Before the Dawn of IP Telephony - Part 3Toward product commercialization (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
We were developing "VOICEHUB", the first IP telephony related product, for the Communication Tokyo exhibition to be held in April 1996. Although the road was never easy, including a major modification one month prior to the exhibition, we somehow managed to take the device to the exhibition hall on the morning of first day.
Photo 1 : Hiroshi Kuboki who made the first demonstration at the exhibition hall
During the four days of the exhibition, everyone who took part in the development of VOICEHUB including myself was present as demonstrators (photo 1). The response from the visitors was overwhelming. All of the development members must have felt they had come onto something big.
Many of the visitors interested in the device had advanced awareness and expressed their feelings strongly including the innovation of inhouse networks. At the end of the exhibition, members involved in the development celebrated with a quiet toast among themselves.
Response toward commercialization
Actually, there was a business inquiry from a certain international system integrator concerning the procurement of various network devices two months prior to the exhibition. They wanted to build a large-scale network of voice and data that would cover hundreds of bases nationwide (Fig. 1). At the time, it was common to separate the flow of voice and data. There were no products that could integrate voice with data over an IP network.
Fig.1 Example of a network using VOICEHUB
Although the network was not exactly as shown in the diagram, the configuration was very similar.
Despite the fact that the product was not even working, Manager in charge of sales and others had faith in what we were doing and replied, "We want to provide you with a product that enables voice communication to meet your device procurement specifications. And our best answer is VOICEHUB." Manager in charge of sales, I and other members visited the integrator - who became the key person for commercialization - on numerous occasions.
Even at times when we were almost giving up the idea of displaying a working device at the exhibition prior to Communication Tokyo, the members in charge of sales supported us with encouraging words like, "We really want to show our customers that the VOICEHUB technology is indeed complete." Their passion allowed us in charge of development to finish the job.
When it comes to product implementation, whether the product is drawn on paper or is actually operating makes all the difference in the world for those making the decisions. This is especially true when it comes to a product with a completely new concept that did not exist in the world like VOICEHUB. As a result, we were able to show the integrator VOICEHUB operating at the exhibition hall. The device was praised highly and the overall response was good, thanks to those in charge of sales.
VOICEHUB adopted for use in network
In the latter half of May, the vendor for procuring devices was selected. Luckily, our proposed system was adopted for the section handling voice. Voice would be converted to IP packets and the device accommodating the voice - in other words our VOICEHUB - would perform the transfer.
Everyone shared their moments of happiness when VOICEHUB was selected. However, my honest feeling was okay, we're in deep now. Using a technology that had just been finished, we had to deliver hundreds of units by the end of December. Really deep.
Certainly, the prototype of VOICEHUB worked at the exhibition. But the level of perfection demanded in a commercial product is completely different. Only seven months to the delivery deadline at the end of December. Normally, more than a year is needed to complete a legitimate product from the stage of research and development. No one in their right mind would accept mass production of a product using a new technology due in seven months. It was insane.
Maybe we were overwhelmed by the passion of those in charge of sales who had faith in this technology when we accepted the order. I continued working under Manager Konishi to organize the product development of VOICEHUB. I was under extreme pressure at the start, but I was dedicated to finish the job now that we had accepted it.
Launch of the BS1100-VOICEHUB project
Specifications were ready. But seven months to shipment was just too short. So for the design, we placed maximum weight on the quality of voice and fax, and used modules with proven performance in other parts to keep the need of designing new parts to a minimum.
We diverted the LSI of a similar product, and combined the power supply unit and modules with good performance history to create a stable product as fast as possible . For example, we utilized a PBX line unit designed sometime ago for the power supply and used a custom LSI of an existing design. The design was far from exquisite. But getting the product ready and into the market for recognition was our top priority.
Indeed, there were challenges that had to be conquered before the product was completed.
First was the production design. Technical support had to be requested to the Takasaki Office through Department Manager Tezuka for the production design. The team at the Information Systems Department headed by Takasaki helped us greatly during this time as well. I still remember being startled by the mountain of references sent as a result of various consultations. For the development of this product, many departments including Takasaki lent us a helping hand. I express my gratitude as we would never have completed the product without their help.
There were also a number of challenges to overcome during development. When looking at the records of that time, there were many expressions that resembled sounds like "ribbid" or "brrr." We also had great difficulty maintaining specified wave patterns so that the LAN device would communicate properly. Despite the hardships, the main members of development miraculously continued to finish the product while maintaining the sense of urgency. Maybe it was the response we felt with the working device at Communication Tokyo that kept us going.
However, the biggest challenge had yet to come. We still had to convince the integrator.
... To be continued
