Aastra Launches BluStar

Aastra's BluStar video conference and collaboration solution, previously announced at Enterprise Connect,  is now available. This solution is supposed to "mark a new era in enterprise communications."

The Aastra BlueStar 800i media phone combines HD video conferencing with unified communications and business applications. It has a 13-inch color touch screen, four voice tracking microphones, and three high fidelity speakers, in order to provide businesses with a powerful and simple collaboration device. It's also designed to enhance productivity with multi-way video conferencing, without the need to book meeting rooms.

In the first stage of BluStar's rollout, it's deployed with the BluStar Application Server in the North American and Western European regions. In the coming months, it will be made connectable as a SIP endpoint to Aastra’s Call Managers.

"Aastra’s BluStar is its entry into the growing and increasingly crowded desktop video space with its full featured and flexible videophone," says David Yedwab, UC Expert at UCStrategies. "BluStar brings high quality video and audio to the desktop to extend video conferencing to more users. Its challenge will be staking out a distinctive position in this space currently dominated by PC-based, group and TelePresence solutions from a vast array of players globally. Aastra’s challenge will be pricing, positioning and distributing BluStar so that it can get through the clutter and achieve market place success."

For more information, visit www.aastrausa.com.