I finally found the specifications for the Iris 2000 video phone that ACN is trumpeting as the Next Big Thing (tm).

It turns out - it does use SIP! Halleluyah. And H.263, and all the other IETF-recommended standards.

The same standards supported by: - Leadtek - Grandstream ($299, which has far better protocol support including H.264) - D-Link - Many, many more

And so on.

The difference?

ACN’s video phone is barely mentioned anywhere on the web, despite it essentially offering the same features as those other phones. Google “SIP video phone” and you’ll be taken to voip-info.org, whose video phone directly lists all the major players.

ACN isn’t there.

If I was considering hitching my commercial wagon to a video conferencing company, which would I pick? One made by Cisco? Or Linksys? Or a company that doesn’t even appear in the search results?

For a company that intends to become the “biggest company in the world”, this is a poor start.

What’s more, there’s no evidence that their video phone supports calling outside their own network.

In addition, this means that ACN’s claim that their phone is based on “proprietary technology” is a lie. It’s based on off-the-shelf, rebranded parts, probably sourced from the same factory in Taiwan that makes all the other video phones.

Nothing special here. Move on.