Leaf Industries, the sole value-added distributor in Africa for Axis Communications, today announced that Axis Communications has become an Associate Member of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) and has been appointed to three of the technical working groups. In this high profile role, Axis will be active in advancing Bluetooth standards development by participating in Extended Service Discovery, Printing Profile and Personal Area Network (PAN) working groups.
"The Bluetooth SIG welcomes Axis as an Associate Member to help to develop innovative Bluetooth solutions. Their expertise in LAN and Internet access using wireless devices represents an important contribution to the group`s overall efforts," said Simon Ellis, data communications marketing manager of the mobile & handheld products group at Intel.
Lead by promoter companies 3Com, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia and Toshiba, the Bluetooth SIG organisation encourages the involvement of other companies interested in offering products taking advantage of a standardised, wireless means for connection. While the Bluetooth SIG has grown to over 1880 adopter members, Axis was one of the original 37 adopters that had signed up at the launch of the Bluetooth technology nearly two years ago, and now is among the first to be accepted as a distinctive Associate Member.
Extended Service Discovery Profile Working Group
The Extended Service Discovery Profiles working group is responsible for specifying device and service discovery mechanisms that will allow Bluetooth devices to recognise each other spontaneously within a personal area network. This technical group will develop Bluetooth profiles that provide mapping of industry protocols - such as Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) - over Bluetooth. Other members of this working group include Microsoft, 3COM, IBM, Ericsson, Nokia, Toshiba and Philips.
"Axis brings strong expertise in connectivity and embedded systems to the Extended Service Discovery Working Group," said Salim AbiEzzi, home networking business development manager at Microsoft. "As a charter member of the UPnP Forum Steering Committee and one of the first companies to demonstrate a UPnP-compatible product, Axis will be invaluable in our group`s initial efforts to map UPnP protocols for Bluetooth."
Printing Profile Working Group
The Printing Profile Working Group will develop specifications to ensure printers enabled with Bluetooth wireless technology will always inter-operate with client devices, such as mobile phones, PDAs, cameras and PC`s. Printing capabilities will range from simple text printing to richer capabilities from more advanced devices. The other working group members named are 3COM, Epson, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, i-data, Intel, Lexmark, Lucent, Microsoft, Nokia and Toshiba.
Axis has already been working closely with Ericsson to develop mobile printing applications, recently showing at the IBC Bluetooth Congress the first ever Bluetooth printing demonstration. Combining this experience with over 15 years of proven expertise in print servers, Axis will contribute to the working group`s development of new consumer usage models that take advantage of Bluetooth wireless technology.
PAN Profile Working Group
The PAN Profile working group is defining specifications for dynamic ad-hoc IP-based personal area networks (PAN). The usage model is to secure access to a PAN in a public environment and co-exist with other Bluetooth devices, enabling multi-user collaboration such as white boards, projectors, displays, chatting and file/application sharing. Other members of this working group include Ericsson, Intel, IBM, Lucent Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Toshiba and 3Com.
In May, the Bluetooth Access Point from Axis was unveiled, a new wireless solution that provides broadband access to the Internet and Intranets for a wide range of mobile devices. Supporting both voice and data applications, the Bluetooth Access Point enhances the capabilities and usability of both wireless devices and fixed network resources.
In efforts to promote the Bluetooth wireless technology in the development community, Axis has made available for free the first open source Bluetooth driver for Linux. This source code is released under the GPL (Gnu Public License) and available on the Axis Developer site (www.developer.axis.com).
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Bluetooth
Bluetooth wireless technology is set to revolutionise the personal connectivity market by providing freedom from wired connections. It is a specification for a small-form factor, low- cost radio solution providing links between mobile computers, mobile phones and other portable handheld devices, and connectivity to the Internet. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), comprised of leaders in the telecommunications, computing, and network industries, is driving development of the technology and bringing it to market. The Bluetooth SIG includes promoter companies 3Com, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia and Toshiba, and 1882 Adopter/Associate member companies.
Axis Communications
The Axis Communications Group with the parent company Axis AB is a leading company in network connectivity and emerging wireless Internet based services. The company is at the forefront of developing network appliance solutions that enable people and organisations to get easy and immediate access to devices and services. Axis is one of the global leaders in several key thin server and network device markets, such as printer, storage and video connectivity, and is doing pioneering work in the rapidly expanding markets of wireless and mobile communications.
Founded in 1984, Axis employs more than 500 people worldwide, including the subsidiary 50 percent owned Netch Technologies. Axis is headquartered in Lund, Sweden and has a total of 28 offices throughout North America, Asia and Europe. Information about Axis can be found at http://www.axis.com.
Leaf Industries
Leaf Industries is the sole value added distributor in Africa for Axis Communications, and for the locally developed and manufactured range of Edge products for the GSM marketplace.