This Frost & Sullivan research service titled Videoconferencing Infrastructure Markets (Americas) provides market sizing, a forecast, strategic insight into the trends that are impacting the industry, and an in-depth analysis of selected competitors. In this research, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts thoroughly examine the following markets: H.323/H.320 hardware-based videoconferencing bridges, software-based videoconferencing bridges, gateways, gatekeepers, management and scheduling tools, and firewall/network address translation (NAT) traversal solutions.

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　　Unified Communications to Drive Mainstream Adoption of Videoconferencing and thereby, its Infrastructure

　　Videoconferencing’s long-standing status as a niche technology, used mostly for intra-company communications is quickly changing with the emergence of unified communications (UC). From siloed solutions, conferencing is rapidly evolving to be included with technologies such as data, voice, video, presence, secure instant messaging, unified messaging, and VoIP. The appearance of UC has compelled the videoconferencing infrastructure systems market to keep pace with these changes by transforming its product features and functionality. The market received a huge boost with the introduction of high definition (HD) technology in videoconferencing endpoints in 2007. "Videoconferencing bridges, which were necessary for connecting the endpoints - specifically HD endpoints (as they need more bridge ports) - experienced accelerated adoption," says the analyst of this research. "Further, the market saw a surge in adoption with many vendors introducing bridges that can optimally and economically support both standard definition (SD) and HD endpoints on the same bridge."

　　Despite this hike in demand for infrastructure ports to support HD deployments, there has been no equivalent impact on the market revenue. This is mainly due to the constant decline in port prices, to make the ports affordable to most end users. However, this market remains lucrative for real-time communications vendors. There are three solid windows of opportunities in the market - infrastructure systems for a fast-growing installed base of videoconferencing endpoints, end-to-end infrastructure solution (bridges, gateways, management, scheduling tools, and firewall traversal) for converged IP deployments, and finally, UC deployments that require supporting infrastructure systems.

　　Change in Marketing Messages Imperative for Higher Uptake of Videoconferencing Infrastructure Systems

　　Market vendors are becoming increasingly hard pressed to differentiate products only through technology. They are circumventing this situation by developing and marketing messages about solutions for business functions in specific verticals, rather than solely focusing on technology-related marketing. "Vendors are laying out channel and product strategies to enable line-of-business solution selling rather than point product sales," explains the analyst. "They should also position themselves as "enablers" of video as part of a complete UC solution, especially since they have the expertise and technology resources needed to deliver a robust video experience."

　　Being participants in a high-technology industry, videoconferencing infrastructure vendors are investing substantially in R&D. This dedication to research is especially significant considering the appearance of new technologies such as telepresence and HD. They are also working toward enhancing end-user experience by improving their produ