Before the Dawn of IP Telephony - Part 2First exhibition realized by obsession (1996)
These contents translated a serialization article carried by ITPro IP telephony ONLINE published by Nikkei Business Publications, Inc. Jump to the original (Japanese).
Shinji Usuba
General Manager
eSound Venture Unit
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd
This is the story about the development of the first IP Telephony related product. The goal was to display a working device at the "Communication Tokyo" exhibition in April 1996. The discovery of a fatal LSI bug only one month prior to the exhibition had left us completely lost. That was, until Mr.Kuboki muttered the words, "We may still have a chance..."
Photo 1 : VOICEHUB leaflet created for "Communication Tokyo"
There was already a space where the VOICEHUB would be placed in the exhibition booth. Leaflets were ready (photo 1). And there certainly was no turning back.
I listened to Mr. Kuboki's plan as if I were grasping at straws. His idea was to create a circuit and replace the portion with the LSI bug on another circuit board. A chip that allows changes in functions would be used with a program called FPGA to substitute LSI. Easier said and done, the task was nothing short of outrageous for circuit designers.
For Mr. Kuboki, it was his fifth year with OKI. Luckily enough, his little experience in circuit design led to this daring proposal. Mr. Kuboki also had a challenging spirit and was mentally focused enough to actually go through with the ordeal he was about to face.
There was no quitting. And there were certainly no other options. From that day, Mr. Kuboki and I spent day and night in the lab. Mr. Kuboki took charge of the modification and I helped his work from behind like a haunting ghost. A haunting ghost - this is the actual expression people use to describe me at the time.
The lab was located on the 11th floor of the Shibaura Building, with a view of the Tokyo Tower. In the morning, the Tokyo Tower glittered from the morning rays of the sun as we entered the lab. The next thing I know, the Tokyo Tower in the window would be covered by night illuminations. And in such way, each day passed if it were captured in fast-motion. That much concentration was involved. It was one week prior to the exhibition when we finally heard something that seemed to resemble a voice.
Voice from outer space
Without delay, we called our supervisor and performed a demonstration.
"What's this? The voice sounds like aliens or something." That was the first reaction when my supervisor heard the voice through VOICEHUB. The voice was distorted so much that it seemed like a voice after inhaling helium gas, or a voice changed forcibly using a voice modulator.
But to us, it sounded like the first cry of a newborn baby. And it was a moment of pure happiness. It was if we were beginning to see the contours of something that was there but couldn't see. We were that close.
Human voice at last
Section Manager, Mr. Chimura who had an understanding for this project brought over the in-house sales representatives after the demonstration to encourage us. They already had plans for using VOICEHUB on actual systems. The encouragement was enough to keep us going.
The funny alien voices were caused by unstable signals resulting from an excessive load on the external circuit to avoid the LSI bug. At this point, chasing the signal to find a solution was extremely difficult. Although I had been away from actual device verification, Mr. Kuboki and I chased the phenomenon head-on using an analog oscilloscope (model called Tektronix 2466) that I had become familiar with years ago.
At this point, all that is left is pure obsession. Mr. Kuboki and I were both very stubborn, but we felt that we would be letting go of something that was important if we had quit.
And at last, the "alien" voice became "human" at 3am of April 9th, 1996. It was the first day of the exhibition. We finally accomplished the task that resulted in sounds like the human voice! I still remember the excitement as if it were yesterday.
Being stuck in the lab all those days, I remember having a sudden urge to drink beer that I had not tasted in a long time. But not being able to leave the company, Section Manager, Mr. Konishi - my direct supervisor - and I fought that urge the entire night. They are all good memories now.
Early that morning, I prayed that the device would work properly at the exhibition hall as I watched Mr. Kuboki take off to Ariake - where the exhibition was to be held - carrying the new born VOICEHUB in his arms as if it were his own child.
Reaction at Communication Tokyo
All in all, we were able to display a working VOICEHUB at Communication Tokyo that was held in April 1996. Despite the concerns for operation errors as it was sent out with insufficient testing, there were luckily no major problems during the period of the exhibition.
Prior to the exhibition, hardly anyone including those within OKI knew about our VOICEHUB. On the main stage of our company's booth was a massive presentation on ATM switching equipment. VOICEHUB was placed behind the main stage, secluded from the crowd.
As it turned out, there was unexpected reaction from the visitors. All of the leaflets prepared were gone. In the May 6, 1996 issue of Nikkei Communications, VOICEHUB was introduced as "VOICEHUB, a reference exhibition by OKI, stood out from the crowd with a multimedia approach to office environments," along with a photo of the device (photo 2).
Photo 2 : Photo of VOICEHUB published in Nikkei Communications
This VOICEHUB was equipped with all of the basics for IP Telephony related services, network configuration and technical components known today including: (1) Internet connection, (2) existing telephone network connection, (3) integration with LAN, (4) telephone, (5) fax accommodation, (6) central management of Telephone numbers using DNS, (7) softphone, etc. (Photo 3)
By then, we knew that VOICEHUB would become huge. What we didn't know was that the decision of displaying a working device would play a major role in the actual commercialization of the product.
Photo 3 : System configuration diagram printed on the back of the VOICEHUB leaflets
LAN-PHONE is what is known as softphone today.
... To be continued
