides a uniform way for storing and finding information related to video and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in enterprise directories.

The newly standardized technology enables companies and universities to scale up video and VoIP operations from a few hundred endpoints to full enterprise deployments without hiring additional systems administrators by linking account management and authorization automation to the enterprise directory using the lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP).

H.350 makes video and VoIP information available globally, and helps with user device configuration, as well as providing a convenient place to store authentication credentials - resulting in a more secure and integrated environment for video and VoIP conferencing.

"ITU has a significant role to play in the future of videoconferencing, and with H.320 and H.323 we have already played a major part in the development of the multimedia standards that allow systems to communicate with each other worldwide. With H.350 we continue our tradition of cooperating with other standards development bodies, as this is the most efficient way to deliver meaningful products to businesses and consumers on a global basis," said Mr. Simão Ferraz de Campos Neto, Counselor to Study Group 16, the ITU group responsible for ratifying the standard.

Yaron Bul, Director of Product Marketing for RADVISION (Nasdaq:RVSN), a leading global provider of videoconferencing infrastructure solutions, commented: "RADVISION has already embraced the newly approved standard and is committed to fully implementing H.350. This standardization is important for vendors like RADVISION and the visual communications industry at large because the H.350 architecture addresses two very important issues in managing a videoconferencing network - easy scaling of video networks and implementing a vendor-agnostic, industry-wide directory standard."

H.350 was born out of the Video Middleware Group, a joint effort between the Internet2 Middleware group and the Video Development Initiative (ViDe). Significant support for this work was provided by a National Science Foundation grant, ANI-0222710, "ViDeNet: Middleware for Scalable Video Services for Research and Higher Education" to the University of Alabama at Birmingham with partners: Claremont Graduate University, SURFnet and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. An example directory service based on H.350 is available through ViDeNet at https://videnet.unc.edu/vide-dod/ for searching and making IP calls around the world.

"H.350 allows you to search for and find a user's video or VoIP address just like you would find an email address or telephone number today. Because it is standardized, enterprises can maintain this information with the confidence that it will work with multiple vendor's equipment," said Tyler Johnson, a systems analyst at the University of North Carolina and editor of the H.350 document.

H.350 supports H.320, H.323, session initiation protocol (SIP) and non-standard protocols. H.320 is ISDN video conferencing; H.323 is the video and VoIP widely deployed over ViDeNet today and is used in most Internet2 schools today; SIP is a protocol that supports video and VoIP with an emerging following; and support for non-standard protocols allows users of experimental technologies to be represented in the directory in a standardized manner.

About RADVISION
RADVISION LTD. (Nasdaq: RVSN) is the industry's leading provider of high quality, scalable and easy-to-use products and technologies for videoconferencing, video telephony, and the development of converged voice, video and data over IP and 3G networks. For more information please visit our website at www.radvision.com About ViDe The Video Development Initiative (ViDe) promotes the deployment of digital video in research and higher education. Leveraging our collective resources and expertise, ViDe advances digital video deployment through promotion and development of interoperable, standardized, and cost-effective technologies.

ViDe was founded by representatives from universities and education networks; ViDe members today include those interested in improving and deploying scalable, standards-based digital video architecture and services for use in research and higher education.

ViDe projects include: the Video Conferencing Cookbook; ViDeNet, the global, virtual network providing video and voice-over-IP to advanced networking communities; the annual ViDe Digital Video Workshop; and working groups focusing on specific advancements in videoconferencing, video streaming, video asset management, and data collaboration. http://www.vide.net/

About Internet2(R)

Led by over 200 U.S. universities, working with industry and government, Internet2 is developing and deploying advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships among academia, industry, and government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy. For more information about Internet2, visit: http://www.internet2.edu/.

CONTACT:
Michelle Pollak
Internet2
(202) 331-5345
mpollak@internet2.edu