BurstPoint Networks officially launched operations today with a portfolio of enterprise -class video-streaming and videoconferencing products.
BurstPoint, based in Westborough, Mass., acquired some assets of video communications provider Starbak earlier this year. It has about 50 customers, including large companies such as MetLife, according to BurstPoint CEO Tom Racca. Funding for the venture-backed company is provided by Windspeed Ventures in Lexington, Mass.
The BurstPoint's Video Communications Platform includes a central management platform called the BurstPoint VCP Manager for creating, managing and viewing video content. Other products include an Encoder, Conference Point, Delivery Node and Display Engine.
La Rocca said pricing is "very competitive" and starts about about $30,000 to provide live video streaming within a department of a larger organization.
MetLife uses the BurstPoint technology for distributing live town hall meetings and executive presentations, according to a statement.
The Conference Point product includes patent-protected technology to capture streaming video from standards-based videoconferencing systems, Racca said.
Ira Weinstein, an analyst at Wainhouse Research, said incorporating the Conference Point technology into the vendor's total video platform could help differentiate BurstPoint from a variety of other vendors in video streaming and videoconferencing technologies.
He said BurstPoint will compete against Accordent, Qumu, Sonic Foundry and VBrick, among others, in video streaming, and to some degree with powerhouses such as Cisco Tandberg and Polycom in videoconferencing. The overall video streaming market is about $400 million globally and should grow about 25% in each of the next four years, Weinstein said.
The capture and distribution of rich media content including video is seen by many large companies as a way to save money, as it can strengthen communications with employees and customers, Weinstein said.
The biggest challenge for BurstPoint will be convincing Starbak customers and new customers that BurstPoint is financially and administratively sound, Weinstein added. Starbak had strong technology but was "challenged by financial resources," he said. "BurstPoint has to convince clients that [financing and management] are not a problem."
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