Eden Prairie-based Video Guidance, a video conferencing company in the Upper Midwest, has teamed-up with HickoryTech’s Enventis (News - Alert) and SOCRATES to take visual communications to an “unprecedented” new level.

 

To 69 schools and libraries within a distance-learning network spanning across a 12-county region in south central Minnesota, this partnership provides Internet, data, VoIP and video conferencing services, according to company officials.

 

The company is partnering with Video Guidance to deliver “the finest” video conferencing solution to SOCRATES, said John Morton, president of business solutions division at HickoryTech.

 

Morton said that this partnership is the foundation for the company to provide Socrates and business customers with advanced HD visual communications technology and a total unified communications, or “UC,” solution from Enventis.

 

South Central Regional Area Telecommunications Systems, or “SOCRATES,” provides with data and video connectivity to learning institutions, enabling innovative instruction techniques and educational experiences for students and educators.

 

HickoryTech is an integrated communications provider. The company is expected to install, support and manage the telecommunications and data infrastructure to the schools and libraries in the SOCRATES network. Company officials said that Video Guidance will integrate its conferencing solution, combining HD video, voice, web, streaming, gateway and bridging services to Socrates.

 

In addition to on-demand business-quality desktop videoconferencing to fully immersive telepresence systems, the new partnership is also expected to offer seamless IP collaboration telephone-like services.

 

Company officials said that HD technology bundled with an end-to-end network solution will be optimized to create the next generation of communication.

 

Michael Werch, president at Video Guidance, believes that this creative venture will take visual communications to an entirely new plateau for SOCRATES. “Whether the customer is on a desktop or another network, the service will be easy to dial with voice-like features for video, making the technology transparent to the end user. With the click of a button, it’s the total solution.”