From Michael Jackson's Trial to Your TV Screen

Take a long, hard look at the next live broadcast pumped to your favorite television news program. The video might be transmitted from the scene

And GlowPoint, a Hillside provider of video communication services over its IP network, could well be shipping that video. A major broadcast network last month tapped the company to deliver to its morning show live interviews from the scene of the Michael Jackson child-molestation trial that starts next Monday in Santa Maria, California. "The show is going to use GlowPoint to carry interviews with people on the street in front of the courthouse," says David Trachtenberg, GlowPoint's CEO.

But viewers won't know that GlowPoint is behind the camera because its contract bars it from naming either the network or the show. Some companies are reluctant to reveal such collaborations with outside entities.

The deal represents the latest use of GlowPoint to deliver video communications from remote locations to a studio. For the past two years ESPN has used the company to provide video service for live interviews during player drafts for the NBA and the NFL.

Founded in 2000 as Wire One Technologies, GlowPoint today carries 20,000 IP video calls per month in North America, Europe and Asia. The company, whose stock has been trading below $2 a share on Nasdaq, disappointed Wall Street last week by reporting preliminary fourth-quarter revenue of $4.3 million; that was up 52% from the year-ago quarter but fell short of analyst estimates of $5 million. GlowPoint reported preliminary revenue of $16 million for all of 2004, up from $10.3 million in 2003. The company has yet to turn a profit.

Trachtenberg says transmitting over IP networks costs broadcasters less than using big satellite trucks. Moreover, the IP-based service is not subject to weather effects that can interfere with satellite-signal reception at the studio. "We are really looking to make video into a communications tool as simple as a telephone, but with the power of face-to-face communications," says Trachtenberg.

GlowPoint is taking a different tack from larger competitors in the videoover-IP market race. "Many people are running video over IP on networks that are being used for multiple purposes," says Andrew Davis, a senior analyst with market research firm Wainhouse Research in Brookline, Massachusetts. Big telecom companies like AT&T, Sprint and Sawis offer so-called converged networks that deliver voice, video and data over the same system. "That is more common than the pure video network services side," says Davis. "There are not too many who buy fat IP pipes" that carry only video.

GlowPoint uses a so-called overlay system that is dedicated to video. While this restricts what it can carry, it means its feeds do not have to compete for bandwidth with voice or data material. "The future of the industry will migrate over time from an overlay strategy to a converged strategy," says Davis. "I think people are going to want one [all-inclusive] pipeline and one network to manage."

Such projections don't daunt Trachtenberg. "The overlay network has resonated and continues to resonate no matter what anyone says in the marketplace," he says. "What is probably going to happen is that convergence is going to come and people are going to say it doesn't work well and go back to overlay."

Davis acknowledges that GlowPoint has carved out a niche. "I don't think Ford Motors would be much of a prospect for GlowPoint," he says. "At the same time, a small company with three sites is not going to be an attractive prospect to Global Crossing."

GlowPoint has more than 270 customers, including Morristown's Schindler Elevator. It uses the GlowPoint service to link its own sites and to communicate with clients. The service can be delivered to a desktop computer or a conference S room. Conferencing monitors, video cameras and controls come from equipment makers like Sony and Polycom.

GlowPoint clients punch in a 10-digit video number and wait for the call to be picked up. The caller can leave a video message if no one answers. "It's almost like using a telephone," says Jason Meserve, multimedia editor for Network World, a Southborough, Massachusetts, trade publication. "They have features like call forwarding and voice mail."

Prices for GlowPoint's video-over-IP conferencing range from $299 a month for individual users to $1,099 for high-bandwith options that can accommodate up to three video calls at once.

GlowPoint has undergone a sea change since it was founded through the merger of a company called View Tech in Camarillo, California, and All Communications in Hillside. As Wire One it offered both the GlowPoint network and video communications equipment to subscribers. In 2003 the company sold the equipment unit for $24 million to Gore Technology Group in Los Angeles and changed its name to GlowPoint to reflect its focus as a service provider.

Trachtenberg arrived the same year from StarBrand Communications, a provider of satellite-based Internet services in Virginia. "I want to get my fair share of the communications market by showing people that it's as easy as the push of a button," Trachtenberg says.

According to Davis, the demand for video-over-IP service could take off as the market for video conferencing expands. The industry currently delivers some 65,000 units to U.S. customers a year. "The video conference market is going to grow 25% this year in terms of number of systems shipped," says Davis. "I think it's a strong growth market."