The benefits of HD video are often obvious to see. RHUB Communications, Inc. hopes that is also the case with Hi-Definition voice capabilities, which have been added to its TurboMeeting Web conferencing solution.The vendor unveiled TurboMeeting, V 4.3, which works with HD Voice over IP (VoIP) softphones. The solution doubles the typical voice sampling rate from 8kHz to 16kHz, which should improve sound quality. The new release's features echo-cancellation, firewall traversal, automated audio device detection, and auto-reconnection. In addition, companies can hold audio conferences with more than 200 participants, who can use either PCs or Apple Macintoshes.

The vendor added a few other features to its service, whose price starts at $12.95 per month. As companies rely more on online conferencing, they need to put mechanisms in place to capture such exchanges. Businesses can record entire web conferences, including audio, screen updates and webcam video, and a new recording converter supports a variety of file formats: FLV (Flash), WMV, and AVI. Finally, via TurboMeeting 4.3's LDAP integration, companies can assign access privileges to various groups.

Founded in 2005, RHUB claims that more than 1 million individuals use its conferencing solution. The vendor relies on an embedded Linux-based communication appliance to support its services. Competition in the UC space has intensified. RHUB does not have the name recognition as other vendors but some small and medium businesses may find its approach enticing.