ClearOne Communications introduced the latest addition to its tabletop conferencing product line, the new MAXAttach IP and MAX IP VoIP tabletop conference phones. These products represent ClearOne's entry into the rapidly growing VoIP telephony market space, and are based on the industry-standard SIP signaling protocol.

A key feature that sets the ClearOne MAXAttach IP and MAX IP apart from any other competitive offerings is the ability to daisy-chain multiple phones together. This unique capability provides multiple speakers, multiple microphones, and multiple dial pads distributed throughout the room for unmatched coverage. Customers can now easily cover conferencing spaces ranging from small conference rooms up to large rooms with long or U-shaped table configurations.

The MAXAttach IP comes with two conference phones, and is also available in bundles with an additional one or two phones. Also, the phones included with any of the MAXAttach IP bundles can be split up and used in separate rooms with the addition of an extra base unit, which results in an even lower cost per phone.

In addition, these VoIP conference phones offer the advanced audio signal processing technologies that were originally developed for ClearOne's market-leading installed audio conferencing products. These technologies deliver crystal-clear audio to participants on both ends of the call, and include full-duplex audio, distributed echo cancellation, noise cancellation, first microphone priority, and automatic gain and level controls.

In addition to advanced audio processing technologies that deliver crystal-clear sound, the new VoIP products offer a suite of SIP features, such as:

• 3-way calling – allows for ad-hoc conferences without need for a conference bridge
• VLAN tagging – allows users to manage bandwidth usage on the network
• TLS & SRTP encryption-ready (with future release of firmware upgrade) – secures voice communications over the network
• Field upgradeability – allows users to easily download firmware upgrades from ClearOne website and load directly into the conference phone

The MAX IP (single VoIP conference phone) has a list price of $749, and the MAXAttach IP (two VoIP conference phones) is priced at $1199. Extra conference phone units can be purchased to add to either product to expand up to four total phones. The product is scheduled to begin shipping by the end of February 2006.