At least, that’s what I would call it. In this article from Network World, Tim Greene calls it a “chameleon-like appliance” as he previews a keynote address that Alan Baratz, Avaya’s senior vice president and president for Global Communication Solutions, will deliver in a couple of days.

According to Greene, Baratz calls the new terminal “a compute engine designed specifically to support real-time broadband audio and low-bandwidth video traffic.” That’s a little bit dry, but there are several aspects to the device that should make it palatable to enterprise purchasing agents and IT personnel. For one thing, Avaya is apparently working out deals with Google, Yahoo and Skype to make the device a terminal for “enterprise hardened” versions of their real-time, presence-enabled communications services. It will be hard-wired at first – presumably for contact centers, conference rooms and cubicles. But, as I wrote back in August, Avaya already has a well-established history of developing downloadable apps to extend such capabilities to wireless devices.

Based on the description in the preview, this isn’t the dream phone-like appliance for personalized portals. For me, that would be a browser-like screen that would let me assemble my own personal portal from a choice of “objects” – windows, widgets, buttons, etc. As described, this piece of hardware comes close. It will be dominated by a large screen that can become the ultimate softphone with instant messaging capabilities. Users will be able to choose from a wide set of options for pre-configured buttons. One of the design criteria is to keep a consistent look-and-feel across a broad variety of appliances.

The devices will be rolled out over the next six-to-nine months. At the same time, Avaya’s “Aura” architecture will be tweaked to support auto detection and registration of the devices as they are attached to the network.

Categories: Articles

Tags: Recombinant Telephony, Avaya, IP telephony, Contact Center