Ooma, my secret weapon when it comes to reducing the price of overseas calls, has just announced PureVoice, an “HD” voice technology that offers a “superior home telephony experience.” Essentially the system uses redundancy and compression to transmit voice packets at higher quality than you’d find in normal telephone conversations although, presumably, you’re still burdened by legacy voice technology on the carrier’s side.
You can check out a goofy demo of PureVoice on Ooma’s site. Press release follows.
Ooma Sets Industry Standard for Sound Quality with availability of High-Definition Voice Technology
Ooma HD Voice Delivers Natural, Life-Like Voice Quality
Palo Alto, CA — October 6, 2010 —
Ooma, Inc. today announced that High-Definition (HD) Voice, the latest component of Ooma PureVoice™ technology, is available on its award-winning Ooma Telo system. This marks the first time consumers can enjoy telephone calls in HD, further enriching the calling experience for those wanting a superior home telephony experience.
Ooma raised the bar on voice quality with the introduction of Ooma PureVoice technology in April, delivering excellent voice quality over substandard or overloaded Internet connections. Now, with the addition of Ooma HD Voice, Ooma Telo users can experience phone calls with twice the fidelity of a standard phone line when calling another Ooma Telo user. Beginning today, the HD Voice update will automatically roll out to all customers with an Ooma Telo.
“Telephone call quality is an area of technology which has yet to evolve since the 1960s – before many of us were born,” said Richard Tehrani, CEO of TMC. “Thankfully, VoIP allows call quality to improve drastically and Ooma’s decision to focus on this area of the market is impressive as it allows Ooma Telo users to take advantage of their leading-edge HD call quality at a reasonable cost. This focus on the sound of phone calls coupled with Ooma’s relentless addition of new features are two reasons to consider the company’s products for your home or business.”
“There’s a clear difference in the way our customers experience phone calls with friends and family using Ooma HD Voice,” said Jim Gustke, Vice President of Marketing at Ooma. “As consumers we demand the highest resolution viewing experience on our TV’s – now it’s time to expect the same from the telephone. Ooma sets the benchmark with its Ooma HD Voice offering, enabling rich, life-like sound quality.”
Ooma PureVoice HD Technology is now composed of five key components:
Ooma HD Voice: Ooma is the first residential phone service to support high definition voice technology. Compared to conventional telephones, Ooma HD Voice doubles the audio frequencies transmitted to deliver a richer, more natural sounding conversation to calls between Ooma Telo customers. An Ooma Telo Handset or HD compatible telephone is required to support Ooma HD Voice.
Additional components of Ooma PureVoice HD that were previously announced include:
• Advanced voice compression: Ooma uses an advanced voice compression algorithm that reduces bandwidth consumption by 60 percent over standard VoIP technology and is more capable of withstanding packet loss without degradation. This leaves customers with more bandwidth for all other online activities and increases the likelihood that voice traffic will be delivered properly by an ISP.
• Wire-speed QoS: Even though Ooma uses only a fraction of the bandwidth of standard VoIP technology, preserving voice quality requires that those packets arrive on time. The Ooma Telo prioritizes voice packets without slowing down the rest of a customer’s network. This way, customers can enjoy crystal clear calls even when uploading video clips, for example.
• Adaptive redundancy: Packet loss is the enemy of VoIP – it can cause voice to sound stuttered or garbled. The Ooma Telo detects packet loss on Internet connections and automatically sends redundant packets to boost the clarity of phone calls.
• Encrypted calls: Ooma takes privacy seriously. We use the same encryption technology to protect conversations that governments use to protect classified data. This makes Ooma even more secure than the traditional landline.
Ooma HD Voice Delivers Natural, Life-Like Voice Quality
Palo Alto, CA — October 6, 2010 —
Ooma, Inc. today announced that High-Definition (HD) Voice, the latest component of Ooma PureVoice™ technology, is available on its award-winning Ooma Telo system. This marks the first time consumers can enjoy telephone calls in HD, further enriching the calling experience for those wanting a superior home telephony experience.
Ooma raised the bar on voice quality with the introduction of Ooma PureVoice technology in April, delivering excellent voice quality over substandard or overloaded Internet connections. Now, with the addition of Ooma HD Voice, Ooma Telo users can experience phone calls with twice the fidelity of a standard phone line when calling another Ooma Telo user. Beginning today, the HD Voice update will automatically roll out to all customers with an Ooma Telo.
“Telephone call quality is an area of technology which has yet to evolve since the 1960s – before many of us were born,” said Richard Tehrani, CEO of TMC. “Thankfully, VoIP allows call quality to improve drastically and Ooma’s decision to focus on this area of the market is impressive as it allows Ooma Telo users to take advantage of their leading-edge HD call quality at a reasonable cost. This focus on the sound of phone calls coupled with Ooma’s relentless addition of new features are two reasons to consider the company’s products for your home or business.”
“There’s a clear difference in the way our customers experience phone calls with friends and family using Ooma HD Voice,” said Jim Gustke, Vice President of Marketing at Ooma. “As consumers we demand the highest resolution viewing experience on our TV’s – now it’s time to expect the same from the telephone. Ooma sets the benchmark with its Ooma HD Voice offering, enabling rich, life-like sound quality.”
Ooma PureVoice HD Technology is now composed of five key components:
Ooma HD Voice: Ooma is the first residential phone service to support high definition voice technology. Compared to conventional telephones, Ooma HD Voice doubles the audio frequencies transmitted to deliver a richer, more natural sounding conversation to calls between Ooma Telo customers. An Ooma Telo Handset or HD compatible telephone is required to support Ooma HD Voice.
Additional components of Ooma PureVoice HD that were previously announced include:
• Advanced voice compression: Ooma uses an advanced voice compression algorithm that reduces bandwidth consumption by 60 percent over standard VoIP technology and is more capable of withstanding packet loss without degradation. This leaves customers with more bandwidth for all other online activities and increases the likelihood that voice traffic will be delivered properly by an ISP.
• Wire-speed QoS: Even though Ooma uses only a fraction of the bandwidth of standard VoIP technology, preserving voice quality requires that those packets arrive on time. The Ooma Telo prioritizes voice packets without slowing down the rest of a customer’s network. This way, customers can enjoy crystal clear calls even when uploading video clips, for example.
• Adaptive redundancy: Packet loss is the enemy of VoIP – it can cause voice to sound stuttered or garbled. The Ooma Telo detects packet loss on Internet connections and automatically sends redundant packets to boost the clarity of phone calls.
• Encrypted calls: Ooma takes privacy seriously. We use the same encryption technology to protect conversations that governments use to protect classified data. This makes Ooma even more secure than the traditional landline.