Connect Skype to your videoconference system

The world's first and unique Audio & Video Skype gateway

SkyStone Video is the first and unique software IP Audio & Video Skype Gateway available on the market that allows you to easily connect Skype users to your video phones, video conferencing and telepresence environments.

With SkyStone Video you can easily implement in & out video calls via Skype in your company.

All your customers can video call you via Skype and you can respond directly from your videconferencing system or from your video phone.

Without MCU

SkyStone can be configured with the video endpoint IP address to contact when receiving a call on that Skype account (ex: imagicleroom1 -> 192.168.1.1), thus making the video endpoint ringing automatically.

Faster and affordable!

Don't mind about networking or software clients to install: with SkyStone Video you can now open your video conferencing system to the Skype world crossing the video boundaries of your company.

At a fraction of your video investments, about 1.250 USD per channel, you now have an unprecedented opportunity to leverage your video investments.

Experience the power to join your video conference room from anywhere: the feeling is the same of a regular Skype call, able to deliver good Standard Definition quality over the Internet without any QoS.

Scalable and reliable

SkyStone Video is available in 1, 2, 4 and 8 channels versions, representing the number of available concurrent calls from-to Skype users.

Due to the CPU intensive encoding processes, no more than 8 cuncurrent Skype videocalls are availble on a single SkyStone Video server.

If more than 8 channels are needed, it is possible to add another server with additional 1, 2, 4 or 8 channels, also granting availability in case of fault of the primary server.

Easier means greener!

Connect Skype to your videoconference system is greener

Using Skype as the videoconferencing software client for your customers, partners and colleagues working abroad, will increase the opportunities to place videoconferences and videocalls with the quality expected and experienced from the Skype community.

Take the chance to trasform your business meetings in easier, effective and greener videoconferences.

According to research commissioned by WWF U.K. in 2008, if companies would reduce their business flight travel by 20% and replaces them with video calling, in addition to significantly reduce business costs, it could eliminate 22 million tonnes of CO2 each year.

Using a MCU

SkyStone can be configured to connect with the MCU IP address to join a video conference through a PIN.

Smarter and secure

SkyStone Video runs on a dedicated server on your company network thus allowing to use the Internet bandwith at its best, thanks to the use of the Skype protocol instead of SIP-H.323 to enable to videocall with external Skype users, with no needs of any specific firewall and network configuration.

SkyStone Video can be installed on DMZ to have Skype outside the company private network and no security issue.

The communication with the video conferencing endpoint on your private network and with the Skype users encrypted over the Internet for completely secure video conversations.

Flexible and compatible

SkyStone Video can be configured to connect to multiple video endpoints, MCUs, Gatekeepers, Video enabled PBXs to fit in your video conferencing architecture, check the How it works section for full details.

It leverages VoIP standard such as H.323-SIP protocols and G.711-G.729, H.263-H.264 for audio and video codecs to integrate the video conferencing solution.

The compatibility with the major video conferencing vendors, has already been tested an per the list below, but if your system is not in that list but follows the standard above, it is expected to work.

Using instances of the Skype client for connecting to Skype, the compatibility with users all over the world running any Skype version is guaranteed.

.	Corporation	System
	CISCO	79xx with Video Advantage, 7985 video phones, IPVC MCU
	Lifesize	Passport, Express, Team, Room Endpoints, 230 MCU
	Polycom	VSX Endpoints, HDX Endpoints, RMX MCU
	Radvision	Scopia Elite 5xxx Series
	Sony	PCS Endpoints
	Tandberg	C Series, MXP series, Profile series, Movi, Codian MCU, VCS Call control
	VCON	Xpoint, HD Endpoints
	Vidyo	VidyoRouter, VidyoPanorama endpoint, VidyoRoom endpoint, VidyoDesktop endpoint. VidyoGateway requested for any platform.

Hardware and Software requirements

To install and run you need a dedicated Windows XP, 2003, Vista/7 (32-64 bit) Professional (or better) edition real server (virtualization not supported) with the following characteristics:

Dual Core, 1GB RAM, 20GB Disk for the 1 channel version
Quad Core, 4GB RAM, 20GB Disk for the 2 and 4 channels versions
Bi Quad Core or Intel i7 Extreme Series (ex: 980x or 990x), 8GB RAM, 20GB Disk for the 8 channels version

CPU performances are very important to support video transcoding: in case of virtual machine we do recommend VMWare and dedicated CPU resources to the SkyStone Video virtual instance.

SkyStone Video server must be always logged on to console – DO NOT DISCONNECT/LOG OFF and Disable any screensaver or lock of the server.

Any accelerated Video Card with at least 512 Mb Ram. The driver must support DirectX.

Due to a Skype limitation, to be compatible with Skype on smartphones and tablets (ex: iPAD), you need to install SkyStone on Windows Vista/7 platforms.

Networks requirements

It also needs an Internet access for the Skype connection, where each channel (audio+video) takes from 128kbps to 384kbps, with automatic bandwidth adjustment provided by Skype.

Downgrade Policy

Windows 2003 is no more available for sale.
You can purchase or use a Windows 2008 R2 Standard license to access the downgrade online procedure directly on Microsoft web site and get a Windows 2003 license only with the shipping cost. The Microsoft procedure is available here (Internet Explorer browser needed).

If you are running a server with an already installed Windows 2008 OEM you can keep the server with Windows 2008 as virtualization host and install the Windows 2003 R2 downgraded license in the guest virtual machine without purchasing an additional license as per Microsoft Windows Server licensing on virtualized environments, with any virtualization software.

Each software license allows you to run, at any one time, one instance of the server software in an OSE on one server. If the instance you run is in a virtual OSE, you may also run an instance in the physical OSE solely to run hardware virtualization software, provide hardware virtualization services, or run software to manage and service OSEs on the licensed server. We refer to this in shorthand as 1+1, details available here.