SAN MATEO, Calif., Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Avistar Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: AVSR), has announced that California State University, Fresno, has deployed Avistar's desktop videoconferencing technology to enhance communication across its faculty and to build an ecosystem that supports entrepreneurship in the Central Valley of California. Available to users across the Fresno State Campus, Avistar brings key decision makers face-to-face with a single click to create new efficiencies and social interaction, reduce travel needs, and directly support the University's educational mission.

Dr. Timothy M. Stearns, holder of the Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies and Executive Director of the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, explains why Avistar was the preferred choice: "Our role is to assist faculty, staff and students in their pursuit of entrepreneurship and innovation, and to extend this ethos into the community. With a multi-acre campus and links into local colleges across our region, we're focused on finding innovative ways to better achieve this outcome. Avistar provides us with instant, multi-party video, available right at our desktop - or even remotely when we travel. It's why I describe Avistar as the Lexus of videoconferencing systems."

CSU Fresno opted for Avistar's fully outsourced hosted video collaboration service (SaaS), which enables infrastructure management and technical support to be off-loaded, yet offers full product performance and reporting. This approach also allows additional seats to be added as needed, and be operational within minutes.

"One of our goals is to build an ecosystem in the community that supports entrepreneurship," continues Stearns. "Effective communication is fundamental to delivering quality in education and Avistar's technology successfully closes the gap between instant yet inadequate email or phone interaction, and desirable yet time consuming in-person meetings that usually require travel. The social network that it facilitates goes back to one of the original purposes of the Internet - a tool for educators to improve their effectiveness. For us, Avistar brings analogous benefits.

"In Avistar, CSU Fresno saw the ability to achieve high quality communication between multiple parties - without hassle. Information can be gathered or disseminated with the efficiency that is inherent to face-to-face communication. It aids education, supports quicker decision making, and keeps key staff fully in touch, irrespective of their location," said Darren Innes, Avistar's general manager for worldwide direct and channel sales.

About Avistar Communications Corporation

Avistar is working to define the future of unified communications and collaboration by inventing and delivering integrated visual communications software that helps companies of all sizes improve business results. From the desktop, from the laptop and from conference rooms, Avistar delivers enterprise-quality and easy-to-use audio/video conferencing, multi-party videoconferencing, and integrated data sharing anywhere in the world. By integrating visual communications with enterprise application software, Avistar incorporates communications into the daily workflow and seamlessly connects communities of users within and across enterprises.

Founded in 1993, Avistar is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with offices in New York and London. With more than 17,000 seats sold across 40 countries, Avistar's global deployments of its unified visual communications desktop software are among the largest in the world. Avistar holds a portfolio of 80 patents for inventions in the primary areas of video and network technology and offers technology and IP licenses to companies in video conferencing, rich-media services, public networking and related industries. Current licensees include Sony Corporation, Polycom, Inc., Tandberg ASA, Radvision Ltd. and Emblaze-VCON.

For more information, visit www.avistar.com.

SOURCE Avistar Communications Corporation