OREANDA-NEWS. February 08, 2011. Ricoh Company, Ltd. (President & CEO: Shiro Kondo) today announced its entry into the unified communication (UC) market, launching a new unified communication system (UCS) business which integrates video, voice and various other information for efficient communication.

Ricoh is aiming for USD 1.25 Billion of sales from this business in the global market in five years, by fiscal year 2015. Ricoh has been developing its IT equipment and solutions business for offices, focused on paper borne information. From now on, the company will also expand its business in the communications field utilizing video and voice, to deliver greater value to customers.

Ricoh's UCS business will provide an optimal system and cloud services which unify various data such as video, voice, documents, text and handwritten input, enabling communication "anytime, anywhere, with anyone." Faster and cheaper IP networks are enabling seamless interaction between diverse information and communication methods and devices, as communication efficiency advances and evolves. Ricoh's UCS solutions will match this communications evolution, serving to boost customer business efficiency and productivity, as well as cut costs.

Ricoh's UCS business will provide greater diversity of communication sites, with environments and systems enabling communication in various situations. It will also provide greater variety of communication devices, providing functions to enable two-way communication with various IT and communications devices.
Background of Entry into the Business
1) The UC market is expected to grow fast globally, due to the expansion of Internet and cloud services.
2) Ricoh will provide Machine-to-Machine communications control technologies (M2M: technology which easily connects different machines) and optimal architecture/service platforms which can provide communication services using video/voice. The company will also adopt a new codec technology with no video jitter or interruption, delivering systems and services which are optimal for communications using video/voice, and developing new market segments.
3) This will maximize use of Ricoh's global sales, maintenance and service network, enabling the company to propose new solutions to its wide range of customer segments.

Main Technologies Delivered by Ricoh UCS
M2M Communications Control Technology
Ricoh has developed unique M2M communications control technology which uses Ricoh's unique ID to enable different machines to communicate with each other. With this, even if machines are moved within various network environments, a simple operation enables "communication anytime, anywhere, with anyone."

New Video Codec Technology
Adoption of the new video codec standard H.264/SVC (Scalable Video Coding) enables optimal video communication matching the network circuit status and receiving device capabilities (automatic optimal control of resolution and frame rate, etc.). This enables high grade video communication with reduced jitter and interruption, also enabling efficient multi-site video combination processing, and achieving multi-site simultaneous communications at reduced cost. This new video codec technology adopts Vidyo's innovative architecture. Vidyo won the Wall Street Journal's Innovation Award in 2010, praised for their architecture which easily provides high quality video in ubiquitous use situations.

Cloud Service Platform Building Technology to Enable Real Time 2-Way Video Communication
Utilizes the benefits of H.264/SVC, building an optimal architecture/platform in the cloud for two way video/voice real time and multi-point communications, ensuring reliability and scalability, and enabling communications with minimum delay.

Planned Launches of Products and Services

For its first UCS business offering, Ricoh will launch one new portable device and another for use in meeting rooms. These will be launched globally starting in summer 2011. At the same time, the company will start providing cloud services to enable remote communication. This innovative portable type communication system will achieve "anytime, anywhere" remote video communications for conditions which were previously impractical, enabling easy video communication anytime, and anyplace. This is an easy system which does not force one to choose a fixed place. It is a new concept of remote video communication, totally different from existing video conferencing and web conferencing systems. We will also develop two-way communication with various devices, and enhance our line of products and services so as to meet diverse needs.

About Vidyo
Vidyo, Inc. pioneered Personal Telepresence enabling natural, HD multi-point videoconferences on desktop computers and room systems, and VidyoCast, an affordable cloud-based broadcast solution. Vidyo's patented VidyoRouter architecture delivers the only available H.264/ Scalable Video Coding (SVC) solution that eliminates an MCU while delivering the industry's best error resilience and lowest latency videoconferencing and broadcast solutions over the Internet. The company has been active in various standards bodies driving H.264 SVC interoperability since 2005.  Learn more at www.vidyo.com or follow Vidyo on Twitter@Vidyo.

About Ricoh
Ricoh Company, Ltd. is a global technology leader, specializing in the office and production printing markets. Ricoh works with organizations around the world to modernize work environments and optimize document efficiency. With more than 108,500 employees worldwide, Ricoh operates in Europe, the Americas, Asia/Pacific, China, and Japan. Ricoh's worldwide sales were more than 2,016 billion yen (USD 21 billion USD) in the year ended March 31, 2010.