VRS Interoperablity

[qwerty123]

Hello folks

You know California group filed a petition with FCC on VRS interoperablity. Over thousand people sent in their comments along with HOVRS and CSD. Many reply comments were also filed.

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-05-509A1.pdf

Its been over 5-6 months with no results. Is it a waste of time? Is FCC doing anything about this petition?

Talked with some Sorenson management and they said its not going to happen and continue to expand by setting up more call centers, come up with more business plans and more distribute VP100 (soon VP200).

Any comments? Diehardbiker65, NightwarriorJim, Dennis, Richard, Lovesorenson?

NightwarriorJIm, you still blocking outgoing port 389?

 

[diehardbiker]

My comment? Well, you should re-read in FCC website, FCC made it clear that it is OK for company to restrict their equipment to their service only AS LONG as this company don't block other vrs from giving them another free unit. It was written loud and clear. That is why I said WTF why should we care?
I would understand your concerns when one VRS provider blocks other VRS provider from sending you a unit in order to use their service. That is TOTALLY different story and this has NOT happen, so STFU!

 

[NightwarriorJin]

Hello folks

You know California group filed a petition with FCC on VRS interoperablity. Over thousand people sent in their comments along with HOVRS and CSD. Many reply comments were also filed.

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-05-509A1.pdf

Its been over 5-6 months with no results. Is it a waste of time? Is FCC doing anything about this petition?

Talked with some Sorenson management and they said its not going to happen and continue to expand by setting up more call centers, come up with more business plans and more distribute VP100 (soon VP200).

Any comments? Diehardbiker65, NightwarriorJim, Dennis, Richard, Lovesorenson?

NightwarriorJIm, you still blocking outgoing port 389?

First of all, its Nightwarrior JIN.

Honestly, I do not care, for that sorenson have been improving now, esp with waiting time (most of the time, <20 sec). I am starting to switch to Sorenson because they are showing lot of progress now. Hands On... GoAmerica Merge really turn me off and I am starting to questioning their customer support since they keep telling me they will do something about my specfic request, but never got around to done this.

It's now between Sprint and Sorenson for me. (I like Sprint for voicemail, just press ext number, its more business-like. you know?) I am looking forward to next update of VP.

Regarding to FCC's decision. There are some comment that was already mentioned by FCC's chairman concerning on this issue. They seems to have lot of "concerns" regarding this issue. I dont know if it will be soon, or it may take more months, maybe even years, before they reached the decision on this issue.

One concern right now is that Sorenson has discontinued their support for Envision, and I'd like to use VRS on my notebook wherever I go like on business trip. So for VP market, Sorenson may had won the battle, but the webcam market is still on. I wonder who will win in this market.

 

[lovesorenson]

911 in VRS

Remember Jim Sorenson mentioned somewhere in TDI workship that he already had his development team working on 911 system for the Sorenson VRS so means that Sorenson is spending dollars on for the best of the deaf Sorenson users. What are the other VRS providers like CSDVRS, Hamilton, etc. doing ? Nothing and cheapsake. So it might be not fair if FCC force Sorenson to be opened for all non-users. All of you, Sorenson haters better tell CSDVRS and others to spend some dollars for the better equipment or improved service... or shallow your pride and learn to enjoy with Sorenson.

 

[Mookie]

Give me a break.....

Quit being dummy whiners.

We have good enough number of VRS and we need more free marketing competitors. I do not have any problem with VRS. If one of the VRS competitors is busy or idling long enough, I switch to another VRS...

Remember that we are not in the third world nations. Give me a break...

 

[dkf747]

Remember Jim Sorenson mentioned somewhere in TDI workship that he already had his development team working on 911 system for the Sorenson VRS so means that Sorenson is spending dollars on for the best of the deaf Sorenson users. What are the other VRS providers like CSDVRS, Hamilton, etc. doing ? Nothing and cheapsake. So it might be not fair if FCC force Sorenson to be opened for all non-users. All of you, Sorenson haters better tell CSDVRS and others to spend some dollars for the better equipment or improved service... or shallow your pride and learn to enjoy with Sorenson.

How do you know the others aren't spending the dollars to improve the technology?

 

[lovesorenson]

How do you know the others aren't spending the dollars to improve the technology?

Easy... They spent their fortune on Video clips to show off. I am not interested in that. They have not shown any improvement on Dlink vp. Sorenson did plenty. The new Sorenson 911 service will come up soon or later. Again, the mystery VP-200 will come out... When ? I wish that I know the release date.

If you know what technology the others are spending the dollars on, please kindly tell us.

Thank you

 

[lovesorenson]

CSDVRS ran away to England ?

Did you hear CSDVRS is partner with British Association of the deaf for a new VRS in England? Sounds like CSDVRS is scared of Sorenson.

 

[Dennis S.]

Cut the off-topic trolling. Take it to a new thread.

Yeah, I'm disappointed about nothing new on the interoperability front for some time. I presume that this is quite a weighty issue that the FCC is carefully considering.

I have concerns that we'll continue to see one VRS provider try to monopolize the market by controlling the equipment. I've heard rumors that there'll be a router on the market branded by them and that the other VRS providers won't be able to use it or that their quality of service will drop because it's not from the same company equipment. The question remains, will that drop in quality be cause the equipment works BETTER together or that the equipment is being SABOTAGED from working well?

 

[diehardbiker]

Without a merit!

Your concern is just pointless!

You believe in rumor? I hope you can enjoy em!

Cut the off-topic trolling. Take it to a new thread.

Yeah, I'm disappointed about nothing new on the interoperability front for some time. I presume that this is quite a weighty issue that the FCC is carefully considering.

I have concerns that we'll continue to see one VRS provider try to monopolize the market by controlling the equipment. I've heard rumors that there'll be a router on the market branded by them and that the other VRS providers won't be able to use it or that their quality of service will drop because it's not from the same company equipment. The question remains, will that drop in quality be cause the equipment works BETTER together or that the equipment is being SABOTAGED from working well?

 

[Dennis S.]

Well, the rumor isn't coming from "friends of friends" it's coming from the Sorenson installer for Arkansas. The only reason I'm calling it a rumor is because I've heard things from Sorenson before that didn't turn out to be true for a long time. I don't trust their installers but I don't just throw away what they say because that's dangerous. You never know when someone finally does have the truth when they're in the middle of the source stuff.

 

[diehardbiker]

Does not matter, don't you realize that we have law thats called Anti-Trust law? Its been there since Rockefeller owns ALL of the oil business long time ago. That was major lesson learned, that is why it is NOT gonna to happen again. Wanna proof? Look at Bell system, sister with AT&T, the court upheld the anti-trust law and ordered break up.

Because this is federal grants involved, they are gonna to be damn strict on these issues, otherwise company can be forced to pay back most or all of the grants up to 7 years! No one wants to gamble that part.

Well, the rumor isn't coming from "friends of friends" it's coming from the Sorenson installer for Arkansas. The only reason I'm calling it a rumor is because I've heard things from Sorenson before that didn't turn out to be true for a long time. I don't trust their installers but I don't just throw away what they say because that's dangerous. You never know when someone finally does have the truth when they're in the middle of the source stuff.

 

[dkf747]

Does not matter, don't you realize that we have law thats called Anti-Trust law? Its been there since Rockefeller owns ALL of the oil business long time ago. That was major lesson learned, that is why it is NOT gonna to happen again. Wanna proof? Look at Bell system, sister with AT&T, the court upheld the anti-trust law and ordered break up.

Heck, why not include Microsoft. The courts did ....er....oh, that's right the courts didn't do anything.

 

[Dennis S.]

Does not matter, don't you realize that we have law thats called Anti-Trust law? Its been there since Rockefeller owns ALL of the oil business long time ago. That was major lesson learned, that is why it is NOT gonna to happen again. Wanna proof? Look at Bell system, sister with AT&T, the court upheld the anti-trust law and ordered break up.

Because this is federal grants involved, they are gonna to be damn strict on these issues, otherwise company can be forced to pay back most or all of the grants up to 7 years! No one wants to gamble that part.

There aren't any "federal grants" involved. The only organization involved is NECA fund.

Until a government official steps up and takes action, we are stuck with having to wait until every friend we have has 2 devices so we can contact each other. Until then, we're "separate but equal" because we're forced to use 2 devices while hearing people only have to use one. I don't believe that using IP addresses which change all the time is "interoperability" but having a registered phone number IS interoperable. Until Sorenson stops blocking that, we're going to continue to be 2nd class citizens.

 

[diehardbiker]

What do you call FCC paying VRS 7 dollars per minute?

Guess your just plain stupid! Or just making up stories to make yourself look good!

There aren't any "federal grants" involved. The only organization involved is NECA fund.

Until a government official steps up and takes action, we are stuck with having to wait until every friend we have has 2 devices so we can contact each other. Until then, we're "separate but equal" because we're forced to use 2 devices while hearing people only have to use one. I don't believe that using IP addresses which change all the time is "interoperability" but having a registered phone number IS interoperable. Until Sorenson stops blocking that, we're going to continue to be 2nd class citizens.

 

[Lantana]

I think deafies are becoming extremely spoiled with everything that has been handed to them the last 25 years or so.

We have come a long way, C.C., Relay Service, Sorenson, and so on. Yet many deafies keep screaming, "More!"

Hold your horses, good things are worth waiting for.

 

[Dennis S.]

What do you call FCC paying VRS 7 dollars per minute?

Guess your just plain stupid! Or just making up stories to make yourself look good!

Just to be fair, I call that "paying a hell of a lot of money." I don't know if it's a rip off or if it's underpaying the companies, but paying around $420 an hour is quite a large sum of money.

It's not a GRANT though. Here is the wiki definition of a Federal Grant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_grant). Relay services are not an economical aid. All the grants I ever came across had a set amount of funds and a limited time to achieve their goals. Relay services are on-going and collect funding based on their usage, which varies but constantly grows according to NECA.

It's not from any of the 26 Federal grant-making agencies.

I think deafies are becoming extremely spoiled with everything that has been handed to them the last 25 years or so.

We have come a long way, C.C., Relay Service, Sorenson, and so on. Yet many deafies keep screaming, "More!"

Hold your horses, good things are worth waiting for.

25 years? Really? What happened 25 years ago to start the spoiling? Deaf people OUGHT to keep pushing for technologies to happen NOW to make everyone's lives easier. It's not "more more more" it's the issue of "free free free at any cost" and "let one company monopolize so we can get it that way" mentality.

 

[Nesmuth]

Yet many deafies keep screaming, "More!"

Yeah I saw that last month at the fair. A woman came to our booth and saw it was a deaf booth and she left the booth signing "More...more...more"

Richard

 

[qwerty123]

Yeah I saw that last month at the fair. A woman came to our booth and saw it was a deaf booth and she left the booth signing "More...more...more"

Richard

More call centers!!!!


Sorenson Communications Opens 11 Additional Video Relay Service nterpreting Centers

New Facilities Built in Response to Growing Demand for Sorenson Video Relay Service

SALT LAKE CITY (August 29, 2005) – Sorenson Communications™ today announced it has opened 11 additional Sorenson Video Relay Service® (VRS) interpreting centers in major U.S. cities: Albuquerque, Baton Rouge, Boise, Colorado Springs, Hartford, Houston, Kansas City, Knoxville, Little Rock, Pittsburgh, and St Louis. Sorenson Communications added these facilities to its existing 19 interpreting centers to accommodate growing demand for its popular Sorenson VRS, which connects deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals to the hearing world through American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters.

Sorenson VRS enables deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals to conduct free video relay calls with family, friends, and business associates through a qualified sign language interpreter, Sorenson videophone, TV, and a high-speed Internet connection. The deaf user sees an interpreter on his or her TV and signs to the interpreter, who then contacts the hearing user via a standard phone line and relays the conversation between the two parties.

“It is simple and convenient for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals to call hearing people using a free Sorenson VP-100 videophone, so we’re experiencing a tremendous increase in demand for our video relay service,” said Chris Wakeland, vice president of interpreting at Sorenson Communications.

“The 11 cities with the new Sorenson VRS interpreting centers were selected because each have large populations of certified American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters and many of these locations have excellent interpreter training programs,” added Wakeland. “Our new Sorenson VRS interpreting centers will add employment opportunities to these local economies and help us avoid hold-times for our customers.”

About Sorenson Communications

Sorenson Communications (www.sorenson.com) is a provider of industry-leading communication offerings, including the Sorenson Video Relay Service (VRS), Sorenson IP Relay™ (siprelay) and the Sorenson videophones. Sorenson VRS enables deaf and hard-of-hearing callers to conduct video relay conversations through a qualified American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter. Sorenson IP Relay allows users to place text-based relay calls from either a mobile device or a PC to any telephone user. The company's line of Sorenson videophones are the only customized videophones with auto-updating technology, which includes the latest video communication features for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.