In addition to video, the latest release of Cisco's CallManager IP-PBX software incorporates increased security and interoperability features.

With its new Cisco Video Telephony (VT) Advantage release 1.0, supported by CallManager release 4.0, the networking vendor is taking a stab at the holy grail of videoconferencing: making videoconferencing as easy to use as a voice call.

"The big difference is that video is part of the telephony call and not an adjunct," said Rick Moran, vice president of product and technology marketing at Cisco, San Jose, Calif. "It's now literally bonded to your extension," he said.

With VT Advantage, Cisco's IP phone customers can add video to their calls through a USB camera attached to their PCs or to H.323-enabled video end points from third-party vendors, Moran said.

In a demonstration last week during a keynote address at the Cisco Partner Summit in Honolulu, Cisco President and CEO John Chambers previewed the technology, showing how the system automatically adds video to VoIP calls when the network detects the presence of a videocamera.

Video users also will have access to traditional call features, such as hold, mute and the ability to transfer a call to a user that does not have video capabilities.

Cisco is currently considering whether to add video support to CallManager Express, a scaled-down version of the vendor's call-processing software that is aimed at smaller customers, Moran said.

In addition to support for its new video application, Cisco added 35 user features into CallManager release 4.0, including end-to-end call encryption, integrated support for its Cisco Security Agent network intrusion software, and native support for the emerging Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) VoIP call setup standard and the Q.SIG legacy PBX signaling standard.

With SIP support, CallManager 4.0 can interoperate with new Cisco MeetingPlace 8106 Rich-Media Conferencing Server, part of the conferencing product line Cisco recently acquired from Latitude Communications.

CallManager 4.0 with a Cisco Media Convergence Server, available now, starts at $5,995. Cisco VT Advantage, scheduled to ship in April, costs $190, including the camera. The MeetingPlace 8106 server and associated software starts at $69,995 and is scheduled to ship this month.