Tandberg

Tips and Training >> Definitions >> Tandberg

What is Tandberg?

One of the leading video conferencing manufacturers between 2002 and 2009 was a Norwegian company called Tandberg. Although Norwegian, Tandberg maintained a North American headquarters in Virginia for many years. Tandberg, on their own, developed a broad line of video conferencing products for conference rooms and they had some modest success in creating their own multipoint conferencing units (MCU's) as well.

Tandberg acquired Codian in September of 2007. Codian had been a successful startup that manufactured a unique and successful line of multipoint conferencing systems prior to their acquisition by Tandberg. Tandberg had a similar but less successful product line at the time of the merger and so Codian and Tandberg as a combined company created an organization that both manufactured good video conferencing systems for users and also good multipoint control systems for the network core.

Over the next two years, Tandberg/Codian expanded their networking products and improved on the integration between video endpoints, control tools, software and their MCU's. During this time, Cisco Systems of San Jose, California began to popularize a new higher quality video conferencing experience they defined as "Telepresence."

Cisco, without creating a full product line, soon found that high quality board room style Telepresence video systems needed to be able to connect well with everyday conference room video systems in large organizations. Addressing this significant shortcoming in their product strategy, Cisco acquired Tandberg in October, 2009.

Why is Cisco's Acquisition of Tandberg Important?

Almost single handedly, Cisco created a new product space in a small industry (the Video Conferencing Industry) by launching Telepresence. Cisco redefined this industry with a laser focus on client experience and well integrated audio visual components in their Telepresence product.

Then, with Cisco's acquisition of Tandberg, Cisco legitimized an entire industry's products for video communications in the Information/Technology (IT) market. Where Tandberg and its competitors had failed to penetrate the field of IT, Cisco prevails.

Cisco plans to weave video communications systems into the very fabric of IT infrastructure. This is a unique position and go-to-market strategy held only by Cisco. With Cisco as a market participant, the video conferencing marketplace is expected to grow at an increasing rate.