cliffbo
03-03-2008, 07:50 PM
Sony picks Vivox for voice tech in online gaming
Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology - by Efrain Viscarolasaga Mass High Tech
Stuart Garfield
Monty Sharma, co-founder of Vivox Inc., is talking up the enterprise applications for the company’s VoIP-based voice chat system for virtual worlds.
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One of the attractions of online games and virtual worlds is the ability to create a character that looks nothing like the player sitting at the keyboard. But as voice communications becomes a greater part of such worlds, it poses a problem: Would anyone believe a 600-pound, computer-generated minotaur that sounds like a 14-year-old going through puberty?
Framingham voice application developer Vivox Inc. has built a solution, and last week landed its biggest customer yet in Sony Online Entertainment LLC, the California-based maker of EverQuest and other online games. The deal puts Vivox at the center of Sony Online's audio overhaul and has the company looking toward new industries, such as virtual worlds for enterprises.
"This is a very significant deal for us," said Monty Sharma, co-founder and vice president of product management for Vivox. "Right off the bat, they are going to include it in all of their games."
Vivox's voice platform uses voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) to offer digital features in virtual worlds. Voices can be changed to fit character likenesses, and are spatially aware, making them reflective of a speaker's location in relation to the listener. There are also offline features that allow players to receive messages from friends while inside a game.
Since its inception in 2005, Vivox has carved a niche in the gaming and virtual world space. It has been working with Linden Labs Inc., the maker of virtual world Second Life, for a year and recently signed on three new customers: Metaversum GmbH, the Germany-based maker of the virtual world Twinity; Simutronics Corp., a Missouri-based maker of game development platforms; and Straticscom Inc., an online gaming portal based in California.
According to Sharma, among all its customers, Vivox processes more than 800 million minutes per month and has recorded more than 2 million users.
Voice has become a crucial part of virtual worlds, said John Lester, the operations director for Linden Labs' Cambridge office. That opportunity is spilling over into enterprise applications, where companies can use virtual worlds as collaboration platforms. Linden Labs, naturally, uses its own virtual meeting space in Second Life nearly every day. It wouldn't be viable without a quality (which Lester defines as better than conference calling or cell phones) voice system.
But while Vivox and Linden Labs believe in the future of virtual environments in the enterprise, others aren't so sure. The idea is so young that Frost & Sullivan analyst Melanie Turek referred to it as "prenascent."
"I don't think (virtual worlds) add to what a business is trying to do, which is be productive," said Turek, who is a principal analyst covering collaboration technologies.
Still, Sharma remains confident virtual worlds will cascade into other industries, opening new opportunities for the company.
"The virtual world space feels like the Internet in 1996-1998," he said. "It's cool, and you can do some things, but there are a lot of things that aren't obvious yet."
http://www.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2008/03/03/story6.html
Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology - by Efrain Viscarolasaga Mass High Tech
Stuart Garfield
Monty Sharma, co-founder of Vivox Inc., is talking up the enterprise applications for the company’s VoIP-based voice chat system for virtual worlds.
View Larger
One of the attractions of online games and virtual worlds is the ability to create a character that looks nothing like the player sitting at the keyboard. But as voice communications becomes a greater part of such worlds, it poses a problem: Would anyone believe a 600-pound, computer-generated minotaur that sounds like a 14-year-old going through puberty?
Framingham voice application developer Vivox Inc. has built a solution, and last week landed its biggest customer yet in Sony Online Entertainment LLC, the California-based maker of EverQuest and other online games. The deal puts Vivox at the center of Sony Online's audio overhaul and has the company looking toward new industries, such as virtual worlds for enterprises.
"This is a very significant deal for us," said Monty Sharma, co-founder and vice president of product management for Vivox. "Right off the bat, they are going to include it in all of their games."
Vivox's voice platform uses voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) to offer digital features in virtual worlds. Voices can be changed to fit character likenesses, and are spatially aware, making them reflective of a speaker's location in relation to the listener. There are also offline features that allow players to receive messages from friends while inside a game.
Since its inception in 2005, Vivox has carved a niche in the gaming and virtual world space. It has been working with Linden Labs Inc., the maker of virtual world Second Life, for a year and recently signed on three new customers: Metaversum GmbH, the Germany-based maker of the virtual world Twinity; Simutronics Corp., a Missouri-based maker of game development platforms; and Straticscom Inc., an online gaming portal based in California.
According to Sharma, among all its customers, Vivox processes more than 800 million minutes per month and has recorded more than 2 million users.
Voice has become a crucial part of virtual worlds, said John Lester, the operations director for Linden Labs' Cambridge office. That opportunity is spilling over into enterprise applications, where companies can use virtual worlds as collaboration platforms. Linden Labs, naturally, uses its own virtual meeting space in Second Life nearly every day. It wouldn't be viable without a quality (which Lester defines as better than conference calling or cell phones) voice system.
But while Vivox and Linden Labs believe in the future of virtual environments in the enterprise, others aren't so sure. The idea is so young that Frost & Sullivan analyst Melanie Turek referred to it as "prenascent."
"I don't think (virtual worlds) add to what a business is trying to do, which is be productive," said Turek, who is a principal analyst covering collaboration technologies.
Still, Sharma remains confident virtual worlds will cascade into other industries, opening new opportunities for the company.
"The virtual world space feels like the Internet in 1996-1998," he said. "It's cool, and you can do some things, but there are a lot of things that aren't obvious yet."
http://www.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2008/03/03/story6.html